Can information technology enable profitable diversification? An empirical examination

Investments in information technology (IT) are now a major part of corporate investment, and the management of IT is essential to performance. In general, IT is expected to have performance effects when it is judiciously used to complement existing corporate capabilities. In this research, we examine how IT can complement diversification strategy. Using hypotheses and measures suggested by information processing theory and the theory of corporate strategy, testable hypotheses are derived to examine how IT can complement diversification. Results suggest that spending on computer technology significantly complements a strategy of unrelated diversification. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Acquired middle managers’ strategy roles and value creation in cross-border acquisitions

Middle managers (MMs) are important organisational players. In intra-organisational settings, their enactment of strategy roles has been linked to value creation. In this paper, we study this question in the context of acquisitions. An acquisition removes the acquired MMs' upward links towards top management and introduces new players (i.e., acquiring MMs) who influence their work. This paper explores whether acquired MMs are able to enact their strategy roles in the post-acquisition era, and if so, how this contributes to acquired-unit value creation. Adopting an actor-based, mixed-methods research design studying cross-border acquisitions, our findings contribute to the debate on managerial roles and acquisition value creation. We found that value-creating transactions are represented by acquired MMs' enactment of the strategy roles of implementing and championing, while value-declining transactions are represented by acquired MMs' enactment of the synthesising role. Notwithstanding, the relationship between acquired-firm value creation and acquired MMs' strategy role enactment is contingent upon acquired and acquiring MMs' relationships. Going forward, we call for more research on managers’ effects on acquisition value creation.     

An Examination of How Supervisors Influence Their Subordinates to Engage in Environmental Behaviors

Employee engagement in environmental behaviors is an important topic in operations management. Drawing upon stakeholder, commitment, and organizational support theories, this study creates and tests an empirical model of how store managers (i.e., supervisors) influence their direct reports (i.e., subordinates) to become engaged in environmental behaviors. Based on a dataset derived from supervisors and their subordinates who are employed at the same grocery store location across a large retail grocery chain, we test our study's nomological model and find support for the linkages proposed. Key research and managerial implications are discussed.     

MNE dynamic capabilities in (un)related diversification

While we know that dynamic capabilities (DCs) are important for multinational enterprises (MNEs), little is known about the multiple DCs they may exercise and how they configure the DCs to support their related or unrelated diversification activities. Our qualitative empirical case study findings illuminate how an MNE does so. We confirm that DCs rest on the ostensive microfoundations that encompass the three principal DC processes of sensing opportunities, seizing opportunities and transforming resources. Furthermore, we explicate their performative microfoundations. We reveal that for all the DCs, performative microfoundations of sensing include information gathering and strategic analysis. The performative microfoundations of seizing include a capacity to experiment, then formulating a course of actions. Finally, the microfoundations of transforming include resource structuring, then capability renewal (for unrelated diversification) or capability improvement (for related diversification), and capability implementation. While the process flow of ostensive microfoundations is uniform across DCs, the transforming process flow of performative microfoundations differs for related and unrelated diversification activities. Alongside evidencing the different exploitative/explorative learning and involvement of lower/top-level management associated with the DCs supporting related/unrelated diversification activities respectively, we foreground DCs' configurational nature and extend the IB DC literature on MNE diversification and DCs' microfoundations.     

Process matters – How strategic decision-making process characteristics impact capital allocation efficiency

We employ strategic decision-making process theory to study the internal capital markets of firms and argue that varying allocation efficiency can result from the configuration of the capital allocation decision-making process. Learning from earlier research on firms' portfolio allocations, we also develop assumptions on interaction effects with firm-level unrelated diversification and environmental dynamics. We test our hypotheses with structural equation modeling on an international sample of large multi-business firms. Our results suggest that process formalization and analytical comprehensiveness have a positive influence on the efficiency of allocation decisions. Another key result is that unrelated diversified portfolios positively moderate the influence of analytical comprehensiveness and formalization, while dynamic environments negatively impact the influence of formal processes but reward managerial involvement.     

Human-robot collaboration: A multilevel and integrated leadership framework

In an era of rapid advances in artificial intelligence, the deployment of robots in organizations is accelerating. Further, robotic capabilities are expanding to serve a broader range of leadership behaviors related to task accomplishment and relationship support. Despite the increasing use of robots in various roles across different industries, research on human-robot collaboration in the workplace is lagging behind. As such, the current research aims to provide a state-of-the-science review and directions for future work in this underdeveloped area. Drawing on current leadership paradigms, we review human-robot collaboration studies from four academic disciplines with a history of publishing such work (i.e., management, economics, psychology, engineering) and propose that the research trajectory of human-robot collaboration parallels the evolution of leadership research paradigms (i.e., leader centric, relational view, and follower centric). Given that leadership is an inherently multilevel phenomenon, we apply a levels-of-analysis framework to integrate and synthesize human-robot collaboration studies from cross-disciplinary research areas. Based on our findings, we offer suggestions for future research in terms of conceptualization, theory building and testing, practical implications, and ethical considerations.     

Diversification and Performance in Developed and Emerging Market Contexts: A Review of the Literature*

The link between diversification and performance has become an important topic for research in diverse fields such as strategic management, industrial organization and financial management. However, a synthesis of the research done in developed and emerging markets is missing. This paper attempts such a synthesis by comparing and contrasting the past cumulative empirical research evidence on the relationship between diversification and firm performance in the context of developed economies to the more recent work in the emerging economies. The empirical literature has been divided into three broad perspectives, and the paper highlights the considerable diversity in its findings in developed and emerging markets across each of these perspectives. Based on this study, it is proposed that related diversification is preferable in developed economies and should be based on specific resources, whereas unrelated diversification is appropriate in emerging economies and should be based on generic resources. Although agency problems exist in both contexts, it is argued that the type of problem differs in developed and emerging markets. The paper concludes by identifying three directions for future research. First, the relationship between diversification and performance should be examined across each industry separately and not in aggregate. Secondly, future research needs to examine the organizational mechanisms required to make diversification successful. Finally, the relationship needs to be examined under unstable and dynamic situations such as the current global economic downturn.     

Product diversification strategy and financial performance: meta-analytic evidence on causality and construct multidimensionality

We meta-analytically integrate empirical data from 104 studies published between 1970 and 2005 and test whether the popular proposition that diversification strategy impacts financial performance holds after controlling for the difference between correlational estimates that indicate mere association and such that allow for inferring causation. Drawing on a total sample size of 82,742 observations, we find that temporal sequence of variable measurement and multidimensionality of both diversification and performance construct strongly influence the nature of the linkage observed in empirical research. Meta-analytic results suggest that strategies of related and unrelated diversification are significantly associated with concurrent but not with subsequent accounting- and market-based performance. Most importantly, we find that there is no such thing as a universally valid nature of the diversification strategy–performance linkage. Drawing on a quantitative integration of the relevant literature of unprecedented scope and detail, our findings challenge earlier meta-analytic results and contemporary theory on the performance effects of diversification strategy. Our study also has important implications for measurement designs of future diversification–performance research.     

Integrity's place among the character strengths of middle-level managers and top-level executives

One purpose of this study was to extend integrity research in organizations into the ranks of middle management. We therefore examined whether middle-level managers' behavioral manifestations of integrity related to ratings of their performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that direct report ratings of a middle-level manager's integrity were positively related to boss ratings of that manager's performance. A second purpose of this study was to understand differences in integrity's relative importance to performance among other character strengths, and as a function of context (e.g., managerial level). We extend research in this area by showing, through relative weight analysis, that integrity was relatively less important to middle-level managers' current performance compared to other character strengths (e.g., social intelligence). In contrast, integrity was relatively more important for the performance of top-level executives — roles middle-level managers may hold in the future. Implications of these results for future research and practice as well as the current study's limitations are discussed.     

社会学习视角下运营管理决策研究

随着电子商务的快速发展与广泛应用, 在线评论随处可及, 深刻地影响了消费者与企业的决策行为.基于社会学习视角, 介绍了相关概念及社会学习机理;深入分析了运营管理决策研究的现状、挑战与契机.在此基础上, 结合产品与服务管理实践, 从研究内容角度, 阐述了其延伸的4个方向, 即质量、服务与信息、产品类型、研究主体与社会学习平台;此外, 结合研究范式演变, 指出行为实验研究与数据驱动研究将成为不可或缺的研究范式, 形成多范式交叉融合的情形.文章旨在提炼社会学习视角下运营管理决策研究的未来发展方向, 为相关研究提供参考.     

A review of research on the negative accounting relationship between risk and return: Bowman's paradox

A cornerstone in finance theory continues to be the positive relationship between risk and return in spite of Fama and French (The Journal of Finance 47(2) (1992) 427–65) and several later papers finding no relationship between the two variables. Twelve years earlier, Bowman (Sloan Management Review 1980, pp. 17–31) studied the same relationship from organization theory, achieving similar results with accounting data, and developing a whole research stream known as “Bowman's paradox”. This stream has contributed to some curious and interesting ideas that could also be applied to other different streams: new risk measures, managerial goal selection, response to the decline in the organization, diversification strategy on risk and return, among others. Similar to the financial stream, a number of researchers have tried to study this issue from the strategic management perspective. Their inconclusive results have generated a considerable controversy, keeping this research stream alive. In this work, we describe and explore this phenomenon from “Bowman's paradox”, theoretical explanations, criticisms and future orientations.     

The interface of the top management team and the board: A dynamic managerial capabilities perspective

Although top management teams use their human capital, social capital, and cognition (i.e., dynamic managerial capabilities) to drive strategic change in their firms, faultlines within these teams may dampen the strategic change that they produce. While boards can enable but also restrict these change efforts, we know little about how precisely a board's monitoring and advice-giving condition the impact of the top management team's dynamic managerial capabilities on strategic change. We clarify how intense monitoring and advice-giving affect strategic change when faultlines between the top management team's and board's dynamic managerial capabilities are more or less salient. We explain that intense monitoring further stifles both the breadth and speed of strategic change that can be accomplished, and that this is more pronounced when the faultlines between the two bodies are strong. Furthermore, we outline that intensive advice-giving can be beneficial in improving the breadth of strategic change, but more so when these faultlines are weak and less so when they are strong. Notably we illuminate that the reverse happens in terms of speed of strategic change: intensive advice-giving can be detrimental engendering a further dampening of strategic change speed which is more pronounced when these faultlines are strong but less when they are weak.     

Beyond the “silo view” of strategic management and corporate governance: evidence from Fiat,Telecom Italia and Unicredit

While corporate governance and strategic management have for a long time suffered from artificial separation and, therefore, generally been tackled in a secluded manner, their combined organizational impact makes them stringently related to one another in the firms’ evolution. In this paper, we argue that, transcending the “silo view” of corporate governance and strategic management, time has come to acknowledge that, depending on circumstances and time periods, within a firm is possible to detect the relative dominance of corporate governance over strategic management, rather than the leadership of strategic management over corporate governance. Drawing on a contingency approach, we dissect the relationships (and the mechanisms that control it) between the strategic function (i.e., which defines the firms’ strategy and supervisions its implementation) and the governance function (i.e., the congruence assessment between the firm strategy selected and the interests of the ownership and of other relevant stakeholders represented in the board of directors and the effectiveness appraisal of the entrepreneurial action). Then, by performing a thorough retrospective qualitative analysis of three relevant case-histories of Italian firms (Fiat, Telecom Italia and Unicredit) operating in three different industries (automobile, banking and telecommunications), we surmise that, either in corporate governance (board) oriented or in strategic management (CEO) oriented companies, the ‘real’ problems arise when the quality of corporate governance or strategic management is poor. Interestingly, we eventually suggest to adopt a value-based approach to the relationship between corporate governance and strategy that may fruitfully complement the contingency perspective taken at the onset of the work.     

多元化战略、高管持股分布设计与公司治理

多元化战略实施过程中高管持股作为一种长期激励机制其设计是否合理将直接影响企业战略收益的实现,在文献回顾的基础上分析高管持股利益趋同效应对多元化战略成功实施的积极意义以及公司治理强弱对高管持股效应的影响.对沪深两市2005年674家上市公司的数据进行实证分析,结果表明提高高管持股激励强度能有效改善多元化战略的实施效果,但高管持股分布设计差异影响利益趋同效应的发挥.公司治理作为企业战略实施的保障机制,可以有效地避免高管持股的壕沟防御效应.企业应该从高管持股分布设计和公司治理等多个维度同步建设入手,为多元化战略的成功实施创造条件.     

高管团队特征与企业多元化战略关系的Meta分析

采用元分析和分层线性模型的定量分析方法,研究了国内外学者关于高管团队特征与企业多元化战略的相关关系。研究结果表明,高管团队的不同特征与企业多元化战略有不同的相关关系,诸如高管团队规模与企业多元化战略有显著正相关关系,团队平均年龄、教育背景异质性等人口统计学特征与企业多元化战略之间存在显著负相关关系,其他特征的相关关系不显著。同时国家、行业特征等是解释现有研究结果差异的重要原因。最后,提出了高管团队领域未来可能的研究课题。     

Getting better or getting worse? Consumer responses to decreasing, constant, and ascending multi-dimensional price profiles

This research investigates consumer preferences for different multi-dimensional price profiles. Drawing on research on price affect, we investigate whether consumers prefer descending monthly installments (e.g., 40, 30, 20, 10) over constant (e.g., 25, 25, 25, 25), or ascending ones (e.g., 10, 20, 30, 40). Results of a field experiment with a sample of 1,628 German car buyers corroborate the hypothesized profile effect. In the experiment, participants were asked to evaluate different finance offers for a new car that all had the same present value but differed in terms of how the installments unfolded over time. Consistent with the hypotheses, decreasing monthly installments are evaluated more favorably than constant installments, which, in turn are evaluated more favorably than ascending installments. Furthermore, the results provide evidence for the underlying process by showing that the impact of different MDP profiles is mediated by positive affect. Finally, it was hypothesized that consumers’ individual differences (i.e., debt aversion, financial expectations, and product category knowledge) would exert a moderating influence on evaluations of different price profiles; these hypotheses, however, were only partially confirmed. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

公司的多样化战略与资本结构关系的实证研究

本文在分散风险理论、交易成本理论和代理成本理论的基础上,深入探讨了公司多样化战略与资本结构之间的内在关系,并形成研究假设。本文采用熵值指数来度量公司的多样化程度。经分层和回归检验后发现。公司经营多样化程度与负债水平呈显著正相关关系;不相关多样化公司的负债水平显著高于相关多样化公司;对不相关多样化公司来说,多样化程度是决定资本结构的重要因素。总之,研究结果支持了基于分散风险理论和交易成本理论的假设,拒绝了基于代理成本理论的假设。     

Learning by exporting: A system-based review and research agenda

Over the past four decades, flourishing empirical research has attempted to establish the mechanisms and conditions underpinning improvements in exporters’ innovation and productivity via the learning-by-exporting (LBE) effect, and the domain has gained legitimacy and empirical credibility. However, the literature's findings are largely fragmented and require systematic review and analysis to draw definitive conclusions on the factors that influence the subsequent realization of learning from exporting. To fill this void, we critically examine the extant LBE research for the period 1984–2021. We systematically review 167 articles to develop a system-based taxonomy and conceptual model of LBE, which comprises five major components: system outputs (productivity and innovation), inputs (e.g., institutional factors and resources), firm-level capabilities (e.g., absorptive capacity and innovation persistence), managerial characteristics (e.g., entrepreneurship skills) and internationalization strategies. In doing so, we uncover paradoxical tensions within the system brought about by the conflicting roles of some components of the LBE system, such as firm-, industry- and country-level technological capabilities. Our review also reveals research gaps that open relevant opportunities for further research and conclusions that hold novel implications for managers and policymakers.     

Risk Management in a Polio-Free World

Inherent in the decision to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 was the expectation for many people that immunization against poliomyelitis would eventually simply stop, as had been the case with smallpox following its eradication in 1977. However, the strategies for managing the risks associated with a "polio-free" world must be continuously refined to reflect new developments, particularly in our understanding of the live polioviruses in the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) and in the international approach to managing potential biohazards. The most important of these developments has been the confirmation in 2000 that vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) can circulate and cause polio outbreaks, making the use of OPV after interruption of wild poliovirus transmission incompatible with a polio-free world. A comprehensive strategy has been developed to minimize the risks associated with eventual OPV cessation, centered on appropriate long-term biocontainment of poliovirus stocks (whether for vaccine production, diagnosis, or research), the controlled reintroduction of any live poliovirus vaccine (i.e., from an OPV stockpile), and appropriate use of the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Although some aspects of this risk management strategy are still debated, there is wide agreement that no strategy would entirely eliminate the potential risks to a polio-free world. The current strategy for risk management in a polio-free world will continue to evolve with better characterization of these risks and the development of more effective approaches both to reduce those risks and to limit their consequences should they occur.     

Perceived technological turbulence and individual ambidexterity – The moderating role of formalization

Today's turbulent environment, with fast and unpredictable technological changes, requires employees to increasingly act ambidextrously, i.e., to simultaneously incorporate exploitative and explorative tasks in their work roles. To improve our understanding of how to foster individual ambidexterity in technologically turbulent environments, we draw on organizational management theories by arguing (1) that perceived technological turbulence directly affects individual ambidexterity in a positive way and (2) that organizations can strengthen this effect by providing employees with internal stability in these times of external changes through high degrees of formalization. Using data collected in a three-wave online survey of 739 German employees, this study demonstrates that employees who perceive high degrees of technological turbulence in their organization's environment show high degrees of ambidexterity in their work. In addition, we show that formalization in the form of written rules, procedures, and instructions positively moderates this relationship so that employees' ambidexterity is highest when both perceptions of technological turbulence and formalization are high. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the ambidexterity literature, for future research and managerial practice.