Search results

Organizational competences are essential sources of competitive advantage and thus are key drivers of competitive strategies for knowledge-intensive companies like automotive manufacturers. In order to cope with increasing market complexity and dynamism, reduced development times, and relentless cost pressures in a highly competitive environment, knowledge-driven companies need to understand how to be proactive in building and leveraging the competences they will need to be successful in the future, especially within their product development activities.

To help managers become proactive in identifying and building useful future competences, the dynamic and systemic perspectives of competence-based strategic management provide a framework for analysis that can help managers to look beyond their organization’s current competences and identify organizational competences that will be needed in the future. Competence theory emphasizes that an organization’s competences are dynamic and constantly need to be updated and reconfigured to adjust to the competitive dynamics of an industry. Any methodology for identifying future competence needs must begin with some means for identifying strategic gaps between the competences a firm has now and the competences it will need in the future. This paper describes a technology and market roadmap-based methodology for forecasting a firm’s future competence needs – the competences a firm will need to start developing now in order to meet expected market demands in the future. The methodology proposed here is applied and, we believe, validated through application to a competence planning process in a German luxury car manufacturer.

This paper introduces a conceptual framework to assess the foreign market entry behavior of emerging market multinationals (EMMs). By introducing strategic cognition as the underlying theoretical perspective, this paper postulates that different levels of institutional voids in home markets shape the strategic cognition of EMMs, influencing their market entry behavior due to the prevalence of organizational imprinting in the early stages of internationalization. The paper aims to contribute to the strategic cognition literature by introducing emerging markets as a relevant context in which to apply and extend current thinking. Additionally, it aims to contribute to the institutional voids literature by providing a cognitive framework of behavioral patterns that is rationalized by institutional voids. Finally, the paper contributes to the entry mode literature by proposing strategic cognition as a relevant moderator for foreign entry mode choices, particularly those of EMMs.

The goal of this study was to examine individual, relational, and organizational determinants of negotiation behavior (problem solving, contending, yielding, and avoiding) between planning and marketing departments in manufacturing organizations. Results from a study among 41 managers and 85 planning and marketing employees within 11 firms showed that individual personality, perceived interdepartmental interdependence, and organizational strategy were each related to the negotiation behavior of department members. Desirable negotiation behavior—specifically, the problem‐solving approach—was more likely when individuals were extraverted and agreeable, when employees perceived high interdepartmental interdependence, and when organizations did not have a low‐cost strategy. Contending was more likely when individuals were extraverted and disagreeable, and yielding was more likely when department members perceived a power advantage vis‐à‐vis the other department. All four styles of negotiation behavior were more likely the less the organizations had a low‐cost strategy. These findings provide guidance to organizations in their efforts to encourage constructive negotiation behavior between departments.

This paper presents the results of a numerical simulation of measured heat losses from a real building. In particular, the thermal response of a concrete ground floor slab and the underlying foundation soils has been analysed and the results calibrated against data acquired from a comprehensive long term in‐situ monitoring experiment. A numerical solution of a heat conduction model is obtained by use of the finite element method. Finite differences are used to accommodate the time varying nature of the problem. The model has been applied to the simulation of transient one‐dimensional behaviour. Diurnal and seasonal variations in temperature are considered. Good correlation between predicted and measured thermal response has been achieved. It is, therefore, claimed that the modelling approach adopted is capable of representing real in‐situ behaviour.

Managers are often asked to consolidate and improve their organization's strengths without taking undue risks. The techniques and models of risk analysis can help managers chart a course through today's increasing uncertainty.

Investigates the importance of English language sources of Friedrich Theodor Althoff (1839‐1908), a German of great influence both in his own country and, indirectly, in the United States. Explores some measures of his influence in education and international understanding. Examines a wide variety of sources. Explains how it could happen that an influential person would end up in intellectual history with almost no recognition. Challenges several conventional assessments. Althoff′s most important contributions are in print and more almost certainly exist in university archives, but the material is scattered and unorganized. Because we do not yet have the full story of this remarkable and complex man, firm conclusions about his influence are not yet possible.

Argues in favour of the convenience of using strategic groups analysis (SGA) as a business management tool that is especially useful for strategic marketing planning. To illustrate the great versatility offered by SGA, we take as a reference the results obtained from a study of the Spanish retail grocery sector. By way of this empirical work, we analyse how SGA responds to some of the information demands considered as essential for the design of the marketing strategy of every firm (the analysis of the environment and the main alternative strategies, the attractiveness of each strategy, the analysis of rivalry, the strengths and weaknesses of firms, the threats and opportunities offered by the market, etc.). In summary, the paper shows that SGA is a powerful tool which could help managers to concentrate the activity of their firms in solid strategic options.

Two studies were conducted to investigate the impact of socially‐induced positive affect on organizational conflict. In Study I, male and female subjects were provoked or not provoked, and then exposed to one of several treatments designed to induce positive affect among them. Results indicated that several of these procedures (e.g., mild flattery, a small gift, self‐deprecating remarks by an opponent) increased subjects' preference for resolving conflict through collaboration, but reduced their preference for resolving conflict through competition. In addition, self‐deprecating remarks by an opponent (actually an accomplice) increased subjects' willingness to make concessions to this person during negotiations. In Study 2, male and female subjects were exposed to two treatments designed to induce positive affect (humorous remarks, mild flattery). These were presented before, during, or after negotiations with another person (an accomplice). Both treatments reduced subjects' preferences for resolving conflict through avoidance and increased their preferences for resolving conflict through collaboration, but only when delivered during or immediately after negotiations. Together, the results of both studies suggest that simple interventions designed to induce positive affect among the parties to conflicts can yield several beneficial effects.

Competence-Based Management (CBM) theory and research suggest that a firm’s competence building and leveraging processes are key factors influencing its competitive success. To achieve sustained competitive success, a firm’s competence building processes must continuously renew and extend the competences a firm has and can leverage. However, the ability of a firm to sustain strategically adequate levels of competence building – while also maintaining strategically successful competence leveraging – may be limited by various self-reinforcing managerial and organizational mechanisms that can arise from competence leveraging processes. In this paper we focus on certain managerial behaviors that may create path dependencies that lead an organization to become “locked-in” to its current competence leveraging processes and to neglect essential competence building, resulting in an inability to renew competences at a strategically adequate level and eventually in competitive failure.

In order to avoid such consequences, the management literature suggests that organizations must cultivate dynamic capabilities to overcome tendencies toward lock-in and to sustain ongoing competence building. This study investigates ways in which firms can maintain healthy competence building processes by avoiding lock-ins, especially those resulting from self-reinforcing managerial behaviors. A case study of successful competence-renewing processes in a home improvement retailing company helps to amplify the components of dynamic capabilities and to illustrate the insights that emerge from our study.

The purpose of the present studies was to derive an integrative taxonomy of responses to social conflict. In Study 1, we had college‐age participants sort 33 responses to conflict, taken from various research domains, according to their similarities. From this, we generated two different classification systems: a very simple low‐dimensional system, obtained through multi‐dimensional scaling; and a complex high‐dimensional system, obtained through cluster analysis. To aid in the interpretation of the structures, in Study 2 we collected a set of ratings on each of the conflict responses. The results from Study 2 indicated that many of the labels used to describe conflict responses in past research could be used to describe some aspects of these taxonomies. However, no dimension or set of dimensions was sufficient to describe all classes of conflict responses. The results are discussed in terms of their larger theoretical and practical implications.