Search results

Your company may find itself traveling down several different paths at once to reach its goals. The secret of success lies in making sure the roads are compatible. At one time, selecting the right options was a matter of chance. Today, finding the winning combination is almost a science.

Does a company's long‐term corporate strategy influence how security analysts rate its stock? The authors found that it does—but only when the strategy is communicated to analysts through corporate advertising, executive presentations, annual reports, and similar means.

The purpose of this original research is to gauge the level of academic libraries' strategic credibility by analyzing whether strategic planning goals align with annual reports.

A modified replication of a study by Jarvenpaa and Ives was used. A random sample of 28 ARL libraries was taken from ARL membership. Library directors were contacted for a copy of both a strategic plan and an annual report. A two‐way comparison was conducted between three groups using content analysis.

Analysis of strategic plans and annual reports revealed that the majority of the libraries in the study produced strategic plans. However, most libraries no longer produce annual reports. Canadian strategic plans were user‐centered, whereas US plans focused on “hot topics”. Themes emerged from the analysis of strategic plans including space planning, offsite storage, assessment, development, and personnel.

Determining the level to which ARL libraries have strategic credibility is difficult to surmise, since the anticipated number of annual reports did not materialize. Further research is needed to compare what impact strategic plans and marketing strategies have on fundraising.

Several tactical methods libraries can implement in order to get the attention of potential donors and funding agencies to support projects and programs include the hiring of a library development officer, contracting with a marketing firm, and greatly improving the quality of communication to clientele.

The paper presents original research and is of value to academic library leaders who want to know about current trends in communicating strategic goals and objectives to their clientele.

Environmental scanning is that part of the strategic planning process which monitors emerging changes and issues and determines their likely impact on business decisions. While sophisticated scanning systems are not yet widely used in the banking industry, much has been learned about such systems in other industries. The paper illustrates how that knowledge might be applied to banks, S&Ls, and MBHCs, which are facing increasing levels of environmental change.

This book comprises the second volume in the recently launched New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition book series. Volume 1 (Sund, Galavan, & Huff, 2016), addressed the topic of strategic uncertainty. This second volume comprises a collection of contributions that variously report new methodological developments in managerial and organizational cognition, reflect critically on those developments, and consider the challenges that have yet to be confronted in order to further advance this exciting and dynamic interdisciplinary field. Contextualizing within an overarching framework the various contributions selected for inclusion in the present volume, in this opening chapter we reflect more broadly on what we consider the most significant developments that have occurred over recent years and the most significant challenges that lie ahead.

Uses symbolic interaction concepts to explain norm‐regulated behaviour in industrial marketing relationships. Lends support to the notion that partners’ subjective interpretations of their relationship must be congruent for relational norms and, hence, collaboration to emerge. By examining 46 of a manufacturer’s established trading relationships, investigates which factors distinguish relationships that are collaborative from other forms of trading relationships. Suggests that when partners exhibit a consensus to collaboration, they share strategic complementarity and the investments made by one side are valued by the other. Interestingly, each also believes the other faces high exit costs even though both sides maintain access to alternative partners. In addition to a discriminant analysis depicting different forms of trading relationships, develops a post hoc analysis of the profile of collaborative trading partners. Discusses the managerial and academic implications.

The paper aims to develop the survey utilized in this research as a data collection tool for the study of organizational responsiveness.

Drawing from the operations and strategic management literature, measurement scales were developed in order to empirically test five proposed enablers of organizational responsiveness: environmental scanning, strategic planning, flexible manufacturing infrastructures, supply chain governance mechanisms, and multi‐skilled workers.

The survey produced a total of 66 responses from 59 companies in three industries: automotive suppliers, instrumentation equipment, and semiconductor components. Three of the five enablers were found to be bi‐dimensional, which produced a survey instrument with eight separate measurement scales. Coefficient alpha was observed to be within the acceptable range for all construct scales and factor analysis confirmed unidimensionality for each construct.

The survey instrument presented in this paper provides a better understanding of the processes that enable organizational responsiveness. This measurement scale will serve as a tool that will allow future researchers to more accurately operationalize the enablers of organizational responsiveness.

The ability of firms to quickly respond to changes in their external environment is a primary determinant of firm performance. This research provides important practical implications for firms wishing to maximize their levels of agility and flexibility in responding to changing environmental conditions.

Few measurement scales currently exist that can be utilized to measure and predict rates of organizational responsiveness. The survey instrument developed as part of this research provides important insights into various organizational factors that enable organizational responsiveness.

This study aimed to examine the prospective role played by perceived environmental uncertainty in the strategy‐performance linkage among SMEs in China, Turkey, and the USA.

The strategic group level of analysis was employed. Generic strategy, environmental uncertainty, and performance were measured by previously validated scales.

The combination strategy‐performance linkage was supported in Turkey and the USA. In China, the highest performing strategic group emphasized a focus orientation accompanied by neither cost leadership nor differentiation, and the lowest performing group was comprised of low cost businesses.

This study supported the combination strategy thesis in the USA and Turkey. In China, conceptualizations of strategy appear to be more complex. High performing businesses emphasized a focus strategy, but not necessarily in concert with either cost leadership or differentiation.

Firms in the USA place a great deal of emphasis on uniqueness and individuality, translating into approaches based on differentiation and innovation. However, attempting to control costs and differentiate without a defined niche leaves a firm vulnerable to larger, more experienced competition.

This study addresses the death of strategy‐performance investigations in developing nations. Findings presented run counter to the notion that successful businesses in emerging economies emphasize cost leadership vis‐à‐vis differentiation. Conventional wisdom suggests that high performers tend to perceive greater certainty about their environments. The present analysis not only rejected this finding, but suggests that the opposite might be true.

Interest in the role of the New Zealand School Journal as an officially sanctioned publication for schools, has resulted in a number of past studies exploring its relationship to official curriculum, educational policy and wider socio‐political developments, largely in relation to the written text. This article focuses on selected visual imagery, drawing on a masters study that examined discourses of art and identity through an interdisciplinary approach. Primary sources such as the School Journal publications themselves, material from the National Archives, and the stories of illustrators (gathered through a variety of communications including oral history), contributed a range of voices to the research. This article addresses some of the themes identified in relation to post World War 2 discourses of identity seeking to construct a sense of New Zealandness in educational publications. Acknowledging the role of imagery in educational publication itself offers another voice in constructing our educational history.

The use of the Internet is becoming more prevalent all the time in the investor relations (IR) activities of firms. This paper explores how the Internet can be used and integrated into the existing IR activities of firms. It argues that the Internet is having a significant impact on IR practices, changing the specific techniques and activities associated with IR. As shown with several examples, the Internet can substantially change how a firm communicates with investment community stakeholders in terms of both its one‐way communication efforts directed at information dissemination and its two‐way communication efforts directed at interactive dialogue.