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.     

新能源汽车分时租赁市场竞争的进化博弈模型研究

针对"互联网+分时租赁"市场竞争存在有限理性,且不断模仿、学习和改进的特点,本文通过构建进化博弈模型,来揭示租车软件进出市场、抢占市场的博弈过程,并结合当前打车软件市场采用最多的价格战对模型进行了具体化分析和算例验证。研究表明：一个初期稳定的分时租赁市场受到某一公司价格战策略的突变冲击后,不存在纯策略的进化稳定状态,但一定有混合策略的进化稳定状态;对于准备进入市场的公司或想扩大市场份额公司,其最优策略是选用价格战;而对于已经在该市场内运营的公司,其最优反应策略也是降价。     

考虑捐赠行为的食品动态定价策略研究

由于质量控制不当和库存过多导致的浪费是企业管理易腐食品面临的主要挑战。针对当前食品浪费严重的问题，建立考虑变质率的动态定价模型，研究捐赠行为下单一定价、两次定价与多级折扣定价三种定价策略对食品企业最优决策的影响。通过数值分析，发现捐赠行为能够提升企业利润且在多级折扣定价策略下效果更为显著，但当折扣次数较少时，单一定价策略对考虑捐赠的企业而言更优；食品最初质量、变质率、打折时间点、捐赠时间点、税收返回比率均是影响企业定价决策的重要因素；若质量差异越大，企业在多级折扣定价策略下的利润会减少，而考虑捐赠行为会使得企业利润呈上升趋势；在变质率越高时，考虑捐赠的单一定价策略会降低企业的利润，但对多级折扣定价策略下的利润影响不大；当折扣时间越接近于捐赠时间点时，基于捐赠行为的多级折扣定价策略会更优；当捐赠时间点越接近于保质期时，考虑捐赠的价格策略会优于不考虑捐赠时的价格策略。此外，研究还表明增加税收返回比率对考虑捐赠下的定价策略不一定是有利的。     

渐进式ERP实施战略的选择动机及影响机制:探索性案例研究

近年来,由于企业对ERP系统的投资越来越大,而且ERP对于企业的重要性也越来越被人们所认识到,与ERP有关的课题成为学术界的研究热点。许多研究表明,ERP的实施战略对于ERP实施的最终成败有着显著的影响。然而,已有文献却未曾对ERP实施战略开展过深入研究。本文通过案例研究方法,对"渐进式"这一非常重要的ERP实施战略进行了详细的分析。通过对案例公司的几位高层管理者的深入访谈,本文发现,在企业实施ERP系统的各个阶段,采用渐进式实施战略的动机包括经济压力、消化压力、技术准备、规避失败。此外,本文还归纳了当采用渐进式ERP实施战略时,会促进企业获得ERP实施成功的三个必要条件,分别是与ERP供应商的长期合作伙伴关系、有能力的并且持续的IT推动者、稳定的内部实施团队。基于这些研究发现,本文提出了一系列研究命题及一个关于渐进式ERP实施战略的理论模型。文章的最后还对本研究的理论和实践方面贡献进行了讨论。     

跨国公司在华子公司角色演化:理论及案例分析

本文根据影响子公司角色转变的因素,将子公司的角色根据每种因素的强弱不同分为八种类型,即起步者、淘汰者、办事员、支持者、小诸侯、贡献者、直辖领袖和自由领袖.根据该子公司角色划分方法和演化路径分析方法,本文深入研究了一家跨国公司在华子公司-BEC公司的角色演化情况,研究证实了本文得出的角色划分方法和演化路径分析框架的适用性,也得到了跨国公司在华子公司的一个具体演化路径.     

An extension of the classical A B C inventory control system

The conventional method of controlling inventories of relatively fast moving items in a store is based on an A B C classification of the stock items. An analysis is presented for the extension of this method to determine the number of categories that should be employed and the way in which the different items should be allocated to these categories. A case study is briefly described to illustrate the application of this methodology.     

基于改进SMOTE的小额贷款公司客户信用风险非均衡SVM分类

研究了小额贷款公司对客户进行信用风险评估时面临的问题,构建了信用风险评估指标体系,改进了支持向量机(Support Vector Machine, SVM)对非均衡样本分类时分类超平面偏移的不足。首先分析小额贷款公司业务区域性强、信用数据来源不规范、评价标准不一致等特点,给出用于客户信用风险评估的四个维度指标。针对传统SMOTE算法在处理非均衡数据时对全部少数类样本操作的问题,提出仅对错分样本人工合成的改进思想,给出具体算法步骤。将改进算法用于某小额贷款公司客户信用风险评估案例中,分类精确度较其他算法有所提升,表明该方法的可行性和有效性。     

The Founder's Legacy: Hangover or Inheritance?

The legacy of organizational founders is a comparatively under‐studied topic. Through two in‐depth case studies, this article explores the factors which influence whether founding strategic visions, objectives or decisions influence present‐day strategic choice. Furthermore, the study identifies and explores a number of factors which influence whether a strategic legacy is categorized as either an inheritance or a hangover. The article begins with an overview of existing research into the role of the founder, commitment and strategic inertia, which suggests that additional research is required to clarify the legacy of company founders. After a review of the research design and methodology adopted for the study, the findings of two case studies are presented. The findings suggest that the initial establishment of a strong organizational culture, continuing perceptions of success as well as successive family control all contribute to an adherence to the founding strategy, mission or objectives. In addition, the study indicates that the flexibility of the original strategy and environmental issues impact on the extent to which the strategic legacy is classified as an inheritance or a hangover. The article culminates in a series of conclusions and implications.     

Governance strategy and costs: board compensation in Sweden

Shareholders are not identical, but differ in their objectives and actions. One difference is the level of delegation of the principal functions to the board, which we suggest can be observed through the level of directors’ compensation. We analyze the difference in board compensation through the concept of governance strategy and suggest two distinct categories of shareholder strategies: the company governance strategy and the financial governance strategy. These strategies create different distributions of governance costs, which we separate into principal costs and agency costs. We claim that the financial governance strategy adopts a higher level of delegation, which implies that the principal costs are assumed by the corporation and that agency costs are higher. This in turn can explain the higher compensation for the directors of the board compared to compensation under the company governance strategy. We test our hypothesis using a three-year panel of Swedish listed corporations and find that shareholders pursuing a financial governance strategy are associated with higher levels of board compensation. These findings suggest the existence of differences in governance strategies, reflected in governance costs through board compensation, among different types of shareholders in a corporation.     

Local Management Response to Corporative Restructuring: A Case Study of a Company Town

This is a case study of top management in a Swedish pulp industry at Skutskär. After decades of proactive response to change, starting in 1976 the pulp industry experienced a rapid and significant restructuring. In 1992, and after a prolonged hold on local investments, came a large‐scale investment with major labor reductions, which created a local crisis. The aim of this study is to analyze how top managers of a local business plant perceive and explain their citizenship relationship to the community of the company town during a transition period from 1976 to 2007. Our study shows that too much reliance on top management cost reduction requirements and not caring, or underscoring, local social concerns created gaps and local stakeholder distrust. We discuss how prolonged distrust of the company to bear social responsibility ended up in a broken relationship between the company and the local community. Our case indicates at least two problems that must be handled for successful corporate citizenship. First, the traditional control‐oriented management view is too narrow and not adjusted to today's citizenship reality, including how to handle corporate social responsibility. Second, we can see a possibility where the conceived needs on a global corporate level may lead to situations to obscure local needs and consequences.     

Company rescue—An example

Growing competition and rising costs, together with an international recession, have made it much harder for companies to survive. The most prosperous companies are often those based on new inventions and new products while the hardest hit seem to be those engaged in conventional, mature products. This example described in this article is a case where a company, at the eleventh hour, was saved from bankruptcy by proper, systematic use of well known management techniques. The economic results developed so well, after the change of strategy, that in 4 years time it was possible to build and invest in new, modern plant.     

'It's a Very Foreign Discipline': the Genesis of Expenses Control in a Mutual Life Insurance Company

This paper is drawn from an intensive case study of Pensco - a mutual life insurance company in the South of England. The original objective of the research was to examine corporate strategy as an aspect of management control. As the research proceeded, it became clear that a new system of budgeting and expenses control was a crucial element of the transformation of the company from its 'sleepy’ paternalistic traditions into an aggressive, competitive financial services company. The paper contextualizes the development of budgeting and expenses control in Pensco within changes in the British economy. These are associated with the rise of the New Right, transformations in the financial services sector relating to deregulation and the establishment of a new regulatory framework. The argument of the paper is that budgeting and accounting control in this company has a complex genealogy revolving around a number of conditions coinciding at a particular point in time. Our case study material also reveals a variety of tensions, contradictions and resistances to the new management regime that placed, considerable obstacles in the way of an effective implementation of the new accounting and management controls     

Adapting for Innovation: Including Divestitures in the Debate

Existing literature argues that divested units are unwanted and poor performers - yet evidence suggests that companies do divest well performing units, and often retain a relationship with them, especially in the quest for innovation. This article presents an exploratory case study to examine how a company structures the divestiture of an innovative unit and how it can benefit from the innovation the unit generates. The analysis focuses on how an established company can use divestiture as a strategy to enhance the innovation of its units, and capture its value, by structuring, maintaining and nurturing a special relationship with the unbundled unit. Under new organizational arrangement, resources can be transferred from the parent to the unit, while the parent retains access to the innovation developed within the unit. This study proposes a framework that offers corporate change agents and strategists a new perspective on how to integrate innovation and corporate strategy.     

Planning in a German engineering business

Formalized corporate planning, particularly in its long-range aspects, often seems to be a privilege of the huge international firm. The following case is intended to show that, contrary to this belief, long-range planning is equally essential for the company evolving rapidly from a small into a medium-size company. In the company described, over a period of 3 years a basic system was developed with the participation of line management, and many of the procedures have become routine. Also, the firm's business objectives and long term strategy have been reviewed and the company has diversified outside the saturated traditional markets for agricultural machinery.     

Assigning migrants to customer contact jobs: a context-specific exploration of the business case for diversity

Ethnic diversity of both their labor forces and customer bases presents a challenge for companies and fuels debate on the business case for diversity: the view that diversity positively impacts firm performance. This study enriches the business case debate by focusing on a particular organizational activity, customer contact. It combines theory from strategic human resource management (SHRM), research on diversity, and research on marketing to analyze what drives companies to assign migrants to customer contact jobs and which performance impacts ensue. We test our hypotheses in data from 338 German business companies. Companies that recognize the value in ethnic diversity and seek to respond to customer diversity are especially likely to assign migrants to customer contact jobs. The analyses reveal a positive impact of migrants in customer contact jobs on company profitability. This impact is enhanced by a broad range of equality and diversity practices and a supportive works council. These moderators have stronger effects than two other moderators related to business strategy: the market served by a company, and its competitive strategy. The paper contributes to SHRM research in general and diversity research in particular through its original examination associating the business case for ethnic diversity with the role of equality and diversity practices and institutions. The study findings can help managers to decide whether to leverage staff ethnic diversity and show that collaboration between HR management and marketing functions is useful to achieve a strategic fit among practices.     

资源外包决策的系统分析模型

针对资源外包决策这一复杂系统问题,采用系统分析的方法,从经济学与战略管理2个角度对企业核心活动进行界定,指出企业核心活动具有集中性和独特性,在此基础之上,构建了识别企业核心活动的系统分析模型。最后通过一个制造企业的例证,说明该资源外包决策模型的科学性和有效性。     

Integrating the Content and Process of Strategic MIS Planning with Competitive Strategy*

This paper presents a framework that links strategic MIS planning and business strategy and relates it to competitive advantage and company performance. To achieve this objective, the paper first delineates the dimensions of strategic MIS planning, focusing on both content and process issues. The notion of fit within dimensions, between sets of dimensions (process and content), and between MIS planning and competitive strategy is also introduced. Next, employing the Miles-Snow typology of business strategy, the paper posits normative differences in the dimensions of strategic MIS planning along different business (or competitive) strategies. The implications of our study for both decision makers and scholars are discussed. Propositions that tie competitive strategy, strategic MIS planning, and company financial performance are then presented. The paper concludes by providing direction for future research.     

Mixed-model assembly line sequencing problems

The paper develops a comprehensive classification of mixed-model assembly lines from which four categories of model sequencing are derived. Each category aims at satisfying one or both of two objective criteria, the one minimizing the overall line length, and the other minimizing the thruput time. Approaches for solving the sequencing problem in each category are presented. The paper suggests a design strategy that can be followed by designers of mixed-model assembly lines. Specific topics requiring further research are also defined.     

SWAPCO Nuclear Corporation (SWAPCO)

SWAPCO is a nuclear fuel brokerage company which has managed to survive in a highly competitive niche market for fourteen years. The market is currently declining and the company must develop a strategy for survival and future growth. The case is designed to enable students to think about the effects of a rapidly changing market on a company's business and the effect of changes in the external environment on the company. It leads to discussion of market strategies, the role of government in business, the effects of competition and other external factors in the survival and growth of a business. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.