Current production targets and strategic decisions by corporate managers

This article considers the potential role of current production targets in providing corporate managers with incentives for allocating their efforts toward operational and strategic decisions. Operational decisions relate to current production, while strategic decisions affect both current production and future profitability. A moral hazard exists to the extent that manager effort allocations are not observable. Of interest is the design of compensation contracts which efficiently resolve that hazard. Attention is mainly focused on distortions in current production away from targets which would be optimal if manager effort allocations were observable. The principal insight is that an increase in current production targets may, paradoxically, be motivated by a desire to induce a greater allocation of effort to strategic decisions.     

Retail forecasting: Research and practice

This paper reviews the research literature on forecasting retail demand. We begin by introducing the forecasting problems that retailers face, from the strategic to the operational, as sales are aggregated over products to stores and to the company overall. Aggregated forecasting supports strategic decisions on location. Product-level forecasts usually relate to operational decisions at the store level. The factors that influence demand, and in particular promotional information, add considerable complexity, so that forecasters potentially face the dimensionality problem of too many variables and too little data. The paper goes on to evaluate evidence on comparative forecasting accuracy. Although causal models outperform simple benchmarks, adequate evidence on machine learning methods has not yet accumulated. Methods for forecasting new products are examined separately, with little evidence being found on the effectiveness of the various approaches. The paper concludes by describing company forecasting practices, offering conclusions as to both research gaps and barriers to improved practice.     

An empirical examination of strategic sourcing dominant logic: Strategic sourcing centricity

Recently, much of the thought in strategic sourcing, i.e., dominant logic, has shifted away from the exchange of tangible goods and toward the exchange of intangibles, specialized skills and knowledge, and processes. This study refers to strategic sourcing dominant logic as strategic sourcing centricity (SSC) and describes it as a sourcing management′s mindset based on learning, performance, planning, and relational orientations and manifests itself in the implementation of SS to meet supply management objectives and satisfy stakeholder requirements. Building on insights on intangibility derived from resource-based theory (RBV), the study proposes and empirically tests strategic sourcing centricity (SSC). The authors test the operational measures of SSC dimensions and its impact on performance on a sample of 174 supply management executives. The results indicate strong support for the theorized framework. Managerial implications and future research agenda are provided.     

中资银行引进境外战略投资者效应的案例研究

在中资银行战略引资步伐加快、外资话语权逐步提升的情况下,本文通过对美国新桥投资集团控股深圳发展银行案例的分析,对外资话语权的提升与中资银行的经营绩效之间的关系进行了探讨。研究发现,外资话语权的提升与中资银行的盈利能力和经营效率之间不存在明显的正相关关系,而外资充分的话语权有助于中资银行防范与化解信贷风险和增强抵御风险能力以及提高业务发展能力;另一方面,外资话语权的提升却与中资银行的业务创新能力呈现负相关的关系。在此基础上,本文提出了有关战略引资的建议。     

Autonomy in the industrial R&D lab

This article distinguishes between “strategic autonomy” (the freedom to set one's own research agenda) and “operational autonomy” (the freedom, once a problem has been set, to attack it by means determined by oneself, within given resource constraints). The article argues, and presents some preliminary corroborating data, that technical careers in the R&D lab should start lower on strategic than on operational autonomy, that operational autonomy should show initial fairly rapid increase, which should be followed by increases in strategic autonomy, and that thereafter a number of different career paths should be available for technical employees. Most labs, however, seem to espouse a philosophy of strategic autonomy combined with operational controls, which creates dilemmas and contradictions in the technical career, particularly at its start. It is proposed that these two aspects of autonomy can usefully be thought of as a two-dimensional grid. Different positions on this grid seem to fit with different orientations and different tasks, and require different strategies for career management. The article ends with a discussion of these management implications.     

Pattern of information technology use: The impact on buyer–suppler coordination and performance

The use of information technologies between supply chain organizations has been shown to promote organizational coordination and have a positive impact on performance. Drawing from organizational theories of learning, we build on this research by proposing a model that relates the pattern of supplier use of IT to specific types of supply chain coordination activities and a comprehensive set of organizational benefits. Specifically, we evaluate how two patterns of IT use by suppliers (exploitation and exploration) relate to two specific types of coordination activities with their buyers (operational and strategic coordination), which in turn are posited to promote specific organizational benefits. Using data from 241 first-tier OEM suppliers in the computer industry, our findings show that each pattern of IT use directly promotes a specific type of coordination activity. Although both types of coordination activities are needed to achieve both strategic and operational benefits, we find each coordination activity to be uniquely promoted by a specific pattern of IT use. IT use for exploitation is found to be an antecedent to operational coordination; IT use for exploration is found to be an antecedent to strategic coordination. No crossover between pattern of use and coordination activities is found. Our findings show that to achieve a complete set of benefits, suppliers must ultimately use IT for both exploration and exploitation. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism of how the pattern of IT use can result in a comprehensive set of organizational benefits for supplier firms.     

Contracting on the Stock Price and Forward-Looking Performance Measures

Abstract

We examine the use of earnings, forward-looking performance measures and stock prices in managerial compensation. When the firm's owner and its manager have identical time preferences, the stock price is not useful for motivating the manager, as it is a noisy aggregation of a forward-looking measure and future earnings. In contrast, when the owner and the manager have conflicting time preferences, the noisy stock price is useful for contracting. If the manager has no access to banking and cannot trade the firm's shares, the timeliness of the stock price dominates the extra risk imposed by its noise. At the same time, forward-looking performance measures (such as customer satisfaction) can induce a desirable allocation of management effort between the short term and long term more efficiently than the stock price can. Forward-looking performance measures and the stock price are thus not direct substitutes in rewarding farsighted effort.     

支撑战略转型的财务管理体系——以电信业为例

作为一种企业的战略,转型成功与否关键在于执行。财务管理是战略管理的执行层,支撑战略转型的财务管理体系必须上承企业宏观的战略规划目标,下达企业具体的作业实施。为此,以电信业的转型为例,指出财务管理体系首先要借助战略地图从企业愿景或战略目标出发,并以此为核心提出整合企业资源的财务目标,形成财务管理的行动方案;以作业成本管理为工具,正确反映不同成本核算对象对提升企业价值的贡献;最后通过平衡计分卡进行绩效衡量,找出能创造未来财务成果的关键性"绩效驱动因素",创建出相对于财务成果而言的所谓"领先引导指标",使财务管理跨越绩效衡量层次,直接进入了战略衡量层次。     

Business environmental performance measurement

Organisations face increasing demands to measure their environmental performance. This is necessary in order to achieve sustainable development to reassure financial stakeholders that their investments are not at risk, to satisfy the demands of regulators and other non-financial stakeholders and to provide information for customers and employees. Measures can be grouped into ten generic categories - impact, risk, emissions /waste, input, resource, efficiency, customer, financial, normalised and aggregate. At least six different approaches to using measures can be identified - production, auditing, ecological, accounting, economic and quality. Although there has been some limited cross-fertilisation, in most cases they have developed in isolation from each other and have had different drivers, measurement focii and metrics. In order to achieve the comparison, integration and business relevance which is routine in financial performance measurement, a seventh approach - that of strategic environment-related performance measurement - is both needed and beginning to develop. The long term challenge is to stretch measurement systems to include the sustainability of business activities (through impact measures) and the competitive advantage they are creating (through customer and financial measures). A ‘balanced scorecard’ of measures is essential too, as is clear identification of the customers of the measures. The comparison which is facilitated by standardised measurement is also a powerful spur to continuous improvement of environmental performance.     

The dark side of buyer-supplier relationships: A social capital perspective

The literature on supply chain management (SCM) has consistently promoted the “bright side” of collaborative buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs). Based on the social capital argument, SCM scholars have investigated how a buyer can gain access to and leverage resources through its collaborative BSRs. Our study extends this research stream by considering the “dark side” of social capital in BSRs. It evaluates how social capital in its cognitive, relational, and structural forms contributes to or impedes value creation within BSRs. Both primary survey measures and secondary objective measures have been used in data analysis. The results show the presence of both the bright side, confirming the existing literature, and the dark side, extending the literature. There is an inverted curvilinear relationship between social capital and performance: Either too little or too much social capital can hurt performance. This study confirms that building social capital in a collaborative BSR positively affects buyer performance, but that if taken to an extreme it can reduce the buyer's ability to be objective and make effective decisions as well as increase the supplier's opportunistic behavior. Our study also examines how a buyer can delay the emergence of the dark side. It opens up new research avenues in the collaborative BSR context and suggests directions for future research and practice.     

Where do We Go From Here? New Perspectives on the Black Box in Strategic Human Resource Management Research

The main objective of the present research is to briefly review the strategic human resource management (HRM) literature from multilevel theoretical perspectives to summarize what we know about mediating mechanisms in the HR–performance relationship. By doing so, we highlight future research needs to advance theoretical understanding of the ‘black box’ in strategic HRM research. Furthermore, by offering additional theoretical perspectives that can be used to understand the mediating mechanisms at different levels, we suggest future research directions that capture the complexities associated with strategic HRM through a multilevel theoretical lens. Implications of the model are discussed.     

Doing more and doing better are two different entities: Different patterns of family control and environmental performance

Family firms bear two types of agency costs, including type I and type II agency problems, in corporate environmental practices: (1) Outside executives at family firms hesitate to engage in environmental strategies, which can lead to drops in profits; (2) Controlling families employ opportunistically environmental management to achieve their interests. We argue that a primary cause for the agency problems lies on ineffective internal corporate governance at family firms, which can cause loss of managerial (or power) balance between outside executives and family executives. Our findings show that family firms with ownership and strategic control (FSC), which family executives and outside executives monitor and constrain each other, can achieve the highest environmental performance. Moreover, external controls, including product market competition and provincial environmental regulations, substitute effective internal control of FSC. The environmental performance premium of FSC is more prevalent when the production market competition is lower. Family firms with ownership, operational, and strategic control (FOSC) can achieve higher environmental performance within a province with more stringent environmental regulations.     

Does alignment matter? The performance implications of HR roles connected to organizational strategy

For the HR function to have a positive impact on performance and thus strategically add value to the organization, it has been suggested to redefine its traditional operational role. However, to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between these HR roles and performance, their alignment with the organizational strategy should not be ignored. In this paper, we therefore focus not only on whether the operational and strategic HR roles are linked to performance, but also on the extent to which their alignment with the applied organizational strategy actually matters for performance. We carried out a survey study among 336 respondents either holding an HR function or being responsible for HR-related tasks in various organizations. We found a positive effect of the strategic role on performance, and also how it might substitute a lack of innovation strategy. Further, we found an alignment effect between a cost strategy and the operational HR role in relation to organizational performance. We discuss these findings based on the literature and provide some practical recommendations for further developing the role of HR.     

Generic strategic profiling of entrepreneurial SMEs – environmentalism as hygiene factor

Climate change, extreme weather phenomena, droughts, fires etc. are just few examples of man-induced impact, jeopardizing the future of mankind. Businesses are increasingly held responsible for and try to manage their environmental impact. Environmentalism and lately sustainability (manifesting an equal pursuit of environmental, social, and economic goals) guide strategic orientation. Whereas large corporations anchor environmentalism in their mission statements and strategic positioning, the strategic reflection of sustainability and especially environmentalism in the business models of small enterprises is less researched. Their entrepreneurship builds on exploiting environmental opportunities and is deemed characteristic for small enterprises, but a lower penetration of strategic instruments paired with a predominant opportunistic behaviour seem to characterize SME´s strategic environmentalism. In order to examine the entrepreneurial environmentalism and the strategic value for SMEs an empiric study leaned on population ecology. An online survey with 291 small enterprises explored environmentalism, strategic profiling, and performance impact in an agricultural and entrepreneurial industry. Study results manifest a positive performance impact of sustainability-oriented and thereby ecologic environmentalism. Ecologic environmental consciousness has been identified for all generic strategic groupings but it separates into two distinctive clusters, one with a process and one driven by market focus. Foremost, eco-centric strategic measures were identified as core levers to increase product quality – a promising finding that secures further strategic ecological environmentalism.

     

Achieving purchasing competence through purchasing performance measurement system design—A multiple-case study analysis

Purchasing competence, the level of strategic integration and alignment, is a key determinant of the purchasing function's impact on overall corporate success. Previous research has revealed that the implementation of a mature purchasing performance measurement system (PPMS) can be a means to attain a high level of functional strategic integration. In this research, we develop five propositions on how PPMS should be designed to facilitate strategic integration. We challenge these propositions using data gathered from four case studies with German companies from different industrial sectors. While each of these companies pursues multiple strategic objectives within Purchasing, the PPMSs designs focus heavily on cost-related strategy and performance dimensions. Thus, our findings indicate the need to develop PPMS schemes allowing a direct linkage between financial performance and non-financial performance measures in order to incentivize the desired multiple strategic goals beyond periodical cost reduction. Moreover, such measurement systems need to be adapted at the category level of purchasing practices to obtain the desired level of pre-defined strategic performance dimensions. Hence, the level of purchasing competence is determined at category level and a PPMS must transform strategy into measurable goals at this level.     

在线旅行服务企业战略绩效评价体系研究

本研究采用深度访谈法搜集数据,利用内容分析法构建了在线旅行服务企业战略绩效评价维度和指标,运用层次分析法和模糊综合评价法构建了在线旅行服务企业战略绩效综合评价体系。首先,将在线旅行服务企业战略绩效评价体系分为6个一级指标、16个二级指标和34个三级指标,财务状况、市场地位、产品质量、服务质量、员工关系和社会责任6个维度为一级指标;其次,运用层次分析法确定了各一级和二级评价指标的权重系数,其中财务状况的权重最高,随后依次是市场地位、产品质量、服务质量、员工关系和社会责任;最后,利用模糊综合评价法构建了在线旅行服务企业战略绩效综合评价体系模型。本研究在理论上丰富了在线旅行服务企业战略绩效管理的研究内容和理论,也为未来的实证研究提供了可靠和操作性强的战略绩效评价工具。     

战略性企业社会责任与企业绩效:顾此失彼还是两全其美?

企业社会责任与绩效关系的研究作为社会责任领域的核心问题至今仍未能形成一致性结论,基于长期导向的战略性企业社会责任概念为回答这一问题提供了新的视角。本文根据2011—2017年中国制造业上市公司的经验数据,通过对前瞻性环保和战略性慈善这两种典型活动的考察,分析了战略性企业社会责任及其不同类型对绩效的影响作用。研究结果表明：内向型SCSR活动对绩效具有显著正的累积效应,当这一活动与企业生产经营关联度高时对绩效的提升效果更为明显,从时间维度上看对绩效的提升效果呈现先负向后正向的动态变化且具有持续性;而外向型SCSR活动对绩效的影响仅在能够被消费者感知时才能发挥正向影响,从时间维度看短期内即可发挥对绩效的提升效果,但这一效果随时间的推移而逐渐减弱。     

Accountability and Role Effects in Balanced Scorecard Performance Evaluations When Strategy Timeline Is Specified

Abstract

This study experimentally examines if fixation on lagging financial measures (relative to leading non-financial measures) as reported in prior balanced scorecard literature is mitigated when evaluators are provided with a strategy implementation timeline (a non-manipulated variable). The experiment manipulates whether or not evaluators are subject to process accountability as well as the role to which evaluators are assigned (i.e. supervisor or subordinate). We predict and find that, in general, the provision of an implementation timeline results in evaluators placing more weight on strategically linked, leading non-financial measures within a subordinate's time span of control compared to strategically linked, lagged financial measures beyond the subordinate's controllable time horizon. However, we also find that evaluators in the role of a supervisor differentiate less between strategically linked non-financial measures that fall within the subordinate's control and strategically linked financial measures beyond the subordinate's control when held accountable compared to supervisors not held accountable. On the other hand, participants in the role of a subordinate were able to differentiate appropriately between these measures when held accountable. Our results extend prior research by considering how linking a timeline to strategy implementation may assist evaluators when assessing performance in the presence of both leading and lagging strategic measures. Further, reference to an implementation timeline may influence role and accountability effects. Implications for future research in multidimensional strategic performance evaluation are discussed.     

Towards an operations strategy model of servitization: the role of sustainability pressure

Servitization requires an important strategic shift to drive changes in the operations of manufacturing firms. Using a large-scale survey, the purpose of this paper is (1) to build and validate an operations strategy model of servitization confirming previous case study findings on servitization as a strategic action and (2) to explore the role of sustainability pressures in, and the sustainability performance effects of, pursuing service-based operations strategies. To reach these objectives, a dataset including the responses of 735 manufacturing plants from 21 different countries is analyzed using the PLS-SEM method. The results indicate that the sustainability pressures of stakeholders can push manufacturers to adopt a service-based operations strategy, materializing in the provision of both basic (product-oriented) and advanced (customer-oriented) services (BAS and ADS). Our analysis further indicates that while offering BAS is a precondition for ADS provision, only ADS can offer a competitive edge for manufacturers, both in terms of service and sustainability-related operational performance.     

Supplier selection using a multi-criteria decision aid method

An ever-increasing trend in today's industrial firms is to exploit outsourcing for those products and activities deemed to be outside the company's core business. Given the financial importance and the multi-objective nature of supplier selection decision, in this paper an effort is made to highlight those aspects that are crucial to process qualitative and quantitative performance measures. In this paper, the contribution of a multi-criteria decision aid method ( ) to such problems is investigated, together with how to allow for a simultaneous change of the weights (importance of performance criteria), generating results that can be easily analysed statistically, performing an innovative sensitivity analysis. By way of example, the model is applied to a mid-sized Italian firm operating in the field of public road and rail transportation. The whole suppliers selection model presented ( techniques plus high-dimensional sensitivity analysis) seems to be a useful additional tool inside the final choice phase of a supplier selection process. Finally, potential issues for future research are presented.