Models in action: how management models are interpreted in new product development

This paper studies the use of product development management models. Through an interpretive research approach based on in-depth interviews with 22 middle managers in two product development organizations, five ways of conceiving projects, project management and the role of models are identified – administrative, organizing, sense giving, team building and engineering – all representing different perspectives on – and ways of using models. The findings question essentialist views of models, common in the literature, as either normative guides for action or symbolic tools decoupled from action. Instead, the study indicates a large variety in the use of models mediated by the user's conception of the situation and the model. The study highlights the communicative role of models as boundary objects, enabling coordination of and communication about different conceptions of the development task. Rather than contributing to behavioral standardization (an implicit assumption that underlies most formal models), this study suggests that models support cognitive standardization by providing a common set of concepts and a framework that may be drawn upon in making sense of complex product development projects.     

The development of IB as a scientific field

International business (IB) is today an established field in business studies with two professional associations and numerous academic publications. However, it is much younger than many other fields in the management area. Although economists were focusing on international issues even before, it was not until after the Second World War that IB started to emerge as a scientific field. The purpose of this paper is to analyse this development from the early days up to the present time. In so doing, using a theoretical framework, it focuses on the organizing of the field, i.e. how early informal contacts eventually led to the formation of formal organizations, the launching of journals, and with the passage of time the publishing of handbooks. The paper provides empirical evidence of all these steps. In this way it presents data on significant contributions to the field.     

Tit for tat in small steps: the internationalization of Swedish banks

Earlier studies of the internationalization of manufacturing firms have shown that they tend to start their foreign operations in countries that are culturally close to their own and then gradually move to more alien ground. If banks follow their customers abroad, we would expect their internationalization to assume a similar pattern. Their penetration of foreign markets could also be expected to be related to direct foreign investments and exports. An empirical test in the case of major Swedish banks did not support this hypothesis. Instead these banks tended to concentrate their internationalization efforts to important financial centres. Thus they have not only chosen to establish themselves in places where many international banks are already working, but they have also tended to follow each other in a pattern of tit for tat. The nature of this process supports the idea suggested in earlier studies that internationalization is generally a gradual process, starting with minor commitments which are developed over time.     

The business model dilemma of technology shifts

Technology shifts are lethal to many manufacturing companies. Previous research indicates that this is not purely a problem of technological innovation, but is also closely related to the inertia of business models and business model innovation. This paper inquires into the dynamics of this intersection between technology and business models. Anchored in a case study in the automotive industry, it reveals how a potential technology shift constitutes a business model dilemma for firms leading in the existing technology. The paper illustrates why technology shifts are so difficult to master and contributes to theory by suggesting that managing technology shifts does not require either technology or service innovation in order to create a viable business model, but instead a compound of both. Furthermore, the paper applies a business model perspective to illustrate the explanatory power of analyzing the challenges of technology shifts faced by incumbent firms.     

Inequality of firm sizes in different economic systems

Conclusions Our empirical results seem to indicate that the lognormal model may have a more general application than it has been possible to establish before⁶. We have indicated some reasons why the assumptions of the model are valid in socialist as well as non-socialist countries. With regard to the first assumption, the law of proportionate effect, we have argued that planning agencies in socialist countries act as a check on the size of operations, as do cost curves in nonsocialist countries. Furthermore, we have argued that the population of enterprises is more likely to remain constant in a socialist economy than in a non-socialist economy. Although the arguments for the lognormal model differ a little between the two economic systems, our results seem to be consistent with those obtained by Granick (1960). In studying Soviet management he concluded that the similarities between the two systems were astonishingly great.The findings herein discussed point to two interesting subjects for future research. First, there is a need for studies of changes in size distributions in socialist countries over a period of time. Such studies could usefully include an analysis of changes in concentration as well as of transitions between different size classes (cf. Adelman, 1958; Archer & McGuire, 1965; and Hart & Prais, 1956).Second, comparisons between socialist and non-socialist countries with respect to industrial structure would be of great interest, even if there would be some difficulties in comparing the economic units of the two systems.The two studies suggested could generate further information on the main conclusion of this paper, i. e. that size distributions of firms in socialist countries seem to be skewed in a way similar to that of size distributions in capitalistic countries.This research has been carried out at GSIA, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. It has been made possible by grants from among others The Swedish-American Foundation and The Research Foundation of Swedish Savings Banks. I am indebted to Professor Herbert A. Simon for valuable comments.     

Special issue introduction: Historical research on institutional change

Abstract

Both business historians and organisation studies scholars study institutional change to understand the interactions between business and society. However, research approaches differ fundamentally, with organisational research focusing on theory-driven explanations, whereas historical research is rather theory-informed. The consequence of such disciplinary orientation is that interdisciplinary conversations rarely occur. For this special issue, we invited submissions that address how historical research can contribute to our understanding of institutional change while demonstrating ‘dual integrity’ in terms of being significant pieces of historical research that provide us with new insights into historiography and at the same time addressing important theoretical concerns.     

Cheetah teams

Your crucial new product is on the fast track, when suddenly a problem develops that threatens to derail it. Time to bring in the cheetah team.     

SIZE-CHANGES AMONG BUSINESS FIRMS

This paper deals with transition-matrices as a tool to describe the changes within size-distributions of firms. In a theoretical section the estimation technique is discussed and further uses of the matrices are described. The latter means derivation of steady-state distributions and measures for mobility. The theoretical part is followed by another section, where empirical results are given. The approach has been applied to data concerning the largest firms with respect to sales within five areas, viz.:

• 1) The United States
• 2) Countries outside the United States
• 3) Europe
• 4) Scandinavia
• 5) Sweden.

In this section it can be seen that the probability of staying within a certain class is the largest followed in size by the probability of a transition to an adjacent class. Other probabilities are mostly estimated as zero. During the investigated period 1956–1965 movements towards a steady-state can be seen. There still exist, however, some differences between actual and theoretical distributions. The average time spent in the different classes varies about 10 years. An index for mobility shows values, which mean mobilities, which are 10–20% of the mobilities of a perfect mobile industry. The indices follow fairly well a ranking based on Gini's coefficient of concentration. It is most necessary to obtain further knowledge concerning the process. Thus one extension of this study would be a study using the approach of Monte-Carlo simulation.     

Tuija Mikkonen. Corporate Architecture in Finland in the 1940s and 1950s: Factory Building as Architecture, Investment and Image. Helsinki, Finland: Bookstore Tiedekirja, 2005. 269 pp. ISBN 951-41-0982-1, {euro}30.00.

As Alfred Chandler has shown in his writings, particularly thethree monographs Strategy and Structure (1962), The VisibleHand (1977), and Scale and Scope (1990), the development oflarge industrial corporations has been an important featureof society from the nineteenth century onwards. These organizationsbecame not only significant employers but also important providersof goods to consumers and to other industrial firms. Furthermore,their development has had considerable consequences for thelandscape in