Efficiency,flexibility, or both? Evidence linking strategy to performance in small firms

This paper analyzes small firm performance in relation to efficiency and flexibility strategies. Using configuration theory, the authors propose that small firms that pursue efficiency strategies or flexibility strategies outperform those that attempt to pursue both. Additionally, size is used as a configurational attribute to develop competing hypotheses on whether efficiency strategies or flexibility strategies are better suited for small firm performance. In two samples of 200 and 144 privately‐held small firms, firms that mixed efficiency and flexibility strategies significantly underperformed. No significant performance differences were found between firms utilizing only efficiency strategies and those utilizing only flexibility strategies. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Science and policy in designing complex futures

Many complex systems scientists are motivated by making changes to socio-technical systems. Change also motivates policy makers. Thus, both aspire to design new systems and trajectories through time. Science has always been used to forecast the implications of policy. Traditional science predicts system states at precise points in time. Usually point predictions are impossible in the science of complex systems. Most scientists cannot perform in vivo experiments on complex socio-technical systems. They have neither the mandate nor the budget. Massive advances in ICT enable simulation as a powerful new in silico experimental methodology. However, complex systems scientists are unable to collect the huge databases necessary to plan and manage heterogeneous multilevel socio-technical systems—these data are collected by public and private agencies according to perceived policy needs. Most implemented policies are experiments, but the outcome of policy is rarely monitored from a scientific research perspective. To test in silico forecasts against in vivo observation requires data owned by policy makers, requiring completely new data collection protocols that have to be aligned with policy makers. Complex systems scientists must make an obvious added-value contribution to policy, making explicit their role as designers with their science fitting into the policy-driven process of designing, planning, managing and controlling real complex socio-technical systems. Remaining in the loop is essential for policy makers to maintain control over policy objectives as they co-evolve towards the delivered design solution and its implementation.     

Perceived fairness,decision control,and commitment in international joint venture management teams

Previous research examining the effectiveness of international joint ventures (IJVs) has focused on differences in the backgrounds and bargaining power of IJV parent firms, while little attention has been given to the IJV itself. This study takes a different perspective by examining the relationship between IJV parent firms and the IJV. Specifically, we examine how IJV and parent involvement in strategic decision‐making influences the IJV management team's commitment to the IJV and to the parent firms. We hypothesize that the IJV management team tends to be more committed to the IJV than to the parent firms, and that there is a strong positive relationship between procedural justice, strategic decision control, and organizational commitment. A field study involving 51 IJVs supported our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of organizational commitment and procedural justice for managing IJVs. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SATS行业加强供应链管理

如今,SATS公司正为他们的客户管理更多供应链环节当你想起半导体装配和测试服务(SATS)供应商时, 供应链管理并不会作为他们提供的服务之一立刻跃入你的脑海。但是提供这项服务正以风起云涌之势席卷总值高达152亿美元的SATS市场,而且据Gartner Dataquest预计,2006年     

Optimal Strategy and Business Models: A Control Theory Approach

This study picks up on earlier suggestions that control theory may further the study of strategy. Strategy can be formally interpreted as an idealized path optimizing heterogeneous resource deployment to produce maximum financial gain. Using standard matrix methods to describe the firm Hamiltonian, it is possible to formalize useful notions of a business model, resources, and competitive advantage. The business model that underpins strategy may be seen as a set of constraints on resources that can be interpreted as controls in optimal control theory. Strategy then might be considered to be the control variable of firm path, suggesting in turn that the firm's business model is the codification of the application of investment resources used to control the strategic path of value realization. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

WILLINGNESS‐TO‐PAY FOR SPORTING SUCCESS OF FOOTBALL BUNDESLIGA TEAMS

This study shows that fans and people living in the region of 28 Football Bundesliga teams from all three divisions are willing to support their team financially. Survey respondents were asked for their willingness‐to‐pay to avoid a negative outcome (e.g., relegation) and to achieve a positive outcome (e.g., promotion). Fan bonds are applied as an alternative payment vehicle within the contingent valuation method. The results show that different factors affect the decision to support the team and the actual amount of willingness‐to‐pay—for attendees and nonattendees. Public goods are particularly relevant for reporting a positive willingness‐to‐pay. (JEL Z23, L83, H41)     

Funding conditions and insurance stock returns: Do insurance stocks really benefit from rising interest rate regimes?

We examine funding conditions and U.S. insurance company stock returns. Although constrained funding conditions, signaled by restrictive Federal Reserve monetary policy, correspond with increases in the future payouts of fixed‐income securities held by insurance firms and potentially provide value through the liability side of insurer balance sheets, they also decrease the values of securities currently held in insurer portfolios. Prior research finds that restrictive policy has a negative effect on equity returns in general. Our results suggest the negative impacts of constrained funding environments outweigh the potential positives, as insurance company stock returns are significantly lower during periods of constrained funding. This effect varies within a given funding state and also across insurer type. The effect is strongest during the first 3 months of a constrained funding environment and for life and health insurers—insurer types with longer portfolio durations. For property and liability (P&L) insurers, lower stock return performance only exists in the first 3 months of a constrained funding environment. In the subsequent months, P&L insurers actually have higher stock returns during constrained periods, consistent with their typically shorter duration asset portfolios, which are more quickly rolled over into new higher‐yielding securities.