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Purpose – The broader aim of the research is to better understand the origins of firm heterogeneity in terms of strategy and structure, looking beyond convergence pressures resulting from economic and institutional forces.

Design/methodology/approach – To identify firm-specific differences, the paper uses an in-depth analysis of two matched cases, comparing the introduction of diversification strategies and decentralized organizational structures in two Dutch banks. Based on detailed archival research it tries to understand how different outcomes were shaped by political processes involving a variety of internal and external actors.

Findings – The research shows the importance of these processes and, in particular, the role of management succession as a trigger for organizational changes as well as the potential power of management consultants based on a combination of their own “political” skills and the opportunity provided by internal divisions. Moreover, the study confirms the view that organizational change requires a change in dominant ideology.

Research limitations/implications – The research was able to go beyond the limitations of extant studies based on cross-sectional data or single cases. It demonstrates the usefulness of historical analysis when examining changes in strategy and structure. Its results need to be confirmed by conducting similar studies in different contexts.

Originality/value – The paper provides new insights into the complex and dynamic processes of organizational change and shows how external consultants – within a specific set of circumstances – were able to manage these processes. The results are valuable to scholars studying organizational change and those looking at consultants and their role. They might also provide insights for practicing managers working or planning to work with consultants.

The development of the large modern corporation, and the separation of ownership from control, has raised questions about the objectives these companies set themselves. Discusses the markets and hierarchies model of organizational structures. Analyses the claim that specific organizational structures lead to superior profitability. Concludes that relatively few firms have adopted the structure claimed to yield the highest profits and that there is no evidence to support the view that internal structure and profitability are linked in the manner described by the model.

The reason of this chapter is to clarify at a conceptual level the phenomenon of shared service centers. The aim of the chapter is to enable managers make better decisions when applying the concept of shared service centers.

This is a conceptual chapter, in which the phenomenon of shared service centers is being rewritten, from an initial cost efficiency level, into a constituting building block in the new nature of the firm.

The findings of this chapter are that especially the combination of financial shared service centers and IT shared service centers are an instrument to organize information outside the structure of the internal organization of the firm, as implied by the changing nature of the firm. Also shared service centers are enablers for new business models, especially those based on human capital.

Executives and managers that have a better conceptual understanding of the application of shared service centers will create more benefits beyond costs savings.

This is the first chapter in which shared service center is reconceptualized in terms of the changing nature of the firm. With that it is also one of the first chapter describing the changing nature of the firm in operational terms. The value of the chapter is that it will help executives to define more efficient change processes. A second value of the chapter is that it opens new avenues of empirical and conceptual research for academia.

This chapter investigates the role Regional Headquarters (RHQs) play in large multinationals and probes to what degree the establishment of RHQs provides hierarchy benefits according to the M-form principles. Nine large multinational corporations (MNCs) provided the empirical setting for 55 in-depth interviews with decision-makers at corporate, regional and local levels. Case reports were developed for each MNC and the industries they operated in. Observations, company documents, detailed workshops with managers and a follow-up survey within one of the MNCs complemented the data. We find evidence for benefits of hierarchy when RHQs are introduced very much along the lines of the classic M-form organisation with product divisions. However, M-form principles are taken ad absurdum by the fact that there seems to be constant reorganisation regarding the mandates and the geographic scope of the regions. The practical implications of the chapter show that MNCs need to be aware that RHQs and the regional divisions they manage seem to be more difficult to manage in a stable way than product divisions. A clear rationale needs to underlie regional groupings to minimise instability, dissatisfaction among subsidiaries and, hence, ruptures of the M-form principles. Further research is needed to compare the stability of product versus regional divisionalisation. Future research on organisational structures should focus on firm-specific definitions of regional scope.

In the last few years increasing attention has been paid to employee relations management within the multi‐divisional company. This has come about partly because of the recent growth in the incidence of such organisational structures within Britain and partly because of the growing realisation that employee relations management within multi‐divisional structures differs from other organisational structures; for instance the unitary or functionally organised company.

The purpose of this paper is to present a synthesis of transnational tendencies in multinational enterprises (MNEs), to theoretically analyse the result and to study whether managers in MNEs have experienced the predicted tendencies.

The synthesis is based on an extensive literature review which is analysed by transaction cost economics. Identified tendencies are studied in a survey of managers in MNEs.

The study provides an overview of a fragmented research area and suggests explanations for new tendencies described in the literature. The empirical study suggests that some tendencies have been more prevalent than others.

The survey was conducted with MNEs with substantial activities in Sweden. It investigates how managers perceive changes that have occurred during the past several years.

The paper analyses a synthesized view of transnational tendencies in MNEs and the results of a survey of how managers have perceived the tendencies described in literature.

This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the impact of bank internal organization structure characteristics on costs and productive efficiency. The specific internal organization characteristics examined include centralized versus decentralized 1) decision‐making, 2) service delivery systems, and 3) back‐office operations, e.g. accounting, computing, and advertising, among others. The analysis is conducted using average data drawn from a sample of 118 large US commercial banks for the years 1989 and 1990. The analysis reveals that centralized decision‐making tends to increase costs. Likewise, centralized service delivery systems either increase or have an insignificant impact on costs. In no case was it found that centralized service delivery systems reduce costs as is often envisioned by proponents of centralization. Centralized back‐office operations were found to reduce costs significantly and is consistent with the existence of scale economies in bank back‐office operations.

The purpose of this paper is: to explore the concept of finance shared service centres (SSCs) through an interpretive case study based on a structuration in organizational fields framework; to explore the implications for the finance function, in terms of how finance both drives change within the multi‐divisional organisation and also is affected by change; and to interpret the SSC phenomenon in the light of the Iron Cage analogy.

A structuration in organization fields approach is used to interpret influences and actions in a longitudinal case study of a finance SSC.

The SSC can be seen as an emergent strategic project. The paper argues that the new organisational form of the SSC, together with the finance function's reflexive and recursive position of driving change are influenced by changes in the economic and institutional influences in the organisational field but in a manner that is both evolutionary and nuanced. A further observation is that management accounting systems are both changed and made stable by the SSC.

The field work consists of a single case study so as to give a sufficiently deep understanding of how external and internal discourse has influenced the development of a SSC over time.

The paper argues that the unbundling and reconfiguration of support services represents more than simply a rational response to cost reduction and efficiency savings. Indeed, the more fundamental nature of change in the finance function stemming from new structures and processes of the SSC can be understood better once the SSC model has been conceptualised in the context of overall interactions within the multi‐divisional corporation and with its organisational.

Offers an alternative explanation for the development and creation of industrial and post‐industrial organisational forms derived from military models. Organisation as history suggests that the military model was the only available and proven structure capable of coping with the industrial age. Suggests flexible military structures presaged contemporary flexible management and organisational structures. Management and organisational semantics betray martial origins. The past shapes the present and influences the future – professional managers need to understand their professional heritage.

Since the seminal contributions of Chandler and Williamson, a substantial body of research in industrial organization has examined the performance benefits of the organizational innovation of divisionalization. While existing empirical work has, for the most part, utilized a static framework to analyse the performance effects of divisionalization, adopts a dynamic approach, thereby allowing the intertemporal nature of any such performance benefits to be examined. Presents results from the UK manufacturing industry; the model estimated uses a spline function to incorporate differing organizational regimes over time. The results obtained are less supportive of the benefits of divisionalization than certain of the earlier empirical studies; thus the evidence presented lends no support to the view that organizational change provides unambiguous performance benefits for the firm.