How organizational characteristics affect the adaptive tactics used by human service nonprofit managers confronting financial uncertainty

The way that nonprofits respond to funding uncertainty is crucial to their ability to meet goals and position themselves for future success. This article investigates how structural, managerial, and financial characteristics affect the adaptive tactics used by human service nonprofits during times of financial stress. These tactics include adding new programs, reducing programs or staff, expanding or starting joint programs, pursuing earned income, and expanding advocacy involvement. Using longitudinal data on human service nonprofits collected on either side of the 2002–2003 economic downtown, we find that larger size provides organizations with a unique ability to choose among different adaptive tactics, as larger size was significantly predictive of adding new programs, reducing programs, expanding advocacy, and pursuing earned income. Strategic planning was positively associated with innovative tactics such as starting joint programs or pursuing earned income. Financial stress or declines in an organization's major funding source led to cutbacks, as expected, but managers who foresaw these challenges were able to respond proactively by adding programs or starting joint programs. However, managers with more training did not respond much differently than did other managers, and organizational age and use of performance management tools had no effect in guiding organizational responses to financial uncertainty.     

Strategic Information Sharing in Competing Channels

We investigate strategic information sharing in two competing channels. The retailer in a channel can ex post decide whether to share private demand information with his upstream manufacturer after the content of information becomes known. We find that a retailer discloses low demand and withholds high demand to induce lower wholesale prices from his manufacturer. We show that a retailer should share less information when the retail market becomes more competitive, but should disclose more information when his capability to acquire information improves. When a decentralized supply chain competes with an integrated channel, we show that firms in the supply chain benefit from the rival channel's effort to improve information capability, that the incentive for the retailer in the supply chain to improve his information capability increases with the intensity of competition and with the rival channel's information capability, and that the retailer may not want to pursue perfect information acquisition even when doing so is costless. Extensive numerical studies demonstrate that similar results also hold for two decentralized supply chains competing with each other.     

Experimental Games on Networks: Underpinnings of Behavior and Equilibrium Selection

In this paper, we describe a series of laboratory experiments that implement specific examples of a general network structure. Specifically, actions are either strategic substitutes or strategic complements, and participants have either complete or incomplete information about the structure of a random network. Since economic environments typically have a considerable degree of complementarity or substitutability, this framework applies to a wide variety of settings. We examine behavior and equilibrium selection. The degree of equilibrium play is striking, in particular with incomplete information. Behavior closely resembles the theoretical equilibrium whenever this is unique; when there are multiple equilibria, general features of networks, such as connectivity, clustering, and the degree of the players, help to predict informed behavior in the lab. People appear to be strongly attracted to maximizing aggregate payoffs (social efficiency), but there are forces that moderate this attraction: (1) people seem content with (in the aggregate) capturing only the lion's share of the efficient profits in exchange for reduced exposure to loss, and (2) uncertainty about the network structure makes it considerably more difficult to coordinate on a demanding, but efficient, equilibrium that is typically implemented with complete information.     

Engaging with Comparative Risk Appraisals: Public Views on Policy Priorities for Environmental Risk Governance

Communicating the rationale for allocating resources to manage policy priorities and their risks is challenging. Here, we demonstrate that environmental risks have diverse attributes and locales in their effects that may drive disproportionate responses among citizens. When 2,065 survey participants deployed summary information and their own understanding to assess 12 policy‐level environmental risks singularly, their assessment differed from a prior expert assessment. However, participants provided rankings similar to those of experts when these same 12 risks were considered as a group, allowing comparison between the different risks. Following this, when individuals were shown the prior expert assessment of this portfolio, they expressed a moderate level of confidence with the combined expert analysis. These are important findings for the comprehension of policy risks that may be subject to augmentation by climate change, their representation alongside other threats within national risk assessments, and interpretations of agency for public risk management by citizens and others.     

基于获取决策优先权的零售商战略联盟效益分析

对于由一个供应商和多个零售商组成的单一产品、单周期供应链,在确定型市场、零售商成本对称以及供应商具有关于零售商成本结构完全信息的情况下,考虑了同时带来运作成本与决策权分配变化(基于获取决策优先权)的零售商定货数量决策联盟。利用博弈论方法,研究了获取决策优先权的零售商战略联盟对参与联盟的零售商、未参与联盟的零售商、供应商以及供应链整体收益的影响。证明这种零售商战略联盟不可能使供应链中所有成员都同时增加收益。但在一定的条件下,联盟能实现某种部分"多赢";使供应链整体、供应商和参与联盟的零售商收益增加,或使供应商和参与联盟的零售商收益增加。     

整合市场战略与非市场战略的战略管理模型——基于中国房地产行业的研究

随着企业非市场因素在竞争中发挥出越来越显著的作用,将非市场环境分析及战略制定纳入企业战略管理过程中,并探讨其与市场环境及战略整合的特点,成为企业战略管理研究的新方向.在对中国转型经济时期典型房地产企业的非市场战略进行案例分析的基础上,研究中国转型经济环境下典型的非市场事项管理及相应的企业非市场战略特征,并试图从战略管理的角度出发,构建企业非市场因素与传统战略规划过程的整合模式.研究的结论补充了关于市场战略与非市场战略整合的相关研究,为中国转型时期企业如何在战略管理过程中纳入非市场环境评估及相应的战略制定与实施提供了理论模型与实例支持,对企业战略管理实践有指导作用.     

战略过程：一个基于决策的数理模型

以标准的战略管理过程模型为基础,将战略过程解释为战略状态的演变过程,其中战略状态变化被解释为战略决策和外生随机扰动共同作用的结果,应用随机动态规划模型化战略决策理性。结果表明,采用动态规划技术不仅可以确定战略状态的价值(竞争优势)与相应的最优战略制定决策和战略实施决策序列,还可以识别战略过程中的信息揭示对企业价值(竞争优势)的影响。这些结果在一定程度上逻辑一致地支持了战略管理中以理性决策为基本假设的设计学派和计划学派的观点。     

High value manufacturing (HVM) in the UK: case studies and focus group insights

This paper studies the internal mechanisms that allow organisations to become high value manufacturing (HVM). Using a qualitative methodology, three UK manufacturing companies formed in-depth case studies with semi-structured interviews, observations and historical data. The HVM value matrix of Martinez and co-workers is used to categorise each organisation’s value proposition. Wider benchmarking of the three organisations was carried out against a focus group with an additional seven manufacturing organisations. Thus, data from 10 manufacturing organisations are included in this research. The cases follow the ‘customer intimacy’ HVM discipline. The business processes supporting these value propositions were identified. Interestingly, each organisation’s desired value proposition differs from their current one. ‘Technological integrators’ predominantly rely on new product development (NPD) and Strategy processes, whereas ‘Socialisors’ rely predominantly on Strategy and Customer Relationship processes. Companies can use the findings to better understand their current HVM value proposition and, where necessary, plan their transition to a future desired HVM value proposition.     

What drives alignment between offered and perceived well-being initiatives in organizations? A cross-case analysis of employer–employee shared strategic intentionality

This study investigates the conditions of alignment between an organization's business strategy and the well-being initiatives (WBIs) offered to employees and employees' perceptions of the latter. We conducted a comparative study on the conditions of alignment between offered and perceived WBIs in three companies with different business strategies. Findings highlight that the alignment between offered and perceived benefits depends on what we label as “shared strategic intentionality”: (1) how employers use their understanding of the organization's business strategy to craft WBIs and (2) employees' attributions about why their employers offer WBIs the way they do and of the broader understanding of the organization's business strategy. We contribute to the strategic HRM literature by proposing an integrative position with regard to the macro (i.e., employer-focused) and micro (i.e., employee-focused) research traditions. Our position has the advantage of looking at employers' intentions and at employees' attributions of intentions simultaneously, and unravels the central role of business strategy in shaping their alignment. From a practical standpoint, not only do we bring a more nuanced understanding of the strategic HRM challenges faced by employers and employees in settings with different business strategies, but we also initiate a discussion about the traps and best practices associated with configuring effective WBIs in organizations.     

考虑消费者网购体验滞后的产品定价研究

随着电子商务技术的发展,网络购物越来越便利。与此同时,网络购物带来的产品体验滞后也导致了消费者对产品的认知不确定性。而这种不确定性正在成为消费者策略性退货行为的主要原因,如消费者同时购买多件具有横向差异的产品,在收到货物后经亲身体验后保留一件而将其他产品退货。本文通过构建Hotelling模型,探讨了企业在考虑此种影响情况下的最优定价策略,分析得出：当消费者的退货成本增加时,企业最优定价也随之增加;消费者对产品的先验效用差异化越小,企业的最优定价也越低。同时发现,若某种产品无消费者单独购买,企业的最优定价会随消费者偏好的增加而增加;而当两种产品均有消费者单独购买且消费者退货成本较大时,企业的最优定价不但不会随消费者偏好的增加而提高,反而会随消费者偏好增加而减少。此外,本文给出了消费者策略性退货行为存在的临界条件,当消费者的退货成本高于这一临界条件时消费者的策略退货行为将消失。