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.     

Driving Through the Fog: Managing at the Edge

Although the periphery does not occupy the centre of our attention, it should be ignored at our peril. This paper gives many examples of companies that have been heavily influenced by peripheral events, whether they started out there, or whether they hopelessly misread the oncoming signals. It argues that a monitoring of the periphery can help diffuse small problems before they becomes crises. It provides a roadmap for organisations by describing how to define the field of view and how to assess the signals from it.     

Complexity Absorption and Performance: A Structural Analysis of Acute-Care Hospitals

This study assesses the degree to which a complexity absorption response enhances performance in an industry increasingly described as highly complex: acute-care hospitals. Business-level strategy, organizational structure, and analytical comprehensiveness are viewed as mechanisms through which executives can increase internal complexity. A case is made that hospitals are well served to pursue a hybrid (or combination) strategy, employ an organic structure, and engage in a high degree of information acquisition and use. In keeping with a complexity absorption view, results indicate that these elements generally exhibit stronger associations with performance as dynamism increases.     

Target Reputation and Appropriability: Picking and Deploying Resources in Acquisitions

This study explores sources of acquirer satisfaction and achievement of strategic objectives following acquisitions. We develop two sets of factors based on picking and deploying target resources that we expect will affect these outcomes, and consider how the two interact. We find that target reputation is consistently related to desirable acquisition outcomes. In particular, product quality and financial reputation positively affect satisfaction; product quality is a strong predictor of achieving market-based objectives; and management and product reputation facilitate learning. Retaining top management after the transaction is also positively related to satisfaction. We support and extend the theory of relative standing—target executives are retained to a greater degree when management reputation is strong, and this leads to better outcomes for acquirers. Other deployment effects vary depending on the outcome and the strength of the acquired resource.     

Examination of Structured Interview Ratings Across Time: The Effects of Applicant Race, Rater Race, and Panel Composition

This study examined the relationship between race and interview ratings in a structured selection panel interview. Data from 1,334 police officer applicants who were interviewed by three-person panels were examined to explore how applicant race, rater race, and panel racial composition related to interview ratings and change from initial to final ratings. Results revealed the largest effect was for panel racial composition, such that predominately White panels provided significantly more favorable ratings to applicants of all races compared to panels composed of predominately Black raters. However, a significant three-way interaction between rater race, applicant race, and panel composition was also found. Specifically, Black raters evaluated Black applicants more favorably than White applicants only when they were on a predominately Black panel. These results may help explain past inconsistencies in the literature regarding the effects of rater race and applicant race on ratings.     

Can a Previous Alliance Between an Acquirer and a Target Affect Acquisition Performance?

Throughout the 1990s, organizations have been combining resources through acquisitions and alliances in record numbers. An acquirer’s previous alliance with a target may give an acquirer target-specific information and experience that may be an advantage-producing resource in selection, valuation and integration of the target. This study investigates whether a previous alliance between an acquirer and a target affects post-acquisition performance and finds that a previous alliance between an acquirer and a target correlates positively with acquisition performance. Acquirers’ previous R&D, technology transfer, manufacturing and marketing alliances with targets benefit acquisition performance more than their previous licensing alliances with targets. Furthermore, target-specific learning effects are strongest and most beneficial to acquisition performance in acquirers’ previous technology transfer and manufacturing alliances with targets.