Business Commons^™

Strategic Leadership Newsletter: Volume 4, Number 4, Larry Starr, Phd

Leadership Doctorates Newsletter (Formerly Strategic Leadership Newsletter)

In this Issue:

• Our New Dean
• Jefferson DSL Welcomes Cohort #7
• Student Reflection
• International Thanksgiving 2018
• 2nd Annual DSL Applied Research Methods Conference
• Call for Papers for the 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
• DSL Community Milestones and Professional Updates
• 2019 Planning According to the Academic Calendar

Performance Trends Matter: But Why, How, And When?, Jochen Reb, Gary J. Greguras, Shenghua Luan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

That performance is dynamic and varies over time has long been recognized. However, research is only beginning to understand the implications of dynamic performance for performance appraisals and performance-based decisions. Against this backdrop, despite what we see as serious methodological concerns (e.g., single-item measures, operationalization of variables), we believe that Schmidt (2017) makes several contributions that point to important directions for future research.

The Transformation Of Globe Telecom, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula, Philip Zerrillo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Redefining telecommunications in the Philippines. Globe Telecom—a major telecommunications service provider in the Philippines—had a long, pioneering history in the communications business. Incorporated in 1935, it was the first international wireless communications company connecting the Philippines to the rest of the world.

Instead Of Predicting The Future, We Should Get On With Creating The Future, Shweta Midgil, Richard Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

It is important to note that there is a lot of hype about “Digital Disruption” these days. We see too many organizations trying to take on the topic of “Digital” without really focusing their efforts on something that is meaningful to the people in the organization. Leaders going around talking about digital disruption or digital transformation does not serve any purpose – only creates anxiety and uncertainty. In other words, leaders would be better served to break down the topic into meaningful topics that are linked to areas of the business.

Unrequited: Asymmetry In Interorganizational Trust, Melissa E. Graebner, Fabrice Lumineau, Darcy Fudge Kamal

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Many studies of interorganizational relationships assume that trust between organizations is symmetric. In this essay, we explore the origins of this assumption and examine relevant quantitative and qualitative evidence from the literatures on strategy, marketing, supply chain management, and information systems. We conclude that no systematic evidence currently exists to support the assumption that interorganizational trust is typically symmetric. We explore how the possibility of asymmetry complicates interpretation of previous research on the effects of interorganizational trust. We encourage further research to identify conditions under which symmetry is likely, and offer a variety of strategies that scholars may use to …

Delayed Adoption Of Rules: A Relational Theory Of Firm Exposure And State Cooptation, Cyndi Man Zhang, Henrich. R. Greve

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Thestate creates and changes rules that coerce firms, but firms can delay or decouple responses to rule changes in order to managethe cost of demands. Theoryof compliance to thestate has not yet considered the degree to which the firm candelay adoption because of low exposure to rules and state linksthat allow cooptation, butboth of these relations between state power and firm ability to counteract itcan affect the adoption decision. This makes the response to state rule changes a more strategic outcome than the theoryof coercive isomorphism implies. We develop a relational theory of delayed firmcompliance to a state rule change …

Strategic Sequential Bidding For Government Land Auction Sales – Evidence From Singapore, Sumit Agarwal, Jing Li, Ernie Teo, Alan Cheong

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the extent to which equilibrium auction prices are pushed up sequentially due to strategic bidding behaviors in government land auction sales. Using a unique dataset that covers the universe of tendering prices submitted by all developers for all residential land auction sales in Singapore, we find that a tenderer’s bids are significantly higher where there was a previous land parcel sold within two years and located within four kilometers. The elevated price margin decreases with time and geographic distance. Tracking sequential bids submitted by same developers over time, we find that the incumbent winner of a previous …

Rea, Alex Tacco Melendez, Anju Babu, Neeti Verma, Pravallika Kavikondala

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

REA is an American company that plans to enter the beauty and skincare industry. It wants to enter the skincare industry with a range of innovative products. However, we will focus on analyzing its moisturizing cream and creating a strategic plan for the product.

In our research we were able to understand how the firm studied the current conditions in the skincare and beauty industry to identify a potential business opportunity. We believe that the firm has been successful in recognizing the opportunity and developing a product that would be able to exploit the opportunity they identified.

We studied the …

Chopstop: A Strategic Plan, Chris Monti, Jill Lilith, Mert Cihan Tonkal, Bret Hunley

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

This project is an analysis of the current strategies that ChopStop, a saw manufacturing company should take in the wake of the business environment today. The goal of the project is to identify the Mission, Vision and Values of the company and use these to steer the direction of the organization moving forward. This project will center on the principles and tools taught by the ETM 525 class, the text Strategic Management Competitiveness and Globalization and the tools explained between them. First, the team starts with framing the organization, its history and their milestones. We then introduce the AIM system …

The Making Of A Construct: Lessons From 30 Years Of The Kogut And Singh Cultural Distance Index, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug, Pursey Pmar M.A.R. Heugens, Bruce Kogut, Tengjian Zou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The 30-year anniversary of Kogut and Singh’s (1988) groundbreaking study that introduced the concept of cultural distance and its accompanying measure provides the opportunity to take stock of what makes for a good construct. We organize our discussion around the issues of concept, algorithm, and data to clarify and gauge their contribution, before highlighting the impact of their work more generally. Many of the challenges raised by critical observers focus on one of these three dimensions. As there is value in looking systematically at the construct from concept to data, we set out the argument of the index and discuss …

Strategic Leadership Newsletter: Volume 4, Number 3, Larry Starr, Phd

Leadership Doctorates Newsletter (Formerly Strategic Leadership Newsletter)

Jefferson Strategic Leadership Newsletter reports information relevant to the Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) Doctor of Management Program in Strategic Leadership (DSL) and its community including personal and professional events and accomplishments, new practices, research, opportunities, and suggestions.

Reflective Practice Series: Selected Instructional Models Using Synchronous Video Conferencing Software, Martin W. Sivula

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

With the vast array of resources available to instructors, one would think that instruction and teaching would yield success for all learners. Now, well into the 21^st century has much changed in the classroom? Certainly, movable desks and chairs, advanced audio and visual equipment, and a plethora of all types of technologies which might be able to enhance training and education. Over the last several decades research on individualized instruction, cognitive science, educational psychology, and multimedia instruction (to name a few) have permeated the literature on instruction. With all the research and the vast array of studies on improving …

Homophily And Individual Performance, Gokhan Ertug, Martin Gargiulo, Charles Galunic, Tengjian Zou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study the relationship between choice homophily in instrumental relationships and individual performance in knowledge-intensive organizations. Although homophily should make it easier for people to get access to some colleagues, it may also lead to neglecting relationships with other colleagues, reducing the diversity of information people access through their network. Using data on instrumental ties between bonus-eligible employees in the Equity Sales and Trading division of a global investment bank, we show that the relationship between an employee’s choice of similar colleagues and her performance is contingent on the position this employee occupies in the formal and informal hierarchy of …

Information Seeking Behavior Of Research Scholars At Muet Library & Online Information Center, Jamshoro: A Study, Liaquat Ali Rahoo Mr, Muhammad Ali Khan Nagar, Maryam Kalhoro, Qurat-Ul-Ain Abro, Shadab Kalhoro

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The aim of this paper was to study the behavior of the information seeking by the researcher scholars of the at Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh Pakistan. The overall purpose of the research study was to find out the awareness and information requirements by the researcher for the research purposes which were provided by the Higher education commission digital library. The data was collected from 230 researchers with the help of questionnaire through the Google online form. Data was analyzed in SPSS software. Research findings were majority of researchers were use electronics resources, text books and reference …

The Evolution Of The French Cfos' Role Since The Introduction Of The Financial Market Logic, Redon Marie, Toru Yoshikawa, Berland Nicolas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper highlights the changes of the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) role since the introduction of the financial market logic in France. Through an analysis of thirty-seven interviews with CFOs and observations during events organized by the professional association of CFOs, we show that the CFOs’ role evolved in different pathways depending on the relationships between logics. We contribute to the literature that studies professions from an institutional perspective by responding to the question of whether professionals change their role when the logic to which they adhere and from which they derive their role is being challenged, or whether institutional …

Experience And Signaling Value In Technology Licensing Contract Payment Structures, Reddi Kotha, Pascale Crama, Phillip H. Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Whencommercializing technology, the lack of proven results and a reluctance toinvest upfront resources hamper efforts by firms to work jointly with inventorsto bring new discoveries to market. An effective contract payment structure – amix of upfront and royalty payments – can help overcome these hurdles. Weconduct our research in university technology licensing, where licensingmanagers act as intermediaries to unite inventors and licensee firms. Rather than leveraging their experience to bargainfor maximum payments, highly experienced managers offer contractual paymentstructures that trade lower upfront payments for higher royalty payments inorder to signal value. The signal instills confidence in the value of the …

The Informational Role Of Overconfident Ceos, Chi Shen Wei, Lei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study how overconfident CEOs communicate with the market and whether this has implications on the firm’s information environment. Textual analysis reveals that overconfident CEOs communicate using less negative tone in their 10K/Q filings. Our evidence suggests that overconfident CEOs provide market participants with more value-relevant information as sell-side analysts make more accurate forecasts of their firm’s future earnings. Consistent with a reduction in asymmetric information, implied cost of equity capital is lower. However, not all investors benefit as the information advantage of short sellers disappears in the stocks of overconfident CEOs.

A Signaling Theory Of Institutional Activism: How Norway’S Sovereign Wealth Fund Investments Affect Firms’ Foreign Acquisitions, Gurneeta Vasudeva, Lilac Nachum, Gui-Deng Say

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Combining perspectives from institutional activism and signaling theory literatures, we suggest that an activist sovereign wealth fund (SWF) can serve as an intermediary signaler, providing cues about host countries’ institutional environment to internationalizing firms. By publicizing its investments and engaging in institutional activism, a SWF can signal the institutional quality of host countries to internationalizing firms, thus allowing them to overcome the well-known “lemons problem” in international decision-making. We examine the impact of a SWF’s signals on firms’ ownership choices in their foreign acquisitions. Our empirical analysis of Norway’s socially responsible SWF and firms from Norway and Sweden during 1998–2011 …

How Do Emerging Multinationals Configure Political Connections Across Institutional Contexts?, Liang Chen, Yi Li, Di Fan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research Summary: Forming informal ties with political agents is viewed as a viable strategy for multinational enterprises seeking to enter emerging countries. Less is known about the conditions under which political connection is most helpful for firms dealing with cross-border institutional distance. We discuss the distinctive mechanisms through which emerging multinationals may benefit from both home and host political connections. Based on the strategy tripod perspective, we postulate that the importance of different types of connections depends on the overall configurations of a firm's resources and industry characteristics, and these may change with institutional distance. Our analysis of a sample …

Place, Space, And Foreign Direct Investment Into Peripheral Cities, Conor Mcdonald, Peter J. Buckley, Hinrich Voss, Adam R. Cross, Liang Chen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Perspectives drawn from the economic geography literature are increasingly used to generate insights into locational issues in international business. In this paper, we seek to integrate these literatures further by investigating the locational determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) into peripheral cities within an emerging economy. Peripheral cities in emerging economies are attracting a growing proportion of global FDI flows, but the international business literature lacks a framework for understanding subnational determinants of FDI, particularly into non-core locations. We draw on the core-periphery model to build and test theory on how spatial interdependencies between subnational locations impact on the distribution …

How Does Interpersonal Justice Affect Outside Directors’ Governance Behavior? A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Esther B. Del Brio, Rosa M. Hernandez-Maestro, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

We examine the impact of interpersonal justice among outside directors on the board and between a director and the CEO regarding the director’s monitoring and resource provision behaviors in different cultural contexts. We argue that directors from individualistic countries are more influenced by CEO interpersonal justice while directors from collectivistic countries are more affected by the board interpersonal justice. Our main effect results indicate that interpersonal justice with board members is positively related to both monitoring and resource provision by a director, while CEO interpersonal justice is related only to resource provision. Our results also show different effects on the …

The Role Of Space And Time In Balancing Conflicting Pressures Through Routine Dynamics, Kenneth T. Goh, Claus Rerup

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To examine how spaces and the temporal context shape routine actions that balance conflicting pressures for efficiency and flexibility, we conducted an ethnography of the product development process, known as the scrum routine, in a video game development studio. We trace the temporal patterning of scrum meetings to reveal the mutual constitution of spaces and the temporal context. Examining how the co-constitution of space and time shapes actions and artifact use in the scrum routine reveals that balancing occurs through coalescing, reconstituting, standardizing, and reorganizing actions. From these findings, we develop a conceptual model of how pressures for efficiency and …

Cyber War And Deterrence: Applying A General Theoretical Framework, Isaac Nacita [*], Mark Reith

Faculty Publications

There is a saying that politicians and generals are always fighting the last war, which is emphasized when the weapons and characteristics of warfare are changing rapidly. However, if this is true, it is often not due to an inability to learn lessons from previous conflicts, but to “overlearn” or overcompensate for the failures and experiences of the past. In reality, this is not a learning problem but one of forming poor implications from historical events, which leads to poor applications of doctrine the next time around. The DOD now acknowledges that warfare has extended into cyberspace, and it is …

Towards A Dynamic Theory Of Enacted Complexity, Kenneth T. Goh, Brian T. Pentland

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To develop new theory about the dynamics of enacted ask complexity, we analyze 15-months of field data from a video game development project consisting of observations, interviews, and an archival analysis of 2,428 tasks to present a novel way of conceptualizing and visualizing the complexity of emergent processual phenomena.

Lincoln Area Skills Gap Report: Final Report, Eric Thompson

Bureau of Business Research Publications

In recent months, the Nebraska Departments of Labor and Economic Development have led efforts to conduct two surveys regarding the skills of workers and skill needs of employers in the Lincoln area. The surveys were conducted during late 2017 and early 2018. The Lincoln area includes the two counties of the Lincoln Metropolitan Area (Lancaster and Seward), all or most of five surrounding southeast Nebraska counties (Gage, Jefferson, Saline, Saunders, and York) and a portions of 4 other adjacent counties (Butler, Cass, Fillmore, and Otoe). The two surveys are the Lincoln Area Labor Availability Survey and the Lincoln Area Survey …

Investigating The Impact Of Internationally Acquired Qualifications On Labour Market Performance: The Case Of Brazil, Charles Alves De Castro

Articles

The aim of this study is to examine the labour market performance of Brazilian students who have acquired international qualifications in the areas of engineering and science. A comprehensive analysis of the literature review demonstrates the importance of international qualifications covering both their benefits and challenges. The gaps found in the literature review are also discussed, as well as the need for a more concrete theoretical framework about the subject. The data used in this research was gathered by semi-structured one-to-one interviews conducted in both person and through telephone. The participants consisted of Brazilian students who have acquired international qualifications …

Strategic Leadership Newsletter: Volume 4, Number 2, Larry M. Starr Phd

Leadership Doctorates Newsletter (Formerly Strategic Leadership Newsletter)

Jefferson Strategic Leadership Newsletter reports information relevant to the Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) Doctor of Management Program in Strategic Leadership (DSL) and its community including personal and professional events and accomplishments, new practices, research, opportunities, and suggestions.

The People And Purpose Of Business: The Philosophical View Of The Workings Of A Corporation From A First-Year Business Student, Jared Beach

Undergraduate Voices

A person with a goal needs careful and thoughtful planning and execution if he or she is to attain success. There exist multiple layers of decision making, management, and maintenance to provide continuity, growth, and prosperity (McCormack, 1990). While in theory everything should run smoothly, the real may not function to the sights we envision. In the instance of running businesses, the process of turning thoughts on paper into profit will never be as easy as inhaling and exhaling. It takes a large investment of time and resources to guide a company towards achieving what one sets out to accomplish. …

Can Being Overconfident Make You A Better Leader?, Kenny Phua, T. Mandy Tham, Chi Shen Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs approached AT&T about partnering on a new kind of mobile phone — a touchscreen computer that would fit in your pocket — Apple had no expertise in the mobile market. Yet AT&T executives quickly came to believe so strongly in Job’s vision that they skipped internal process protocols to land the deal. Randall Stephenson, then CEO of AT&T, famously said, “I told people you weren’t betting on a device. You were betting on Steve Jobs.” Apple went on to secure massive commitments from AT&T’s suppliers, who spent hundreds of millions to build factories for iPhone-specific …

Temporal Trajectories Of Enacted Complexity In Creative Project Teams, Kenneth T. Goh, Brian T. Pentland

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With technologies to capture fine-grained measures of behavior now more ubiquitous, organizational researchers are now able to consider networks of actions performed by multiple actors as a unit of analysis. We apply the action network construct as a measure of enacted complexity. Because previous conceptualizations of complexity viewed the construct as a descriptive organizational property, capturing this property over time was a non-issue. But given the emergent nature of enacted complexity, questions about how complexity unfolds over time become meaningful. This paper thus examines how enacted complexity unfolds over time by investigating the temporal trajectory of actors and actions. We …