Exploring Strategy Implementation Consistency Over Time: The Moderating Effects of Industry Velocity and Firm Performance

In this paper we empirically investigate the temporal development of a firm’s strategy implementation consistency (SIC), i.e. the alignment between firms’ resource allocation decisions (RAD) and their articulated corporate concept (Noda and Bower, 1996; Burgelman and Grove, 1996; Love et al., 2002; Mintzberg, 1978). Doing so, we test whether (1) SIC is more likely to increase or decline over time, (2) whether firms competing in (low) high-velocity environments in fact show different temporal patterns in SIC, and (3) whether overperforming firms succeed in conserving their level of SIC. For our analysis we draw on 6238 RAD of 20 publicly listed firms with European origin over a period of 4–6 years. Applying maximum likelihood ordered logit estimation, our results indicate that the likelihood of an alignment of RAD and a firm’s corporate concept decreases over time. In line with scholars’ perception of high-velocity environments, we find that the firms in our sample competing under such conditions show no clear trend in SIC. These firms tend to “zig-zag” over time – swaying off and pulling back to their strategic course independent of the timing of the announcement of a corporate concept. We also find that overperforming firms are unsuccessful in preserving their SIC at the same level over time. Based on the empirical findings the paper discusses implications for theory and derives suggestions for corporate level managers on how to balance SIC and strategic flexibility.     

苻坚政治决策中的胡汉文化冲突

五胡十六国时期北方的战乱造成了胡汉两种文化频繁的的冲突，交融。在此过程中胡族统治者或多或少都接受并向往汉文化，但同时又无法摆脱自身的胡文化，其中汉化程度较高的氐族苻坚就是例子，其一方面重开太学，推行德政，任用儒士，另一方面又遗留了善待来降少数民族并保留其自治权的胡族文化，胡汉两种文化的冲突最终导致了苻坚发动淝水之战，以及战后国家的分裂。     

基于三方期权博弈的动漫企业合并决策分析

在三方期权博弈模型的结构下,分析了动漫产业竞争条件下的企业合并决策,得出市场均衡条件下企业的利润函数。进一步构建了实物期权模型,分析企业在动态环境下合并的时机和合并的可能性。结论表明,中资企业的合并决策为外资企业提供了搭便车的机会,并且企业的竞争优势越大,产品的差异化程度越小,则合并后外资企业会获得越大的相对收益。并且,企业的竞争优势越弱,中外产品的差异化程度越高,则合并的时机会越早。企业的外部环境较好会促使企业合并的产生。所得出的结论为我国的动漫产业在通过合并去扩大规模的过程中如何避免外资企业出现搭便车的行为提供了有益的参考。     

Decision making in the newsvendor problem: A cross-national laboratory study

In this paper, we conduct a laboratory experiment using the classic newsvendor problem to examine cross-national differences in inventory ordering patterns between Chinese and American decision makers based on a theoretical examination of the role of the Doctrine of the Mean in Chinese decision making. Drawing on the theory of context-dependent preferences (specifically extremeness aversion), we also revisit the flat-maximum hypothesis of Bolton and Katok [12], i.e., “thinning the set of order options leads to newsvendor decisions that achieve a higher proportion of maximum expected profit.” The results show that the “pull-to-center” effect is more prominent for Chinese than Americans, i.e., average order quantities of Chinese subjects are closer to the anchor of mean demand than those of American subjects. Furthermore, we find that thinning the set of order options such that the optimal order quantity is a middle option, not an extreme option in the choice set, leads to better performance in newsvendor decisions, which complements the flat-maximum hypothesis.     

Measuring sport performances under pressure by classification trees with application to basketball shooting

Measuring players'' performance in team sports is fundamental since managers need to evaluate players with respect to the ability to score during crucial moments of the game. Using Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and play-by-play basketball data, we estimate the probabilities to score the shot with respect to a selection of game covariates related to game pressure. We use scoring probabilities to develop a player-specific shooting performance index that takes into account for the difficulty associated to score different types of shots. By applying this procedure to a large sample of 2016–2017 Basketball Champions League (BCL) and 2017–2018 National Basketball Association (NBA) games, we compare the factors affecting shooting performance in Europe and in the United States and we evaluate a selection of players in terms of the proposed shooting performance index with the final aim of providing useful guidelines for the team strategy.     

Feeling at Risk Matters: Water Managers and the Decision to Use Forecasts

Experts contend that weather and climate forecasts could have an important role in risk management strategies for community water systems. Yet, most water managers make minimal use of these forecasts. This research explores the determinants of the use of weather and climate forecasts by surveying managers of community water systems in two eastern American states (South Carolina and the Susquehanna River Basin of Pennsylvania). Assessments of the reliability of weather and climate forecasts are not driving their use as water managers who find forecasts reliable are no more likely to use them than are managers who find them unreliable. Although larger systems and those depending on surface water are more likely to use forecasts for some (but not all) purposes, the strongest determinant of forecast use is risk perceptions. Water managers who expect to face problems from weather events in the next decade are much more likely to use forecasts than are water managers who expect few problems. Their expectations of future problems are closely linked with past experience: water managers who have had problems with specific types of weather events (e.g., flood emergencies) in the last 5 years are likely to expect to experience problems in the next decade. Feeling at risk, regardless of the specific source of that weather-related risk, stimulates a decision to use weather and climate forecasts.     

高风险、高成本背景下棉农种植决策分析

依据对新疆自治区及新疆生产建设兵团341户棉农调查,通过分别构建Logit二元选择模型,分析在高市场风险、高生产成本等复杂背景下,棉农种植决策差异。研究结果表明,户主年龄、种植面积、亩均成本、棉花单产、种植经验、对成本预期6项指标对兵团及自治区棉农种植决策均有着显著影响。不同的是棉花收入占家庭总收入比重仅在自治区模型中通过显著性检验,而是否机采也仅在兵团模型中通过了显著性检验。文章基于此实证结果并结合相关理论分析,提出促进棉农积极植棉,增收的相关建议。     

The effects of managerial decision making behaviour and order book size on workload control system implementation in Make-To-Order companies

Insufficient attention has been paid to behavioural influences on the implementation of the ‘Workload Control’ (WLC) concept – a Production Planning and Control (PPC) approach for small and medium sized Make-To-Order companies – and there is an implicit assumption that managers are rationalistic in their decision-making. This paper analyses the effects of both managerial decision-making behaviour and the size of a company’s order book, affecting the number of decisions that have to be made, on two case study implementations of a WLC system. The Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model from the Naturalistic Decision-Making literature is used to unpack the first case where implementation failed. This highlighted a misalignment between how the company’s owner-manager initially made operational decisions and how a rationalistic WLC system functions. But the company is studied over six years, allowing us to show how the owner-manager was forced to transition from the RPD model to a more rationalistic approach to PPC as the size of the order book increased. A second case study is then briefly presented in which WLC system implementation was successful; the RPD model was not strongly evident and the size of the order book was greater to begin with. The paper helps to understand the decision-making behaviour of managers in small companies and how it may conflict or be misaligned with the rationalistic assumptions underpinning the WLC concept. This provides a possible explanation for why few successful implementations of the concept have been presented in literature.     

Durability,Transit Lags,and Optimality of Inventory Management Decisions

Two laboratory experiments on a single‐echelon inventory task show that inventory durability interacts with transit lags to create order volatility that exceeds demand volatility. Thus, inventory durability and transit lags cause managers to deviate from inventory decision optimality. Durability creates a large increase in order volatility because players adjust orders insufficiently to reflect current inventory and backlogs, much as they adjust orders insufficiently to reflect holding and backlog costs in newsvendor studies (e.g., Schweitzer and Cachon 2000). Transit lags exacerbate non‐optimal ordering by interfering with players' ability to correct prior errors. Our results suggest that non‐optimal inventory decisions can be driven by inventory and supply chain characteristics, even in the absence of the coordination and information sharing problems studied by Croson et al. (2005) and Sterman (1989a,b). We also examine the influence of features related to personality. We find little evidence that the interactive effects of durability and transit lags are altered by need for cognition, impulsiveness, or locus of control, suggesting that these features make supply chain management extremely difficult. These results imply that retailers and their upstream partners must consider the characteristics of their product and supply chains when interpreting demand signals received from downstream partners.     

Pricing and Replenishment of Competing Perishable Product Variants under Dynamic Demand Substitution

I consider pricing and ordering decisions faced by a retailer selling a perishable product with a two‐period shelf life over an infinite horizon. In the first period, the product is “new”; in the next, it becomes “old.” The new product is perceived by customers to have a higher quality than the old product. Every period, the retailer makes three decisions: prices for the new and old products and how much new product to order. I first show, with some simple cases, that demand uncertainty can make the sale of the old product profitable. I then consider a more realistic case with dynamic demand substitution among customers. I recognize that the retailer's decisions may be constant or may vary across different periods, under different contexts. For instance, varying the price of the new product can sometimes be difficult due to the negative impact it generates among customers. I find that (i) the benefit obtained from selling the old product with constant decisions is much higher than the benefit from allowing all the decisions to vary; (ii) the former benefit increases with a higher procurement cost, a higher quality of the new product, and higher demand volatility; however, the latter benefit is non‐monotone in these parameters; (iii) most of the latter benefit can be obtained by just changing the order quantity; and (iv) as the inventory of the old product increases, when all the decisions vary, the optimal price of the new product may increase or decrease.