Business Commons^™

The Value Of Refining Buy-Up Alternatives For Portfolio Decision Analysis, Jeffrey Keisler

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Portfolio project selection and in particular portfolio decision analysis (DA) approaches at their most basic rely on a simple economic notion – rank investments in order of value gained per dollar spent and fund them in this order until the budget is spent. But the quality of the recommendations generated by such an approach is only as good as the quality of the assumptions about projects that are used. In this paper we consider how much effort is worth expending to improve definition of alternatives at the project level.

How Risk Management Can Turn Into Competitive Advantage, Ehsan Elahi

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

In light of the occurrence of many disruptive events since the beginning of this millennium, we can observe a change in the way risks and uncertainties are being viewed in the business world. To put this change into perspective we compare the evolution in the companies’ perception of risk management with the evolution in how companies look at their supply chain management. The main driver behind the change in the way companies view risk management is the increased level of uncertainties. There are many evidences that suggest the current very high level of volatilities in the business world is going …

Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: Industry Overview And Analysis, Pacey C. Foster, David G. Terkla, Robert Laubacher

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

This report describes the structure and recent growth of the film and television industry in Massachusetts. We begin with a discussion of national trends in this industry and find that Massachusetts is one of the fastest growing locations for film and television production in the United States. We then discuss recent employment trends in this sector and find that there has been significant recent growth in the total number of local film and television production jobs, particularly among the unionized crew and actors that staff local productions. Examination of federal data reveals that between 2005 and 2008 there has been …

Innovation Options And Organizational Capabilities, Jeffrey Keisler, Paul Y. Mang

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Organizational capabilities, whether in product development, efficient production, or market access, provide firms with opportunities to achieve and maintain strategic advantages over competitors. Recently, many researchers have argued that certain organizational capabilities add to a firm’s value in the form of its yet-to-be realized opportunities for profitable investments. But do such capabilities help all firms and under all conditions? The objective of this paper is to develop a model that helps us better understand the factors that influence the value of future growth opportunities for the firm and the organizational capabilities required to realize those opportunities.

A Final Assessment Of Stages Theory: Introducing A Dynamic States Approach To Entrepreneurship, Jonathan Levie, Benyamin B. Lichtenstein

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Stages of Growth models were the most frequent theoretical approach to understanding entrepreneurial business growth from 1962 to 2006; they built on the growth imperative and developmental models of that time. An analysis of the universe of such models (N=104) published in the management literature shows no consensus on basic constructs of the approach, nor is there any empirical confirmations of stages theory. However, by changing two propositions of the stages models, a new dynamic states approach is derived. The dynamic states approach has far greater explanatory power than its precursor, and is compatible with leading edge research in entrepreneurship.

Moving Far From Far-From-Equilibrium: Opportunity Tension As The Driver Of Emergence, Benyamin B. Lichtenstein

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Complexity scholars have identified two distinct drivers of emergence: (1) Far-from-equilibrium dynamics that trigger order creation, and (2) adaptive tension (McKelvey, 2004) which can push a system toward instability, leading to the emergence of new order. In this paper I suggest that both are true but incomplete. For example, when drawn out to the extreme, a far-fromequilibrium framework generates a contradiction by suggesting that the most dynamic organizations are the ones farthest-from-thermodynamic equilibrium – like Exxon or GE for example. Adaptive tension portrays the effect of a dynamic push without identifying the cause. I suggest “Opportunity Tension” as an alternative, …

Entrepreneurship As Emergence, Benyamin B. Lichtenstein

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Emergence is at the core of entrepreneurship research, which has explored the coming-intobeing of opportunities, new organizations, re-organizations, and new industries, agglomerations, and so on. Emergence is also at the theoretical core of complexity science, which is essentially dedicated to exploring how and why emergence happens in dynamic systems (like entrepreneurship). This exploration begins by defining Opportunity In-tension as a dynamic interplay of personal agency and perceived opportunity, which is a catalyst for entrepreneurial behavior. Then I propose two insights about emergence, based on recent research in complexity science. First, a process theory for emergence is presented, which integrates Gartner’s …

A Scale-Free Theory Of Emergence: Four Sequences Of Emergence Within, Of, And Across Organizations, Benyamin B. Lichtenstein

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Emergence – the “coming into being” of new processes, structures and entities – is a consequential phenomenon that management scholars have been exploring since Babbage (1832) described the emergence of a division of labor, and Weber (1947) explained the emergence of bureaucratic hierarchy. Emergence is important and unique not only because it occurs at multiple levels within and across organizations, but also because emergence is the process that creates new “levels” of organizing (McKelvey & Lichtenstein, 2007).

A Survey Of Schema Matching Research, Roger Blake

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Schema matching is the process of developing semantic matches between two or more schemas. The purpose of schema matching is generally either to merge two or more databases, or to enable queries on multiple, heterogeneous databases to be formulated on a single schema (Doan and Halevy 2005). This paper develops a taxonomy of schema matching approaches, classifying them as being based on a combination schema matching technique and the type of data used by those techniques. Schema matching techniques are categorized as being based on rules, learning, or ontology, and the type of data used is categorized as being based …

Uncertainty, Technical Change, And Policy Models, Erin Baker, Leon Clarke, Jeffrey Keisler, Ekundayo Shittu

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Both climate change and technical change are uncertain. In this paper we show the importance of including both uncertainties when modeling for policy analysis. We then develop an approach for incorporating uncertainty of technical change into climate change policy analysis. We define and demonstrate a protocol for bottom-up expert assessments about prospects for technologies. We then describe a method for using such assessments to derive a probability distribution over future abatement curves, and to estimate random return functions for technological investment in different areas. Finally, we show how these analytic results could be used in a variety of energy-economic models …

Spreadsheet-Based Gis Models, Roger Blake, Jeffrey Keisler, Janet Wagner

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which are computer-based systems that allow decision makers to incorporate geographically based data into their analyses, are widespread and powerful tools in many business and scientific settings today. In this paper, we present a tutorial discussing ways in which GIS functionality can be implemented within the spreadsheet environment. We show the straightforward and natural analogy between several GIS functions with spreadsheet functions, particularly for raster based data. We present two realistic examples meshing OR/MS methods with GIS methods --- an integration which is greatly enhanced by the “remarkable development platform” provided by spreadsheets. We discuss the …

Relational Space: Creating A Context For Innovation In Collaborative Consortia, Hilary Bradbury, Benyamin B. Lichtenstein, John S. Carroll, Peter M. Senge, Edward H. Powley

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Corporations are collaborating to meet complex global challenges heretofore considered beyond the mandate of business leaders. These multi organizational consortia are not philanthropic efforts but operate within market parameters with limited input from Non Governmental Organizations. In order to examine some dynamics of successful collaborative processes, we pursue an in-depth multi-method case study of “The Sustainability Consortium,” which has convened numerous Fortune 50 senior managers since 1999. We uncover the primacy of “relational space” – a rich context of trust and inquiry – within which participants create innovative projects for doing business in a sustainable way. Our analysis uncovers the …

The Hedge Fund Explosion: Is The Bang Worth The Buck?, Arindam Bandopadhyaya, James L. Grant

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Any casual following of the financial news would reveal that hedge funds have experienced phenomenal growth, especially over the last fifteen years. In terms of numbers, there were an estimated 8000 hedge funds in 2005, up from only 500 in 1990. During this fifteen-year period assets under management have grown from an estimated $50 billion to $1.5 trillion. Moreover, the hedgefund industry has spawned a “fund of funds” business, which has slowly become the preferred way of investing in hedge funds, especially for institutional investors. Today, the number of these combination funds is estimated at about 4000.

Until recently, hedge …

When To Consider Synergies In Project Portfolio Decisions, Jeffrey Keisler

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Portfolio decision analysis often evaluates R&D projects one at a time and uses these evaluations as the basis for profit-maximizing funding decisions. This approach can overlook strategic fit between projects. In theory, it is possible to identify synergies between projects and then fund the set of projects that maximize profit. In practice, the time and attention required to identify all such synergies may be prohibitive. Several analytic strategies are applied to simulated project portfolios with varying characteristics, using a matrix representation of interdependent portfolio elements. The results illustrate the potential impact on portfolio profit accruing from various means of considering …

Plebiscites And The Public Purse: U.S. Experience With Direct Democracy, Arthur A. Goldsmith

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

The United States is a distinctive case for studying the way extensive direct democracy can affect fiscal policy. Every state in the Union allows voters to decide certain ballot questions about how to raise and spend public revenue. The U.S. record shows that large‐scale plebiscites fail to produce reliably “pro‐poor” government finance. Direct citizen involvement in fiscal policy has not led to uniformly equitable or financially sustainable state budgets. Nor has it mobilized low‐income groups to express and defend their economic interests. When called upon to make decisions about the amounts and purposes of statewide government spending, the electorate is …