The Influence of Performance,Environment and Size on the Identifiability of Firm Strategy

This paper empirically examines the broadly held assumption that higher performing firms pursue identifiable generic and/or industry-specific strategies, as opposed to pursuing an unidentifiable strategy. Here, in a sample of 200 banks, the identifiability of strategy was linked to two dimensions of the environment (interdependence/complexity and munificence) and bank size. The linkage between identifiability and performance was more complex. The discussion emphasizes the potential importance of institutionalization, and implementation in the performance-strategy identifiability link.     

Understanding technological substitution: Generic types, substitution dynamics, and influence strategies

This article develops a framework for analyzing substitution threats posed by young industries to firms competing in more established industries. The discussion delineates three generic types of technological substitution—functional, product, and asset—and explores how long-term substitution patterns may be shaped by (1) the dominant design that emerges for the new product and, (2) improvements that occur in the traditional product. Asset substitution threats are especially serious for an incumbent firm since they can erode the value of the company's existing R&D/ manufacturing capabilities for competition in its principal markets. Possible strategies for influencing the type of substitution that ultimately occurs are considered. The strategies entail entering the young industry and attempting to shape the dominant design that emerges for the new product, or attempting to improve the traditional product along specific price-performance dimensions. The propositions suggested by the framework and the implications discussed should help to provide direction for future research.     

EXPLORING THE STRATEGY-TECHNOLOGY CONNECTION IN SMALL MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Small manufacturing firms make a significant contribution to the economy. Yet, partly because of the greater availability of data on larger firms, strategic management and manufacturing strategy research have tended to neglect small business. Using a survey of small manufacturers, we examine the applicability of Porter's typology of generic strategies to this context and investigate the links between generic strategies and one important dimension of manufacturing strategy-technology management. The analysis of generic strategies shows consistency with previous work on larger firms and tends to support the use of the typology in this setting. Moreover, the internal and external influences on the technology adoption decision process vary significantly with generic strategies, implying that the role played by individuals and networks constitutes a dominant factor. Surprisingly, no distinction was found between firm groupings with respect to decision criteria, which suggests that the decision process of small firms remains rather inexplicit, informal, and, to a large extent, intuitive. We also found that technologically more sophisticated firms tend to hold stronger competitive positions and that technological strength appears to be related to both cost advantage and differentiation.     

A Study of the Role Played by Manufacturing Strategic Objectives and Capabilities in Understanding the Relationship between Porter's Generic Strategies and Business Performance

An appropriate alignment between business strategy, manufacturing strategic objectives and manufacturing capabilities reportedly influences business performance positively. However, few papers empirically analyse this proposition for the case of Porter's generic strategies of cost leadership and differentiation, and none jointly considers all four elements. This paper integrates strategies, capabilities and performance in a single model and proposes that both manufacturing competitive priorities and capabilities, articulated in terms of cost and flexibility, are essential for explaining the link between generic business strategies and business commercial and financial performance. Within this analytic framework, we test whether companies that emphasize one business strategy rather than another achieve a better alignment and superior performance. The analyses conducted with a sample of 148 Spanish manufacturers provide general support for these propositions and contribute to a deeper understanding of the role played by functional strategies in understanding the outcomes of business strategy.     

A Review of Risk Matrices Used in Acute Hospitals in England

In healthcare, patient safety has received substantial attention and, in turn, a number of approaches to managing safety have been adopted from other high‐risk industries. One of these has been risk assessment, predominantly through the use of risk matrices. However, while other industries have criticized the design and use of these risk matrices, the applicability of such criticism has not been investigated formally in healthcare. This study examines risk matrices as used in acute hospitals in England and the guidance provided for their use. It investigates the applicability of criticisms of risk matrices from outside healthcare through a document analysis of the risk assessment policies, procedures, and strategies used in English hospitals. The findings reveal that there is a large variety of risk matrices used, where the design of some might increase the chance of risk misprioritization. Additionally, findings show that hospitals may provide insufficient guidance on how to use risk matrices as well as what to do in response to the existing criticisms of risk matrices. Consequently, this is likely to lead to variation in the quality of risk assessment and in the subsequent deployment of resources to manage the assessed risk. Finally, the article outlines ways in which hospitals could use risk matrices more effectively.     

项目管理在县城电网建设与改造中的运用

项目管理技术已逐步形成一整套完整的理论与方法体系。本文从项目管理角度阐述了城网建设及改造,并分析了城网工程项目管理特点。同时,结合城网建设及改造实践提出了具体有效的方案措施,对其项目生命周期的各个阶段、管理组织以及进度管理等进行了建设性的探讨。     

An LP model for assessing congeneration strategies

A linear programming model is described which is designed to assist in the assessment of optimum operational strategies for industrial plants with cogeneration facilities. A concise format is provided for linking together basic elements such as boilers, valves, turbines and processes with steam and electricity demands with steam, fuel and electricity balance equations. The model should prove particularly useful for assessment when electricity tariffs have time-of-use energy or demand charges or when tariffs have conditions which require consideration of strategies over an extended period. The model has been applied to a paper mill which utilises pass-out turbines for cogeneration of electricity and process steam. Results indicate that savings in fuel costs of the order of 400,000 dollars per year could be obtained by implementing optimal strategies for operating the present turbines. Savings of the order of one million dollars per year could be obtained by converting the turbines to give high pressure pass-out steam and then operating optimally.     

双寡头市场中品牌广告竞争和大类广告合作策略研究

利用微分对策理论研究了一强一弱双寡头垄断市场中的品牌广告竞争和大类广告合作策略,提出了一个Stackelberg博弈模型,采用汉密尔顿-雅可比-贝尔曼方程求得了模型的均衡品牌广告、大类广告和价值函数,给出了市场份额计算公式。研究发现:与非合作策略相比,大类广告合作策略下,无论强者还是弱者,他们的销售量都增加了,同时两个企业的品牌广告投入也增加了;通过大类广告合作策略,无论强者(领导者)还是弱者(追随者),他们的利润都得到了提高;强者、弱者和行业的大类广告投入分别高于非合作下强者、弱者和行业的大类广告投入。     

Evolution of strategic management: The need for new dominant designs

The development of strategic management is explained from an evolutionary perspective on the basis of cycles of variation, selection and retention. In industry, breakthrough innovations, or technological discontinuities, initiate eras of ferment that end when a generally accepted standard, or dominant design, starts an era of incremental change. In strategic management, the original definition of strategy initiated an era of ferment characterized by a focus on the environment. The attention to the environment of firms and the integration with other areas of inquiry reached a point of maturity with development of a widely accepted model for analyzing industry and with the definition of generic strategies. The resource-based view of the firm created a new era of ferment by affirming that the main sources of sustainable competitive advantages reside in the development and use of valuable resources. A new period, marked by swift advances in technology and increasingly blurred boundaries among industries, markets and competitors as well as diverse and more complex sources of competitive advantages, imposes on scholars and practitioners an imperative need to conceive new dominant designs. This paper illustrates the evolution toward new directions and challenges of creating new dominant paradigms in strategic management that revolve around the concepts of knowledge, learning, and innovation.     

The Applicability of Porter’s Generic Strategies in the Digital Age: Assumptions, Conjectures, and Suggestions

Because current management theories evolved in the context of brick-and-mortar firms, this paper examines three key questions raised by the advent of e-business: (1) Will the strategy types found among e-business firms resemble Porter’s (1980) generic strategies? (2) Will we find performance differences among e-business firms pursuing different types of strategies? (3) Will we find differences in the strategy-performance relationships of pure online firms (pure plays) and firms with both online and offline operations (clicks-and-bricks)? We conclude that integrated strategies that combine elements of cost leadership and differentiation will outperform cost leadership or differentiation strategies. We also argue that, regardless of business strategy type, clicks-and-bricks firms that closely integrate their on- and offline operations will enjoy performance advantages over their pure play counterparts.     

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.     

Building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation: An ongoing process of strategic renewal

In this qualitative study, we explore how incumbent firms in traditional industries build dynamic capabilities for digital transformation. Digital transformation has been defined as the use of new digital technologies, such as mobile, artificial intelligence, cloud, blockchain, and the Internet of things (IoT) technologies, to enable major business improvements to augment customer experience, streamline operations, or create new business models. In making sense of digital transformation, we discovered that leaders in various industry circles use the term inconsistently to describe various strategizing and organizing activities; in addition, the term has gained limited scholarly attention as a context for study of strategic change. Drawing on senior executives' experiences with leading digitalization projects at incumbent firms, we propose a process model comprising of nine microfoundations to reveal the generic contingency factors that trigger, enable, and hinder the building of dynamic capabilities for digital transformation. Our findings reveal that digital transformation is an ongoing process of using new digital technologies in everyday organizational life, which recognizes agility as the core mechanism for the strategic renewal of an organization's (1) business model, (2) collaborative approach, and eventually the (3) culture.     

非对称企业合作创新的进化博弈模型分析

转型深化期,合作创新愈来愈多的在不同产业或规模、实力不同的非对称企业间开展。但实践表明,非对称企业间的合作创新关系却大多难以长久维持,合作关系常因合作一方单方面违约而瓦解,近年来不乏研发联盟在合作一段时间后"突然"解散的例证。论文针对这一现实问题,运用进化博弈理论,在前人相关研究基础上,引入合作创新超额收益、违约额外收益、超额收益分配系数和违约成本等影响因素,构造不同产业或规模、实力不同的两家非对称企业合作创新的进化博弈模型,对合作创新策略做进化博弈分析,判断策略的进化稳定性,分析非对称企业间进行合作创新的策略选择。研究表明:如企业违约而获得的额外净收益大于继续合作创新所获得的超额收益,则企业策略选择将视对方策略选择概率而定,但合作创新终将因一方企业违约而终止;如企业违约而获得的额外净收益小于继续合作创新所获得的超额收益,则企业策略选择将不受对方策略选择影响,合作创新终会因双方企业遵守合作契约而得到维持。     

Action Learning - A Paradigm in Emergence: the Problems Facing a Challenge to Traditional Management Education and Development

This paper examines the proposition that action learning is a new paradigm in management education. Action learning is becoming widely accepted methodology for the development of managers and managerial competence. This is in both public and private sector organizations and within the context of certificated and organisationally based programmes. The paper seeks to use Kuhn's work on the nature of paradigms and change as a way of explaining the increase of interest in his approach. Importantly, although this approach promises to answer some of the problems of traditional management education, it is not without its own critics. Kuhn's criteria for a paradigm change are explained with reference to action learning literature and knowledge of practice. From this a framework is developed that compares a traditional approach to management education with an action learning approach on three levels. Our conclusion is that action learning is a new paradigm, but for the maximum benefit to be gained from the approach its application needs to be more carefully considered, particularly in relation to the provision of some wider external frameworks for the manager to use as‘tools for thinking’     

Effective strategies in emerging industries

This paper presents the methodology and the results of an extensive field study achieved in 1982–1983, focusing on industrial firms' strategies in two emerging industries. Fiftynine firms participated in this work. Four generic strategies consistent with survival were identified, one of them being the most effective for building market share. Complementary studies are needed to test the external validity of these results.     

基于顾客感知价值的服务企业竞争力探析

随着服务业在社会经济发展中的地位日益突出,服务企业竞争力问题开始引起学术界关注。本文将顾客感知价值嵌入传统的企业战略研究范式之中,阐述了顾客感知价值与企业竞争力的关系;在剖析了顾客感知价值概念及其决定因素的基础上,结合服务的基本特性提出了通过改善顾客感知价值提升服务企业竞争力的策略。     

试论电子商务环境下ERP的发展和应用

当前对ERP的研究和应用主要是集中于传统企业,随着越来越多的企业把其战略转向电子商务,传统的ERP也将随之发生很大变革。在本篇论文中,我们对电子商务环境下ERP系统的发展和应用进行了初步分析。探讨了如何使新的ERP系统更好地支持电子商务战略。     

Optimised buffer allocation to construct stable personnel shift rosters

Organisations need to construct stable baseline personnel shift rosters based on forecasts about the future personnel demand and employee availability. However, variability arises in the short-term, which renders these forecasts incorrect and affects the quality of the personnel roster. In this paper, we study how to anticipate this variability by introducing capacity buffers in the personnel shift roster. We propose a new approach by solving an equivalent deterministic formulation of a stochastic personnel shift scheduling problem. In contrast to traditional approaches, the size and position of capacity buffers are not defined in advance but are adequately determined as an endogenous variable by the proposed optimisation model to align the available personnel capacity to the stochastic demand. We propose different strategies to define the anticipated uncertainty and to allocate capacity buffers accordingly. We validate the performance of these strategies through a comparison with a deterministic minimum cost strategy and a more traditional resource buffer strategy based on a three-step methodology. This methodology makes use of simulation and optimisation to mimic the hierarchical personnel planning process.     

Strategies for declining businesses—Survival in the fur business

Traditional industries in the craft sector of economies have been declining. They are faced with significant shifts in the pattern of manufacturing and trade. This has created serious threats to the survival of traditional industry centres, and requires the development of new industry-wide strategies to adapt and successfully compete in the new environment. The focus of this study is on development of a framework for understanding the dynamics of industry decline. The framework is illustrated with data from the fur industry. Suggestions for industry-wide strategies which will be effective in facing competitive threats are made. Conclusions of this study are expected to be helpful to fur manufacturers, suppliers and fur marketers, but more importantly the study identifies a framework and approach that can be applied to other craft industries which face similar environmental conditions.     

Strategies for international growth in the automobile industry

This article examines alternative strategy approaches in respect of companies seeking growth in the international automobile industry. The author examines these approaches within a developed framework which could also prove helpful to planning in other industries.