Business Commons^™

Values-Based Rivalry: A Theoretical Framework Of Rivalry Between Activists And Firms, Theodore L. Waldron, Chad Navis, Olivia Aronson, Jeffrey G. York, Desiree F. Pacheco

Management Faculty Publications

In this article we develop a theoretical framework to explain values-based rivalry between activists and firms by integrating and advancing key insights from competitive dynamics and social activist research. The first part of our framework conceptualizes the unique tensions, actions, and responses that characterize values-based rivalry and distinguish it from rivalry between firms. The second part of our framework conceptualizes the role of managers’ perceptions in shaping their firms’ likelihood of responding to activists’ actions during values-based rivalry. Overall, our conceptualization primarily expands competitive dynamics research to account for rivalry between dissimilar actors and, in doing so, broadens social activist …

How Does Customer Service Offshoring Impact Customer Satisfaction?, Jonathan W. Whitaker, M. S. Krishnan, Claes Fornell, Forrest Morgeson

Management Faculty Publications

Information technology (IT) plays a vital role in customer relationship management (CRM), because CRM processes include the collection and analysis of customer information, firms use technology tools to interact with customers, and IT created the conditions under which firms can offshore CRM processes. Customers have negative perceptions toward offshoring, which suggests that firms might be reluctant to offshore IT-enabled CRM processes. However, firms have significantly increased offshoring for CRM processes, presenting a conundrum. Why would firms increase offshoring for CRM processes if there could be a risk to customer satisfaction?

This paper helps to resolve the conundrum by studying the …

Chronic Disease Management: How It And Analytics Create Healthcare Value Through The Temporal Displacement Of Care, Steven M. Thompson, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Rajiv Kohli, Craig Jones

Management Faculty Publications

The treatment of chronic diseases consumes 86% of U.S. healthcare costs. While healthcare organizations have traditionally focused on treating the complications of chronic diseases, advances in information technology (IT) and analytics can help clinicians and patients manage and slow the progression of chronic diseases to result in higher quality of life for patients and lower healthcare costs.

We build on prior research to introduce the notion of temporal displacement of care (TDC), in which IT and analytics create healthcare value by displacing the time at which providers and patients make interventions to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce costs. We propose …

Instrumental Stakeholder Theory Makes Ethically Based Relationship Building Palatable To Managers Focused On The Bottom Line, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Will Felps, Thomas M. Jones

Management Faculty Publications

We appreciate the opportunity to engage in this dialogue with Weitzner and Deutsch (2019) to clarify the meaning and intent of some of the arguments found in our article, “How Applying Instrumental Stakeholder Theory Can Provide Sustainable Competitive Advantage” (Jones, Harrison, & Felps, 2018). We are grateful for the high praise from the authors regarding the rigor and logic of our applications of resource-based criteria to instrumental stakeholder theory (IST). We begin this response by highlighting a few areas of agreement, followed by some points where we disagree.

Stakeholder Management: A Managerial Perspective, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Andrew C. Wicks

Management Faculty Publications

Scholars and practitioners have acknowledged the practical relevance of stakeholder theory as it has been applied to management. This chapter provides a brief foundation for understanding the basic principles of stakeholder management and some of its best known tools, including the development of an enterprise strategy, identification and prioritization of stakeholders, and measurement of the value firms create with and for stakeholders. We then share insights about implementation of stakeholder management based on interviews with high-level executives from a variety of well-known companies. We found that stakeholder principles have been applied in a variety of ways and under various labels. …

Stakeholder Theory, Robert A. Phillips, Jay B. Barney, R. Edward Freeman, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

Though there is clearly a “family resemblance” to the work that is typically done under its bailiwick, stakeholder theory continues to resist precise circumscription. Like the organizations it attempts to understand, the boundaries of the theory remain contentious. While various attempts have been made to clearly define the parameters of stakeholder theory (i.e., Clarkson Center for Business Ethics, 1999; Donaldson & Preston, 1995; Freeman, et al., 2010; Jones & Wicks, 1999; Phillips, 2003; Phillips, Freeman & Wicks, 2003), none of these efforts has gained universal acceptance. The following, which combines ideas from a variety of well-known sources (Freeman, 1984; Freeman, …

Sustainable Wealth Creation: Applying Instrumental Stakeholder Theory To The Improvement Of Social Welfare, Thomas M. Jones, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

This chapter briefly reviews core ideas and research results in the existing instrumental stakeholder theory (IST) literature and then applies the IST concept to the simultaneous pursuit of two objectives—advancing social welfare, the presumed goal of morally legitimate social systems in general, and preserving the key elements of shareholder wealth enhancement—the traditional goal of the corporation. In so doing, we expand the range of ethical approaches to IST beyond deontological principles (e.g., treat stakeholders fairly; be trustworthy in dealing with stakeholders) present in extant versions of IST, to a consequentialist focus (i.e., a utilitarian concern for “the greatest good for …