Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Product And International Diversification Among Japanese Multinational Firms, Michael J. Geringer, Stephen Tallman, David M. Olsen

Management Faculty Publications

A study is presented that examines the relationship of performance with product and international diversification on Japanese multinational firms from 1977 to 1993. The relationships between diversification and performance are shown to change over time through the use of multiple time periods and accounting for keiretsu membership. Results show that while diversity strategies vary between keiretsu and non-keiretsu firms, performance is not much different. Across time periods, performance varies considerably, but strategies are less variable. Product diversity has weak effects on firm performance only in one time period, while international diversification has negative profitability and positive growth consequences in some …

Stakeholders, Social Responsibility, And Performance: Empirical Evidence And Theoretical Perspectives, Jeffrey S. Harrison, R. Edward Freeman

Management Faculty Publications

The management of competing stakeholder interests has emerged as a significant topic in the management literature. Related issues are the relationship between stakeholder management and the perception that a firm is socially responsible, and the performance implications of both stakeholder management and social responsibility. Theory and models surrounding these issues are abundant, but empirical research is in an early stage. This research forum reports six excellent efforts to tackle fundamental ideas about stakeholders, social responsibility, and performance.

A Note On Going-Concern Modified Audit Reports And Subsequent Bankruptcies Before And After Sas No. 59, Marshall A. Geiger, Kannan Raghunandan, Dasaratha V. Rama

Accounting Faculty Publications

Several papers have examined the proportion of bankrupt companies which did not have a prior going-concern modified report (a type II reporting error) before and after Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59 became effective. This paper contributes to the debate by examining the subsequent viability status for companies that received a first-time going-concern modified audit report (type I reporting errors) before and after SAS No. 59. The results indicate that 13.6 (10.1) percent and 24.3 (20.2) percent of companies receiving a first-time going concern modified audit report in the post-SAS No. 59 (pre-SAS No. 59) period entered bankruptcy within one …

Leadership And The Social Imperative Of Organizations In The 21st Century, Gill Robinson Hickman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Much of our writing and dialogue as leadership scholars consists of exchanges about "good" leadership -- what leadership ought to be as opposed to what it really is, as Barbara Kellerman so accurately observes. Although I strongly believe that leadership scholars should do both, I intend to provide a normative perspective for organization leadership in the context of turbulent environments. The new era in which organizations must function is characterized by factors such as intense global concern and competition; intraorganizational relationships and collaboration; a focus on democracy, substantive justice, civic virtues, and the common good; values orientation; empowerment and trust; …

Control And Performance In International Joint Ventures, Hans Mjoen, Stephen Tallman

Management Faculty Publications

The authors examine the meaning of control in international joint ventures (IJVs) and the relationships of potential means of control in such organizations to the performance satisfaction of the foreign partner. They propose a conceptual model that provides both a traditional ownership-focused internalization perspective on those issues and an integrated approach combining a broader transaction cost interpretation of control with a resource input-based bargaining power model. A set of simultaneous structural equations with endogenous
explanatory variables provides multiple possible paths from various resource and power inputs through different means of control to perceived performance satisfaction. In such a model, intermediate …

Factors Influencing Award Of Compensation Contraacts: An Analysis Of Written Protocols, Marshall A. Geiger, Manash R. Ray, Narayan S. Umanath

Accounting Faculty Publications

This study reports the results of an analysis of written protocols collected in a laboratory experiment from 77 subjects while they were making compensation contract selection decisions. Each subject made compensation decisions for four divisional managers operating under them. The researchers varied the level of environmental uncertainty, as well as the level of perceived agent effectiveness. The results show that the type of factors considered by the individuals differed significantly. Subjects indicated that they focused more heavily on one of the two manipulated conditions, but not equally on both. It was also found that, overall, agent effectiveness factors weighed more …

Managing And Partnering With External Stakeholders, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Caron H. St. John

Management Faculty Publications

The weakening of the traditional management hierarchy, the hollowing out of corporations, and an increasing management emphasis on boundarylessness have created a new mind set concerning external stakeholders. Increasingly, organizations are moving beyond traditional stakeholder management techniques to partnering tactics that lead to the achievement of common goals. In spite of these trends, there has been very little effort in the management literature to tie stakeholder management and partnering tactics. This article demonstrates how successful partnerships with stakeholders create such valued benefits as increased product success rates, increased manufacturing efficiency, the development of distinctive competencies arising from partnerships with local …

Effects Of International Diversity And Product Diversity On The Performance Of Multinational Firms, Stephen Tallman, Jiatao Li

Management Faculty Publications

A study examined the relationships among international diversity, product diversity, and firm performance. For a sample of large American industrial multinational enterprises (MNE), it showed a consistent quadratic relationship between product diversification and MNE performance but minimal performance differences across different measures of international diversity. Analysis of the interactions of international diversity and product diversity indicates a weak effect from increasing internationalization on the performance effect of product diversity.

[Introduction To] Transnational Marriages In The Steel Industry: Experience And Lessons For Global Business, Kim Sae-Young, Garth L. Mangum, Stephen Tallman

Bookshelf

Drawing upon case studies of firms in the steel industry, the authors show that companies competing internationally can pool their strengths to offset their individual weaknesses, enabling them to build economically successful entities more easily than if each company tried to go it alone in competition with rivals. In doing so they show how the world steel industry emerged into a group of international joint ventures and how in each of these transnational marriages the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. Among the authors' main points are: cultural conflicts are minimized by economic success but magnified by …

The New Auditor's Report: Have The Benefits Of Wording Changes Been Acknowledged Outside The Cpa Profession?, Marshall A. Geiger

Accounting Faculty Publications

CPAs use the auditor's report to communicate their opinions of an entity's financial statements and related disclosures. Concerned parties, in turn, use the report to assess the integrity of the financial statements and the accuracy of the disclosures.

In 1988, the American Institute of CPAs auditing standards board established new wording for the standard unqualified audit report. It also revised the reporting requirements and types of audit reports allowed (for example, the subject-to report for uncertainties and except-for report for consistency departures were eliminated). The new wording appears in Statement on Auditing Standards no. 58, Reports on Audited Financial Statements …

A Managerial Decision Model Of International Cooperative Venture Formation, Stephen B. Tallman, Oded Shenkar

Management Faculty Publications

International cooperative ventures are becoming a popular variety of foreign direct investment. As with most direct investment models, cooperative venture formation is typically explained in terms of the market imperfections concepts of industrial organization economics models or the transaction cost economics approach of internalization models. However, such models do not provide a sufficient explanation of the original decision by multinational enterprise (MNE) managers to establish an international cooperative venture. A model of international cooperative venture formation is developed that is centered on the decision making process of MNE executives. Central issues for managerial decisions are developed from the organizational studies …

Lbos Slash R&D: So What?, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

This article translates the research conducted by William Long and David Ravenscraft concerning the impact of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) on research and development (R&D) expenditures and performance. The author examines debt levels associated with LBOs and reductions in R&D spending as well as the importance of reductions in R&D. The researchers believed that LBOs would be associated with reductions in R&D, which they did find; however, their findings indicated that these reductions may not have been significant in all instances.

Resource Allocation As An Outcropping Of Strategic Consistency: Performance Implications, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Ernest H. Hall Jr., Rajendra Nargundkar

Management Faculty Publications

Similarities in financial resource allocations across the lines of business of diversified firms may indicate corporate strategic consistency, which may lead to superior corporate performance. In support of this argument, the variance in R&D intensity across the lines of business of 96 diversified firms was found to be inversely related to industry-adjusted return on assets. However, no relationship was found for capital intensity. These results provide partial support for the usefulness of a resource-based approach to the study of diversification strategy.

A Strategic Management Perspective On Host Country Structure Of Multinational Enterprises, Stephen Tallman

Management Faculty Publications

This article proposes that the oligopoly power and internalization models of the multinational enterprise should be reviewed in light of the newly developing resource-based model of strategy and managerial decision-making models of strategic management. The perspective described here suggests that strategy-making under conditions of uncertainty and the drive to gain competitive advantage from deployment of firm-specific resources are important issues in the internalization decision of the MNE in a host market. The role of transaction cost efficiency in generating subsidiary governance structures is redefined to be compatible with the demands of these additional considerations of the multinational strategic manager.

Strategic Competitiveness In The 1990s: Challenges And Opportunities For U.S. Executives, Michael A. Hitt, Robert E. Hoskisson, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

U.S. firms face a major global competitiveness challenge. Although the problems relate, in part, to differences in the economic structure, history and cultural differences between the U.S. and foreign rivals, these factors may not explain as much of the variance in competitiveness as they did in the past. Competitiveness problems are also linked to a number of strategic factors under the control of managers. Among them are the absorption of managerial energy in mergers and acquisitions, increasing levels of debt, increasing firm size, greater firm diversification, lack of investment in human capital and inappropriate corporate culture.

In response to these …

Effects Of Acquisitions On R&D Inputs And Outputs, Michael A. Hitt, Robert E. Hoskisson, R. Duane Ireland, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

Making acquisitions, although a popular strategy, may not always lead to positive firm performance. Researchers have offered several explanations for this relationship. One is that acquisitions lead to lower investments in R&D and curtail the championing process whereby organization members internally promote new products and processes in firms. The current research found that acquisitions had negative effects on "R&D intensity" and "patent intensity."

Core Component Choices In Single-User Computer Systems : A Home Office User's Perspective, James W. Violette

Master's Theses

The home office is a rapidly growing segment of the business environment. The trend toward two-income families and concerns over quality of life have made the office at home increasingly attractive alternative business style. The evolution of technology during the past ten years has opened up a broad array of choices.

The introduction of the IBM personal computer in the fall of 1981 provided the technological nucleus. Other office products aimed at the individual user such as personal copiers, facsimile machines, smart typewriters, and multi-function telecommunications products have grown around it.

The evolution of personal computer technology has been accelerating …

A Land Development Financial Model, Bruce Saunders

Master's Theses

Often the term "real estate industry" is casually used as if sufficient in accurately describing a well defined segment contributing to the GNP. In actuality, real estate is a very large complex industry, involving a variety of corporations, partnerships, trusts, and individuals with different functions and objectives. A comprehensive profile of the industry would include investors, lenders, and government regulators. These players may be involved with a vast array of projects such as undeveloped land, single family and multifamily housing, office building, shopping centers, industrial buildings, hotels and motels, mobile home parks, resorts or recreational complexes. This variety illustrates the …

Evaluating Direct-Mail Effectiveness In Building Sales And Attracting New Customers, Carol Beth Spivey

Master's Theses

This independent research project describes the direct-marketing efforts of Ukrop's Super Markets through its Ukrop's Valued Customer® Program, with special emphasis on the "zip code test" conducted in August, 1989. The purpose of this test was to acquire new Ukrop's Valued Customers from a population of non-Ukrop's customers.

While the test did yield a positive net present value, in evaluating the post-test shopping behavior of the two test groups and the control group, the author determined that there were no long-term benefits from these test mailings. Recommendations for improvements (if Ukrop's undertakes a similar campaign in the future) include additional …

A Retail Branch Profitability Measurement Model For The Thrift Industry, Rex L. Smith Iii

Master's Theses

Deregulation of the financial services industry has created a need for management to adapt a different approach to operations. Drastic regulatory and environmental changes have forced thrifts and banks to concentrate on increasing efficiency and core profitability from the retail branch network. Once considered to be highly bureaucratic, financial institutions are trimming back off ice review and focusing on a more decentralized leaner operation. Expensive mergers and large conglomerate financial powerhouses have created a need for increased management controls and reasonable methods of measuring the true profitability of the individual business units within a financial services company.

Trends In Solid-Waste Management And The Implications For The Aluminum Beverage Can, Phil Whitehouse

Master's Theses

The aluminum beverage can market is extremely important for Reynolds Metals Company and other aluminum producers being the single largest end-use market for aluminum in the United States. Shipments of 77.9 billion cans in 1988 accounted for 96% of total beverage can shipments, equivalent to 3.6 billion pounds of input canstock or 21% of the estimated 16.9 billion pounds of U .S. aluminum industry shipments. It is also one of the few aluminum markets that has exhibited consistent growth this decade, with canstock shipments increasing 4.6%/yr.versus 1.8% for all other products. Its success can largely be linked to its recyclability …

International Cooperative Venture Strategies: Outward Invest, Stephen B. Tallman, Oded Shenkar

Management Faculty Publications

The preferred models of overseas outward investment in cooperative ventures were analyzed for 340 small and midsized manufacturing firms in a newly industrialized country (NIC), the Republic of Korea. Firms were examined as sources of investment capital, knowledge, or technology, and locational differences in the methods by which these firms exploit their competitive strengths were addressed. The analysis suggested that firms in the sample have strategic concerns that are different from those of the large multinational companies (MNC) usually studied in this type of research. Current models of the international firm and of cooperative ventures were shown to have a …

Sas No. 58: Did The Asb Really Listen?, Marshall A. Geiger

Accounting Faculty Publications

One thousand-plus letters are a lot of mail. That's how many comments the American Institute of CPAs auditing standards board received when it proposed 10 new standards to help close the expectations gap between what auditors perceive as their responsibility and what the public thinks. Did the ASB really listen to these comment letters before finalizing nine SASs, or did it simply solicit the comments to fulfill the standard-setting, due-process procedures mandated by the AICPA board of directors?

Thrift Competition And Its Impact On Financial Institution Mergers And Acquisitions In The Richmond, Virginia Rma, Kenneth W. Vance

Master's Theses

Commercial banking has been subject to antitrust review for only a few decades. In 1948, the Transamerica Corporation was charged by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System with a violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act when it acquired controlling interest in several independent banks in California ⁽¹⁾. At the time of the acquisitions, the banks in question were in direct competition with one or more oof the banks already controlled by Transamerica Corporation. Moreover, Transamerica Corporation held a major interest in Bank of America. This unique case ignited a fear of probable banking concentration …

Sovran Financial Corporation Competitive Analysis, Don Kierson

Master's Theses

Competitive theories attempt to describe, analyze, rationalize and predict behaviors when two or more people want the same thing. Competition appears to come naturally to humans. We have evolved over vast number of generations in response to changes in our environment. Our early struggle for existence led to a highly developed tendency toward aggressive behavior. The process of natural selection depended on this trait to ensure that the strongest members of our species flourished. If unchecked, however, aggression would have eventually destroyed mankind. V.C. Wynne-Edwards²⁹ theorized that societies of higher animals have developed "conventional competitions" which encourage aggression while …

Evaluation Of A Computer Simulation Of The Radiant Heat Curing Process For Primary Urd Electrical Cable, Grover L. Stell

Master's Theses

It is the intent of this paper to compare the predictions of an in-house developed computer model, of the radiant heat curing process for plastic insulated electrical cable, with data gathered both from trials in a pilot facility and from actual production in a full scale manufacturing plant. First, background explanations of the product and the manufacturing process are given. Then the thermodynamic and chemical basis of the computer model are discussed in some detail. The model predictions of product temperatures during processing are then compared to the results obtained during trials at the pilot facility. Next, degree of cure …

Diversification In The Cigarette Industry In The 1980'S, Hector Alonso

Master's Theses

This study is a comparative analysis of the diversification strategies of the six domestic cigarette manufacturers in the 1980' s. It uses financial analysis to look at how the different cigarette manufacturers have invested the cash generated by the tobacco businesses, and how the companies rank in terms of their ability to generate profits and stockholder wealth in non-tobacco businesses.

How To Organize A New Bank In The State Of Virginia, Andrew J. Callahan

Master's Theses

The purpos'E of comprehensive, this paper is to provide the user with a step-by-step procedures manual for the organization and opening of a state-chartered, Federal Reserve member community bank in the Commonwealth of Virginia 1 • This paper is written under the assumption that the organizers of a new bank have limited experience in the processes of organizing an effective Board of Directors, assembling a management team, selling stock in a new venture, gaining regulatory approval and opening the doors of a new commercial bank. This manual will attempt to address the strategic issues such as market analysis and financial …

Urban Economic Development And Small Business In Virginia, Muriel Johnson Murray

Master's Theses

This study explores, by a survey of available published materials, the role of city economies in the national economy, the role of entrepreneurial small business in the economy of the city in which it is located, and the means available for promotion of small business in urban economic development initiatives undertaken by government and private sector organizations. In addition to a survey of the literature, investigation included interviews with key personnel concerning efforts being made, both in the past and in the present, in the private sector and by various local, state, and federal government instrumentalities to foster the development …

A Justification For Implementing A Monetary Incentive Plan For All Salaried Employees, Peter N. Pastore Jr.

Master's Theses

The current organizational status of the hunan resource has undergone significant changes. Recent technological advances and increased global competition are causing a shift from labor intensive to capital intensive production in the industrialized nations, with an accompanying emphasis on product quality. Concomitantly, (1) the quality of the machinery depends on the hunan variable in the producing company; and (2) while machines can be sped up to increase the quantity produced, the calibration of that equipment, for example, is left up to the human factor. Since these technological advances are projected to continue, more and more emphasis will be placed on …