A frame of reference for strategy development

Strategy development in today's volatile business environment demands increased management concern with fundamental issues which go beyond the balance sheet and the income statement to deal with the proper positioning of the corporation and its units to achieve long-term profitable survival. This is well understood. On the other hand, it is equally clear that management capacity—in terms of man hours of talent available—is the most important resource of any corporation and is also limited. In this article the authors set out to develop a frame of reference for analysing the corporation, its individual business and its competitors. Their objective is to provide management with the tools they need to deploy their creative entrepreneurial talent more efficiently by focusing on strategically relevant issues, using guidelines based on the ever-increasing body of research available today.     

Critical Business Ethics: From Corporate Self‐interest to the Glorification of the Sovereign Pater

Research in critical business ethics has demonstrated how economic self‐interest is the primary reason that businesses adopt nominally ethical practices. After reviewing this body of research, the authors propose that it can be further developed by questioning its conception of self‐interest, by exploring its non‐economic dimensions and by reconsidering the meaning of the ‘self’ that is said to have such interests. Drawing insights from feminist theory and political theology, the paper interrogates corporate business ethics as a public glorification of corporate power based on a patriarchal conception of the corporation. Genealogically rooted in early Christian ceremonial practices used to glorify God the Father, this is a glorification for the sake of glory rather than just for the sake of commercial ends. The authors further argue that corporate business ethics is rendered as the feminized servant of the sovereign corporate patriarch, always at hand to glorify the master. The meaning of corporate business ethics is hence one where the feminine is not absent, but rather is servile to a masculinity conceived in relation to domination, greatness and sovereignty. Collectively, this shows how the power wielded and desired by corporate business ethics far exceeds the pursuit of financial self‐interest; it is also related to modelling the corporation on a male God. The paper concludes by considering how research in critical business ethics can be extended through forms of inquiry that destabilize the ethical glorification of the corporation, and displace its masculinist privilege.     

The Entrepreneurial Establishment of a Nonprofit Organization

The purpose of this paper is to offer an analysis of the nonprofit sector from the entrepreneurial point of view in order to show why the organizational form of nonprofit has arisen and, more precisely, why rational entrepreneurs choose to incorporate their business enterprises under the nonprofit regulation. Since nonprofit associations were formed before the emergence of the tax code, the favorable tax-status alone cannot explain an entrepreneurial preference for the nonprofit form. Tax considerations have then to be combined with other elements. The alternative view proposed in the paper is that the supply of factors such as capital and entrepreneurship provides the motivation for the rise of nonprofit enterprises. The entrepreneur and the managers enjoy control of the activity and see to it that service are produced in such a way as to maximize their net income. They do not ignore nonmonetary income in the sense that they find it rewarding to seek pecuniary gains as well as nonmonetary profits in any given period. To explain why an entrepreneur organizes his business as a nonprofit entity we investigate a theater production process.     

Giving as Good as They Get? Organization and Employee Expectations of Ethical Business Practice

Corporate malpractice and malfeasance on an unprecedented scale have brought ethical issues to the fore and accentuated demands from activists, governments, and the public for greater corporate social responsibility (CSR). The predominant response of researchers and policymakers has been to focus on the external impact of business operations and the merits of regulation or persuasion in achieving more responsible practice in these areas. In this article, we focus on a less well explored aspect of CSR, namely the evaluation of an organization's CSR activities by its internal stakeholders (i.e., employees). Salient CSR literature is reviewed to differentiate between CSR and ethical business practice (EBP), conceptualizing the latter as the internal manifestation of CSR as represented by an organization's values and vision, strategy and policy, systems and procedures, and people management practices. This article assesses organizational espousal of EBP in three ways: how successfully it is communicated to employees, how closely espousal aligns with employee expectation, and how this evaluation impacts on employee commitment. Our research approach aligns with and extends previous work in this area that identifies the likelihood of a “false consensus bias” by managers in assuming congruence between organization espousal of EBP and employee expectation. A conceptual model is offered to explain possible employee responses to an organization's EBP. This relates organization espousal of EBP to employee assessment of its salience to identify three positions on commitment that employees can adopt—abrogated, continuance, and affective commitment—together with their likely behavioral implications. The analysis generates a series of research questions and related areas of exploration to empirically test the conceptual model.     

Business planning at Sperry Rand

A minor change in planning procedure which proved to be a vital ingredient in business planning at Sperry Rand is described in this paper. The author argues that the change and other pressures increased commitment to planning throughout the corporation. However he concludes that it is by no means certain that the present trend towards more intensive planning will continue. Nonetheless that the odds appear to be largely in favour of business planning surviving and being highly regarded by management.     

Beyond Transparency: Information Overload and a Model for Intelligibility

The role and evaluation of the modern corporation is being challenged by multiple stakeholders, changing markets and public expectations. Unfortunately, corporate governance, regulation and accounting have played a prominent role in business failure for the past decade resulting in a growing lack of public confidence in our markets. We present a new model that contributes to improving the quality of corporate information by providing not more, but better information through increased intelligibility of overall information, benefiting both the firm and its broad array of stakeholders. It has become apparent that boards, management and regulators have been unable to cope with the rise of business failures by adding increasing layers of regulation that have often served only to exacerbate the complexity and further cloud the transparency of needed information. We have identified a growing number of forward‐thinking firms that have found alternative means to provide betterinformation and strengthen their companies. We offer a stakeholder‐centric model for improving information intelligibility based upon the extensive scope and variety of external input derived from the growing social movement organizations. With the added focus on intelligibility, these groups can help foster greater corporate responsibility, meaningful transparency, increased stakeholder benefits, and improved overall performance of the firm.     

Business models as a basis for regulation of financial reporting

The paper observes that the term ‘business model’ has been incorporated in recent financial reporting regulations. The first section of the paper describes various meanings of ‘business model’ and demonstrates that the term has no settled or agreed meaning. The second part of the paper considers the suitability of the term ‘business model’ as a basis for a measurement standard (IFRS 9) or for requirements for narrative reporting and concludes it is not suitable for either purpose. Examples from the UK FTSE 100 index companies are used to illustrate existing usage in narrative reporting, finding varying levels of informativeness of disclosures about business models. The final part of the paper discusses reasons for incorporating an ambiguous and contested term in reporting guidance. It identifies parallels with ambiguity in other branches of financial reporting and the potential utility of ambiguity in allowing consensus to be arrived at on a form of words, apparently tightening up reporting regulation, while allowing participants ‘wiggle room’.     

The Benefit Corporation: Corporate Governance and the For‐profit Social Entrepreneur

The adoption by 19 states and the District of Columbia of a new variant of the business corporation form—known as the benefit corporation—presents several issues for legislatures, for entrepreneurs electing to organize as benefit corporations, for existing corporations that are converting to the new form, and for the stakeholders (other than shareholders) who are intended to be considered in benefit corporation governance. The article presents the history and structure of the new business form and a discussion of what has become its predecessor—the constituency statute. The model benefit corporation statute provisions are reviewed, which many states have adopted in toto. The authors address the obstacles that should be overcome by legislatures, businesses, and stakeholders before further legislative adoptions occur, as well as considerations for effective implementation by government, corporations, and stakeholders under existing and proposed variations of the statute.     

Minding and Mining the Periphery

This paper cites examples of where peripheral events have caused ripples that reached right to the centre of an organisation. However, it also says that activities on the periphery can be a source of strategic insights. It suggests some tools for creating a sensing organisation that include establishing listening posts and developing communities of practice. It concludes by saying managers need to create the ‘ambidextrous’ corporation, whereby they use these tools for probing the periphery without making them a distraction from the central business.     

整合能力与企业绩效：商业模式创新的中介作用

经济全球化的背景下,企业为了构建竞争优势,获取更好的绩效,开始利用整合能力和商业模式创新应对多变的外部环境。然而,当前研究对于两者之间存在何种联系的认识是模糊的。针对理论研究的缺陷,基于动态能力的理论视角,通过分析商业模式创新对整合能力与企业绩效的中介作用,揭示企业整合能力和商业模式创新促进企业绩效提高的内在机制,采用中国6省1市319个企业样本数据,运用线性回归的统计方法对理论假设进行实证检验。研究结果表明,整合能力和商业模式创新都对企业绩效具有正向的促进作用,同时整合能力与企业绩效之间存在着一定的中间机制。整合能力通过提高组织变革和价值创造效率两个方面促进商业模式创新,而商业模式创新作为中间纽带将整合能力与企业绩效联系起来。企业的整合能力越高,越有利于开展商业模式创新,进而促进企业绩效的提高。研究揭示了整合能力和商业模式创新共同促进企业绩效提高的内在理论机制,打开了能力与绩效间关系的“黑箱”,对于中国企业开展商业模式创新具有重要的实践指导意义。     

From primacy to purpose commitment: How emerging profit-with-purpose corporations open new corporate governance avenues

This paper aims at contributing to corporate governance theory by developing a model of governance that takes into account a recent legal innovation: the introduction of purpose-driven legal business forms in the corporate law of several countries. Current debates in such theory oppose models that grant “primacy” (i.e., ultimate control rights) to different constituencies. The resulting uncertainty proves problematic in the face of new, urgent social and environmental stakes that are difficult to represent in traditional governance bodies. Newly adopted profit-with-purpose corporate forms' introduction of a “purpose” in corporate contracts renews these debates. We show that through the “purpose commitment” model it enables, the distribution of control rights in the governance system is decoupled from the objectives assigned to the corporation. This new approach renews the formal role of management, and corporations’ accountability to society. We explore the theoretical, practical, and political consequences of this new model.     

A New Kind of Case Study: Using Business Bestsellers in the Business Policy Course

The undergraduate Business Policy (Strategic Management) course is often taught by using the case method of instruction. Cases are generally regarded as especially good vehicles for giving students an understanding of the general management view of an organization. The authors believe that it is useful for students to learn much about the strategy of at least one corporation in-depth. They use a business bestseller about a particular company or industry each semester for this purpose. All undergraduate students prepare the same written assignments on this company or industry using the business bestseller as a starting point. Experience in using the business bestseller as the basis of a written assignment in the business policy course has been very positive. Students both enjoy and profit from an assignment that focuses in-depth on a major firm or industry that they can comprehend and the evolution of which they can follow. Alumni often indicate that they continue to track the company or industry after graduation. The authors believe that such written assignments help prepare students of business strategy for the real world. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

基于业务流程技术的企业过程性知识获取方法

企业的知识管理正在成为人们关注的热点,本文针对如何获取企业中过程性知识的问题进行了研究。在讨论了知识分类及业务流程技术的基础之上,给出了利用业务流程技术获取企业过程性知识的方法。     

Calling in a Debt: Government's Role in Creating the Capacity for Explicit Corporate Social Responsibility

Before the field of business and society can adequately analyze the relationship between governmental policies and corporate social responsibility (CSR), either as a reality or an ideal, it is first necessary to understand exactly how governments nurtured the development of the autonomous corporation. The roles assigned to government by the economics and management literatures—regulator, standard setter, protector, and adjudicator—ignore the crucial part played by state violence and government expenditures in the rise and sustained success of the corporate economy. An examination of the history of the American case, crucial for the development of the modern corporation as well as the “explicit” form of CSR that eventually followed it, highlights these roles: the willingness of the state to intervene with force in labor conflicts bolstered the managerial autonomy that defined the large corporation, and the way government expenditures promoted innovation and firm success. Acknowledging how corporations depended on government assistance in their development is a necessary step for both assessing the responsibilities owed stakeholders and for advancing the theoretical development of the field.     

国际经验与企业实践——制定适合国情的中国公司治理原则

本文从公司治理这一国际性前沿课题的核心入手,论述了提高公司治理的有效性不仅要建立健全公司治理结构,更要培育科学运作的公司治理机制。面对各国、地区、组织制定公司治理原则的热潮,在分析世界各国、组织的公司治理原则的特点和发展趋势的基础上,提出了在我国企业进入公司治理改革新阶段的时候,良好的公司治理既需要国家通过强制性的法律法规对治理结构进行规定,还需要制定与公司环境变化相适应的、具有指导性、非强制性和灵活性的公司治理原则的观点。文章最后分析了制定适合我国国情的中国公司治理原则的必要性和迫切性,并介绍了由南开大学“中国公司治理原则研究课题组”研究完成的《中国公司治理原则（草案）》的内容、特点和创新之处。     

Production stage allocation problem in large corporations

This paper studies a strategic-level decision problem on assigning production stages to geographically distributed subsidiaries in a large corporation so as to minimize the fixed cost and the expected value of the production/transportation costs under stochastic demands of customers. The influence of the economies and diseconomies of scale on unit production cost is considered. A nonlinear mixed integer programming model is designed for this problem. A local branching based solution method and a particle swarm optimization based solution method are developed for solving the model. Computational tests on real world data of Shanghai Volkswagen Auto Corp. are conducted. The results show that the proposed model can save about 2.5% of its revenue by comparing with the current decisions.     

跨国企业和东道国政府合作共赢的演化博弈和决策研究

基于行为人有限理性具有动机公平偏好的假设,论文定义跨国企业和东道国政府为委托代理关系,构建了企业和政府在不同引资政策下的博弈模型,探讨了跨国企业和东道国政府的演化博弈过程及其均衡点,分析了博弈双方最佳决策以及合作共赢机制。研究表明:东道国政府给予跨国企业的收入分配比越高,跨国企业越努力工作,其最优努力程度还与规制系数、风险规避程度、规模和优惠产出系数相关;东道国政府给予的收入分配比受风险规避度、产出方差和规避系数的影响;在激励与规制相结合的引资政策下,基于动机公平的博弈双方能达到演化稳定点,实现跨国企业和东道国政府合作共赢。本文将演化博弈和合作共赢纳入分析框架中进行动态分析,丰富了该领域的研究成果,为企业对外投资提供了理论依据以及政府政策制定提供了参考。     

Strategic adoption of a flexible manufacturing system: Case study of an Indian electronics enterprise

In recent years, strategic considerations relating to manufacturing management in the electronics industry have undergone transformation at a very rapid rate. They are being driven by pluralistic customer demands and influenced by technological innovations and competitive interventions. This paper reports on the strategic adoption and implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) in an Indian electronics enterprise which has collaborative alliance with a multinational corporation (MNC) in the USA. A hybrid model has been formulated using the nominal group technique (NGT) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate various alternative AMTs.     

政府管制与双寡头企业社会责任行为的博弈研究

企业不负责任行为同时受到政府管制和产品竞争的双重约束。本文构建了政府与双寡头企业的三阶段博弈模型,分析了政府偏好和政府执行力与政府治理企业不负责任行为的政策的关系,揭示了其中所蕴含的"政府偏好悖论"。研究表明:政府惩治企业不负责任行为的关键,是让企业从不负责任行为中所失大于所得;无论政府的偏好如何,都有可能放松对企业不负责任行为的管制,而且政府越偏好短期社会利益,就越不可能将不负责任的企业清除出市场;政府治理不负责任企业的矛盾心理,根源于企业不负责任行为的两面性。