Environmental Factors,Managerial Processes,and Information Technology Investment Strategies

Although significant research attention has been directed at understanding the value of information technology (IT) investments for firms, very little attention has been paid to understand the IT investment behavior of firms. This article seeks to fill this void. We introduce the concept of IT investment strategy, defined by dimensions of intensity and proactiveness, to characterize the IT investment behavior of firms. Synthesizing the environmental deterministic and strategic choice perspectives of a firm's strategic decision making, we examine the effects of environmental factors, managerial processes, and the interplay between them on IT investment strategy. Specifically, we examine the impact of environmental factors such as industry clockspeed and information intensity on IT investment strategy. We also incorporate the strategic choice perspective to argue that managerial processes such as frequent chief executive officer—chief information officer communications and collective information systems planning play a critical role in shaping the firm's IT investment strategy. The empirical results show that the environmental variables are related to IT investment strategy. Besides, managerial processes serve as a means to understand the environment and thus moderate the relationships between the environmental variables and the various facets of IT investment strategy. The conceptualization of IT investment strategy and the focus on both environmental determinism and strategic choice should enrich our understanding of firms’ IT investing behavior.     

Toward a Contextually Anchored Service Innovation Typology

In an increasingly service-centered economy, service innovation is crucial to maintaining a firm's competitive advantage. While service innovation has attracted much attention and has resulted in the development of several service innovation typologies, these attempts remain rooted in the goods-versus-services perspective. In addition, limited attention has been devoted to theoretically anchoring these typologies in the key determinants of service innovation. Our study aims to close these gaps by developing a service innovation typology that is embedded in the service-dominant logic (SDL) and anchored by contextually relevant dimensions—environmental uncertainty, strategic orientation, and market orientation. This article presents an eight-cell service innovation typology and discusses its managerial and research implications. It is our belief that framing the typology along three contextually important dimensions and embedding in the SDL provides a richer and more appropriately specified articulation that is theoretically robust and will be useful to managers responsible for service innovation.     

Uncovering Mechanisms of Theory Development in an Academic Field: Lessons from Leadership Research

Abstract

A long‐standing debate in organization studies has centered on the tension between paradigmatic consensus and theoretical pluralism in an academic field, but little attention has been paid to the underlying processes of field development that account for this. Using a mechanisms‐based approach, we examined the field of leadership over the last 50 years (1957–2007) focusing on: scholarly consensus on theory and methods; models and variables; and examinations of the state of the field. In spite of considerable advances in research, we find a general lack of commensuration or standards by which theories can be compared or synthesized; an emphasis on leaders’ effects on performance rather than meaning‐making or value infusion; and sparse instances of taking stock of the overall field. We conclude by proposing three research strategies for the future—theoretical compartmentalization, theoretical integration, and theoretical novelty—and advocating greater methodological variety.     

Growing Strong in Asia: SRI Proves You Can Win With Principles

Sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) has its roots in religious and political movements in the West. Moving from being a bit of an unknown to being known in Asia, SRI has made its headway in the region and is here to stay. The objective environment — an educated populace, rising social awareness, pension fund development, tougher environmental legislation — is conducive to SRI development. SRI is influential in inducing corporate behavior, as business realizes being socially responsible is a competitive edge. Sustainable development can go hand in hand with economic prosperity as allies.There are hurdles to overcome in developing SRI in Asia. We are yet to see comprehensive research on SRI on Asian enterprises, a benchmark to measure their social performance, and an index to track their share price performance. ASrIA, a not for profit members association devoted to promoting SRI in Asia, helps to speed up its development from mere boardroom discussion to practice in mainstream finance. In doing so, it is important to remember that for SRI to grow healthily in the region, it has to be done in Asia on Asian terms.     

Sustainable supply chain management in the fast fashion industry: An analysis of corporate reports

In recent decades, the fast fashion industry has been characterized by widespread operations across both developing and developed countries. Due to the economic, social and environmental problems in developing countries, companies increasingly focus on sustainability and try to ensure the same quality and standards in working and production conditions throughout their supply chains. Although the tension in the exchange of resources between developing and developed countries lies at the heart of current sustainability activities, what these companies are actually doing to manage their supply chain has not yet been explored in depth in the literature. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Seuring and Müller (2008), the current study attempts to fill this void by conceptually mapping the current situation of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the fast fashion industry by analysing reports from 9 companies that use the same reporting guidelines. The results of the study reveal that these companies focus significantly on supplier compliance with their code of conduct, employing further monitoring and auditing activities to prevent production problems in developing countries, improve overall supply chain performance and set sustainability criteria for their suppliers.     

Ethics and Choosing Appropriate Means to an End: Problems with Coal Mine and Nuclear Workplace Safety

A common problem in ethics is that people often desire an end but fail to take the means necessary to achieve it. Employers and employees may desire the safety end mandated by performance standards for pollution control, but they may fail to employ the means, specification standards, necessary to achieve this end. This article argues that current (de jure) performance standards, for lowering employee exposures to ionizing radiation, fail to promote de facto worker welfare, in part because employers and employees do not follow the necessary means (practices known as specification standards) to achieve the end (performance standards) of workplace safety. To support this conclusion, the article argues that (1) safety requires attention to specification, as well as performance, standards; (2) coal-mine specification standards may fail to promote performance standards; (3) nuclear workplace standards may do the same; (4) choosing appropriate means to the end of safety requires attention to the ways uncertainties and variations in exposure may mask violations of standards; and (5) correcting regulatory inattention to differences between de jure and de facto is necessary for achievement of ethical goals for safety.     

The Protective Action Decision Model: Theoretical Modifications and Additional Evidence

The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) is a multistage model that is based on findings from research on people's responses to environmental hazards and disasters. The PADM integrates the processing of information derived from social and environmental cues with messages that social sources transmit through communication channels to those at risk. The PADM identifies three critical predecision processes (reception, attention, and comprehension of warnings or exposure, attention, and interpretation of environmental/social cues)—that precede all further processing. The revised model identifies three core perceptions—threat perceptions, protective action perceptions, and stakeholder perceptions—that form the basis for decisions about how to respond to an imminent or long‐term threat. The outcome of the protective action decision‐making process, together with situational facilitators and impediments, produces a behavioral response. In addition to describing the revised model and the research on which it is based, this article describes three applications (development of risk communication programs, evacuation modeling, and adoption of long‐term hazard adjustments) and identifies some of the research needed to address unresolved issues.     

A Measure of Throughput Orientation: Scale Development and Nomological Validation

Throughput orientation, although a well‐established concept in operations management and well recognized by practitioners, has received limited empirical attention potentially due to lack of a psychometrically validated scale. Based on the tenets of throughput orientation—mindset, methodology, and measurement—we propose and develop a psychometrically validated 26‐item scale of throughput orientation (TO). To lower the possibility of nonfalsifiability between TO and performance, we draw on an unexplored context—bank branches in India—where we expect this relationship to be weaker. Furthermore, as throughput in operations is mainly dependent on market demand, market orientation (MO) is proposed as a nomological moderator strengthening the TO‐performance relationship. Using a sample of 173 branch managers of a major private bank in India, we validate the throughput orientation scale, and find that MO strengthens the relationship between TO and performance.     

Valuing corporate environmental performance: Innovest's evaluation of the electric utilities industry

Investment analysts are often skeptical of any link between a company's environmental performance and business performance. However, a study of twenty-six electric utilities by Innovest shows a striking difference in share value between the best and worst environmental performers. Deregulations of the U.S. electric power industry has little noticed implications for environmental performance and risk. Add to that increasing regulatory pressure and public awareness, and environmental strategy emerges as a pivotal factor underlying success—or failure—in the industry. In the article, the authors show how forward-thinking companies are turning environmental threats into business opportunities, with shareholders pocketing the returns.     

Supply chain agility as an acclimatisation process to environmental uncertainty and organisational vulnerabilities: insights from British SMEs

Abstract

Even though supply chain agility (SCA) has been considered an essential concept in supply chain management (SCM) research, the way it is experienced and manifested, especially by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has received much less attention. Our purpose is to focus on SME organisational vulnerabilities in the context of increased environmental uncertainty, and explore how SCA is developed and applied by SMEs amid their vulnerabilities. By relying on insights from comparative case studies of three British SMEs, we examine SME SCA as an acclimatisation process and delve into SMEs’ experiences of facing environmental uncertainty while developing and applying SCA. Our findings highlight that organisational attitudes underlie how SMEs perceive environmental uncertainty, tackle organisational vulnerabilities and develop SCA as an acclimatisation process. Our findings also reveal that resource constraints, supply chain relationships, interorganisational power dynamics, and access to information play important roles in developing SCA.     

LEAN AND GREEN? AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEAN PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Lean production may have a significant public good spillover—improved environmental performance. However, empirical evidence of the link between lean production practices and environmental performance has not resolved the nature of the relationship. To explore this issue, we conduct an empirical analysis of the environmental performance of 17,499 U.S. manufacturing establishments during the time period 1991–1996. We find that those establishments that adopt the quality management standard ISO 9000 are more likely to adopt the environmental management standard ISO 14000. We also find strong evidence that lean production, as measured by ISO 9000 adoption and low chemical inventories, is complementary to waste reduction and pollution reduction.     

Search for Alternatives and Collaboration with Incumbents: Two-Sided Sourcing Behavior in Business Markets*

Sourcing strategies in business markets have been considered separately and the practice of two-sided sourcing behavior—engaging in search for alternative suppliers and collaboration with an incumbent supplier—has not been examined. To fill that gap, we first identify boundary conditions under which the poor performance of an incumbent supplier intensifies an original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) search and collaboration. Then, we examine how an OEM's two-sided sourcing behavior influences one of the critical elements of sourcing performance: the responsiveness of the incumbent supplier. Our proposed hypotheses were tested with data from a national survey of 539 OEM purchasing managers in the Japanese electronics industry. The analysis results indicate three main findings. First, two environmental conditions—pace of technological change and volume uncertainty—have contrasting influences on the link between incumbent supplier performance and an OEM's search and collaboration. While uncertainty from the upstream channel (pace of technological change) enhances an OEM's search and collaboration, uncertainty from the downstream channel (volume uncertainty) lowers an OEM's search and collaboration. Second, an OEM's dependence on its incumbent supplier has differential effects: an OEM reduces search as its dependence on incumbent supplier increases, while it enhances collaboration as its dependence on incumbent supplier increases. Third, while search alone has a negative effect on responsiveness of an incumbent supplier, engaging in two-sided sourcing behavior (i.e., combining search with collaboration) has a positive effect on responsiveness of the incumbent supplier.     

The rise of private food quality and safety standards: illustrations from Brazil

Over the past decade, the private sector has rapidly built up an array of private food standards to assure quality and safety in a fiercely competitive market. These private standards have sometimes been to fill in for missing public standards, especially for safety, and to differentiate products and build reputation, for both quality and safety. Moreover, private standards are increasingly related to meta-management systems assuring both quality and safety at all levels of a chain, enforcing and certifying the implementation of process standards. The privatization of standards has been important for both buyers and suppliers in the chain. They tend to be formulated and imposed by buyers (retailers and processors), and are key to their cost control and reputation with consumers, thus overall competitiveness. They are imposed on suppliers, who often find that the standards imply very substantial outlays for reporting, new equipment, and training. The lucky—a relatively small subset of the original set of suppliers—tend to find that meeting the standards, with formal certification in hand, benefits their business, opens new opportunities. The excluded tend to find themselves relegated to waning and unprofitable markets. The above points concerning the determinants and effects of the formulation and implementation of private standards are illustrated with cases from the dairy, coffee, wheat products, and coconut product chains in Brazil.     

On the Same Page? How Asymmetric Buyer–Supplier Relationships Affect Opportunism and Performance

Research on buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) has often focused on only one side of the relationship and, thus, has tended to overlook asymmetries. Yet, a buyer (supplier) may often deal with a bigger supplier (buyer) or one that has higher levels of trust, respect, and reciprocity. Therefore, we examined how two types of asymmetries—size and relational capital—affect perceived opportunism and performance. We used dyadic data from 106 buyers and their matched suppliers gathered from a survey and an archival database. The results demonstrate that the degree and direction of both asymmetries affect the BSR. Our results also reveal that an imbalance of relational capital in a firm's favor may have the opposite effect from that intended. In other words, the firm's counterpart perceives more, rather than less, firm opportunism. The results also suggest that a buyer observes lower benefits in the presence of size asymmetry, whereas the supplier's perception of benefits is unaffected. Thus, our research represents a significant step forward in understanding BSRs and asymmetries by (i) bringing attention to two key asymmetries inherent in BSRs and (ii) showing that these asymmetries are not unidirectional in their influence on perceived opportunism and performance.     

Environmental practices and firm performance in emerging markets: the mediating role of product quality

Environmental practices have not received as much research attention in emerging market contexts as traditional topics like quality. However, the importance of environmental practices for a firm’s production strategy has been increasing at an unprecedented level across the globe. Our research objective is, therefore, to investigate the interplay between environmental practices and quality in the pursuit of firm performance. Relying on 492 responses from Turkish manufacturers to test our hypotheses, we show that environmental practices directly improve the quality of products over and above the effect of quality management practices in emerging markets. Product quality, in turn, is important for increasing firm performance, acting as a mediator for the positive effects of environmental practices on performance. Thus, we reveal that product quality functions as an instrumental conduit between environmental practices and firm performance in emerging markets like Turkey where stakeholder pressures are weak, and regulations are often not properly enforced.     

Environmental scanning— the state of the art

In recent years increasing attention has been devoted to amplifying individual elements of corporate planning systems—among them the environmental scanning element. Moreover, the unprecendented intensification of corporate environmental complexity has led to a proliferation of approaches to scanning the general environment. However, a recent survey of a dozen U.S. companies has questioned whether such scanning practices have, in fact, been established in an ongoing manner. The author provides evidence here, based on publicly available information, of at least nine leading organizations where the practice of scanning for planning appears to have taken firm root. A discussion of the many facets of the resulting composite picture of sophisticated wide angle scanning leads to the anticipation that it is, in fact, on the threshold of rapid diffusion in the corporate world.     

Information for more effective strategic planning

This paper illustrates how an entity—called a ‘strategic data base’ (SDB)—can be developed to provide important information in a form which makes it directly useful in various phases of a strategic planning process. The strategic data bases are concise statements of the organizational and environmental situations which define the organization's most salient problems, opportunities, and constraints. These SDBs may be developed through a participative process involving tasks forces which are made up of managers representing the diverse interests of the organization. The strategic data bases thereby become important informational inputs to planning which can directly serve to enhance the quality of planning decisions. Moreover, the process of developing SDBs can be an important learning device for those middle managers who can become involved in such a process at a much earlier point in their career than that at which they might normally engage substantively in the organization's overall strategic choice process.     

Spatial economies in distribution transports

Unit costs of distribution transport (depot → customer) are studied using a simulator. Petroleum companies with four spatial distribution parameters—size (= market share), market area, depot pattern and customer structure—are used as observations. Relevant combinations of the parameters are evaluated with real world data. The unexpectedly small differences between alternatives appear to be due to the dominance of a single urban agglomeration.