Brainstorming Revisited: A Question of Context

This paper reviews the extant literature on global strategy. We argue that the literature has developed along three major directions, namely: (1) the literature identifying the emergence of a global village; (2) the literature identifying the advantages to a firm following a global strategy; and (3) the literature addressing the management challenges and the implementation issues faced by an international firm. We find that the literature has arrived at a number of important conclusions, namely: (1) the global environment places conflicting demands on participating firms; (2) there is no one strategy called global strategy, firms adopt different strategies to compete in the global arena; (3) the benefits accruing from a global strategy are contingent on the industry environment; (4) it is imperative to have multidimensional capabilities in the global arena; (5) matrix structures are becoming increasingly vital in implementing global strategies; and, finally, (6) the actual benefits of adopting matrix structures are contingent on the adoption of appropriate management processes. We identify the trends in the literature and suggest some directions for further research on the topic.     

Transnationality – Sharpening the Integration-Responsiveness vision in global professional firms

The “transnational” (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1988, 1989) has become a popular organizational construct, and is increasingly relevant to contemporary global firms. However, there is very little empirical research on the organizational aspects of this form, and there is a lack of knowledge regarding the transnational aspects in professional service firm theorizing. Building on some fundamental organizational and international management literature, as well as an understanding of contemporary global professional firms, we expect that the transnational will exhibit specific organizational structural features with both high levels globalization and local responsiveness. We then proceed to describe an exploratory study of ten global engineering firms—this context is important since engineering firms are far less tied to national (local) jurisdictions than are other professional firms. Our findings reveal that the leadership/management areas were largely globally integrated, the hiring/HR functions were singularly locally oriented, while the other organizational areas we studied – namely structure/process and project teams – exhibited both global and local features. These findings extend professional service firm theorizing, exposing the balance between axes of specialisation, norms of reciprocity and customer management system; to include organizational features that allow a balance between the globally integrated and locally responsive.     

The Bind that Ties: Socioemotional Wealth Preservation in Family Firms

A growing body of research shows that family firms are different from other organizations in significant ways. In this paper we review this literature by examining how family firms differ from nonfamily firms along five broad categories of managerial decisions. These categories encompass a set of key organizational choices concerning management processes, firm strategies, corporate governance, stakeholder relations and business venturing. We argue that socioemotional wealth or affective endowment of family owners explain many of these choices. We also examine some contingency factors (namely family stage, firm size, firm hazard, and the presence of nonfamily shareholders) that moderate the influence of socioemotional wealth preservation as a point of reference when making managerial decisions in family firms. Lastly, we explore the firm performance consequences of family ownership.     

Linking Dynamic Absorptive Capacity and Service Innovation for Born Global Service Firms: An Organization Innovation Lens Perspective

Grounded in the dynamic capabilities approach and organizational sub-system view on internationalization, this quantitative study develops and empirically tests a model of international market performance of born global service firms. While several scholars highlighted innovativeness as a driver of competitiveness for born global firms, the capacities underlying the born global firm's innovativeness have received limited scholarly attention, specifically, dynamic absorptive capacities (exploratory, transformative, and exploitative learning capacities). The uniqueness of this paper posits that dynamic absorptive capacities in a born global service firm have contributed to innovation and resulted in international market outcomes. The data was collected using the survey method from born global service firms and was analyzed using structured equation modeling. The findings of this study reveal that service innovation and business strategy are critical drivers of international performance for born global service firms. The paper contributes to the literature on the significance of absorptive capacity in born global service firms by identifying those dynamic absorptive capacities that operate in a composite set of relationships with other capabilities and significantly contribute to their innovation, impacting their internationalization outcomes. This study also supplements the theoretical and practical implications derived from the key findings of this study and provides future research directions.     

Committed Versus Contingent Pricing Under Competition

Should capacitated firms set prices responsively to uncertain market conditions in a competitive environment? We study a duopoly selling differentiated substitutable products with fixed capacities under demand uncertainty, where firms can either commit to a fixed price ex ante, or elect to price contingently ex post, e.g., to charge high prices in booming markets, and low prices in slack markets. Interestingly, we analytically show that even for completely symmetric model primitives, asymmetric equilibria of strategic pricing decisions may arise, in which one firm commits statically and the other firm prices contingently; in this case, there also exists a unique mixed strategy equilibrium. Such equilibrium behavior tends to emerge, when capacity is ampler, and products are less differentiated or demand uncertainty is lower. With asymmetric fixed capacities, if demand uncertainty is low, a unique asymmetric equilibrium emerges, in which the firm with more capacity chooses committed pricing and the firm with less capacity chooses contingent pricing. We identify two countervailing profit effects of contingent pricing under competition: gains from responsively charging high price under high demand, and losses from intensified price competition under low demand. It is the latter detrimental effect that may prevent both firms from choosing a contingent pricing strategy in equilibrium. We show that the insights remain valid when capacity decisions are endogenized. We caution that responsive price changes under aggressive competition of less differentiated products can result in profit‐killing discounting.     

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.     

A Contingent View of Quality Management‐The Impact of International Competition on Quality

Much of the research on quality practices and performance reflects a resource‐based perspective of the firm, dealing primarily with internal issues of managerial and technological competence in developing and executing an effective TQM strategy. The neoclassical perspective on the influence of the competitive environment on quality practices and performance remains conspicuously absent in the empirical quality literature. Our study aims to address this gap by examining the contingent role of international competition on quality management and performance. We develop and test an integrative framework of quality management, consisting of high involvement work practices, quality practices, quality performance, and firm performance. We then examine the contingent effects of international competition on the constructs and relationships of the framework. International competition was found to moderate the relationship between quality practices and customer satisfaction performance, as well as the relationship between high involvement work practices and firm performance. The moderator effects suggest interesting implications for quality theory and practice.     

A rush of blood to the head: Temporal dimensions of retrenchment,environment and turnaround performance

In this work we test the general assumption in the turnaround literature that time is critical for firm survival, especially during the retrenchment stage. We study three time dimensions of change at this stage: timing, speed and rhythm. Drawing on the downward spiral and threat-rigidity perspectives, we posit that the positive impact these time dimensions have on turnaround performance is highly contingent on two types of environment. Our findings, based on a sample of 263 declining US firms over a 26-year period (1983–2009), demonstrate that an early timing of retrenchment has a positive impact on performance when the environment is munificent. On the contrary, an early timing has a negative impact when the environment is dynamic. We also note that a fast pace of retrenchment positively impacts firm performance in dynamic environments. Finally, we find that declining firms display better performances when following an irregular rhythm of retrenchment, both in highly munificent and highly dynamic environments. Our results indicate that, in general, declining firm performance improves with time-aggressive retrenchment actions in both types of environment. We discuss the contribution of our research to the turnaround literature, and the downward spiral and threat-rigidity perspectives.     

Ethics and human resource management and development in a global context: case study of an Indian multinational

A firm's orientation to ethics is influenced largely by its national and organizational culture. Research shows that a growing number of Indian firms place a distinct emphasis on long-term orientation to business strategy with a social mission, underpinned by firm commitment to core organizational values, employee development and welfare. Through a case study of a large Indian multinational conglomerate, this article provides preliminary evidence of how some emerging economy firms are successfully mixing and matching indigenous business and people management strategies with the Western emphasis on meritocracy and professionalism to compete in the contemporary global economy. It further shows how the human resource development (HRD) discipline can play a pro-active role in embedding ethics and values throughout the organizational and HR architecture. The HRD professionals in the case study firm also face several structural and cultural challenges in discharging their ethics-driven HR mandate, such as management's ethnocentric attitude to global staffing and clash of work cultures.     

Supply Chain Strategy,Product Characteristics,and Performance Impact: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturers*

Supply chain management has become one of the most popular approaches to enhance the global competitiveness of business corporations today. Firms must have clear strategic thinking in order to effectively organize such complicated activities, resources, communications, and processes. An emerging body of literature offers a framework that identifies three kinds of supply chain strategies: lean strategy, agile strategy, and lean/agile strategy based on in‐depth case studies. Extant research also suggests that supply chain strategies must be matched with product characteristics in order for firms to achieve better performance. This article investigates supply chain strategies and empirically tests the supply chain strategy model that posits lean, agile, and lean/agile approaches using data collected from 604 manufacturing firms in China. Cluster analyses of the data indicate that Chinese firms are adopting a variation of lean, agile, and lean/agile supply chain strategies identified in the western literature. However, the data reveal that some firms have a traditional strategy that does not emphasize either lean or agile principles. These firms perform worse than firms that have a strategy focused on lean, agile, or lean/agile supply chain. The strategies are examined with respect to product characteristics and financial and operational performance. The article makes significant contributions to the supply chain management literature by examining the supply chain strategies used by Chinese firms. In addition, this work empirically tests the applicability of supply chain strategy models that have not been rigorously tested empirically or in the fast‐growing Chinese economy.     

Global Multisourcing Strategy: The Emergence of a Supplier Portfolio in Services Offshoring

In today's global services outsourcing arena, increasing numbers of companies adopt “multisourcing,” that is, they select and combine information technology (IT) and business services from multiple providers. The literature on IT outsourcing and supply chain management has identified critical tradeoffs involved in increasing the number of suppliers and has strongly recommended focusing on a handful of strategic partners to balance these tradeoffs. Committing to a few strategic partners, however, may prevent a firm from discovering new suppliers, or even supply regions. Such missed opportunities may be particularly limiting in the context of offshoring professional services, which has exhibited rapid changes in supplier markets in the last decade. Thus, firms may want to engage in a more intensive multisourcing in services. If they do so, their success will depend on a global sourcing process that effectively addresses the critical tradeoffs involved. To explore how a global sourcing process can support multisourcing, we conducted a qualitative longitudinal case study of a large financial services institution that developed a varied global supply base to obtain offshore professional services. Our analysis results in a theory that emphasizes (i) advantages of a multiple provider strategy in rapidly changing global supply markets; (ii) the critical role of middle managers in enabling continuous innovation in the supplier structure; and (iii) the importance of the global sourcing process combining top–down and bottom–up decision making in multisourcing.     

竞争驱动战略转型的人力资本视线研究——以天津中小制造业企业为例

转型升级阵痛中的中国制造业企业，唯有基于人力资本"视线"实施差异化战略、推进激进式创新，才能变革成功，进而在激烈市场竞争中存活下来并形成核心竞争力。以天津市各大工业园区154家中小制造业企业的问卷调查数据为样本，采用结构方程模型对制造业企业创新逆驱战略转型的人力资本"视线"进行统计检验。结果显示，战略层面的"视线"有一个：外部环境竞争性、差异化战略、激进式创新与企业绩效。资源层面"视线"有两个：差异化战略、HRM系统、人力资本、渐进式创新、激进式创新与企业绩效；差异化战略、HRM系统、知识共享与企业绩效。这三条"视线"为中国制造业企业指明了战略转型、创新变革的具体方向。     

A finance professional who understands the family: family firms’ specific requirements for non-family chief financial officers

Non-family chief financial officers (CFOs) are often the first non-family members recruited into a family firm’s top management team. Based on the extant literature and with reference to the resource-based view of the firm, family firm peculiarities can also be expected to affect the requirements family firms look for when hiring non-family CFOs. To analyze these requirements, this paper draws on interviews with family firm owners, chief executive officers and non-family CFOs. Family firms’ specific requirements for CFOs are analyzed along four dimensions, namely education, professional know-how, career path and social/interpersonal skills, and 11 propositions are then developed. The presented findings suggest that family firm owners seek to integrate non-family CFOs with professional non-family firm experience in order to enrich the family firm’s resource pool. In turn, non-family CFOs are required to adapt to the specific governance characteristics prevalent in family firms.     

Arriving at a strategic theory of the firm

The theory of the firm seeks to explain the existence and boundaries of the firm in relation to the market. Since the pioneering work of Coase (The nature of the firm. Economica , 4 , 386–405, 1937), economics has developed a whole family of theories that focus on the ability of firms to economize on certain costs of using markets. More recently, researchers in strategic management have published several theories of the firm that have tended to emphasize the benefits of incorporation rather than the costs of using the market. Although researchers in the strategy profession have tentatively labeled their work as 'moving towards' a strategic theory of the firm, economists have been very critical of existing approaches. This paper seeks to begin 'arriving' at a strategic theory of the firm by addressing these criticisms and offering an integration of the strategic and economic perspectives within an institutional framework. The paper concludes with future directions for research in the theory of the firm.     

The flexible firm

In this article an attempt is made at giving a more concrete meaning to the notion of flexibility of a firm. The relationship between the dynamics of the environment on the one hand and the chosen strategy and organizational structure of the firm on the other, will be further analysed The aiming at flexibility is considered to be a separate economic basic goal next to rentability and independence, as firms increasingly happen to be in a turbulent environment. Special attention is given to the flexibility of a number of different organizational structures.It appears that a number of global recommendations can be made concerning the choice of strategy and organizational structure while explicitly taking the flexibility goal into account.     

Effect of best management practices on the performance and productivity of small firms

Abstract

Recent research on productivity finds that best management practices are a crucial but neglected element in explaining firm productivity. This stream of research also focuses on why a large number of firms may not implement best management practices despite their apparent benefits. In this paper, we examine the adoption of best management practices in small leveraged buyout (LBO) firms. Our choice of small LBO is motivated by the fact that these firms undergo extensive restructuring and, therefore, there is an opportunity to study the adoption process of best management practices. The findings show that buyout companies introduce best management practices (operations, monitoring, targets and incentive-related practices) at different stages of their development, and more importantly, these practices evolve in response to changes in various firm-level characteristics. For example, companies emphasizing cost leadership tend to follow targets and monitoring related practices while firms following a differentiation strategy are more likely to implement incentives and operations related management practices. Buyout sponsors’ board representatives and new CEO also play a critical role in the adoption of these best management practices which are linked to superior firm performance, measured as growth in revenues, productivity and return on assets.     

Countering Overseas Power in Global Value Chains: Information Asymmetries and Subcontracting in the Plastics Industry

Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) and Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis have been deployed in the strategic and international management literatures to address questions of power in dyadic relationships and global production networks, respectively. This paper integrates the two theoretical approaches in order to expand RDT, using insights from Hirschman's exit/voice model to show the options available to some firms but not others. Using the relationship between buyers and contract manufacturers from GVC analysis, we find a correlation between firm size and choice of strategic action in response to contract manufacturers' dependence on buyers. Large firms follow an acquiescence strategy while small manufacturers follow an avoidance strategy, able to use both exit and voice strategies. Enabled by scale or control over information, both of these approaches successfully reduce uncertainty and provide a source of sustained competitive advantage. Using a study of the production chain in consumer plastics manufacturing in China, we show how dependent firms respond to GVC induced pressure. We find that based on the size of the contract manufacturer, the range of strategic responses to power is constrained by the nature of the dependency in global value chains. This opens important insights into the role that structural characteristics of organizations (like size) play in determining strategic freedom.     

Towards a re-conceptualization of firm internationalization: Heterogeneous process,subsidiary roles and knowledge flow

This paper proposes a re-conceptualization of firm internationalization to understand and predict the rapid global expansion of firms since the 1990s, especially those from emerging markets. First, based on a review of existing literature, we re-conceptualize firm internationalization as a heterogeneous process of strategic development of subsidiaries in overseas countries or regions. This re-conceptualization captures the pluralistic character of the process of firm internationalization.Second, we delineate peculiar roles played by subsidiaries in pursuit of multinational enterprise (MNE) headquarters' internationalization strategies. We argue that the HQ's heterogeneous strategies toward overseas subsidiary development define the corresponding roles of subsidiaries, which in turn shape the knowledge-flow patterns within the MNEs. Finally, we link firms' internationalization strategies with different subsidiary roles to generate hypotheses concerning the effect of such links on subsidiary performance. We argue that the proper alignment of HQ's internationalization strategies with subsidiary roles will lead to success of the overseas subsidiaries; by contrast, a mismatch will lead to subsidiary failure. The paper thus contributes to the field of firm internationalization by linking its new conceptualization with the literature on subsidiary roles and knowledge flows in MNEs.     

基于NASH谈判模型的上下游企业R&D合作与协调机制研究

已有研究往往孤立地分析企业横向或纵向R&D合作问题,而现实中,企业有可能同时采用两种合作形式进行技术创新。针对这一现象,建立了上下游企业同时进行横向与纵向R&D合作的博弈模型,并与下游企业只选择横向R&D合作的情形进行了比较。研究发现:(1)与下游企业只进行横向R&D合作的情形相比,同时进行横向与纵向R&D合作将带来更高的均衡产量、R&D投入水平和行业利润;(2)当R&D成本分担比例较低(较高)时,上游企业具有(缺乏)R&D合作动机,该结果与技术溢出水平高低无关;(3)当上游企业R&D成本分担比例较高或技术溢出水平较低时,下游企业必然同时选择与上游企业R&D合作。为保持合作的稳定性,通过构建基于满意度的NASH谈判模型,设计了上下游企业R&D合作的利益协调机制。算例表明,该协调机制能避免传统R&D成本分担法引起的合作冲突。