New Organizational Forms for Competing in Highly Dynamic Environments: the Network Paradigm

Turbulence and rapid change in the business environment have been associated for some time with the development of new network organizational forms which put various types of strategic alliance and other inter-organizational collaborations into effect. This paper traces the rationale for the formation of such networks and the associated vertical disaggregation of functions and implications for internal organizational design. This leads to the proposal of a classification framework for network forms. Using the dimensions of volatility of environmental change on the one hand, and the type of inter-organizational relationship involved (collaborative or transactional) on the other hand, network forms are classified as: hollow networks, flexible networks, value-added networks and virtual networks. In each case it is possible to identify the environmental and organizational contingencies most likely to be associated with the emergence and adoption of a particular type of network arrangement. This argument leads to the identification of a new research agenda which has the goals of developing more robust conceptualizations of network characteristics; better understanding the contingencies surrounding the emergence of network forms and their relative efficiencies and specifying some of the major implications of network formation for internal organizational design. In parallel the paper identifies a number of managerial implications for setting strategic priorities and developing appropriate management systems in these new organizational contexts.     

网络密度、高管注意力配置与企业绿色创新:制度压力的调节作用

本文整合社会网络理论、注意力基础观和新制度主义理论等,通过对282家制造企业的问卷调查,采用多元回归分析方法,探讨了网络密度和高管注意力配置的交互匹配对企业绿色创新的影响机制,以及制度压力在其中的调节作用。研究发现,在高密度网络中,高管采用注意力聚集策略对绿色创新有显著正向影响;而在低密度网络中,高管采用注意力分散策略对绿色创新有显著正向影响。规制压力和模仿压力均正向调节网络密度和高管注意力配置的交互作用对绿色创新的影响,但模仿压力的调节作用更强。通过构建不同制度压力情景下网络密度与高管注意力的交互作用对绿色创新影响的理论框架,本文推动社会网络理论、注意力基础观等成熟的理论成果从一般创新向绿色创新研究领域繁衍,为企业绿色创新加入与主流理论的对话做了努力,为企业在绿色创新过程中根据不同的制度压力,以及所嵌入的组织间网络密度情况,选择合适的注意力配置策略提供理论参考。     

Imprinting: Toward a Multilevel Theory

The concept of imprinting has attracted considerable interest in numerous fields—including organizational ecology, institutional theory, network analysis, and career research—and has been applied at several levels of analysis, from the industry to the individual. This article offers a critical review of this rich yet disparate literature and guides research toward a multilevel theory of imprinting. We start with a definition that captures the general features of imprinting across levels of analysis but is precise enough to remain distinct from seemingly similar concepts, such as path dependence and cohort effects. We then provide a framework to order and unite the splintered field of imprinting research at different levels of analysis. In doing so, we identify economic, technological, institutional, and individual influences that lead to imprints at the level of (a) organizational collectives, (b) single organizations, (c) organizational building blocks, and (d) individuals. Building on this framework, we develop a general model that points to major avenues for future research and charts new directions toward a multilevel theory of imprinting. This theory provides a distinct lens for organizational research that takes history seriously.     

Development of ‘timescapes' to effectively manage global inter-organizational relational communications

The globalization of business has resulted in the emergence of hyper-competition in many industries. Given the geographic, economic, and cultural dispersion of markets, many organizations have developed network structures to increase their strategic flexibility and to preserve idiosyncratic assets. This reliance on inter-organizational relationships has created an increased need to improve coordination and communication among the members of the global network. The problems associated with effective inter-organizational communications are exacerbated by the accelerating rate of change and time …a ‘quickening' of events. Moreover, managers are required to adapt to the eventful differences in time across national and organizational cultures. This paper develops the concept of ‘timescapes' to facilitate effective inter-organizational and inter-cultural communications. A managerial process for decision-making relative to global communications is also presented in the paper.     

发明人网络结构与组织合作网络位置

以社会网络理论为基础,从跨层次视角分析组织内外部合作网络之间的作用机制,提出组织内部发明人合作网络中心势和结构洞数量,对其嵌入组织间合作网络中心位置具有直接影响和交互作用,并运用2003~2017年无人驾驶技术领域中,6029条无人驾驶技术专利数据进行实证检验。研究显示:组织内部发明人合作网络中心势,负向影响组织嵌入外部研发合作网络的中心位置;组织内部发明人合作网络结构洞数量,正向影响组织嵌入外部研发合作网络的中心位置;二者交互对组织嵌入组织间合作网络中心位置具有负向作用。     

政策及经济环境对企业投资决策方法选择的影响

本文使用结构方程方法,基于问卷调查结果,对政策和经济环境变化对于企业投资决策方法选择的影响进行了研究。研究结果表明,政策环境对企业投资决策方法有影响,在政策因素变化条件下,上市公司回避使用净现值方法;经济环境对于企业投资决策方法影响不大,论文分析结果没有表现出经济因素是否变化对投资决策方法选择有明显影响。     

国外跨组织领导研究前沿探析

首先对以往研究中跨组织领导的概念界定做总结归纳;进而以HUXHAM等提出的跨组织领导概念框架作为理论基础,就个体组织层面跨组织领导行为和协作网络层面周边领导要素2种领导力量各自的内涵及效能的现有研究开展综合评述,并进一步针对两者间的互动关系,提出新的跨组织领导效能演进机制框架。     

网络治理的权力基础:一个跨案例研究

网络组织是当前经济活动中的普遍现象,网络治理并非信任基础上的自主治理,而是受组织间权力关系的规制,权力是决定网络组织运行的重要关系并影响了网络组织运行绩效.本文通过一个跨案例研究,分析了网络治理的权力基础,提出组织间权力来源于企业资源、结构位势和制度压力.三种权力基础的作用机理不同,其中企业资源和网络中心性显著地表现为个体层面的权力,而网络密度和制度压力则体现为网络层面的权力,个体层面权力与网络层面权力的相互作用导致网络组织呈现不同的演变趋势.     

Subsidiary Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Opportunity: An Institutional Perspective

A subsidiary's ability to identify opportunities in the host country and to subsequently exploit these opportunities could create competitive advantages for the Multinational Corporation. While research on subsidiary entrepreneurship has focused primarily on subsidiary-specific resources and capabilities, as well as environmental factors, the type of opportunities that the subsidiaries may find in the host environment has been underexplored. Drawing on the subsidiary entrepreneurship literature, institutional perspectives, and entrepreneurship research, this paper suggests that subsidiaries embedded in institutional contexts that are different from those of their home country have unique advantages that enable the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities. Accordingly, a theoretical framework is proposed, based on contingency perspectives on the different views of entrepreneurial opportunities in relation to business processes in the host country's institutional environment, vis-a-vis uncertainty levels and legitimacy requirements. In addition, appropriate strategic approaches are suggested, through which subsidiaries can exploit these entrepreneurial opportunities.     

The Endogenous Construction of Accounting Discourses in a Trade Union

The exploration of accounting practices reported in this paper illustrates how perceptions of financial problems and notions of economic accountability develop within cultural and institutional environments that substantially differ from those of the business firm. The paper seeks to oppose a notion of economic determinism which, explicitly or implicitly, promotes the ideal identity between market and society. In contrast to such a view, an institutional and organizational embedded understanding of accounting is suggested as a more fruitful way of appreciating the nature and scope of economic discourses as they develop within a nonprofit organization. The analysis focuses on the ways in which economic functioning is interpreted and accountability developed within an organization that rejects stereotyped views of managerialism and conventional notions of economic rationality. The presence of endogenous fabrications of economic accounts is what eventually allows us to problematize the way in which the economic framework is all too easily seen to enter non-business environments as a colonizing force.     

Modeling Network Management: An Examination of Internal and External Strategies

Within the last decade scholars have begun to emphasize the importance of exploring management within an inter-organizational context (O’Toole and Laurence Public Administration Review 57(1):45-52, 1997; Agranoff and McGuire 1999; O’Toole and Meier Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 9(4): 505-526, 1999). These studies have demonstrated the importance of network management on organizational performance. However, McGuire (2002) argues that the literature on networking does not demonstrate the intricate activities of network management that lead to increased performance, asserting case studies are necessary to achieve this goal. This work uses large-n data and presents the concepts of internal and external networking as a framework for understanding how network management contributes to improved organizational performance.     

Organizational Responses to Contending Institutional Logics: The Moderating Effect of Group Dynamics

This paper advances knowledge on how the forms of institutional logics that emerge and become venerated among members of a singular organization in a heterogeneous field are influenced by struggles between contending interest groups. It examines the moderating effect of group dynamics that occur when an organization attempts to balance novel institutional complexity within organizational bounds through its hiring and promotion systems. The authors argue that, while the specific institutional oppositions of heterogeneous fields compel organizational changes, the institutional forms that emerge and become legitimate among members of an organization in such fields are the effects of indeterminate social processes of regularization and breaking of coexisting logics. The paper provides insights into how the negotiations among groups of organizational actors over the process and outcome of institutional change are influenced by asymmetric power relationships yet significantly mediated by their social strategies. The findings reported are from an ethnography of the enactment of institutional changes at a South Korean credit card company following the economic crisis in 1997 and the International Monetary Fund bailout programme.     

Institutional transitions,global mindset,and EMNE internationalization

Recently revised theoretical explanations of the internationalization process have been offered to specifically account for the propensity of Emerging Market Multinationals (EMNEs) to engage in accelerated internationalization. However, this literature stream has yet to consider how the fundamental institutional transitions occurring in emerging markets promote the individual and organizational level global mindset that helps account for this accelerated, proactive international expansion. Our dynamic multi-level conceptual framework examines the influences of both the home country institutions and intra-organizational mindsets on the development of EMNE outward FDI decision making. This framework contributes to extant literature by integrating conceptualizations of national culture with the informal and formal institutions offered by institutional theory, while examining how fundamental shifts in these influence the intra-organizational context. Furthermore, our conceptual framework adopts a multi-level perspective of global mindset as an antecedent of firm decision making and adds to the global mindset literature by arguing that institutional transition is a macro level antecedent of global mindset.     

Uncertainty in interorganizational collaboration and the dynamics of trust: A qualitative study

The field study presented in the article illustrates how trust is operationalized in business practices. It shows that deciding to engage and remain in collaborative relations characterized by high uncertainty is influenced by reciprocal interactions among (i) transactional and relational attributes, (ii) organizational and environmental characteristics, (iii) governance structures and processes, and (iv) acts of suspension. Our framework demonstrates that exchange partners sometimes need to suspend (i.e., accept and embrace) risks in a non-calculative manner. Thus, building on a qualitative study of collaborative software development projects, this paper calls for the dynamic treatment of governance mechanisms in interorganizational relationships.     

Organizational Form,Ownership Structure and Corporate Performance: A Contextual Empirical Analysis of UK Companies1

This paper contributes to the literature on organizational form and performance (the performance-conduct paradigm) by examining the impact of two sets of variables that have not been examined previously: measures of environmental uncertainty and alternative forms of controlling separation of ownership from control. The paper first examines the extent to which contextual variables such as perceived environmental uncertainty and age of the organizational form moderate the relationship between organizational form and corporate performance. Next, the paper extends the analysis by examining the possible effects of ownership and control structures on performance. Measures suggested by agency theory, such as conventional ownership proxies (i.e. proportion of shares held by identifiable, homogenous groups), the proportion of non-executive board members and Fama and Jensen's concept of separation of decision management from decision control are used in the analysis. The results indicate that these measures have direct impact on corporate performance in their own right, though the main impact is indirect through interactions with organizational form variables.     

Path(ological) Dependency? Core Competencies from an Organizational Perspective

The development of the 'resource-based theory of the firm' has helped to reorient the field of strategic management towards a focus on the organizational processes and structures which produce 'core competencies'. By challenging previous assumptions of market determinism this approach seems to open up the prospect of a greater dialogue with the theories and concerns of organization studies. This paper aims to determine the scope of such a dialogue by developing an appreciation and critique of the core competencies framework from an organizational perspective. In this context, the key feature of resource-based theories is seen to be their focus on organizational knowledge rather than decision-making processes as the engine of competitive performance. This focus has a powerful resonance with studies of knowledge in organizations, particularly those forms of knowledge which are linked to product and process design.
However, despite the important shift towards a knowledge-based view of competition, the core competencies approach fails to follow the logic of its own argument as far as the organizational appropriation of knowledge is concerned. In their pursuit of an ontological model of competitive performance –defining the essential causes of firm competitiveness – resource-based approaches neglect the socially embedded qualities of organizational knowledge. As a result, the social construction of knowledge, encompassing the dilemmas posed by the employment relationship and the pitfalls of institutionalization, is neglected. Instead, a smoothly linear model is developed linking skills, competence and competitiveness. This mechanistic view is further reinforced by reliance on a command and control model of the management process. Organizational knowledge is not a biddable resource at the disposal of top management.     

The attention-based view: Review and conceptual extension towards situated attention

Over two decades ago, William Ocasio introduced the attention-based view (ABV) of the firm with a powerful argument: firm-level behaviour is the result of the situated distribution and allocation of managerial attention, embedded in broader organizational structures and the environmental context. ABV-based research has received substantial and increasing scholarly attention, resulting in a complex and incoherent body of research. In order to address this issue, this paper takes stock of extant research on the ABV and consolidates key debates. Based on a systematic review of 173 articles, we synthesize existing research into a unifying framework. Drawing on this framework, we propose situated attention as a central theme for future research. We elaborate on four situational factors (materiality, social dynamics, temporality and what we call framing of the strategic setting), which may influence how actors’ attention is situated in the particular context.     

When do Public Managers Imitate Each Other? Mimetic Decision Making in Contracting Decisions of Danish Municipalities

Using organizational new institutional theory, this paper explores a core mechanism underlying contracting decisions in public organizations. A central proposition of this branch of institutional theory is that uncertainty leads to organizational isomorphism. The present study investigates this proposition by asking: When does perceived uncertainty lead public managers to imitative behavior in contracting out decisions? Contrary to most previous studies, we apply an individual level approach and relate different types of perceived uncertainty of decision makers to mimetic decision making. We define mimetic decision making as when decision makers deliberately obtain information about other organizations in order to possibly imitate them. In a survey of Danish municipal managers facing important and complex contracting decisions, we test our hypotheses about three types of perceived uncertainty and mimetic decision making. The results show that technological uncertainty is strongly related to mimetic decision making among public managers. However, we do not find significant results for either volume uncertainty or performance uncertainty. The paper illustrates how uncertainty, through mimetic decision making, is connected to organizational isomorphism. It further highlights that future studies should pay attention to the multidimensionality of uncertainty and its consequences.     

Complex technological capabilities in emerging economy firms: The role of organizational relationships

Formal organizational relationships are important sources for capability building in emerging economy firms eager to move up the value chain. We examine how access to valuable knowledge available to firms via organizational relationships creates learning opportunities necessary for the development of complex technological capabilities. Using a sample of 852 observations of emerging economy firms from the Indian software industry between 1992 and 2000, we find that developing strong domestic intra-organizational relationships, through affiliation with a moderately diversified business group or operating in a related industry, promote more complex technological capabilities. In the case of foreign inter-organizational relationships, we find that greater foreign client contact enhances the complexity of firm technological capabilities. However, accessing knowledge from domestic inter-organizational relationships appears to hinder the development of firm complex technological capabilities. An interesting result from our research was that having greater access to knowledge from foreign intra-organizational relationships, embedded within foreign subsidiaries, did not lead to the development of complex firm technological capabilities. The results of our study highlight that for emerging economy firms wanting to improve their complex technological capabilities, there may be diminishing benefits to learning from and acquiring knowledge available within specific types of formal organizational relationships.     

The servant identity: Influences on the cognition and behavior of servant leaders

This paper approaches the study of servant leadership by concentrating on the identity of servant leaders. An identity is important to one's sense of self and it influences the way a leader cognitively processes socially relevant information and exercises a particular leadership behavior in response to a situation. Unlike existing studies, which typically approach servant leadership as one of a number of possible leadership styles, and which merely describe its characteristics, this paper serves to explain the basis for individuals enacting this mode of leadership. This paper defines and elaborates on the servant identity by showing the psychological factors constituting it. Taking a socio-cognitive approach, the paper offers a theoretical framework for the servant identity. The framework encompasses the cognitive and behavioral disposition of leaders with servant identity and the organizational contexts that influence it. This new angle on servant leadership opens avenues for future research and practice.