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Strategy Question: How do we figure out the size of our market in the absence of hard data?

Summary: This tool provides a method to estimate market size in the absence of trade association information or confidence in existing market intelligence. It is a spreadsheet-based, bottom-up approach that builds market size based on a series of logical assumptions. Each assumption is tested and validated by internal and/or external subject matter experts before moving on to the next. The tool is somewhat iterative in nature, and two to three revisions from the first pass is not uncommon. The result is a reasonably accurate assessment of the market and the key areas of the market on which to focus attention and strategy development. This provides a basis for conducting meaningful strategic market analyses.

This chapter analyses the how, who, where and why of rapid rise in intra-regional investment by companies from ASEAN since 2009.

The chapter analyses the push and pull factors of intra-regional investment in ASEAN, the resulting patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the accompanying rise of strong regional players.

The region’s FDI landscape is changing in terms of investment sources, players, FDI trends and dynamics of the region. This trend is strongly affected by stepped up efforts by ASEAN governments to encourage their national companies to invest in the region and the influence of the ASEAN Economic Community.

Regional integration and emerging business opportunities are providing an impetus not seen before in driving intra-regional investment. As more ASEAN companies position and prepare for AEC 2015, this intra-regional investment wave is likely to gather force.

The chapter lists the regional and global ‘footprint’ of the top 50 largest ASEAN companies by revenues. The thus identified companies include companies operating in oil and gas, mining, agri-business, telecommunications, food and beverages, manufacturing, banking, power generation, infrastructure, real estate and healthcare services

This paper deals with the organizing of interactive product development. Developing products in interaction between firms may provide benefits in terms of specialization, increased innovation, and possibilities to perform development activities in parallel. However, the differentiation of product development among a number of firms also implies that various dependencies need to be dealt with across firm boundaries. How dependencies may be dealt with across firms is related to how product development is organized. The purpose of the paper is to explore dependencies and how interactive product development may be organized with regard to these dependencies.

The analytical framework is based on the industrial network approach, and deals with the development of products in terms of adaptation and combination of heterogeneous resources. There are dependencies between resources, that is, they are embedded, implying that no resource can be developed in isolation. The characteristics of and dependencies related to four main categories of resources (products, production facilities, business units and business relationships) provide a basis for analyzing the organizing of interactive product development.

Three in-depth case studies are used to explore the organizing of interactive product development with regard to dependencies. The first two cases are based on the development of the electrical system and the seats for Volvo’s large car platform (P2), performed in interaction with Delphi and Lear respectively. The third case is based on the interaction between Scania and Dayco/DFC Tech for the development of various pipes and hoses for a new truck model.

The analysis is focused on what different dependencies the firms considered and dealt with, and how product development was organized with regard to these dependencies. It is concluded that there is a complex and dynamic pattern of dependencies that reaches far beyond the developed product as well as beyond individual business units. To deal with these dependencies, development may be organized in teams where several business units are represented. This enables interaction between different business units’ resource collections, which is important for resource adaptation as well as for innovation. The delimiting and relating functions of the team boundary are elaborated upon and it is argued that also teams may be regarded as actors. It is also concluded that a modular product structure may entail a modular organization with regard to the teams, though, interaction between business units and teams is needed. A strong connection between the technical structure and the organizational structure is identified and it is concluded that policies regarding the technical structure (e.g. concerning “carry-over”) cannot be separated from the management of the organizational structure (e.g. the supplier structure). The organizing of product development is in itself a complex and dynamic task that needs to be subject to interaction between business units.

The quality of strategic decisions made at the helm of corporations matters a great deal. Predominantly, research on strategic decision-making has focused on CEOs as if they decide alone. Yet in reality, even the most powerful CEO makes strategic decisions together with an executive board. This chapter offers a theoretical explanation of strategic board decision-making through the emotional contagion between the CEO and board members.

We used both previous research and qualitative material – two case studies and interviews with several dozen CEOs of large corporations as well as the board members of one of them – to build our theoretical model.

Our inBoard Emotional Contagion Model (inBECM) specifies the following individual–collective emotional dynamics: After a strategic affective event has triggered an affective discussion within the boardroom, the emotionally intelligent CEO communicates verbally in order to – through an emotional contagion – homogenize board members’ emotional states leading to shared sense-making of the event and – potentially – to improved decision-making.

Suggestions are made for the inBECM contribution to emotion theory. Implications are stated for the key role of emotion in improving board decision-making and strategizing.

This chapter examines the experiences of Ghanaian PhD graduates from various universities across the globe. A qualitative research model was therefore designed and used to explore factors that motivated the PhD graduates to pursue their programs, challenges they faced in the course of their study, effects of these challenges on them, and how they dealt with the challenges. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were employed to select 20 participants for the study. The theoretical focus of the study was on human capital theory. The data were analyzed using a thematic approach. It emerged from the study that job placement and security, the academic environment, family aspiration and expectation, personal desire to stand out to be visible, and availability of scholarships were factors that motivated Ghanaian PhD graduates to pursue their programs. The findings also revealed that Ghanaian PhD graduates lost most of their acquaintances deliberately, missed their families and social life, and had difficulty managing supervisor/student relationship, battling with theories, data management, and analysis. It became obvious that as part of PhD students’ orientation, they should be made to understand that uncertainty, doubt, and disappointments are parts of the PhD experience and they should not be derailed by those conditions. Universities running PhD programs should provide counseling centers and programs that are tailored toward reduction in stress factors accompanying PhD programs.

In this chapter, the post-disaster handling of the British Petroleum Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico is analyzed according to the concept of “Public Reserve.” Public Reserve extends the theory of privacy from the individual into the context of corporate behavior and environmental regulation and management by government. Secrecy is viewed as a form of privacy.

With the disaggregation and fine-slicing of global value chains, offshoring and outsourcing has become increasingly relevant for many MNEs. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the value creation of the receiving partner of outsourcing activities. This is a firm that will have many outsourcing alliances with partners, and one perspective to frame these alliances is the alliance portfolio perspective. We ask – how can a firm on the receiving end of outsourcing create value through the management of its alliance portfolio?

Through a case study of a company supplying products to manufacturing industries, we investigate ways in which the company adds value for customers through different models of customer integration. Applying an alliance portfolio perspective, we study benefits of grouping alliances with customers and suppliers.

Whereas most studies of alliance portfolios have focused on value creation within a portfolio, we find that the mediating capability of coordinating between groups or portfolios of alliances is critical. We also see that the risk aspect is important for firms receiving outsourcing activities.

Our findings have implications for the strategy and organization of the mediating firm on the receiving end of outsourcing. We have only data from one firm, and therefore our findings need to be tested further.

Our findings have implications for managers organizing large alliance portfolios to include risk and mediation capabilities.

The chapter uses original in-depth data.