A framework for strategic decision making and performance among Chinese managers

This study develops an integrative model that explains the relationship between Chinese culture, managers' strategic decision making (SDM) processes, and organizational performance. For the study 1200 participants were randomly selected from a business club's company register, resulting in 204 valid respondents. The results highlighted two significant SDM paths used by managers: (1) the cognitive-speed path, which suggested that Overseas Chinese managers (the Chinese who live outside of Mainland China) focus on the big picture, draw analogies from past experiences, and use extensive networks to reduce the duration of the decision process; and (2) the social-political path which shows that Overseas Chinese managers focus on collective interests, strive to maintain harmony, and to save face while using a collaborative style to handle conflict; this approach reduces dysfunctional political behavior, while reinforcing the decision team's focus on common goals. From these results we concluded that a speedier decision making process (based on intuition, experience, and networks) accompanied by the appropriate use of political behavior (that created harmony, through a hierarchical structure, during conflict management) in the Overseas Chinese managers' strategic decision making process could positively influence organizational performance.     

Partial knowledge restrictions on the two-stage threshold model of choice

In the context of the two-stage threshold model of decision making, with the agent’s choices determined by the interaction of three “structural variables,” we study the restrictions on behavior that arise when one or more variables are exogenously known. Our results supply necessary and sufficient conditions for consistency with the model for all possible states of partial knowledge, and for both single- and multi-valued choice functions.     

Stakeholders’ Attributes,Behaviors, and Decision‐Making Strategies in Construction Projects: Importance and Correlations in Practice

Project managers need to make decisions on how to balance competing claims between the different stakeholders in projects. Previous studies have suggested that the choice of decision‐making strategies is highly related to stakeholders’ attributes and behaviors in practice; however, limited studies have been conducted in the construction field to analyze the importance of stakeholders’ attributes, behaviors, and decision‐making strategies, and validate the correlations between the factors and decision‐making strategies. To analyze the underlying meanings of stakeholders’ attributes, behaviors, and decision‐making strategies from the practitioners’ perspectives, and indicate the influence of stakeholder‐related factors on decision‐making strategies, an interview, questionnaire survey, and case study were adopted. Empirical studies suggest that three stakeholder attributes (power, urgency, and proximity), and four types of stakeholder behaviors (cooperative potential, competitive threat, opposite position, and neutral attitude) are perceived by the practitioners as important to dealing with stakeholder claims. Depending on stakeholders’ salience levels and behavior types, strategies of defense, compromise, or concession/adaptation are chosen and applied by project managers in practice. The findings can help project managers to proactively understand stakeholder performance, place emphasis on particular attributes and behaviors, and formulate appropriate schemes under different circumstances.     

Effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: Evidence from China's three urban agglomerations

Analyzing the effect of local government decision‐making competition on regional carbon emissions is important for reducing carbon emissions in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking the energy rebound effect into account, this study analyzes the effect on carbon emissions of competition between local governments in decision making. Focusing on China's three urban agglomerations, this study further discusses how to avoid this influence. The results show that local government decision‐making competition is one of the main causes of the regional “green paradox”; the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions has significant regional heterogeneity and spatial dependence, and the short‐term energy rebound effect is greater than the long‐term energy rebound effect; and local government decision‐making competition has three effects on carbon emissions that also have interaction and substitution effects between them: factor market distortion, investment bias, and the “race to the bottom” of environmental policies. However, four measures can reduce the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: one, improving the performance evaluation system of local governments; two, promoting the marketization of factor prices; three, improving both the energy efficiency and upgrading of industrial structures; and four, introducing macro emission reduction policies that allow the central government to intervene directly.     

Firm-strategic behavior with industry-demand externalities

This paper investigates the effects of industry-demand externalities on the firm's strategic decision making, with an industry-demand externality being defined as a change in industry demand resulting from the efforts of a particular firm to develop, advertise or price a particular product. Profit-maximization models of the firm's strategic behavior that incorporate industry-demand externalities created by a particular firm and the competitive responses of its rivals reveal that the presence of such an externality serves as an incentive for the firm to engage in the form of strategic behavior that generates the externality.     

The Effects of Personality Composition and Decision‐making Processes on Change Preferences of Self‐managing Teams

Team decision‐making on organizational and strategic changes is pervasive. Yet, little is known about determinants of teams' change preferences. We analyze how composition with respect to personality traits associated with (pro‐)active behavior (locus of control and type‐A/B behavior) influences self‐managing teams' preferences for the likelihood and magnitude of changes, and whether participative decision‐making and team monitoring as core features of group decision‐making counteract or reinforce change tendencies. Results from a business simulation with 42 teams largely support predictions. Stronger type‐A orientation increases the likelihood of (drastic) changes. Teams dominated by internal locus of control members are highly responsive to performance feedback in their change preferences. Participative decision‐making encourages, whereas team monitoring restricts tendencies towards extreme magnitudes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effective utility functions induced by organizational target‐based incentives

Many companies set performance targets for their divisions to decentralize the decision‐making process and communicate with outside investors. This paper analyzes the effects of performance targets on the decision‐making behavior of the divisions. We introduce the notion of an ‘effective utility function’—a function that a division should use in its selection of projects if it wishes to maximize the probability of achieving its targets. We show that many target‐based incentives induce S‐shaped utility functions and discuss the organizational problems they may pose. We then show how an organization can set targets that induce expected utility maximization. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sketching Out a Model of Innovation,Face-to-face Interaction and Economic Geography

Abstract

This paper investigates the links between face-to-face interaction, the promotion of innovation, and the location behaviour of innovative firms. While face-to-face contact is an essential feature of most innovation behaviour, the importance of the frequency of face-to-face contact for innovation varies significantly according to different firm types. We therefore construct a simple optimization model in order to examine the relationship between the frequency of face-to-face interaction, the costs of land use, and the location of innovative firms. This allows us to distinguish between the types of firms which will be clustered together in space in order to foster innovation, from those innovating firms which will be more geographically dispersed. It will be seen that the model produces theoretical results which are largely consistent with both orthodox neo-classical urban economic models of location and also with much of the theoretical and empirical literature on the geography of innovation. Importantly, however, many aspects of the location of innovative firms which cannot be predicted on the basis of orthodox urban economic models are captured by this model.     

基于行为公司财务的上市公司异常财务政策分析

上市公司进行财务决策时表现出许多异常行为,传统公司财务理论往往对此无法做出圆满解释。本文基于新崛起的行为公司财务理论,从一个新的视角进行了分析,结果发现:资本市场上投资者的非理性行为以及企业管理者自身的非理性行为都会导致企业财务政策的扭曲。     

Coping with Autonomy

Abstract

The question examined in this article is how decentralization of power and responsibilities in public administration affects the interaction between bureaucrats and politicians. Three factors were identified as potential predictors: executive authority; the nature of administrative decision making; and the nature of the relationship between bureaucrats and union officials. Data were collected through a survey administered to ninety-eight senior bureaucrats at the county level in Norway. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the character of the relationship between bureaucrats and union officials had the greatest impact on the interaction between bureaucrats and politicians. The more trustful the relationship, the less the interaction, while the stronger the dependency of bureaucrats on unions, the more intensive the interaction. Decision making that involves negotiations increased interaction, as did the bureaucrats' perception of themselves as clearly superior to their staff – as opposed to a perception of themselves as being in an advisory position.     

Showing or telling? Local interaction and organization of behavior

We present a choice model based on agent interaction. Interaction is modeled as face-to-face communication that takes place on a regular periodic lattice with decision-makers exchanging information only with immediate neighbors. We investigate the long-run (equilibrium) behavior of the resulting system and show that for a large range of initial conditions clustering in economic behavior emerges and persists indefinitely. Unlike many models in the literature, our model allows for the analysis of multi-option environments. Therefore, we add to existing results by deriving the equilibrium distribution of option popularity and thus, implicitly, of market shares. Additionally, the model sheds new light on the emergence of the novel behavior in societies.     

共创体验视角下虚拟社区环境对价值共创行为的影响

社会化商务环境中,虚拟社区成为越来越多企业进行价值共创的平台。本文从共创体验视角出发,整合权变理论、社会网络理论、价值共创理论,运用实证研究方法分析虚拟社区环境对价值共创行为的作用机制,并在此基础上研究访问频率的调节作用和顾客体验的中介效应。结果表明:虚拟社区环境对价值共创行为具有正向影响;顾客体验在虚拟社区环境与价值共创行为关系中具有部分中介作用;访问频率负向调节虚拟社区环境与顾客体验之间关系。依据研究结论,提出积极培育虚拟社区环境、关注顾客体验与感受、基于顾客参与现状作出合理决策等启示建议,旨在促进企业与顾客之间形成稳定的互动关系,对可持续的价值共创具有重要的理论指导意义和实践价值。     

Going Off Script: How Managers Make Sense of the Ending of Their Careers

The extant retirement literature primarily focuses on factors that influence the decision to retire and the generic retirement decision‐making process. While these approaches have extended our understanding of retirement decision‐making, we propose a sensemaking perspective that orients our attention towards the subjective meanings people attach to the factors that trigger the retirement decision, rather than simply the factors themselves. Accordingly, we see the retirement decision‐making process as bounded by situational constraints and rooted in identity work. Based on interviews with 48 retired Canadian executives and managers, we use thematic narrative analysis to identify six types of end‐of‐career narratives. Drawing on these narratives, we present a model of identity work that distinguishes between retirement decision‐making factors that are perceived as identity opportunities and those that are perceived as identity threats. Our findings contribute to scholarly understanding of subjective meanings and identity considerations in the process of ending one's career.     

Aqui No Se Habla Agencia.* An Examination of the Impact of Adverse Selection and Framing in Decision‐Making: a US/Mexico Comparison

US companies seeking cheaper labor or extraordinary returns have often seen foreign direct investment as a panacea. However, many of these companies founder on the horns of a control dilemma. While raw economic data such as labor rates prove to be true, productivity and decision‐making styles are so different that companies fail to maximize their investment returns. This situation is worsened as companies attempt to impose culturally inappropriate home country controls on their foreign investment. This study examines one of the potential sources of failure, escalation of commitment, which occurs when decision‐makers over‐commit incremental resources to failing investments without reasonable probability of recovery. This behavior has been widely documented in US domestic literature (see Whyte and Hook, 1997 , for a summary). However, there is also some evidence that such behavior is culturally bounded ( Chow et al., 1997; Sharp and Salter, 1997; Greer and Stephens, 2001 ). This study extends previous findings on cross‐cultural differences in decision‐making among managers by comparing the responses of managers in the USA and Mexico to an escalation of commitment exercise. The cross‐cultural validity of two US based theories, agency (adverse selection) and framing (prospect theory), is tested. The results indicate that at base Mexican managers were more risk seeking. However managers from the more individualistic USA were significantly more likely than Mexican managers to escalate in the presence of agency (adverse selection) based incentives. Negative framing among managers was universal in escalating commitment.     

‘I Like How You Think’: Similarity as an Interaction Bias in the Investor–Entrepreneur Dyad

Investigating the factors that influence venture capital decision‐making has a long tradition in the management and entrepreneurship literatures. However, few studies have considered the factors that might bias an investment decision in a way that is idiosyncratic to a given investor–entrepreneur dyad. We do so in this study. Specifically, we build from the literature on the ‘similarity effect’ to investigate the extent to which decision‐making process similarity (shared between the investor and the entrepreneur) might bias or otherwise impact the investor's evaluation of a new venture investment opportunity. Our findings suggest venture capitalists evaluate more favourably opportunities represented by entrepreneurs who ‘think’ in ways similar to their own. Moreover, in the presence of decision‐making process similarity, the impacts of other factors that inform the investment decision actually change in counter‐intuitive ways.     

集群企业创业传导仿真的构建分析

集群企业二次创业已成为产业集群转型升级的重要路径,而集群企业网络影响了集群企业的二次创业行为。本文从复杂网络视角出发,在对集群企业网络与复杂网络模型之间耦合关系的探讨基础上,分析了用仿真方法构建集群企业网络,探讨了如何模拟集群企业网络中创业行为的传导,为刻画现实的集群企业创业行为传导过程和效果提供了新的分析思路。     

基于商品品类的网络购买决策关键影响因素研究

网络消费行为的研究成果众多,但影响消费者网络购买决策的关键因素仍不明确。本文从商品品类视角来研究消费者网络购买决策的关键影响因素。首先根据消费行为理论和前人相关研究成果构建了本文的研究假设模型,然后利用基于淘宝网和问卷星调研平台的全国性调查数据进行相关性分析和回归分析。通过对logit模型的分析,验证了假设模型,得到了在线商品网络购买决策关键影响因素,且发现针对不同商品品类其影响因素存在着差异性。     

Organizationally sensible versus legal‐centric approaches to employment decisions

Many managers and human resource professionals view the law increasingly as an overly restrictive influence on their ability to manage employees effectively. This article is intended to alert HR professionals to the risk that they are unnecessarily contributing to the impact that legal considerations have on the management of employees as a result of “legal‐centric decision making.” We introduce the construct of legal‐ centric decision making, present a model of the primary factors contributing to legal‐centric decision making, provide support for the model from diverse literatures (e.g., behavioral decision making, management, and law), and identify several keys to avoiding legal‐ centric decision making. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

基于颠覆性创新和生命周期理论的AIP案例研究

本案例借助基于颠覆性创新和生命周期理论的组合框架,通过对AIP的创业(机会识别、警觉、选择与集中等)及发展过程(决策行为、产品或服务的技术/质量/成本/交货期/售后服务等)中的决策行为和发展战略的分析,验证了网络在线研究行业正是因为具备了颠覆性创新的特征,才在短时间内取得了颠覆性的业绩,即颠覆性创新理论在这一行业的应用性,并证明了这一行业的生命周期短于持续性创新企业。案例也试图通过分析发现颠覆性创新理论的局限性,即是否所有的颠覆性创新都能取得成功。     

Why Do Strategic Alliances Persist? A Behavioral Decision Model

Strategic alliances are considered a flexible form of organizing, yet they are often long‐lived. Even when systematic benefit–cost analysis suggests that their organizational form should be changed or terminated, some alliances still persist. Drawing on behavioral decision theory, we propose a theoretical model that explains this phenomenon. Decision makers are subject to a variety of biases that can lead to the overvaluation of the net benefits of an alliance and, hence, inhibit the change or discontinuation of underperforming alliances. Our model illustrates how decision‐making biases at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and interorganizational levels are moderated by the design of an alliance and the tools employed in the decision‐making process. This behavioral decision perspective advances our theoretical understanding of the longevity of strategic alliances and their embeddedness in complex decision‐making contexts. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.