Strategic Management Policy Commons^™

Organisational Citizenship Behaviors Of Directors: An Integrated Framework Of Director Role-Identity And Boardroom Structure, Toru Yoshikawa, Helen Wei Hu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While directors’ task boundaries are usually ambiguous, some of their activities or behaviors clearly constitute their formal duties, whereas others are usually perceived as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Applying identity theory, we present a theoretical model that demonstrates one of the key drivers for directors to engage in OCB with a focus on their role identity. We argue that an individual director’s role identity is one of the key factors that motivate directors to engage in OCB. Furthermore, we propose that two board-level contingencies, board capital, and informal board hierarchy order, can moderate the effect of directors’ role-identity salience on …

Contract Theory: Impact On Biopharmaceutical Alliance Structure And Performance, Niyazi Taneri, Arnoud De Meyer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Alliances for new product development have been studied extensively in the operations management literature. Alliances between an innovator and a partner create value by utilizing their complementary capabilities. In this paper, we seek to understand what drives the alliance structure: the choice between collaborative alliances where the parties exert joint efforts and sequential alliances where, for the most part, the partner takes over going forward. Our analysis of a data set of over 2,000 biopharmaceutical alliances reveals our main finding: a key role of operational choices is to address contract theoretic concerns faced by an alliance.We also find that aligning …

Opening Up: How Centralization Affects Participation And Inclusion In Strategy Making, Daniel Z. Mack, Gabriel Szulanski

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite the benefits of opening the strategy process, greater inclusiveness and transparency stand in sharp contrast to the conventional emphasis on elitism and opacity in strategy making, especially in centralized organizations where decision making is driven by top management. We suggest that centralized organizations can manage this tension by combining participatory and inclusive practices. Whereas participation is about increasing stakeholders’ input for decisions, inclusion is about creating and sustaining a community of interacting stakeholders engaged in an ongoing stream of issues in the strategy process. We show that the distinction between partic- ipatory and inclusive practices helps to explain why …

Preparing For Socio-Technical Transitions: Opportunities And Challenges For Policy Design, Sreeja Nair, Araz Taeihagh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Effective policy mixes are expected to accommodate uncertainties in the future policy context by being flexible and adapt over time in expectation of a range of anticipated and unanticipated conditions. In response to shifts in the future policy context, while policy changes can manifest as increments to status quo over time, policymakers may also need to face the possibility of making major policy shifts to enable the transition into more appropriate policy regimes. In the context of socio-technical transitions, the switch to new policy alternatives can be facilitated by incorporating new policy actions into the suite of current policy strategies …

The Sandwich Approach, Tomas Klvana

Asian Management Insights

‘Doing good’ requires execution of sound strategies that effectively engage stakeholders.

Do Disclosures Of Customer Metrics Lower Investors' And Analysts' Uncertainty But Hurt Firm Performance?, Emanuel Bayer, Kapil R. Tuli, Bernd Skiera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Investors, analysts, and regulators frequently advocate greater disclosure of nonfinancial information, such as customer metrics. Managers, however, argue that such metrics are costly to report, reveal sensitive information to competitors, and therefore will lower future cash flows. To examine these counterarguments, this study presents the first empirical examination of the prevalence and consequences of backward- and forward-looking disclosures of customer metrics by manually coding 511 annual reports of firms in two industries, telecommunications (365 reports) and airlines (146 reports). The results reveal significant heterogeneity in the disclosure of customer metrics across firms and between industries. On average, in both industries, …

Institutional Logics And Power Sources: Merger And Acquisition Decisions, Henrich R. Greve, Cyndi Man Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Institutional theory has explained greater prevalence of many strategic actions by increases in their legitimacy over time, but has not developed theory on how firms decide between actions backed by competing institutional logics. We address this shortfall by applying theory of organizational coalitions and power to predict effects of external influence through ownership and internal influence through decision participation. We analyze how the old state socialism logic and the new market capitalism logic compete for influencing the Chinese firms’ engagement in merger and acquisitions. We found that the logics affected firm M&A decisions through the coalitions committed to each logic, …

Health Systems In Transition: Professional Identity Work In The Context Of Shifting Institutional Logics, Yiannis Kyratsis, Rifat Atun, Nelson Phillips, Paul Tracey, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate how established professionals manage their identities in the face of identity threats from a contested shift in the professional logic that characterizes their field. To do so, we draw on interviews with 113 physicians from five European transition countries who faced pressure for change in their professional identities due to a shift in the logic of healthcare from a logic of "narrow specialism" in primary care that characterized the Soviet health system to a new logic of "generalism" that characterizes primary care in the West. We found three important forms of professional identity threats experienced by physicians during …

Rent Appropriation Of Knowledge-Based Assets And Firm Performance When Institutions Are Weak: A Study Of Chinese Publicly Listed Firms, Cuili Qian, Heli Wang, Xuesong Geng, Yangxin Yu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A firm's strategic investments in knowledge-based assets through research and development (R&D) can generate economic rents for the firm, and thus are expected to affect positively a firm's financial performance. However, weak protection of minority shareholders, weak property rights, and ineffective law enforcement can allow those rents to be appropriated disproportionately by a firm's powerful insiders such as large owners and top managers. Recent data on Chinese publicly listed firms during 2007-2012 were used to demonstrate that the expected positive relationship between knowledge assets and performance is weaker in transition economies when a firm's ownership is highly concentrated and its …

The Role Of Facial Appearance On Ceo Selection After Firm Misconduct, David M. Gomulya, Elaine M. Wong, Margaret E. Ormiston, Warren Boeker

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate a particular aspect of CEO successor trustworthiness that may be critically important after a firm has engaged in financial misconduct. Specifically, drawing on prior research that suggests that facial appearance is one critical way in which trustworthiness is signaled, we argue that leaders who convey integrity, a component of trustworthiness, will be more likely to be selected as successors after financial restatement. We predict that such appointments garner more positive reactions by external observers such as investment analysts and the media because these CEOs are perceived as having greater integrity. In an archival study of firms that have …

Signaler Credibility, Signal Susceptibility, And Relative Reliance On Signals: How Stakeholders Change Their Evaluative Processes After Violation Of Expectations And Rehabilitative Efforts, David Gomulya, Yuri Mishina

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Prior studies have shown that a firm’s violation of expectations might lead to less favorable evaluations of that firm by stakeholders. However, the literature has been silent on whether and how the process by which stakeholders evaluate a firm could change subsequent to the violation. Drawing from signaling and screening theory, we examine how evaluative processes might change in the context of financial restatements. We find that investors appear to shift their relative reliance on particular signals in determining a firm’s stock price following an earnings restatement. These changes are at least partly reversed following the replacement of an incumbent …

Board Representation In International Joint Ventures, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug, Jeffrey J. Reuer, Ben Bensaou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Relatively little attention has been paid to boards in international joint ventures (IJVs), and the composition of these boards in particular. We examine the determinants of foreign partners' representation on IJV boards in order to advance our knowledge of this facet of IJV governance. We argue that a foreign partner's representation on the IJV board is related to its equity contribution. However, we hypothesize that this relationship is moderated by IJV and host country characteristics that affect the importance of the internal and external roles IJV boards serve. These results provide insights into the conditions under which a partner might …

Cross-Border M&A: Challenges And Opportunities In Global Business Environment [Guest Editors' Introduction], Rosa Caizza, Katsuhiko Shimizu, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Under a rapidly changing and globalizing environment, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become one of the most important strategic initiatives. In this context, cross-border M&As provide various opportunities and benefits such as expeditious entry into new markets by gaining local knowledge, supplier networks, government relationships, and customers embedded in the target firm.

When The Target May Know Better: Effects Of Experience And Information Asymmetries On Value From Mergers And Acquisitions, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Youtha Cuypers, Xavier Martin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Extending research on the effect of experience on acquisition outcomes, we examine how the differential in previous M&A experience between the target and the acquirer affects the value they, respectively, obtain when the acquirer takes over the target. Drawing on literature about organizational learning, negotiation, and information economics, we theorize that the party with greater experience will be able to obtain more value. Furthermore, we theorize that the effect of differential M&A experience on value obtained is contingent on the level of information asymmetry the acquirer faces with respect to the target, specifically as a function of the target's product-market …

What Doesn't Kill You Will Only Make You More Risk-Loving: Early-Life Disasters And Ceo Behavior, Gennaro Bernile, Vineet Bhagwat, P. Raghavendra Rau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The literature on managerial style posits a linear relation between a chief executive officer's (CEOs) past experiences and firm risk. We show that there is a nonmonotonic relation between the intensity of CEOs’ early-life exposure to fatal disasters and corporate risk-taking. CEOs who experience fatal disasters without extremely negative consequences lead firms that behave more aggressively, whereas CEOs who witness the extreme downside of disasters behave more conservatively. These patterns manifest across various corporate policies including leverage, cash holdings, and acquisition activity. Ultimately, the link between CEOs’ disaster experience and corporate policies has real economic consequences on firm riskiness and …

The Board Will Now Vote, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Well-structured corporate governance frameworks are necessary to ensure that companies adhere to ethics and best practices, says Professor Toru Yoshikawa.

See the papers:

• Convergence of corporate governance: Critical review and future directions
• The effects of CEO trustworthiness on directors' monitoring and resource provision

Categories And Competition, Gino Cattani, Joseph F. Porac, Howard Thomas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

In this paper, we review, integrate, and extend the literature on markets, competition, and categories as it applies to strategic management theory. Developments in the literatures of economics and organizational theory have shed new light on market categories and category dynamics. These developments highlight the fact that boundary questions are fundamental to the competitive process, and represent a fertile area for research and theory. The objective is to encourage a theoretically grounded rapprochement between current strategic management research and both older and newer research on categories and competition.

When Sharing Is Not Just Caring, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Conventional wisdom dictates that trade secrets have to be protected at all costs, but Professor Gerard George’s research shows there may be a better way of doing business.

See the papers:

• Appropriability and the retrieval of knowledge after spillovers
• What do I want? The effects of individual aspiration and relational capability on collaboration preferences

Revisiting The Small-World Phenomenon: Efficiency Variation And Classification Of Small-World Networks, Tore Opsahl, Antoine Vernet, Tufool Alnuaimi, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research has explored how embeddedness in small-world networks influences individual and firm outcomes. We show that there remains significant heterogeneity among networks classified as small-world networks. We develop measures of the efficiency of a network, which allow us to refine predictions associated with small-world networks. A network is classified as a small-world network if it exhibits a distance between nodes that is comparable to the distance found in random networks of similar sizeswith ties randomly allocated among nodesin addition to containing dense clusters. To assess how efficient a network is, there are two questions worth asking: (a) What is a …

The Evolution Of Ownership Structure In Japanese Firms (1962-2012), Jungwook Shim, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this chapter, we investigate the evolution of ownership structure and corporate governance in Japanese firms based on the entire population of listed firms from 1962 to 2012.

Analytics, Innovation, And Organizational Adaptation, Gerard George, Yimin Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With the advent of big data, organizations are integrating powerful computing tools into their organizational processes to drive efficiencies and improve service delivery. Yet, at the heart of this conversation lies the role of analytics and big data in innovation within and across organizations. In this article, we provide a stylistic model of the role of analytics in innovation and call for further research on the underlying processes, contingencies, and outcomes.

Essays On Asset Management, Lin Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Hedge funds managed by listed firms significantly underperform funds managed by unlisted firms. We argue that since the new shareholders of a listed management company typically do not invest alongside the limited partners of the funds managed, the process of going public breaks the incentive alignment between ownership, control, and investment capital, thereby engendering agency problems. In line with the agency explanation, the underperformance is more severe for funds that have low manager total deltas, low governance scores, and no manager personal capital, or that are managed by firms whose stock prices are more sensitive to earnings news. Post IPO, …

Entry Of Copycats Of Luxury Brands, Sarah Yini Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Christopher S. Tang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We develop a game-theoretic model to examine the entry of copycats and its implications by incorporating two salient features; these features are two product attributes, i.e., physical resemblance and product quality, and two consumer utilities, i.e., consumption utility and status utility. Our equilibrium analysis suggests that copycats with a high physical resemblance but low product quality are more likely to successfully enter the market by defying the deterrence of the incumbent. Furthermore, we show that higher quality can prevent the copycat from successfully entering the market. Finally, we show that the entry of copycats does not always improve consumer surplus …

Management Research In Amj: Celebrating Impact While Striving For More, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Over the years, I have read articles or listened to panel discussions that question the value of management scholarship, and often critiqued its relevance or insightfulness for an applied profession. On occasion, I have sided with those who are more pessimistic of our future as a field. While there are many truths in these commentaries, they might not give adequate credit to the robust knowledge production ecosystem that generates applied insight with scientific rigor. Yes, there is a lot more we can do but we should also celebrate the work we do well. Having read over 4000 manuscripts as an …

Increase In Takeover Protection And Firm Knowledge Accumulation Strategy, Heli Wang, Shan Zhao, Jinyu He

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research summary: We argue that the extent to which a firm faces takeover threats affects its knowledge structure. In particular, takeover threats may lead to managers' reluctance to adopt a strategy toward firm-specific knowledge accumulation because implementing this strategy requires them to acquire specialized skills, which are at risk under takeover threats. Conversely, takeover protection leads to an increase in firm-specific knowledge. Further, the relationship between takeover protection and firm-specific knowledge is positively moderated by managerial ownership, which helps align managerial interests with those of shareholders. But the relationship is negatively moderated by managerial tenure, as long-tenured managers have already …

Understanding And Tackling Societal Grand Challenges Through Management Research, Gerard George, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Aparna Joshi, Laszlo Tihanyi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

“Grand challenges” are formulations of global problems that can be plausibly addressed through coordinated and collaborative effort. In this Special Research Forum, we showcase management research that examines societal problems that individuals, organizations, communities, and nations face around the world. We develop a framework to guide future research to provide systematic empirical evidence on the formulation, articulation, and implementation of grand challenges. We highlight several factors that likely enhance or suppress the attainment of collective goals, and identify representative research questions for future empirical work. In so doing, we aspire to encourage management scholars to engage in tackling broader societal …

The Mediating Effect Of Absorptive Capacity And Relational Capital In Alliance Learning Of Smes, So-Jin Yoo, Olukemi Sawyerr, Wee Liang Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No business can create all the resources needed to prosper and grow. Collaboration among businesses that possess complementary resources is often necessary for survival and growth. Despite their importance and implications for alliance learning, no empirical study has to date attempted to investigate how the determinants of learning interact with each other, and are linked to the outcomes of alliance learning. This study contributes to the role of learning intent, absorptive capacity, and relational capital in enhancing learning activities and outcomes by empirically examining the relationships among these learning determinants and how they affect innovative SMEs’ technological and nontechnological learning …

Big Data And Data Science Methods For Management Research: From The Editors, Gerard George, Ernst C. Osinga, Dovev Lavie, Brent A. Scott

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The recent advent of remote sensing, mobile technologies, novel transaction systems, and high performance computing offers opportunities to understand trends, behaviors, and actions in a manner that has not been previously possible. Researchers can thus leverage 'big data' that are generated from a plurality of sources including mobile transactions, wearable technologies, social media, ambient networks, and business transactions. An earlier AMJ editorial explored the potential implications for data science in management research and highlighted questions for management scholarship, and the attendant challenges of data sharing and privacy (George, Haas & Pentland, 2014). This nascent field is evolving rapidly and at …

China Business At A Crossroads: Institutions, Innovation, And International Competitiveness, Joseph L. C. Cheng, Daphne W. Yiu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

As the world's fastest growing economy with over a billion population, China is a country that the world needs to know more about in order to understand and anticipate her global and regional impact. Toward this end, the current special issue seeks to advance knowledge about the changing institutions in China and their impact on China business from both the perspectives of foreign firms investing in China and Chinese firms expanding internationally. Four articles selected from a pool of over 50 submissions are presented here, each covering one or more of the country's changing economic, political, and technological institutions. Collectively, …

Customer Acquisition And Retention Spending: An Analytical Model And Empirical Investigation In Wireless Telecommunications Markets, Sungwook Min, Xubing Zhang, Namwoon Kim, Rajendra K. Srivastava

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Strategic resource allocation in growth markets is always a challenging task. This is especially true when it comes to determining the level of investments and expenditures for customer acquisition and retention in competitive and dynamic market environments. This study develops an analytical model to examine firms' investments in customer acquisition and retention for a new service; it develops hypotheses drawing on analytical findings and tests them with firm-level operating data of wireless telecommunications markets from 41 countries during 1999-2007. The empirical investigation shows that a firm's acquisition cost per customer is more sensitive to market position and competition than retention …