Strategic Management Policy Commons^™

Theorizing About The Implications Of Multiplexity: An Integrative Typology, Gokhan Ertug, Julia Brennecke, Stefano Tasselli

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Multiplexity, the coexistence of more than one type of relationship between two actors, is a prevalent phenomenon with clear relevance for a wide range of management settings and phenomena. While there is a substantial body of work on multiplexity, the absence of a shared terminology and a typology for the mechanisms and arguments that are used in theorizing about its implications nevertheless hamper its appeal to organizational network scholars and slow its progress. Based on content analysis of 103 studies, we propose “relational harmony,” “task complementarity,” and “relational scope” as three categories to integrate the mechanisms and arguments used in …

Purpose In The For-Profit Firm: A Review And Framework For Management Research, Gerard George, Martine R. Haas, Anita M. Mcgahan, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Paul Tracey

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose is a concept often used in managerial communities to signal and define a firm’s benevolent and pluralistic approach to its stakeholders beyond its focus on shareholders. While some evidence has linked purpose to positive organizational outcomes such as growth, employee satisfaction, innovation, and superior stock market performance, the definition and application of purpose in management research has been varied and frequently ambiguous. We review literature streams that invoke purpose in the for-profit firm and propose a unifying definition. Next, we develop a framework to study purpose that decouples its framing and formalization within firms from its realization, thus helping …

Board Governance Of Strategic Change: An Assessment Of The Literature And Avenues For Future Research, Patricia Klamer, Qiwen Yu, Toru Yoshikawa, Michael Hitt

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Boards of directors play a central role in governing corporate strategic change. We systematically review corporate governance research on strategic change published over the past 40 years, differentiating between strategic change types and board characteristics. We identify three developments: a focus on specific strategic change types, board composition and structure, and North American listed firms as a dominant study context. Yet, our analysis of the literature shows that research on board governance of interrelated strategic changes, on different board roles and behaviour, and on the governance of strategic changes across different contexts remains underdeveloped. To address these research gaps, we …

Blockchain And Regenerative Finance: Charting A Path Toward Regeneration, Marco Schletz, Axel Constant, Angel Hsu, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Roman Beck, Martin Wainstein

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The Regenerative Finance (ReFi) movement aims to fundamentally transform the governance of global common pool resources (CPRs), such as the atmosphere, which are being degraded despite international efforts. The ReFi movement seeks to achieve this by utilizing digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (D-MRV); tokenization of assets; and decentralized governance approaches. However, there is currently a lack of a clear path forward to create and implement models that actually drive the “Re-” in ReFi beyond perpetuating the existing extractive economics and toward actual regeneration. In addition, ReFi suffers from growing pains, lacking a common interoperability framework and definition for determining what …

Female Ceos And Investment Efficiency In The Vietnamese Market, Jun Myung Song, Chune Young Chung

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This paper proposes female CEOs’ overconfidence and risky behavior stem from gender stereotype threats. With two subsamples in Vietnam—firms in the Northern and Southern regions–we empirically show that female CEOs in the North, where there is less gender stereotype, tend to overinvest relative to male CEOs. However, in the South, they are indifferent. Additional analysis reinforces the main finding that female CEOs from the North tend to take more risks even when dealing with market volatility and uncertainty (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Such risky behaviors of female CEOs in the North do not deteriorate firm value but instead, possibly improve …

Air Pollution, Regulations On Emission And Firms' Social Responsibility, Jun Myung Song

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This paper examines whether firms adjust their strategy in emission when air pollution is severe. Considering high PM 2.5 as severe air pollution across 65 countries, I show that firms from countries with severe air pollution have low emission score, suggesting that they put less effort in reducing emission. This is because if they improve emission strategy, firm performance deteriorates. However, such relationship disappears when the government’s environmental stringency is strong, suggesting that government’s intervention is crucial for sustainable environment. This paper concludes with analysis on the factors which can mediate the negative impact of air pollution on firms’ emission …

Essays On Corporate Social (Ir)Responsiblity, Alliance Formation And Stock Market Reaction, Qiwen Yu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of two essays related to corporate social (ir) responsibility (CSR/ CSI), alliance formation, and stock market reaction. The first essay examines how a potential partner’s performances in CSR and CSI may play distinct signaling roles in influencing alliance formation. I argue that partner CSR primarily serves as a signal of the partner’s trustworthiness, increasing a focal firm’s willingness to collaborate with a high-CSR partner. In contrast, partner CSI primarily signals the risks of negative spillover of a partner’s reputation for social irresponsibility to a focal firm, reducing the focal firm’s propensity to ally with a high-CSI partner. …

Essays On Corporate Social Responsibility And Strategic Choices, Yah Ling Liew

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

CSR is receiving significant attention from both academics and businesses. However, CSR and economic goals are still perceived as conflicting. To address this gap, this dissertation put together three essays that to inform about the instrumental value of CSR and how CSR could be compatible with economic objectives.

Chapter Two reveals CSR reporting has strategic value for firms by improving firms' relationships with stakeholders and facilitating the development of sustainable development capabilities. Firms are responsive to shareholders' and governments' demands for reporting. As society increasingly demands for CSR reporting, the overlooked issue of costs and benefits of reporting is costly …

On The Status Shocks Of Tournament Rituals: How Ritual Enactment Affects Productivity, Input Provision, And Performance, Massimo Maoret, Giacomo Marchesini, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a novel process through which status shocks may enhance performance. Specifically, we theorize that when status shocks include a ritualistic conferment of social prestige – such as in the case of “tournament rituals” – participating in that ritual enactment may increase tournament winners’ productivity and improve the inputs they receive, thereby improving their overall performance. We also consider the duration of that performance improvement, finding a decay that is consistent with our theorized mechanisms that are based on emotional energy. Our study shows that status shocks carry not only informational value, as signals of quality, but also symbolic …

Scaling Digital Solutions For Wicked Problems: Ecosystem Versatility, Katherine Tatarinov, Tina Ambos, Feichin Ted Tschang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Digital solutions are increasingly used to address ‘‘wicked problems’’ that are locally embedded but require global approaches. Scaling these solutions internationally is imperative for their success, but to date we know little about this process. Using a qualitative case study methodology, our paper analyzes how four digital solutions driven by the United Nations are built and how they scale internationally. These solutions address wicked problems through artificial intelligence, blockchain, and geospatial mapping, and are embedded in networks of partners which evolve during scaling to create unique ecosystem roles and configurations. We identify different ecosystem roles and find that the specific …

Driving Forces Of Mining Outsourcing: Evidence From China, Bingxu Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The outsourcing of services by mining enterprises has become a significant global trend. Classic studies have demonstrated that outsourcing can help enterprises obtain professional services, improving productivity and reducing production costs. However, as a transitional economy, China has its unique characteristics regarding the driving forces of service outsourcing. By employing a case study method, one mining service outsourcing provider, and five mining enterprises' interviews and archival data, this study constructs a theory to identify the driving forces and mechanisms of mining enterprises' choice of service outsourcing and a logic relationship between variables via a diagram.

The case study results reveal …

The Effects Of A Private Domain Strategy On Retail Sales Performance, Jianzhong Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The proliferation of Internet technology has led people to become increasingly accustomed to online consumption, thus forming a substitution effect for offline consumption. In particular, the development of social media helps retailers circumvent public domain platforms and develop their own controllable private domain channels to cultivate emotionally connected loyal consumers and finally realize the monetization of emotional relationships. Through empirical study of the quarterly data of 244 self-operated stores of Sanse Corporation in the fourth quarter of 2022, this research obtained the following results: 1. The implementation of private domain marketing strategies, including private domain membership development strategies, live conversion …

Multinational Family Firms’ Internationalization Depth And Breadth Following The Global Financial Crisis, Sebastian P. L. Fourné, Miriam Zschoche, Christian Schwens, Reddi Kotha

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines how large family firms react to a macroeconomic shock in terms of their internationalization depth and breadth. Building on new internalization theory and acknowledging the dysfunctional manifestations of bifurcation bias in large family-owned MNEs, we argue that an unexpected shock induces family firms to recombine their family firm-specific resources with their thus far underutilized or unequally treated nonfamily resources. This recombination allows most family firms to economize on bifurcation bias and leverage their resources as firm-specific advantages (FSAs) resulting in an increased depth and breadth of internationalization post shock (while some of them may continue to suffer …

Accelerating Business Transformation In The Digital Age, Gary Pan, Shankararaman, Venky

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Business Transformation involves making fundamental changes in how business is conducted in order to help cope with shifts in market environment. This chapter focuses on the role played by digital technology in business transformation and the mindset shifts required to embark on a digital transformation journey. More relevantly, this chapter also highlights how data analytics is driving digital transformation.

Do Ambitious Entrepreneurs Benefit More From Training?, Reddi Kotha, Balagopal Vissa, Yimin Lin, Anne-Valérie Corboz

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Does growth training help entrepreneurs scale-up new ventures? Our field experiment answers this question using data from 181 Singapore-based, early-growth entrepreneurs drawn from a broad range of industry sectors. Treatment content focused on three growth-catalyst tools relevant for formulating and executing innovation-led growth: business-model design, leveraging external networks, building internal teams. Treatment format comprised interactive lecture sessions and workshops on these tools supplemented by personalized coaching in applying the tools to entrepreneurs’ specific challenges. We find that ventures led by entrepreneurs that received training experienced sales growth of 72.5% compared to 30.3% for those in the control condition. Furthermore, ventures …

Following Their Predecessors' Journey? A Review Of Emne Studies And Avenues For Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Peter J. Buckley, Lin Cui, Liang Chen, Yi Li, Yoona Choi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this review article we take stock of international business (IB) research on emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) over the past three decades. Our review covers 690 articles published in 64 high-impact peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2021 (inclusive). We first present bibliometric findings on some key patterns of this vast body of scholarly work. We then conduct content analysis to critically assess this literature and provide a multilevel synthesis of the existing knowledge base. To do so we propose a theoretical framework that highlights three dimensions - micro-foundations, organizational characteristics, and institutional environment - by which the distinction between …

Natural Disasters And Corporate Philanthropy: A Double Movement Perspective, Guoguang Wan, Heli Wang, Xuesong Geng, Kenneth G. Huang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines Chinese corporations’ responses to a sudden natural disaster in terms of their philanthropic donations. We apply Polanyi’s double movement perspective to argue that rapid market expansion in an emerging economy causes social problems such as large-income disparities and environmental degradation. This calls forth counterforces advocating social responsibility and sustainability. Such countermovements can be strengthened by a major disaster, especially in the domain of corporate philanthropy. The resulting increase in corporate philanthropy persists long after the disaster, especially for those firms with large intra-firm pay disparities, operating in socially contested industries and located in regions with more social …

Ecosystem Social Responsibility In International Digital Commerce, Jingtao Yi, Jiatao Li, Liang Chen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite the surge of interest in digital globalization, its social dimensions have received far less attention than deserved. The lack of conversation between the two prominent areas of IB research, digitalization, and corporate social responsibility, presents a valuable opportunity for extending the agenda Ioannou and Serafeim (J Int Bus Stud 43(9):834-864, 2012) pioneered a decade earlier. We briefly depict the organizational differences between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and multinational platforms (MNPs), followed by a closer look at how social responsibility of digital platforms might depart from our conventional understanding derived from MNEs. We then propose the notion of ecosystem social responsibility …

Sustainability Impact Assessment Of New Ventures: An Emerging Field Of Research, Klaus Fichter, Florian Ludeke-Freund, Stefan Schaltegger, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Entrepreneurs and start-ups are key actors in implementing environmental innovation and accelerating sustainability transitions. Thus, analyzing as well as predicting the impact of entrepreneurial ventures is central to management and entrepreneurship research. The sustainability performance, value and impact of incumbent firms and their products and services has been a key topic in business-related sustainability research for many years. However, assessing the sustainability effects of new ventures such as start-ups is a neglected area in the research literature. This article therefore provides an overview, including key definitions, a new conceptual framework, and notions that can help guide and inspire a future …

Putting Manufacturing On The Offensive, Arnoud De Meyer, Kasra Ferdows, Ann Vereecke

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The path for elevating the role of manufacturing in the company strategy in the last few decades has been rather clear: Improve the basic production capabilities-typically quality, reliability, lead times, and cost efficiency of production processes. Leading Japanese companies, like Toyota, showed the way. But as many have heeded the advice and followed suit, this approach has become essentially a defensive strategy; you must do it not to fall behind. Has manufacturing lost its potential to create capabilities on which a company's strategy can rest? Our answer is absolutely not. In fact, unlike before, manufacturing has multiple paths for creating …

Empirical Study Of Cashback Affiliate Strategy: Evidence From A Cashback Website, Liu Xinyong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the rapid development of internet technology, e-commerce has become increasingly prosperous with online shopping increasingly penetrating into the daily life of consumers. Online channel has become an indispensable channel for merchants to reach their customers. To improve sales performance and address competition from rivals, online merchants have developed various promotion methods. Cashback promotion has gradually become one of the popular promotion methods, and attracted attention from scholars. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between cashbacks and consumer behaviors using data on Taobao merchants on a large cashback website in China. Two studies with a large number of transaction …

Shaping Ott Movie Consumption Through Immersive Cinema: A Qualitative Investigation Of Consumer Perspectives, Avirupa Basu, Pratap C. Mandal, Ashutosh. B. Murti, Tamas Makany, Tamas Makany

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entertainment sector saw a worldwide disruption with restrictions on outdoor activities. Consequently, consumers turned towards video and music streaming services for their entertainment consumption. Several film studios have taken the digital release route on over-the-top (OTT) sites to avoid revenue losses and indefinite delays. However, these non-theatrical OTT film releases need to experiment with different strategies to bring the experiences to par with theatrical ones. This exploratory study aims to provide insights on whether Immersive Cinema can be used to imitate the physical world through digital simulation on OTT platforms to gain credibility in …

Governance And Design Of Digital Platforms: A Review And Future Research Directions On A Meta-Organization, Liang Chen, Tony W. Tong, Shaoqin Tang, Nianchen Han

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The burgeoning digital-platforms literature across multiple business disciplines has primarily characterized the platform as a market or network. Although the organizing role of platform owners is well recognized, the literature lacks a coherent approach to understanding organizational governance in the platform context. Drawing on classic organizational governance theories, this paper views digital platforms as a distinct organizational form where the mechanisms of incentive and control routinely take center stage. We systematically review research on digital platforms, categorize specific governance mechanisms related to incentive and control, and map a multitude of idiosyncratic design features studied in prior research onto these mechanisms. …

Charting New Courses To Enter Foreign Markets: Conceptualization, Theoretical Framework, And Research Directions On Non-Traditional Entry Modes, Keith D. Brouthers, Liang Chen, Sali Li, Noman Shaheer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recent advances in digitalization and increasing integration of international markets are paving the way for a new generation of firms to use non-traditional entry modes that are largely marginalized in previous entry mode studies. While extant research revolves around the level of resource commitment and control in foreign activities, non-traditional modes are encapsulated by the extent of embeddedness required for exploring new and/or exploiting existing resources. In particular, we draw attention to four such categories of non-traditional entry modes the literature has touched on, i.e., capital access, innovation outposts, virtual presence, and the managed ecosystem. We explore the key attributes, …

Nature Tech: A Nascent Ecosystem, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When people talk about climate tech, they tend to mean carbon tech. It’s all carbon tunnel vision: Carbon footprint, carbon equivalent, carbon credit, carbon compensation, carbon emission reductions, carbon offsets, decarbonization and so on. By extension, the entire debate about energy transition, energy transformation, clean power and green energy is similarly a debate that is largely held within the carbon tunnel. Make no mistake about it. These are important topics to address. The energy transition will not only prevent catastrophic climate change but have massive benefits for human health by tackling fossil-fuel induced air pollution at the source.As the above …

The Impact Of Board Heterogeneity On Corporate Internationalization Strategy, Yi Qiang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study analyzes the relationship between board heterogeneity and the company’s internationalization strategy to determine the internal mechanism through which board heterogeneity affects the company’s internationalization strategy. Based on the analysis of the primary effect, the moderating effects of contextual factors at various levels, such as individual, organization, and environment, are introduced. Subsequently, this study empirically tests the proposed research hypothesis using the data of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2020.

The empirical results indicate that board heterogeneity has a positive impact on the company’s internationalization strategy. When the board chairman is female or has a longer tenure, board …

Is There A Strategic Organization In The Behavioral Theory Of The Firm? Looking Back And Looking Forward, Henrich R. Greve, Cyndi Man Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the 20 years of Strategic Organization, how well has knowledge drawn from the behavioral theory of the firm contributed to the field of strategy? We see progress both in the pages of SO! and elsewhere in the field of strategy, but this progress has been held back by divisions between strategy and organization theory in what theories should predict, what mechanisms are preferable predictors, and what outcomes are of interest. Despite these divisions, the last few years have seen particularly rapid progress, turning the behavioral theory of the firm into one of multiple organization theory sources of strategy knowledge. …

Social Performance Feedback And Firm Communication Strategy, Heli Wang, Ming Jia, Yi Xiang, Yang Lan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although corporate social performance has become an important measure of firm performance, there is little understanding about how firms respond to social performance feedback and how impression management may function as an important firm response to the feedback. Building upon and extending the literature on the behavioral theory of the firm and the strategic use of language, we examine how discrepancies between firms’ social performance and their aspiration levels affect how firms use visual expressions in their CSR reports. In addition, we argue that the relationship between social performance discrepancies and the use of visual expressions in CSR reports is …

How The Fast Food Industry Can Protect Its Lunch (And Eat It Too), Xuesong Geng, Andrew Chin, Andrew Chen

Asian Management Insights

The digital transformation of the industry.

The Sun Is Rising In The East: Dual-Class Shares And The Competitive Landscape Of Technological Industries In Asia, Hao Liang, Tran Bao Phuong Nguyen, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There has recently been a relaxation of listing regulations to accommodate and attract firms going public with dual-class shares (DCS), notably in Asia. We examine the value implications of DCS adoption by employing an event study around a regulatory change allowing DCS listings in Hong Kong. We find negative market reactions around these regulatory discussions for firms already listed in Hong Kong, especially for firms in technology (tech) sectors. However, the market reaction turned positive for tech firms during Hong Kong’s first DCS listing. We identify two distinct channels that influenced shareholders’ perspectives on DCS: the competition channel, which dominated …