Managing strategic change--strategy, culture and action

One of the major problems facing senior executives is that of effecting significant strategic change in their organizations. This paper develops a number of explanatory frameworks which address the links between the development of strategy in organizations, dimensions of corporate culture and managerial action. In considering such linkages, and by illustrating them with examples from work undertaken in companies, the paper also seeks to advance our understanding of the problems and means of managing strategic change.     

Managing green productivity: Some strategic directions

The twentieth century has been the hallmark for managing total productivity, where the emphasis is towards maximization of outputs commensurate with the consumption of inputs. This is being challenged now to evolve the world class manufacturing strategy requiring a paradigm shift. This shift is towards green productivity, which looks forward to socially appropriate production and consumption aiming at value innovation and resource conservation. This paper is an attempt to outline the concepts and experiential learning about green productivity.     

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.     

Managing strategic change in a mature business

The article draws on the experience of four sectors of the U.K. economy to suggest what the competetive conditions of the next decade might look like. The distinction is made between barries to entry and barries to success. Strategic management in the more successful companies appears to involve the common ability to sustain strategic flexibility. The majority of the piece indicates how this quality has been fashioned and how the process of its creation and maintenance has been managed in the companies concerned. Evidence from the four sectors is used to speculate on some of the key determinants of strategic flexibility in the 1990s.     

Managing strategic change: An integrated approach

This paper sets out to identify and discuss an integrated approach to the management of strategic changes. Managing effectiveness, dealing with organizational cultures and managing organizational politics are discussed, focusing upon how to do so in order to encourage risk-taking, creativity and learning and to build self-esteem and performance. Such an approach allows the achievement of major changes in ways which lead to employees developing a fuller understanding of the nature of the business, its problems and its future.     

Managing organizational change—A strategic approach

Developing the competence, commitment and capacity for change of people is a vital element in the creation and maintenance of competitive advantage and should be an integral part of the strategic equations and business plans of any firm. This theme, examples of ‘good’ practice, and strategies to implement a strategic approach to people have been explained and developed in a brief case ‘action pack’ produce by the authors of this article for the MSC and NEDO. Key factors identified in the development of the three ‘C’s are effective leadership, involvement and good employee communications, stress on performance management, appropriate reward systems and training and development.     

Contextualist-retroductive case study design for strategic asset management research

Abstract

This paper develops a tailored case study design for strategic asset management research. It draws on the notions of ‘contextualist approach’ and ‘retroductive strategy’ used in case study research, and follows the multiple embedded-case design advocated within qualitative research. Using a published asset management research study as a primer, it demonstrates the application of the proposed research design and its methodological rigour. This research design could serve as a reference framework, as well as a research instrument, for guiding asset management research. As such, it facilitates the development of theory that accounts for the multi-faceted nature and current priorities of asset management. Overall, this research design helps determine what activities to be incorporated into an asset management program to enhance an organization’s ability to capture value from its operations system. In so doing, it promotes a holistic perspective on asset management that is currently lacking in the literature.     

Conflicting strategic objectives in hospital design

This paper presents a multigoal linear programming model designed to analyse the impact of different strategic objectives in the planning of hospitals. The paper argues that it is necessary to adopt an overall point-of-view in planning; that it is necessary to consider the interactions between the hospital, other social and health institutions and the community at large in order to attain an efficient plan. A simplified cost-benefit analysis is suggested, and it is demonstrated that the opportunity costs of lost working days may be more important than both capital and operating costs from a social point of view.     

Minimum cost network design in strategic alliances

Strategic alliances are established between firms to improve their competitiveness in markets and generally appear in the form of joint ventures. Such collaborative efforts require centralized planning, and the survival of the alliance largely depends on the success of joint planning processes. In this regard, we investigate the opportunities that centralized collaboration can offer to firms when designing their service networks. Apart from the classical fixed and variable costs associated with the network design, we also consider transaction costs induced by the formation of the alliance, which can broadly be defined as cost components related to the coordination and monitoring of the people, efforts and resources. We concentrate on bilateral alliances and develop alternative models for solving their associated network design problem. We also adopt a state-of-the-art heuristic to solve large-scale instances. Our findings confirm that accounting for the transaction cost in network design is vital for the alliance. These transaction costs can be high enough to even render the collaboration unattractive. Hence, careful data collection and model treatment are required before deciding whether to form an alliance.     

Benders decomposition for a strategic network design problem under NAFTA local content requirements

Global production and sourcing strategies of multinational corporations are strongly influenced by the increasing number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Based on the special local content requirements of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for automotive goods, the impact on strategic network design decisions is investigated. The presented model explicitly integrates the different NAFTA legal options to calculate the local content for automotive goods. Furthermore, it considers the possibility to underachieve the local content requirement and to pay penalty duties for NAFTA cross-border deliveries instead. Plant fixed costs have a significant impact on the local content fulfillment and have to be allocated in accordance with the actual plant utilization and the different local content calculation options. Due to the resulting non-linearity of the mixed-integer program, a solution algorithm based on Benders decomposition is presented. In addition, we introduce multiple Benders cuts to improve the efficiency and applicability to real-world planning problems. Compared to piecewise linearization approaches, the run-time can be improved significantly. In a numerical study, the impact of local content requirements on the strategic network design is shown and the different NAFTA options to calculate the local content for automotive goods are compared with each other. Furthermore, computational experiments are performed to evaluate the applicability and efficiency of Benders decomposition.     

基于战略风险投资的融资契约设计及融资决策

初创企业融资过程中, 融资的对象以及合同的设计会对初创企业的经营状态以及社会福利水平产生重要影响.本文将融资的对象分为仅仅追求货币收益的风险投资家和同时追求货币收益及战略目标的战略投资者, 并基于此在阶段性融资背景下考察了单个投资者、多个独立投资者以及辛迪加组织这三类融资方式中融资对象的选择和融资契约的设计, 最后以社会福利水平最优为首要目标、企业预期收益最大为次要目标为企业家提供最优的融资决策.通过分析表明一个最优的融资决策应当包含最优的融资方式和最优的融资对象.关于融资方式, 辛迪加组织提供融资可行时, 企业家应寻求辛迪加组织融资且这种融资方式总是社会有效率的;辛迪加组织提供融资不可行时, 企业家应寻求多个独立的投资者融资, 但这种融资方式无法实现最优的社会福利水平.关于融资对象, 企业家应选择努力水平与一阶最优努力水平最为接近的投资者.     

Markov and renewal models for total manpower system

This study compares the predictive utility of three stochastic models for both total manpower system and cohort personnel movement. The models are all discrete time versions, including a first order Markov chain, a Markov chain with duration of stay (semi-Markov) and a vacancy model having both renewal and Markov properties. The analysis covers a continuous 20 year period: 1950–1970 for a state police (U.S.A.) internal labor market. The simple Markov chain model is inadequate for long term cohort forecasts, but reasonably adequate for long term organizational forecasts. The semi-Markov model outperforms the simple Markov model for cohorts, but is surprisingly less accurate for the total organization. The heuristic information it portrays for the cohort is, however, quite informative. The best model for intermediate (5 year) and long term (10 year) forecasts in both cohort and organizational tests is the renewal type vacancy model. This finding is viewed as particularly important both in terms of empirical performance, which we expect can be improved due to the initial simplifying assumptions used, and in terms of further theoretical explication of the underlying causal process since internal staff flows are conceptualized as contingent on the opportunities available.     

Planning for strategic flexibility

In the last 10 years much has been written about the increasing environmental uncertainty firms and other organizations have to cope with. This uncertainty made it much more difficult to plan, since unexpected events often made them obsolete.Flexibility is frequently considered as a way to ‘solve’ the problem of environmental turbulence.In this article, based upon theoretical and empirical research, the author explores the concept of flexibility, puts forward some of his research findings, and advances some implications on how to increase strategic flexibility.     

Metachoice for strategic analysis

A necessary precursor to strategic choice is the selection of a strategic choice evaluation method — metachoice. Unfortunately, managers are unlikely to find much guidance on how to conduct metachoice analysis in the strategy literature. In light of this problem, a template is presented based on two questions that must be addressed by those engaged in strategic analysis generally and metachoice specifically: (1) what are the organization's strategic goals? (2) how willing are they to monetize their predictions and valuations? Four resulting choice methods are presented and discussed: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis (including variants based on real options), Profitability Analysis, Modified Discounted Cash Flow Analysis and Multi-Goal Analysis.     

Horizons for strategic planning

In this paper we present a normative model for setting time horizons for planning. Provided that certain conditions are met, we can state that only part of the future is relevant for present strategic planning, and a study of the future beyond that time horizons is a waste of resources.Following the introduction the impact of predetermined planning horizon on planning is discussed. Next, the model is presented: the problem is defined, developed and solved. The discussion of the model is designed to incorporate—and to show its implication on—existing views and methods for setting time horizons for strategic planning. Thus, simplifying assumptions which facilitate the mathematical solution of the problem, are discussed and relaxed in order to show how realistic situations are illuminated by the model.     

Organizing for strategic management

In this paper, the author—a well-known Dutch academic and consultant—discusses the factors which make ‘strategic management’ effective. Among these, a dominant factor is the organization climate which, in its turn, is determined by the quality of the managers and the availability of alternatives. He suggests that to improve the organization climate in which strategic management can be effective, the quality of the managers is a crucial factor. The scope for alternatives is an important constraint. This article assesses common problems and failures in strategic management and gives some suggestions for organizing it, including the use of consultants and the role of formal procedures.     

Economic and psychological explanations for strategic persistence

Strategic management researchers are showing increasing interest in the question of why companies persist in questionable strategies. In this paper, two types of explanations for strategic persistence are discussed. Specific explanations from the economic and psychological perspectives are reviewed. An integrated approach is developed which shows how economic and psychological factors may interact to encourage this type of persistence.     

Macroenvironmental analysis for strategic management

Macroenvironmental analysis is an integral part of systematic strategic planning. Even though the literature on macroenvironmental analysis is fragmented, there are useful guidelines for making sense out of this complex and important aspect of strategic planning. This article highlights five important questions managers should ask about macroenvironmental analysis, develops a model for the process, and summarizes what research and experience tell us about each question.