Strategies for Europe proposals for science and technology policies industrial innovation in Europe

Europe's performance with respect to industrial innovation is compared to those of USA and Japan. The reasons for Europe's relatively poor performance are examined and related to institutional, cultural and social factors. An appropriate strategy for innovation in European industry is then defined.     

Multiple recipes for success – A configurational examination of business portfolio restructurings

This explorative empirical study investigates which sets of portfolio restructuring design characteristics, contingent on individual firm and industry characteristics, lead to successful business portfolio transformations. We draw on insights from the strategic change, strategic fit, and organizational turnaround literature and develop a contingency model for transformation success. To allow for complex configurations, we employ a set-theoretic approach based on fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our findings suggest that there is no single best strategy for restructuring a portfolio. Rather, there are multiple pathways to success in portfolio transformation, depending on a firm's competitive posture and industry environment. In particular, our results highlight the pivotal influence of prior firm performance and environmental jolts on the design of successful business portfolio restructuring (BPR) strategies.     

Environmental scanning—Does it help the chief executive?

Firms must correctly identify and analyze the nature of their strategic environments, their strategic oppurtunities and problems, and, formulate the precise strategy sets for corporate strategy for accomplishing the chosen organizational objectives and goals. This articles reports on a survey. Chief executives of industrial corporations provided their insights and experience (see Appendix I) and the findings are analyzed for the implications for other practising chief executives. The nature of environment which is strategic to a particular firm has considerable influence upon the firm's choice of strategies. The correct understanding of this influence is critical to the firm's organizational effectiveness. Only after a correct understanding can the chief executive formulate the precise mix of strategies and meld them in the strategy sets of the corporate strategy.The major findings indicate that the levels of difficulty experienced in accomplishing firm's objectives and goals depend upon the perceived nature of complexity, unpredictability and dynamism of the firm's strategic environments. The levels of clarity on strategic issues also depend upon these same attributes of environments. The formulation of strategy sets of corporate strategy are indicative of the ways by which the chief executive and his management team expect the firm to achieve its major objectives and goals by monitoring the strategy sets to keep in tune with the changing realities of the firm's strategic environments. General management, marketing and finance, were the vital group strategies, followed by production and research and development. External relations, personnel and procurement were the least important strategies. Firms operating in simple and stable environments experienced the least difficulty in achieving corporate goals, while firms in dynamic and complex environments experienced the greatest difficulty.     

Strategy,cross-subsidization and the “business portfolio”

Business portfolio analysis is becoming an increasingly important and indeed critical element in strategy analysis, and the problem of cross subsidization will almost certainly become an issue of some importance for managements under the influence of the new Price Commission. This article analyzes the problem of developing corporate strategy on the basis of the individual contributions which inter-dependent groups of services and products make to the company's profitability, stability and future potential.     

Some aspects of price strategy

A firm's success, within a rapidly growing and dynamic market, depends upon its ability to respond to market demand and to react to competitive forces. A key factor determining success is the pricing policy employed by the firm. Product pricing, however, is not simple; supply and demand, as well as the interaction and reaction of competitors, must be taken into consideration. By simulating a competitive market environment, however, a firm should be able to evaluate different pricing strategies prior to employing a strategy in practice. The goal of this research was to propose a simulation model to serve this purpose. Particularly, the objective was to demonstrate that if an industry can be characterized as one in which cost as well as price decline with cumulative volume, a pricing policy leading to market dominance exists. A simulation model is desirable for evaluating the proper pricing strategy for achieving such a market position.     

Incumbent capability enhancement in response to radical innovations

Schumpeterian market disequilibrium marked by entrepreneurial entry and incumbent exit has long held an important place in management literature. The extant literature has overwhelmingly championed the newcomer, despite incumbents' obvious advantages in resources, experience and market knowledge. The current research provides evidence for the effectiveness of the incumbent's strategy of capability enhancement (along an established technological trajectory) while responding to radical technological innovations. We develop a cognitive process model that integrates managerial cognition with capability development and deployment views, depicting the dynamics of the incumbent's capability enhancement process. We analyze the cognitive drivers of organizational actions in all stages (rigidity, triggering event, and capability renewal) and elucidate the role of top management cognition in the processes of detecting and correcting errors in a strategic course of action. We ground our model in the case of a cork-stopper industry veteran's decline as corks ceded ground to screw tops and other stoppers in the wine industry. How a major company fought back in response to the emergence of these, in the industry context, radical technological innovations, provides the basis for our narrative. The proposed theoretical model contributes to literature on technology management (with regard to incumbent strategies in response to radical innovation threats) as well as the role of cognition in strategy (providing an explanation of the cognitive underpinnings of capability development).     

Food manufacturing: The future prospect

This article provides an analysis of the environmental factors which are likely to influence the nature and level of activity in Britain's food industry over the next 10–15 years, and in particular planning for human resources. The article covers the historical perspective: the present market position and the consequences of misplaced optimism; examines the prospects for the medium and longer term in relation to the world food problem and the industry's opportunities: and considers some of the manpower implications.     

Intergenerational succession and internationalisation strategy of family SMEs: Evidence from China

Internationalisation is a key dimension of a firm's strategy process. Yet, research on why and how family firms internationalise is underdeveloped. As one of the most critical issues family firms face, how intergenerational succession can influence their internationalisation remains an important question. Given the extraordinary succession and internationalisation circumstances pertaining to China, we conducted a qualitative case study analysis of eleven newly internationalised Chinese small- and medium-sized family firms that had recently undergone a succession from the first to the second generation. Three distinct intergenerational succession patterns among our case firms were identified, revealing three underlying types of incumbent-successor relationships. Based on our findings, we put forth propositions on how these patterns influence the next-generation's level of attitudinal commitment toward and resources available for internationalisation, and link these to the firm's overall internationalisation capabilities and international involvement. Our findings suggest that the connection between intergenerational succession and internationalisation strategy of family firms is significantly influenced by the nature of the underlying incumbent-successor relationship and therefore much more complex than previously considered.     

The function of management development in the process of organisational change

Management development should produce changes in managerial behavior which are consonant with and contributive to the organization's goals and strategies. This paper outlines appropriate training strategy and identifies likely sources of resistance.     

CEO satisfaction and intended strategic changes: The moderating role of performance cues

How do CEOs react to attainment discrepancies in their organizations' performance? Scholars have generally argued that (only) when performance falls below a certain aspiration level do CEOs intend to change the organization's strategy. However, empirical evidence on this issue is ambiguous and inconclusive. We address this puzzle directly by studying how CEOs' cognitive interpretations of performance (their satisfaction with the firm's performance) affect the magnitude of intended strategic changes, and we explore the moderating effect of the context (performance compared to the industry) on this relationship. Using a sample of medium-sized organizations, we find that CEOs' satisfaction with performance is negatively related to intended strategic changes, as expected, but only in contexts of poor performance compared to the industry. The negative relationship becomes less pronounced when performance compared to the industry reaches a certain threshold and even appears to reverse when the latter is extremely high. Moreover, exploratory post hoc analyses tentatively suggest the existence of two alternative intended change trajectories: contractive as a reaction to dissatisfaction and poor performance, and expansive as a response to satisfaction and high performance. These findings help to contextualize the effects of attainment discrepancies in light of conventional performance feedback theory and alternative theoretical perspectives.     

Corporate planning—A functional approach

The experience and arts of 295 Chief Executive Officers have been utilized for the study's findings. The analyses suggest that a firm's effective strategic-mix of major organizational functions would depend upon the nature of the particular circumstances which the organization faces. The different organizational settings are formed in the study and the effective strategic-mix of organizational functions have been statistically formulated on the basis of the Chief Executive Officers' judgement of what constitutes the effective strategic-mix of functions for their firm's overall corporate strategy. The relative influences of the General Management function and the functional managements (Marketing, Finance, Production, R & D, etc.) upon the overall corporate strategy have been the inputs for the derivation of the effective strategic-mix of functions. Environment, technology and firm-size have been considered for the formation of the different organizational settings. The study's findings not only provide what the different strategic-mixes for the different organizational settings are but also provide a working analytical framework for comprehensive analyses for the identification of the functions critical to the accomplishment of the overall corporate objectives and goals.     

Strategic planning for commodities and specialties: A strategic industry study based on the example of the chemical industry

The objective of this paper is to identify general factors which are important to successful corporate strategic planning and to provide guidelines to requirements for successful entry into the specialty materials/products business. The study is based on the author's experience in the highly specialized Swiss chemical industry. While the concept of commodities/ specialties has been developed most intensively in the chemical industry, it has overall validity for all industries and services and the author gives many practical hints on strategic management.     

Winning customers through employee involvement

This article describes the author's impressions of American industry following a study tour to the Deep South of the U.S.A. as winner of the 1983 IPM/Gardner Merchant Award. The visit to leading corporations in New Orleans, Houston and Atlanta provided the opportunity to study at first hand their management philosophies and personnel policies. At a time when industry in the U.S.A. is facing stiff international competition and is beginning to come out of the recession, this article provides some timely insights into some of the issues and themes that they are pursuing.     

Strategy and the “business portfolio”

In this article the author goes on to develop the conclusion reached in his previous article which appeared in the December edition of Long Range Planning. These conclusions concerned the requirements for strategic success for an individual business, here they are developed into their implications for strategy development in the typical multibusiness company.It is argued that relative competitive position and growth are the two fundamental parameters which must be considered in determining the strategy that an individual business should follow when viewed within the context of the company's overall ‘business portfolio’. The likely patterns of business strategy which will lead to overall corporate success are discussed and contrasted with those which can lead to disaster.The key is that strategies should be made to differ widely from business to business, as a function of the growth and relative competitive position of each business and the company's overall resource position particularly with respect to cash. The ‘across the board’ defensive measures which many companies have adopted in recent years as their response to the pressures of inflation and recession are therefore argued to be singularly inappropriate for the long term. The ‘business portfolio’ concept provides a superior approach for developing the differentiated strategic business objectives which are necessary for any company to make the most of its opportunities.     

Core self-evaluations mediate the association between leaders' facial appearance and their professional success: Adults' and children's perceptions

Although the link between facial appearance and success is well established, the mechanisms responsible for this association have remained elusive. Evolutionary theory suggests that perceived leadership characteristics should be important for men's self-concept. Drawing on implicit leadership theory and evolutionary perspectives, we therefore examined the associations between first impressions based on facial appearance, core self-evaluations (CSEs), leadership role occupancy, and career success among a sample of working men. In Study 1, we found that CSEs mediated the relationship between individuals' facial appearance and measures of their success as leaders. In Study 2, we replicated these results using children's ratings of facial appearance, thus suggesting that basic properties of the targets' faces communicated their leadership ability more than the perceivers' life experience or acquired knowledge. These results suggest that people may use facial appearance as a diagnostic tool to determine the leadership ability of others.     

Corporate planning—a conceptual critique

Corporate planning is accepted by some as being an effective, efficient, and feasible means of charting the path an enterprise takes through the future. In this paper the author questions both the concept and the contribution of corporate planning. The author examines not only the problem of budgetary analysis within a planning process but also questions the ability of corporate planning to provide the necessary perspective of the future in any identifiable or probabilistic sense. The author postulates ‘the guts of corporate planning’. In the author's own word conceptual critiques ‘may be defined as setting up your own straw man in place of the other fellow's sawdust totem’. However, this paper presents some controversial yet fundamental criticisms of the current concepts of corporate planning. It is for the reader to judge whether the straw or the sawdust is deepest.     

Competitive analysis—Its role in purchasing

In all cases a company's perception of its strengths/ weaknesses reflects that of its view of its relative power position vis-à-vis the other parties in the system. Tecognition of power/weakness can be a stimulant to redressing the balance in the company's favour. This paper seeks to emphasize the potential for such action in supply markets, for supply markets are sources of considerable potential worthy of careful attention from corporate strategists. The paper illustrates in outline one approach to competitive analysis in supply markets. The approach is not intended to have universal application. However, it should suggest a framework which can be tailored to most situations where input costs are a significant element in output revenue.     

Middle Managers Moulding International Strategy: An Irish Start-up in Jamaican Telecoms

This is a story of how a group of middle managers moved beyond just implementing their firm’s tightly prescribed strategy for developing an international venture to the point where it could be argued that they failed to accomplish the four clear strategic objectives set by the firm’s executive management. Instead, the authors suggest, their success was in collectively orchestrating an emergent strategy¹ which provided the executive with a better, more profitable and durable embodiment of their strategic vision.Operating between the parent firm’s original strategic intent and the political and economic realities of the host country environment, their strategic influence is worthy of close examination. They can be divided into two distinctive groups—parent country nationals and host-country nationals—and the extent to which they co-operate with or obstruct each other will have a significant effect on the success of the enterprise.² The middle management in this case example, an Irish company launching a mobile telecommunications network in Jamaica, is drawn from both groups. This article investigates the apparent autonomy from executive control afforded these particular middle managers to identify the contingent factors that appear to allow, or constrain, their positive transmutation of the original strategic objectives. The key questions addressed are first, how the two groups, both individually and collectively, played out their roles in shifting strategy, and second, once these contextual dynamics have been identified, how other executive management groups can learn from this Irish/Jamaican experience considering similar international ventures. The authors’ response highlights those elements of strategy design, organisational structure and human resource management that they believe are critical in maximising the strategic contribution of middle managers to international ventures, and hence providing a better chance of success.     

Work overload and intimidation: The moderating role of resilience

Work overload is a critical but understudied stressor at work, particularly for boundary-spanning positions. Recent studies have highlighted the need for more research on the identification of different predictors of the use of intimidation, a type of assertive impression management tactic. Relying on Lazarus's transactional theory, this study hypothesized and investigated a mediated moderation model that includes resilience, work overload, and its outcomes.This paper contributes to the organizational literature by examining the use of intimidation by salespeople as a reaction to stressful circumstances and the association between this tactic and salespeople's performance. The information provided by 248 employee–supervisor dyads confirmed the proposed model. Work overload has a positive association with intimidation, and the direct effect of work overload on intimidation depends on the level of an employee's resilience. Finally, the use of intimidation has a negative association with supervisor-rated performance.