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How do organizations respond to negative feedback regarding their innovation activities? In this chapter, the authors reconcile contradictory predictions stemming from behavioral learning and from the escalation of commitment (EoC) perspectives regarding persistence under negative performance feedback. The authors core argument suggests that the seemingly contradictory psychological processes indicated by these two perspectives occur simultaneously in decision makers but that the design of organizational roles and reward systems affects their prevalence in decision-making tasks. Specifically, the authors argue that for decision makers responsible for an individual project, responses given to negative performance feedback regarding a project are dominated by self-justification and loss-avoidance mechanisms predicted by the EoC literature, while for decision makers responsible for a portfolio of projects, responses to negative performance regarding a project are dominated by an under-sampling of poorly performing alternatives that behavioral learning theory predicts. In addition to assigning decision-making authority to different organizational roles, organizational designers shape the strength of these mechanisms through the design of reward systems and specifically by setting more or less ambiguous goals, aspiration levels, time horizons of incentives provided, and levels of failure tolerance.

A firm's behavior is constrained by its access to resources owned or controlled by different constituencies in its environment. Mergers and acquisitions are one way to proactively manage these resource dependencies. Research on resource dependence reducing merger and acquisition patterns provides an important cornerstone of resource dependency theory and a basis of our present knowledge of the aggregate industry-level merger and acquisition patterns. However, due to the predominant focus on inter-industry merger and acquisition patterns in earlier research, much less is known as to whether the same logic could also be applied to explain intra-industry merger and acquisition patterns. In this chapter, we extend the resource dependence results to an intra-industry context. In particular, we show that mergers and acquisitions among pharmaceutical firms tend to take place among firms with technological and competitive interdependencies. To distinguish our finding from the competing resource scale and scope explanations, we show that the likelihood of a resource dependence reducing acquisition is moderated by the crowding of firms’ technological positions and prior alliance ties. Consistent with the resource dependence explanation, both weaken the effect of overlapping technological positions even though both alliance ties and crowding otherwise are positively related to merger and acquisition patterns in line with the social structural explanations.

The University of Houston Libraries are developing an expert system to assist library users in selecting appropriate indexes and abstracts to meet their information needs. This project, which is being conducted by the Intelligent Reference Systems Committee, is the first step in a broader plan to develop reference expert systems.

The authors of this paper contend that too many firms' innovation initiatives are shackled with archaic budgeting and planning methodologies that are intended to protect managers from the embarrassment of blown budgets, missed deadlines, or market flops but instead suppress learning and adaptability, both critical to achieving successful commercialization of unique ideas. This paper aims to address this issue.

The authors propose that the first step to rid myopia and rigidity from the stage‐gate approach is to re‐conceive it as an assumption‐driven process centered on learning, rather than simply a sequence of activities marching towards a pre‐determined outcome.

The authors suggest that firms should adopt assumption‐driven learning in a series of sequential divergent‐convergent cycles – one cycle per stage – each centered on testing the major assumptions for that stage.

Continuous learning and unlearning is essential to the process of developing raw ideas into viable commercial applications. The key to success is to test assumptions through real‐life experiments – for example, market assumptions should be tested in‐market, manufacturability assumptions should be tested in production.

Firms should adopt assumption‐driven learning in a series of sequential divergent‐convergent cycles – one cycle per stage – each centered on testing the major assumptions for that stage.

For decades, organizations have based their marketing efforts to the 65 and older market on traditional stereotypes. This is surprising given the size, growth, and spending power of this market. It is also inconsistent with the marketing concept. This article identifies a number of dimensions which highlight the diversity of the so‐called senior citizen market. The diversity of this market involves a complex set of factors involving age, health, income, education, retirement, information processing, the self‐concept, reference groups, and cohort membership. The marketing implications of these dimensions are illustrated through examples of current marketing practice.

In the current recession, cost cutting alone will not enable companies to survive the recession and thrive beyond it. Companies need fresh ideas on how to continue their internal corporate venturing activities, but at lower cost and reduced exposure to risk. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

To provide corporate leaders with guidance on best practices for managing growth ventures, Strategy & Leadership interviewed internationally recognized authority, Rita G. McGrath, co‐author of Discovery‐driven Growth.

McGrath offers many tips and insights – from how to address customers' needs to building an organization capable of routinely producing discovery‐driven growth.

Companies want to be extracting resources from flat, slow‐growth or increasingly irrelevant lines of business in order to redirect them toward more valuable, higher‐growth and higher potential areas. Growth ventures can help companies identify where the future resources should go, as well as create a culture of constant investment in the future.

McGrath discusses important tools and techniques she and her colleagues have developed for assessing and managing discovery‐driven growth projects.

Feedback in the workplace is identified as an important subset of changing workers’ behaviour and providing effective reinforcement through informative and motivational properties. When properly initiated, feedback can bring about significant positive changes in compliance with safety procedures and is a key component of superior occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. In contrast, little evidence exists to suggest that disciplinary measures eliminate or suppress unsafe employee behaviour and risk taking. Research and quantifiable measurement in the effects of feedback is scant for industries such as construction, which are dominated by contracted labour. This paper reports on research undertaken to assess the effects of feedback on risk taking by contractors undertaking work in the Australian construction industry. The research was conducted over a period of one year and involved 350 participants, ten construction sites and the implementation of on‐site safety interventions including a performance measurement and feedback tool.