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Full-Text Articles in Business
Amphibious Entrepreneurs And The Emergence Of Organizational Forms, Walter W. Powell, Kurt Sandholtz
Amphibious Entrepreneurs And The Emergence Of Organizational Forms, Walter W. Powell, Kurt Sandholtz
Faculty Publications
We study the emergence of organizational forms, focusing on two mechanisms—reconfiguration and transposition—that distinguish the founding models of the first 26 biotechnology companies, all created in the industry's first decade, from 1972 to 1981. We analyze rich archival data using hierarchical cluster analysis, revealing four organizational variants of the dedicated biotech firm (DBF). Three were products of reconfiguration, as executives from Big Pharma used past practices to incorporate new science. One DBF variant resulted from 'amphibious' scientists who imported organizing ideas from the academy into their VC-funded start-ups. We argue that such transpositions are fragile, yet charged with generative possibilities. …
Making Standards Stick: A Theory Of Coupled Vs. Decoupled Compliance, Kurt Sandholtz
Making Standards Stick: A Theory Of Coupled Vs. Decoupled Compliance, Kurt Sandholtz
Faculty Publications
This paper presents an inductive account of how two divisions of the same corporation sought to standardize their engineering work. Although both groups achieved ISO 9000 certification, each was guided by historical antecedents and internal processes that left different legacies: a culture of cynicism and chaotic work practices in one division vis-a-vis a system of standardized work practices that are voluntarily (and often enthusiastically) followed in the other. The contrasting cases shed light on what happens when an external standard is adopted by an organization, converted into a formal directive, and then confronted by the norms and practices of an …
Rethinking Sustained Competitive Advantage From Human Capital, Benjamin Campbell, Russell Coff, David Kryscynski
Rethinking Sustained Competitive Advantage From Human Capital, Benjamin Campbell, Russell Coff, David Kryscynski
Faculty Publications
The strategy literature often emphasizes firm-specific human capital as a source of competitive advantage based on the assumption that it constrains employee mobility. This paper first identifies three boundary conditions that limit the applicability of this logic. It then offers a more comprehensive framework of human capital-based advantage that explores both demand- and supply-side mobility constraints. The critical insight is that these mobility constraints have more explanatory power than the firm-specificity of human capital.