Business Commons^™

Understanding How Timing Of Alliance Formation Affects New-Venture Survival: The Dynamics Of Temporal Congruence And Contingency, David Gomulya

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

New-venture survival has greatly interested many scholars. While alliances have been shown to increase survival, the literature remains silent regarding the effect of timing of alliance formations. Related literatures regarding timing of other types of actions have also been unable to theoretically explain their conflicting empirical findings, which suggest that the effect of timing can range from positive to negative. To fill critical theoretical gaps, I develop a novel model based on temporal changes during the pre- and post-formation phases of an alliance. I show the effect can indeed range from positive to negative. I delineate further boundary condition.

Don't Blame Me: The Effects Of Ceo Power, Board Affiliation, And Sarbanes-Oxley On Ceo Turnover Following Financial Misrepresentation, David Gomulya

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

I examine the conditions under which CEOs are terminated as an outcome of firm financial restatements. I find that chief executive‘s power acts to limit terminations,especially in cases of more severe restatements, while board members most closely affiliated with the CEO appear to avoid the stigma of financial restatements by deflecting blame to the CEO, increasing terminations. I also examine the effectiveness of regulatory remedies such as Sarbanes-Oxley, aimed at strongly penalizing CEOs for financial misrepresentation. Sarbanes-Oxley significantly alters the relationship between CEOs and their board. My context is restating U.S. public firms before (1995-1998) and after Sarbanes-Oxley (2003-2006).

Corporate Philanthropy And Corporate Financial Performance: The Roles Of Social Response And Political Access, Heli Wang, Cuili Qian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate philanthropy is expected to positively affect firm financial performance because it helps firms gain sociopolitical legitimacy, which enables them to elicit positive stakeholder responses and to gain political access. The positive philanthropy-performance relationship is stronger for firms with greater public visibility and for those with better past performance, as philanthropy by these firms gains more positive stakeholder responses. Firms that are not government-owned or politically well connected were shown to benefit more from philanthropy, as gaining political resources is more critical for such firms. Empirical analyses using data on Chinese firms listed on stock exchanges from 2001 to 2006 …

Singapore: Building A Future Without Cheap Oil, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Singapore’s past success at building a world-class economy launched on the back of a hugely successful oil refining and trading system could count for little as it confronts the threats of the increasing scarcity and cost of energy supply. In a book commissioned by the International Trading Institute@SMU, 'Singapore, The Energy Economy: From The First Refinery To The End Of Cheap Oil, 1960 to 2010', author Ng Weng Hoong argues that Singapore’s single-minded focus on growing the economy while assuming that the supply of energy and natural resources will always be cheap and plentiful leaves the city-state increasingly vulnerable and …

Arrow-Fisher-Hanemann-Henry And Dixit-Pindyck Option Values Under Strategic Interactions, Tomoki Fujii, Ryuichiro Ishikawa

Research Collection School Of Economics

We extend the Arrow-Fisher-Hanemann-Henry (AFHH) and Dixit-Pindyck (DP) option values to game situations. By reinterpreting the AFHH option value as a change in the surplus from conservation because of the prospect of future information, we deal with the conceptual difficulty associated with the AFHH option value in the presence of strategic interactions. We then introduce the DP option value into a game situation. We show that the equivalence between the expected value of information and the DP option value in the standard model does not hold under strategic interactions.

No Fear: Leadership, "Digital Cowboys" And The "Playstation Generation", Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

In the book, 'No Fear: Business Leadership in the Age of Digital Cowboys', author and Finnish entrepreneur Pekka Viljakainen gives his take on the skills required of future leaders, who have to manage the hordes of young adults who grew up with mobile phones, game consoles and the internet. Viljakainen argues, through personal and gathered anecdotes, that the best way to manage the "digital cowboys" of the "PlayStation generation" is to inspire and empower. To do that, a leader needs to be fearless, and to be "where the battle rages".

Ingredients For Creating And Sustaining Growth For The Long Term, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

It is easy to grow. Just buy a rival. However, this is a strategy fraught with risks and not all organisations are in the rightly suited to grow this way. Philip Zerrillo, a professor of marketing at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, explains the thought process and ways by which organisations can try to grow and do so for the longer term.

Strategic Responses To Standardization: Embrace, Extend Or Extinguish?, C. Jason Woodard, Joel West

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Prior research on technology standardization has focused on two common patterns: processes in which product developers and other stakeholders cooperate to achieve a consensus outcome, and “standards wars” in which competing technologies vie for dominance in the market. This study examines Microsoft's responses to 12 software technologies in the period between 1990 and 2005. Despite the company's reputed tendency to pursue a strategy dubbed “embrace, extend, and extinguish,” a content analysis of news articles from the same period reveals surprising diversity in Microsoft's responses at the product level.

We classify these responses using a typology that treats “embrace” and “extend” …

Integrated Risk Management: A Conceptual Framework With Research Overview And Applications In Practice, Panos Kouvelis, Lingxiu Dong, Onur Boyabatli, Rong Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This chapter presents an action‐based supply chain risk management framework that has emerged from industry practice and academic research. For practitioners, this conceptual framework can serve as a guideline to devise risk management strategies that suit their specific supply chain environments. For academicians, one can map the research in the growing field of integrated risk management research within the context of this framework, and identify potentially fruitful directions for future research. The framework of supply chain risk management proposes a two‐stage action plan: a planning stage and an execution stage. Risk mitigation strategy has been the main focus of the …

Resource-Based Theory And Corporate Diversification: Accomplishments And Opportunities, William P. Wan, Robert E. Hoskisson, Jeremy C. Short, Daphne W. Yiu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate diversification, a major strategic management research topic, has been influenced significantly by resource-based theory. In this review, the authors make two main contributions to this literature. First, they discuss the historical development of corporate diversification research employing the resource-based theory perspective and related concepts, highlighting important insights to date. They then review this literature and discuss its main contributions. Second, the authors identify open issues and suggest opportunities for future contributions and describe ways that research on corporate diversification using the resource-based theory perspective could be further enriched by integration with theoretical insights culled from the organizational economics, new …

For A Competitive Edge In Services, Invest In The Right People And Processes, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Great products alone will not give rise to transformative customer experiences. Businesses that have carved out a competitive edge in services also know that it requires far more than frontline skills and knowledge to succeed with customers in the longer term. But how and where should organisations be placing their focus to entrench customer service for strategic advantage? - a question that academics and industry practitioners attempted to answer at the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU Global Conference on Service Excellence 2011.

Entry Into New Niches: The Effects Of Firm Age And The Expansion Of Technological Capabilities On Innovative Output And Impact, Reddi Kotha, Yangfeng Zheng, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We provide evidence that young firms systematically differ from older firms in their innovative output when they enter ‘new to the firm’ technological niches. We analyze data from 128 biotechnology firms since their inception and track these firms over time. Our analyses reveal that the organizational age at which the firm branches into new technological niches significantly influences its innovative activity. We refine the focus of the extant literature by separately examining the effects of branching on the quantity of innovative output and the impact that this output has on the technology domain. Subsequent to branching into new niches, we …

Risks And Opportunities For The Construction Industry, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Foreign labour cut-backs and exposure to global competition can only mean one thing for building and construction companies in Singapore: Get productive or get out. But what can companies do to stay on top of the game, or perhaps even just afloat? A panel at the SMU-BCA Advanced Management Programme for Leaders of the Building and Construction Industry offered some thoughts on the risks and challenges ahead.

To Succeed In Life And Business, Adapt And Fail Productively, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

There is no success without risk-taking, and most people will accept that risk-taking requires a tolerance for failure. Yet, how realistic is it to expect success in a world so bent on punishing failure? Why should people expect high returns in politics, economics and society when they continue to reward risk-averse politicians and leaders? Tim Harford, author of popular non-fiction books like Adapt and The Undercover Economist, explored this dichotomy at an SMU talk.

"Now My Eyes Have Seen You": A Comparative Study Of Secret Sunshine And The Book Of Job, Teng-Kuan Ng

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This essay engages in a comparative study of Lee Chang-Dong's Secret Sunshine (2007) in light of the biblical book of Job, focusing on issues of grief, recovery, and theodicy. Drawing from perspectives in philosophical, mystical, and pastoral theology, three allegorical interpretations of the film's title are suggested. The eponymous “secret sunshine” adumbrates, first, the female protagonist Shin-Ae's hidden journey toward her true self, a self in which the theological virtues of faith and love are mystically internalized. Second, it intimates the quiet, unobtrusive presence of an emphatic Immanuel in the figure of Jong-Chan, the film's male protagonist. Finally, through a …

Cio Reporting Structure, Strategic Positioning, And Firm Performance, Rajiv D Banker, Nan Hu, Paul A Pavlou, Jerry Luftman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Almost 30 years after the introduction of the CIO position, the ideal CIO reporting structure (whether the CIO should report to the CEO or the CFO) is yet to be identified. There is an intuitive assumption among some proponents of IT that the CIO should always report to the CEO to promote the importance of IT and the CIO's clout in the firm, while some adversaries of IT call for a CIO—CFO reporting structure to keep a tab on IT spending. However, we challenge these two ad hoc prescriptions by arguing that neither CIO reporting structure is necessarily optimal, and …

For Faster And Better Decisions, A Biased And Less-Informed Mind, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Can a biased mind, with fewer inputs, make faster and better decisions? Apparently, this premise, flying in the face of conventional logical thinking, is possible, and there were real life examples indicating so. At a recently held Behavioural Sciences Forum at Singapore Management University, Gerd Gigerenzer of Berlin’s Max Planck Institute, explained how heuristics, which directs focus to areas that matter and blocks off non-essential noise, factors in the decision-making process.

Running A Family Business: Building On What Runs In The Family, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Creating and preserving a family legacy is not just about giving future generations a free pass to inherit family fortunes. As each family is unique, they face different issues and challenges. Furthermore, true family legacy goes beyond money. It is also about reputation, beliefs, values and attitudes. In their book, 'Family Legacy and Leadership: Preserving True Family Wealth in Challenging Times', authors Mark Haynes Daniell and Sara Hamilton explain how families can build enduring legacies based on "true wealth".

Competitive Groups As Cognitive Communities: The Case Of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers Revisited, Joseph F. Porac, Howard Thomas, Charles Baden-Fuller

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper we reflect on the contribution of our 1989 article ‘Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers’. We begin by recalling our backgrounds and motivations as collaborators on the project, and then discuss recent developments in the Scottish Borders knitwear industry. Noting that the industry has suffered continual decline in the twenty years since we published our paper, we suggest that the case still raises issues that remain open questions in the field despite the significant efforts by management researchers in recent years to understand the sources of industrial decline and revitalization. We outline …

Innovation And Commoditization: Prioritizing And Profiling Asian Managers’ Cross-Border Sourcing Practices, Sudhindra Seshadri

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The paper investigates several sourcing practices and argues that two main behavioral constructs, supply commoditization and supply innovation, underlie many of these practices. It then develops hypotheses involving these constructs and company profiling ratios such as revenue per employee. The paper reports on survey research with a subset of ASEAN country based purchasing managers; on new scales. The results contribute to a growing literature on dynamic customer value in business markets and sourcing competencies. The paper also discusses managerial implications for sales targeting and sales approaches arising from the model.

Shareholder Heterogeneity And Conflicting Goals: Strategic Investments In The Japanese Electronics Industry, Asli M. Colpan, Toru Yoshikawa, Takashi Hikino, Ester B. Del Brio

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article investigates the effects of the changing institutional environment on strategic orientations of Japanese electronics firms during the 1990s. We examine the effects of three different types of shareholders on strategic directions of their invested firms. The first one, foreign portfolio investors, characterizes the emerging influence that pressed for change in corporate strategies. The two domestic shareholders, corporate investors and financial institutions, represent the conventional forces for continuity. Between the two domestic forces, though, while corporate investors attempted to maintain status quo, financial institutions have shifted towards market-oriented behaviour of investment. Specifically, we explore: (1) the influence of each …

Negotiation Excellence: The Practical Art Of Cutting Deals, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

In a diverse world of different goals, opinions and agendas, the power to negotiate may be the single-most important determinant of a person or entity's, well, power. Yet, success in negotiations requires a certain finesse that has proven elusive to teach or study. Michael Benoliel, a negotiation specialist at SMU and editor of the recently published book, 'Negotiation Excellence: Successful Deal Making', weighs in on the topic. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Business Model In Practice And Its Implications For Entrepreneurship Research, Gerard George, Adam J. Bock

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While the term 'business model' has gained widespread use in the practice community, the academic literature on this topic is fragmented and confounded by inconsistent definitions and construct boundaries. In this study, we review prior research and reframe the business model with an entrepreneurial lens. We report on a discourse analysis of 151 surveys of practicing managers to better understand their conceptualization of a business model. We find that the underlying dimensions of the business model are resource structure, transactive structure, and value structure, and discuss the nature and implications of dimensional dominance for firm characteristics and behavior. These findings …

International Entrepreneurship And Capability Development: Qualitative Evidence And Future Research Directions, Erkko Autio, Gerard George, Oliver Alexy

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this article, we explore how new capabilities emerge and solidify in new ventures that are faced with fundamental uncertainty from their environment. To do so, we draw from the organizational and entrepreneurial literature on cognition and capabilities. Using initial qualitative evidence from a multi-firm study in the context of new venture internationalization, we develop a cognition-based model of capability emergence in new ventures. Our findings extend the capability development and learning implications of internationalization to the fundamental character of organizing processes in start-ups. Moreover, we derive avenues for future entrepreneurship research on the origins and evolution of capabilities in …

Quasi-Option Value Under Strategic Interactions, Tomoki Fujii, Ryuichiro Ishikawa

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider a simple two-period model of irreversible investment under strategic interactions between two players. In this setup, we show that the quasi-option value may cause some conceptual difficulties. In case of asymmetric information, decentralized investment decisions fail to induce first-best allocations. Therefore a regulator may not be able to exercise the option to delay the decision to develop. We also show that information-induced inefficiency may arise in a game situation and that under certain assumptions inefficiency can be eliminated by sending asymmetric information to the players, even when the regulator faces informational constraints. Our model is potentially applicable to …