Business Commons^™

Strategy Development Processes And Subsidiary Contribution, Pamela Sharkey Scott, P. T. Gibbons

Conference Papers

Intensifying international competition, increasing volatility, and systemic technological and political transformations (Dunning, 1995; Hitt, Keats and DeMarie, 1998) constitute the current competitive landscape for organisational activities (Sampler, 1998). To successfully adapt to these challenges and find new ways to renew fast obsolescing firm-specific advantage (Buckley and Casson, 1976; 1998) a more holistic approach to organisational management is emerging. This involves the integration of the traditional strategic management or advantage seeking perspective with the more innovative or opportunity seeking dimensions of entrepreneurship (Hitt et al, 1998). Developing a culture of creating or identifying opportunities and exploiting them is fundamental to entrepreneurship …

Strategy Development Processes And Organisational Performance, Pamela Sharkey Scott, P. T. Gibbons Prof

Conference Papers

A recent resurgence in both academic and practitioner interest on strategy development processes and their influence on organisational performance highlights the absence of empirical studies in this area, particularly from an MNC perspective. This study attempts to fill this important gap by applying a multifaceted conceptualisation of the strategy development process to the subsidiary level of analysis. A broad perspective on the effectiveness of strategy making is adopted and measures of contribution examined include financial and market performance, international responsibility, initiative generation and strategy creativity.

Interesting insights into subsidiary behaviour and specifically into the strategy development styles of subsidiaries are …

The Art Of Making Smart Big Moves, Paul Strebel, Anne-Valerie Ohlsson-Corboz

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

For many companies, incremental growth is not sufficient. The changing business landscape is forcing corporate leaders to learn how to reposition their businesses more fundamentally.

Towards A Hermeneutics Of Narrative Identity: A Ricoeurian Framework For Exploring Narratives (And Narrators) Of Strategy, Steven Sonsino

Organization Management Journal

With notable exceptions, the organization studies literature has tended to exclude a consideration of time from considerations of narrative identity. Building on the work of Ricoeur, and starting from the position that narrative identity is dynamic and rests on a temporal structure, it is suggested that narrative identity emerges from the poetic composition of one or many narrative texts. Drawing upon Ricoeur’s conception of narrative identity, an analytic framework is developed and encompasses a dialectic where narrative is described as the path of character, and character as the path of narrative. Narrative identity, in conclusion, is a reflexive consideration of …

Towards A Hermeneutics Of Narrative Identity: A Ricoeurian Framework For Exploring Narratives (And Narrators) Of Strategy, Steven Sonsino

Organization Management Journal

With notable exceptions, the organization studies literature has tended to exclude a consideration of time from considerations of narrative identity. Building on the work of Ricoeur, and starting from the position that narrative identity is dynamic and rests on a temporal structure, it is suggested that narrative identity emerges from the poetic composition of one or many narrative texts. Drawing upon Ricoeur’s conception of narrative identity, an analytic framework is developed and encompasses a dialectic where narrative is described as the path of character, and character as the path of narrative. Narrative identity, in conclusion, is a reflexive consideration of …

Strategic Faculty Development (Professional Development Workshop), Susan R. Madsen, Scott C. Hammond

Susan R. Madsen

This workshop addresses the following: 1) How to create a strategic planning process that honors the principles of faculty governance; 2) How strategic planning for academic organizations is fundamentally different from strategic planning in business; 3) The essential process and content elements in academic strategic palling; 4) Real case examples from private and state run institutions; and 5) How to use faculty development to successfully implement college and departmental strategy.

Operational, Economic And Mission Elements In Not-For-Profit Organizations: The Case Of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James A. Belohlav

James A. Belohlav

No abstract provided.

Is A Reduction In Government Expenditure A Good Strategy To Reduce Budget Deficits?: A Case Study From The Middle East, Ali Salman Saleh, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores the macroeconomic implications arising from the Lebanese governments approach to dealing with its budget deficit, which has become one of the highest amongst in the Middle East.

How Unilever Hpc-Na Sold Its Employees On The Balanced Scorecard, Bridget Lyons, Andra Gumbus

WCBT Faculty Publications

Unilever Home & Personal Care-North America (HPC-NA) not only takes marketing its products very seriously, but it heavily promotes its balanced scorecard to employees as well. No wonder Unilever HPC-NA successfully designed a unique strategy to communicate awareness of the BSC while encouraging its participation and use. Their experiences should prove valuable to other organizations implementing a balanced scorecard and to those just beginning to formulate a communications approach to internal stakeholders about its role, significance, and use. The Unilever HPC-NA marketing campaign provides an effective strategy that other firms may consider when marketing a balanced scorecard internally. The HPC-NA …

Extensible Markup Language (Xml) For Competitive Advantage, William P. Wagner, Ralph Hilken, Q B. Chung

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has received much attention in the popular press lately as a new technology designed to facilitate information sharing among business entities. One of the biggest problems that companies are experiencing today with XML is that many executives do not understand what XML is and why it is important, nor do they understand what its potential impact on their information strategy might be. In this paper, we present an overview of XML and a framework for generating IS strategic alternatives, which was introduced in its original form in the 1980s. This framework is adapted to suit the …

The Mediating Role Of Organizational Learning Between Absorptive Capacity And Performance In Companies Employing Enterprise Resource Planning Software, Edith Galy

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation focuses on the acquisition of information systems technology and how the acquisition of information systems (IS) can improve the performance of a firm. The central purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the literature that explains the success of IS projects. It addresses the organizational processes that contribute to the successful implementation of IS, and explains why some organizations achieve financial returns and strategic advantages from their IS efforts while others do not.

The population in this dissertation consists of top level IS executives in the US or Canada employed in firms who have implemented enterprise resource …

It Competency And Firm Performance: Is Organizational Learning A Missing Link?, Michael J. Tippins, Ravipreet S. Sohi

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

Many companies have developed strategies that include investing heavily in information technology (IT) in order to enhance their performance. Yet, this investment pays off for some companies but not others. This study proposes that organization teaming plays a significant role in determining the outcomes of IT. Drawing from resource theory and IT literature, the authors develop the concept of IT competency. Using structural equations modeling with data collected from managers in 271 manufacturing firms, they show that organizational learning plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT competency on firm performance.

Searching For Greater Variety In Strategic Thinking, Brendan O'Rourke, Martyn Pitt

Conference papers

This paper proposes a use of the discursive approach to explicate variety in ways of strategic thinking. Such an explication of variety is both useful managerially in increasing awareness of greater discursive resources and also theoretically in critiquing views of strategic thinking as homogenous and organizationally contained. Ways of strategic thinking have been investigated using a variety of approaches including expertise perspectives (Voss, Greene et al. 1983), cognitive mapping (Eden, Jones et al. (1979); Huff (1990) ) and upper echelon theory (Hambrick 1998). More recently the linguistic turn in organizational sciences (Alvesson and Kärreman 2000), and the study of strategy …

Identifying Critical Knowledge For Projects, Timothy Kotnour, Rafael Landaeta

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This article is the result of an investigation of the challenge faced by project managers in identifying critical knowledge for projects. Five major areas of project knowledge are identified. The literature defines knowledge as information that has been given meaning.

The critical knowledge for projects was identified through the literature and by our experience as applied researchers. Managers of multi-project organizations can use this article as a guide for identifying the critical knowledge that is vital for their projects.

Attribute-Based Differentiation Of Alternatives, Jeffrey Keisler

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

An intermediate step is introduced to the decision dialogue process for decision analysis. Alternatives are refined after they have been generated within a strategy table but before they are subject to more detailed evaluation. Two or more judges create a subjective mapping from alternatives to attributes that will later be mapped to criteria. In strategy tables, each of the alternative strategies consists of a coherent set of choices made across several decisions that are to be coordinated. These strategic alternatives are modified so as to increase their differentiation in the attribute space, rather than in the decision space alone. When …

The Balanced Scorecard At Philips Electronics, Andra Gumbus, Bridget M. Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

The drive to implement the balanced scorecard at Philips Electronics came from the top down - as a directive from the Board of Management in Europe to all Philips divisions and companies worldwide. The directive went to each of the companies and their quality departments, with the effort in the medical division headed by the Quality Steering Committee that reports to the president of Philips Medical Systems. Philips Electronics has used the balanced scorecard to align company vision, focus employees on how they fit into the big picture, and educate them on what drives the business. An essential aid to …

Attribute-Based Differentiation Of Alternatives, Jeffrey Keisler

Jeffrey Keisler

An intermediate step is introduced to the decision dialogue process for decision analysis. Alternatives are refined after they have been generated within a strategy table but before they are subject to more detailed evaluation. Two or more judges create a subjective mapping from alternatives to attributes that will later be mapped to criteria. In strategy tables, each of the alternative strategies consists of a coherent set of choices made across several decisions that are to be coordinated. These strategic alternatives are modified so as to increase their differentiation in the attribute space, rather than in the decision space alone. When …

Towards A Strategy-Balanced Measure Of Business Performance: Conceptualization And Empirical Examination With The Market Orientation Construct, David William Lambert

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Although previous research has theoretically asserted and provided partial empirical support for a positive relationship between an organization's market orientation and business performance, few studies have demonstrated this relationship using a broader conceptualization of business performance that extends beyond market-based and financial measures. This dissertation conceptualizes and develops valid measurements of key dimensions of a business performance construct—termed strategy-balanced measure of business performance (SBMBP)—and empirically tests this construct with the market orientation construct. To fully capture the financial and operational domain of business performance, the SBMBP construct is developed through a multidisciplinary literature review, in-depth telephone interviews, and industry and …

Cultural Entrepreneurship: Stories, Legitimacy And The Acquisition Of Resources., Michael Lounsbury, Mary Ann Glynn

michael lounsbury

We define cultural entrepreneurship as the process of storytelling that mediates between extant stocks of entrepreneurial resources and subsequent capital acquisition and wealth creation. We propose a framework that focuses on how entrepreneurial stories facilitate the crafting of a new venture identity that serves as a touchstone upon which legitimacy may be conferred by investors, competitors, and consumers, opening up access to new capital and market opportunities. Stories help create competitive advantage for entrepreneurs through focal content shaped by two key forms of entrepreneurial capital: firm-specific resource capital and industry-level institutional capital. We illustrate our ideas with anecdotal entrepreneurial stories …

Developing Marketing Competence And Managing In Networks: A Strategic Approach, Aidan O'Driscoll, David Carson, Audrey Gilmore

Articles

Two important domains of scholarly investigation over the last decade, competency development and networks, share important common ground. These domains are also comprehended gainfully in terms of their wider strategic underpinning. This paper first contends that competence is considered best in terms of the particular strategy–structure–shared values constellation of a firm. This enables competence, including marketing competence, to be understood in terms of competency deepening (within the conventional marketing function), broadening (marketing activity which must be shared and co-managed with other parts of the firm), and of partnering (essentially, the ability to manage alliances, networks and relationships between the firm …

Human Advantage: Making People Part Of Your Strategy, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

The greatest resource we have in the health club industry is our employees, and, only by accounting for and incorporating the human element in everything we do can we produce an exceptional, effective strategy.

The Integration Of Firm Resources: The Role Of Capabilities In Strategy And Firm Performance, Daniel Lynch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Distinctive capabilities are defined as a firm’s accumulated skills and knowledge that may lead to competitive advantage (Day 1994). Distinctive capabilities are founded upon Resource-Based Theory (Barney 1991) that focuses on internal resources as opposed to external market forces (Porter 1980). The present research discusses the integration of distinctive capabilities into this framework; that is, do certain distinctive capabilities (resources) create superior firm performance when linked to the appropriate generic business strategy?

The literature on firm performance has a rich history and is theoretically grounded in several disciplines including economics, sociology, and organizational behavior (Anderson 1982). However, there has not …

Dynamic Immunization And Transaction Costs With Different Term Structure Models, Eliseo Navarro, Juan M. Nave

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

A bond portfolio selection model is developed in a dynamic framework using different term structures, but without transactions costs. We show that the optimal portfolios are consistent with Khang's dynamic immunization theorem, i.e., the optimal path consists of making portfolio duration equal to the investor's horizon planning period. The model is then extended to include transaction costs. The resulting optimal portfolios are no longer consistent with Khang's dynamic immunization theorem. In fact, the strategy for constructing the optimal portfolio consists of initially choosing a portfolio with a duration that is smaller than the horizon planning period.

Legal Issues In Multinational Business Strategy: To Play The Game, You Have To Know The Rules, James A. Belohlav

James A. Belohlav

No abstract provided.

Quality, Strategy, And Competitiveness, James A. Belohlav

James A. Belohlav

No abstract provided.

Using Management Techniques To Solve Environmental Problems, Patrick D. Kelly

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Arguing that little effective progress is being made in solving problems of varying urgency, this paper suggests a leadership role for science and engineering societies. It proposes that such societies attempt to prioritize problems and attempt to focus public awareness (and calls to action) in a more systematic way.

Strategy And Structure: Reconceiving The Relationship, Herman L. Boschken

Herman L. Boschken

Discussions have drawn attention to the relationship between strategy and structure for much of the last quarter century. Yet, no firm basis has emerged to settle the issue of causal direction or to affirm the relationship's effects on organizational performance. By adding a new dimension to the strategy-structure model, this article attempts to conceptually link long-term performance with (a) the presence of subunits having distinctive competence in strategic planning and (b) the coordination of these differentiated subunits into a discernible micro-structure embedded within the overall organization. This new dimension is explored and developed by use of a case of the …

Sourcing For Competitive Advantage, Richard A. Bettis, Stephen P. Bradley

Historical Working Papers

Sourcing to foreign suppliers is discussed in the context of overall company strategy and criteria are suggested for analyzing the advantages and disadvantages that must be weighed in sourcing decisions. Particular attention is given to going beyond the cost criteria to examine risks and unforseen future needs for skills.

Company Turnaround Strategies: A Context For Marketing, James Wrynn, Timothy O'Mahony

Articles

This article considers the literature on corporate turnaround. It examines the nature of decline as well as the causes and the various indicators of decline. Following this Hofer’s now well-established framework of analysis for the development of a turnaround strategy is described. This analysis falls into two stages: firstly, an assessment of current operational and strategic health of a firm and secondly, a consideration of turnaround options which may incorporate strategic and/or operational change. This model is then assessed in the context of a number of Irish firms in a turnaround situation. Important issues in turnaround strategy, such as management …

Selecting A Strategy For Determining Information Requirements, Mohammed H. Omar

Robins School of Business White Paper Series, 1980-2022

There is and continues to be an awareness in society that accurate and timely information is a vital resource of any organization, and that an effective management information system is a means of providing the needed information. In an answer to the question: why do organizations process information? Daft [6] presents two answers. Organizations process information to reduce uncertainty and equivocality. As information increases, uncertainty decreases. In situations where organizations are faced with a high degree of uncertainty, a large number of questions has to be asked and more information needs to be acquired to learn the answers. The assumption …