The Industry-Level Impact of Information Technology: An Empirical Analysis of Three Industries*

As noted by several observers, information technology (IT) has rapidly evolved from “part of the organizational overhead” into a strategic resource capable of changing patterns of competition within industries [8, p. 275]. However, while this evolution has become part of the fabric for literature exploring the strategic impact of IT, very few studies have been undertaken to determine the specific influence(s) of technology-based competition on industry structure. The development of analytical frames for capturing aspects of industry behavior provides a potentially powerful tool for evaluating the influence strategic IT initiatives may have on current bases of competition. Drawing from the theoretical disciplines of industrial economics and strategic management, this study develops a framework for analyzing longitudinal changes in industry structure. Working within this frame, the study then analyzes the nature and change of structure in three industries during and after the introduction of strategic information technology. The findings suggest that in each of these industries structural characteristics were dramatically altered subsequent to the introduction of competitive-based IT. In two of the industries (airlines and industrial chemicals), early adopters broke away from other industry participants, in effect, forming unique bases of competition. In the remaining industry (drug wholesalers), previously distinct bases of competition consolidated, resulting in a more competitive industry structure than that which existed prior to the technological innovation.     

湖北文化资源转化策论

湖北是文化资源大省,文化资源积淀深厚,具有鲜明的地域特色和巨大的经济开发价值,为文化产业发展提供了源源不断的资源供给和资源保障。必须全力实施5个重要战略和全面遵循8条实现途径,这是提升湖北文化资源的转化率和利用率的必然选择和必由之路。     

Production Competence and Business Strategy: Do They Affect Business Performance?

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, a comprehensive measure of production competence that assesses the level of support that manufacturing provides for the strategic objectives of a firm is developed. Second, hypotheses relating production competence to several financial measures of business performance are tested using data from a large sample of firms (n=65) in the furniture industry. Third, the impact of business strategy both directly on performance and as a moderating variable in relation to production competence is analyzed. The results of the study suggest that production competence may have more of an effect on business performance for certain strategies than for others.     

CEO childhood trauma,social networks,and strategic risk taking

Childhood trauma has been recognized as an important aspect of an individual’s early life experiences. However, in research on the upper echelons of organizations, the impact of childhood trauma exposure on CEOs’ strategic decision-making is not well understood. By integrating child trauma theory and upper echelons theory, we develop a framework for exploring how CEO childhood trauma influences strategic risk taking. We suggest that CEO childhood trauma has a negative exponential association with strategic risk taking because of the long-term effects of post-traumatic stress (PTS). In addition, we propose that moderating effects of social networks on the effects of PTS arising from CEO childhood trauma are driven by the two competing functions of social networks: social support and social pressure. We use data on China’s Great Famine to test our theory. By examining CEO childhood trauma and strategic risk taking, our study has important implications for child trauma theory and upper echelons theory.     

中原局对苏北与皖东、豫皖苏战略区发展的应对

中原局驻苏北期间，面对发展华中战略进程中苏北新战略区与皖东、豫皖苏老战略区之间的取舍问题。围绕华中抗战局势的变化，中共中央与中原局经过战略权衡，在巩固苏北战略区的同时兼顾皖东战略区，以“向西大发展”的方针巩固豫皖苏战略区，通过皖东部队恢复发展皖南战略区。这一行动逻辑锁定以苏北为重心的战略主线，虽未能巩固豫皖苏地区，但苏北与皖东两个战略区得到巩固与发展，发展华中的战略任务得以完成。     

Conserving complexity: A complex systems paradigm and framework to study public relations’ contribution to grand challenges

Sustainable development poses a grand challenge for society, addressed by organisations through their public relations activities. Grand challenges are complex by nature and call for nontrivial solutions whose effects show at the level of society. That is why studying public relations’ contribution to grand challenges requires a macro perspective that accounts for the dynamic interaction between individual, organisational, and system levels in a digital communication environment. This paper offers a new paradigm to analyse organisations’ significant and at times undue impact on grand challenges through public relations. It develops a framework inspired by complex adaptive systems thinking and adopts its ten properties for public relations: emergence, adaptivity, heterogeneous actors, nonlinear effects, feedback mechanisms, self-organisation, phase transitions, networks, scaling, and cooperation. The paper applies the framework to the example of sustainable development. It shows why research on grand challenges requires a holistic perspective and how it can help study digitally born communication phenomena. The proposed complex systems paradigm provides space for critical, social scientific, and interpretative research lines in public relations. Inquiries start from the grand challenge and study the communicative interactions between organisations and other actors from existing theory while accounting for the ten properties of complex adaptive systems. The paper outlines how future research can enrich the study of public relations and discusses its limits.     

Presidential crisis: An analysis of Biden & Trump’s crisis communications strategies in response to allegations of sexual misconduct

While campaigning for president of the United States, both Donald Trump (2016) and Joe Biden (2020) faced serious allegations of sexual misconduct. Consequently, the sexual misconduct allegations were classified as a crisis for the candidates themselves and their campaigns. This study identified the crisis communications strategies that each individual and their respective campaign utilized, analyzing the ways in which each candidate adhered to and deviated from the established framework of the crisis communications model (Strategic Crisis Communications Theory) (Coombs, 1995). Artifacts during the campaign season such as statements, press releases, responses, and news articles were collected and analyzed under the framework of the SCCT. Research indicates that each candidate was able to utilize “mismatched” strategies successfully, suggesting that the SCCT may be applied in political contexts. More research is needed to better understand the role SCCT plays in the political realm--especially within political organizations and campaigns.     

Moral conflict and dynamic equilibrium: Public relations as strategic conflict management

In the literature review and proposed theoretical models, the author argues that we often engage in advocacy in public relations on behalf of causes we hold dear, much like a strong defender on a soccer field becomes physical in defending the goal without violating explicit rules or our sense of what is right and appropriate in a competitive world. The author presents this image of an athlete contending in fair competition as a metaphor for a rejection of canonized thinking about accommodation in public relations in favor of public relations as strategic conflict management. This research is offered to continue the discussion in the field of public relations from the contingency theory of strategic conflict management and consider the ethical challenges faced by public relations practitioners in an ongoing cycle of conflict. This article is included in the special issue on the contingency theory of strategic conflict management.     

The complementary effects of rationality and intuition on strategic decision quality

Rationality and intuition are important dimensions of the strategic decision process. Prior studies have viewed these as distinct dimensions, providing limited insights for our understanding of strategic decision processes. Drawing on the dual process theory and research on process capability, this study examines the interplay between rationality and intuition based on a sample of 103 strategic decisions made by service firms in Greece. The results suggest that combining rationality and intuition at the same time leads to successful strategic decisions. Also, the moderating role of environmental dynamism was investigated. We found that in dynamic settings, decision-making teams which combine rationality and intuition outperform teams which use rationality or intuition separately. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are important and are analysed in the paper.     

e‐Business and Supply Chain Management

In recent years, the area of Supply Chain Management has generated a substantial amount of interest both by managers and researchers. This interest has also been fueled by the growth in the development and application of e‐business technologies. These technologies enable the supply chain manager to make coordinated decisions by integrating the diverse and sometimes conflicting objectives of the various trading partners in a chain. The purpose of this paper is to: (a) highlight strategic and tactical issues for analyzing supply chains in an e‐business setting based on papers published in this special issue; and (b) describe future research opportunities in this emerging interdisciplinary area.