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1 – 10 of 821Denise Moraes Carvalho, Edson Guarido Filho and Veronica Eberle de Almeida
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizational performance and the pattern of strategic decisions formalized in the planning of a Brazilian heavy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizational performance and the pattern of strategic decisions formalized in the planning of a Brazilian heavy construction company between 2006 and 2014. In this period, the company experienced a recurrent pattern of maintaining strategic decisions, despite the systematic decrease in performance and investments in the formal strategic planning (SP) and monitoring of results. The research focus is on strategic inertia and the influence of social determinants on the relationship between performance and the strategic actions negotiated in formal planning.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a single-case study. The exploratory-descriptive research comprises data collection on performance and strategic decisions from the period between 2006 and 2014. The analysis was guided through documentary material and data collected from 16 interviews conducted with members of the middle to top management concerning performance, goals, and strategic initiatives. The interviewees’ statements were used to apprehend the interpreted dimension of SP expressed in the meanings attributed to this process. The analysis adopts a sociological base, and strategic inertia is the underlying phenomenon that guides this analysis.
Findings
The results show the interactive effect caused by political, cognitive, discursive, and ceremonial mechanisms obstruct the company’s strategic decisions. This case study illustrates that the conditions for the phenomenon of path dependence were created, reinforcing the strategic inertia observed in the maintenance of a reproduced pattern of strategic initiatives and goals, even though the performance was recurrently unsatisfactory. In this case, strategic inertia showed a complex relationship between the interpreted performance and strategic actions negotiated in formal planning, conditioned by mechanisms of trajectory reinforcement that interfered with the conditions for strategic change.
Research limitations/implications
Strategic inertia demonstrates a complex relationship between the interpreted performance and strategic actions negotiated in formal planning, conditioned by mechanisms of trajectory reinforcement that interfere with the conditions for strategic change. Future research on social mechanisms from the perspective of strategy-as-practice could be developed to capture the tacit components, language, power games, and other relevant categories in the social interaction of strategy development at the organizational level. In addition, future research could focus on investigating the extent to which path dependence is contingent, assuming that it is a temporary and, therefore, reversible process.
Practical implications
This work contributes to the view of SP from the social perspective and shows that the relationship between performance and strategy has biases that can compromise performance. The work highlights implications for maintaining strategic initiative patterns, which shape a path whose function is less associated with its effects on performance and more associated with the commitment to instrumental results, due to the social nature of organizations.
Social implications
This work deals with social mechanisms that influence strategic decisions. Since organizational performance depends on strategic decisions, the social nature of strategic inertia has causal implications to economic and social impact of organizations.
Originality/value
This work argues in favor of the influence of self-reinforcing mechanisms of path dependence in the relationship between performance and strategic decisions. The results extended the predominantly structural approach of path dependence by considering interpretive aspects related to the political, discursive, cognitive, and ceremonial dimensions of strategic inertia.
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Chris Welter, Alex Scrimpshire, Dawn Tolonen and Eseoghene Obrimah
The goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between two different sets of practices, lean startup and business planning, and their relation to entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between two different sets of practices, lean startup and business planning, and their relation to entrepreneurial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 120 entrepreneurs across the US about a variety of new venture formation activities within the categories of lean startup or business planning. They use hierarchical regression to examine the relationship between these activities and new venture performance using both a subjective and objective measure of performance.
Findings
The results show that talking to customers, collecting preorders and pivoting based on customer feedback are lean startup activities correlated with performance; writing a business plan is the sole business planning activity correlated with performance.
Research limitations/implications
This research lays the foundation for understanding the components of both lean startup and business planning. Moreover, these results demonstrate that the separation of lean startup and business planning represents a false dichotomy.
Practical implications
These findings suggest that entrepreneurs should engage in some lean startup activities and still write a business plan.
Originality/value
This article offers the first quantitative, empirical comparison of lean startup activities and business planning. Furthermore, it provides support for the relationship between specific lean startup activities and firm performance.
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The aim of this research is to analyze empirical evidence of the effect of governance structure (GS) on perceived success of the succession process. It is also reported that in…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to analyze empirical evidence of the effect of governance structure (GS) on perceived success of the succession process. It is also reported that in India, family firms have a more informal organization structure and governance and have an informal and unplanned approach to bringing the successors into family business. Previous studies have reported that GS is an important factor for a successful succession process. This study examines the role of management succession planning as an intervening variable to achieve perceived success of the succession process.
Design/methodology/approach
Data have been collected using a questionnaire schedule with 113 respondents who are successors from family business firms in Kerala, India. The study uses snowball sampling technique. Partial least square-structural equation modeling has been used to do data analysis.
Findings
The results of the study showed that GS has a significant positive effect on the success of the succession process. GS has a significant positive effect on management succession planning. Management succession planning partially mediates the relationship between GS and perceived success of the succession process.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the study indicate the effect of GS on the relationship between, perceived success of the succession process and management succession planning. The mediating role of management succession planning in the above relationship is also confirmed. Therefore, before starting the succession process a good GS should be put in place for ensuring the success of the succession process. Family firms must implement the succession plan well to make the succession process successful.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the study is to empirically investigate the effect of GS and management succession planning to enhance the success of the succession process.
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As quarterly business reviews (QBRs) remained unexplored in the scholarly community, this paper sheds light on what QBRs are, how they are being used across organisations and…
Abstract
Purpose
As quarterly business reviews (QBRs) remained unexplored in the scholarly community, this paper sheds light on what QBRs are, how they are being used across organisations and provides deep insights into the implementation of the QBR at an incumbent car manufacturer’s digital transformation business unit. Particular attention has been paid to decision processes, portfolio management, challenges and success factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the explorative nature of the research, a case study is well suited to explore the phenomenon in its real-world context, especially given the dynamic and volatile business environment. This article is based on insights from an incumbent car manufacturer undergoing a business-wide transformation.
Findings
The car manufacturer introduced the QBR process and themes to improve business effectiveness and efficiency through (1) focusing on the biggest issues, (2) concentrating efforts, (3) providing autonomy and stability, (4) building and maintaining strong relationships, and (5) building domain expertise. Through the QBR process, themes were (de)prioritised, resources allocated, financial value (estimates) agreed upon, and key performance indicators (e.g. £m/FTE; FTE, full-time equivalent employees) introduced. Digital product managers’ were assigned to the prioritised themes, and portfolio management structures were presented.
Originality/value
Managing short- and long-term objectives is challenging for most businesses but essential to perform well in uncertain environments. The QBR process can help organisations continuously (de)prioritise work and reallocate resources based on changing environments and aligned with strategic priorities.
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Paola Ferretti, Cristina Gonnella and Pierluigi Martino
Drawing insights from institutional theory, this paper aims to examine whether and to what extent banks have reconfigured their management control systems (MCSs) in response to…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing insights from institutional theory, this paper aims to examine whether and to what extent banks have reconfigured their management control systems (MCSs) in response to growing institutional pressures towards sustainability, understood as environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory study at the three largest Italian banking groups to shed light on changes made in MCSs to account for ESG issues. The analysis is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with managers from the sustainability and controls areas, as well as from other relevant operational areas particularly concerned with the integration process of ESG issues. Additionally, secondary data sources were used. The Malmi and Brown (2008) MCS framework, consisting of a package of five types of formal and informal control mechanisms, was used to structure and analyse the empirical data.
Findings
The examined banks widely implemented numerous changes to their MCSs as a response to the heightened sustainability pressures from regulatory bodies and stakeholders. In particular, with the exception of action planning, the results show an extensive integration of ESG issues into the five control mechanisms of Malmi and Brown’s framework, namely, long-term planning, cybernetic, reward/compensation, administrative and cultural controls.
Practical implications
By identifying the approaches banks followed in reconfiguring traditional MCSs, this research sheds light on how adequate MCSs can promote banks’ “sustainable behaviours”. The results can, thus, contribute to defining best practices on how MCSs can be redesigned to support the integration of ESG issues into the banks’ way of doing business.
Originality/value
Overall, the findings support the theoretical assertion that institutional pressures influence the design of banks’ MCSs, and that both formal and informal controls are necessary to ensure a real engagement towards sustainability. More specifically, this study reveals that MCSs, by encompassing both formal and informal controls, are central to enabling banks to appropriately understand, plan and control the transition towards business models fully oriented to the integration of ESG issues. Thereby, this allows banks to effectively respond to the increased stakeholder demands around ESG concerns.
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The efficiency of each of an organization’s individual workers determines its effectiveness. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource management (HRM…
Abstract
Purpose
The efficiency of each of an organization’s individual workers determines its effectiveness. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational effectiveness with employee performance as a mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 800 police officers in the Greater Accra and Tema regions. The data were supported by the hypothesized relationship. Construct reliability and validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that career planning and employee performance were significantly related. Self-managed teams and employee performance were shown to be nonsignificantly related. Similarly, performance management and employee performance were shown to be nonsignificantly related. Employee performance significantly influenced organizational effectiveness. The results further indicate that employee performance mediates the relationship between HRM practices and organizational effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s police service focus and cross-sectional data.
Practical implications
The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for the police administration in the adoption, design and implementation of well-articulated and proactive HRM practices to improve the abilities, skills, knowledge and motivation of officer’s to inordinately enhance the effectiveness of the service.
Originality/value
By evidencing empirically that employee performance mediates the relationship between HRM practice and organizational effectiveness, the study extends the literature.
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Howard Cooke, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek and Theo Arentze
This paper aims to identify the importance of individual variables in the corporate real estate (CRE) decision-making process.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the importance of individual variables in the corporate real estate (CRE) decision-making process.
Design/methodology/approach
Nine experts received a posed scenario of a changed business strategy requiring a CRE reduction in individual interviews. Based on their suggested response, a decision network was modelled for each expert using the causal network elicitation technique, incorporating the utilities for decision variables and importance weights for attributes and benefits. The decision model offers a graphical representation of decision-benefit links for the decisions CRE managers make in such a period of decline.
Findings
Perceived facilitators of CRE dynamic alignment were identified by calculating lift ratios on their perceived importance of the attributes they mentioned during the interviews as nodes in the network that link decisions to benefits. Facilitators included CRE metrics and workplace strategy, while capital expenditure and landlords inhibit alignment processes. The research provides more granular insight into the variables used in CRE decision-making and the factors that facilitate or inhibit the dynamic alignment process.
Research limitations/implications
The research set a specific scenario for the experts to consider. That could be regarded as small but there was clear evidence of saturation of expert knowledge. Additional face-to-face interviews with the experts may have generated further details on the thought processes of the experts.
Practical implications
The research provides more granular insight into the variables used in CRE decision-making and the factors that facilitate or inhibit the dynamic alignment process. Thereby providing CRE decision-makers with key elements for a decision model.
Originality/value
The research technique, causal network elicitation technique, uses semi-structured interviews to create decision networks, which is a technique that has not been widely applied to CRE research. The research provides a granular view of what are important inhibitors or facilitators of dynamic alignment of CRE to business strategy.
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This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The article offers a review of the field by mapping previous studies according to their strategy and responsibility orientations and, consequently, identifies the classic perspective, as well as the major deficiencies and prevailing research gaps in the literature.
Findings
The article contributes to the field of strategic corporate responsibility by reframing the field with a contender perspective that challenges the classic view of strategy and responsibility amalgamation. Together, the classic and the contender perspectives are synthesized to form an integrative perspective that is more holistic than those currently available.
Originality/value
The article ends by calling for a reimagining of the relationship between corporate responsibility and strategy to find promising future research avenues and effective business practices suitable to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
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Giacomo Pigatto, Lino Cinquini, Andrea Tenucci and John Dumay
This study aims to explore the serendipitous discovery of integrated reporting (IR) by Alpha, an Italian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Alpha piqued the curiosity when…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the serendipitous discovery of integrated reporting (IR) by Alpha, an Italian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Alpha piqued the curiosity when the authors discovered that it experimented with IR alongside other management accounting practices, such as the Balanced Scorecard. As the authors reflected on Alpha’s experiences, the authors had to opportunistically develop a new framework to understand the change that was taking place at Alpha fully. Thus, the authors developed the serendipitous drift framework. This study contributes to addressing the gap between management accounting research that sees change as a planned, ordered process versus research that sees it as an unmanageable drift.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors ground the research on a qualitative methodology based on a single case study. This methodology allows us to focus on understanding what has happened at Alpha to discover new themes and provide theoretical generalisations. The authors developed the framework using middle-range thinking and fleshed it out using empirical findings from the case study. Middle-range thinking implies going back and forth between the theory and the empirical material. Therefore, the authors develop the serendipitous drift framework from prior theories and use it to inform the empirical study. In turn, the empirical material collected in Alpha helps refine and flesh out the serendipitous drift framework. The framework explains how Alpha leveraged serendipity to steer change towards favourable outcomes for them.
Findings
The authors find that the search for change undertaken by Alpha’s managers was non-specific but purposeful. Their dispositions were sagacious enough to recognise the potential value found in management accounting practices, such as IR and the Balanced Scorecard. They chanced upon new and unforeseen practices through trial and error, iteration, internal engagement and networking.
Research limitations/implications
Overall, the results indicate that Alpha’s managers shaped the disorder of management accounting changes, even though it followed unexpected, uncertain and messy paths. Indeed, appropriate informal controls can act as a frame of reference for choosing, adapting and implementing new management accounting practices to shape the disorder. Informal controls can both guide and bound the experimentation process towards desirable outcomes.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to management accounting change theory by developing a framework rooted in serendipity and drifting theories. The framework identifies how searching, sagacity and chance are essential for making positive, unexpected discoveries. Therefore, the authors provide novel insights on how and why IR and other management accounting practices are eventually translated and adopted in the case company. Moreover, the serendipitous drift framework has the potential to help managers frame cultural controls to actively seek opportunities for valuable serendipitous eureka moments through networking and experimentation.
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Paolo Canonico, Ernesto De Nito, Vincenza Esposito, Gerarda Fattoruso, Mario Pezzillo Iacono and Gianluigi Mangia
The paper focuses on how knowledge visualization supports the development of a particular multiobjective decision-making problem as a portfolio optimization problem in the context…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper focuses on how knowledge visualization supports the development of a particular multiobjective decision-making problem as a portfolio optimization problem in the context of interorganizational collaboration between universities and a large automotive company. This paper fits with the emergent knowledge visualization literature because it helps to explain decision-making related to the development of a multiobjective optimization model in Lean Product Development settings. We investigate how using ad hoc visual tools supports knowledge translation and knowledge sharing, enhancing managerial judgment and decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical case in this study concerns the setting up of a multiobjective decision-making model as a portfolio optimization problem to analyze and select alternatives for upgrading the lean production process quality at an FCA plant.
Findings
The study shows how knowledge visualization and the associated tools work to enable knowledge translation and knowledge sharing, supporting decision-making. The empirical findings show why and how knowledge visualization can be used to foster knowledge translation and sharing among individuals and from individuals to groups. Knowledge visualization is understood as both a collective and interactional process and a systematic approach where different players translate their expertise, share a framework and develop common ground to support decision-making.
Originality/value
From a theoretical perspective, the paper expands the understanding of knowledge visualization as a system of practices that support the development of a multiobjective decision-making method. From an empirical point of view, our results may be useful to other firms in the automotive industry and for academics wishing to develop applied research on portfolio optimization.
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