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This study of a market-leader in a turbulent hostile telecommunications market uncovers how the competitive context influences strategy-making and cultivates central control that opposes autonomous initiatives. It shows how a highly competitive industry context reduces organizational slack that inhibits autonomy and drives central actions. Strategic initiatives primarily arise as deliberate actions induced by top management. This creates an information gap between ongoing experiences gained by employees operating in the periphery of the organization and the perceptions of decision-makers at the corporate center. In this organizational setting, the authors observe maverick behavior among entrepreneurial individuals that deliberately circumvent the formal rules to turn autonomous initiatives into viable strategic ventures in the best interest of the firm. Where conventional views presume that power delegation and organizational slack are necessary for autonomous strategic initiatives to emerge, the authors find that central control can provoke autonomous rule-breaking maverick behavior among resource-deprived entrepreneurial individuals inside the organization.

In this paper we develop a model for researching the influence that a board of directors can have on improving an organization’s sustainability performance. Our model explores sources of cognitive flexibility of boards needed to recognize and respond to the need for improved sustainability performance. We first define concepts of sustainability, sustainability competence, and sustainability performance. We then analyze two forms of board capital (a board’s human capital and its social capital) and three aspects of a board’s information processing (its patterns of information search, discussion and debate, and information absorption) that we suggest affect a board’s cognitive flexibility and thereby influence whether a board decides to adopt sustainability performance goals. Our model also suggests that an organization’s strategic flexibility – as represented by its current endowments of resource flexibilities and coordination flexibilities – will moderate the relationship between a board’s decision to adopt sustainability performance goals and an organization’s subsequent achievement of those goals. We also suggest that our model is generally relevant to any research seeking to predict the influence of boards on strategic change in many forms, not just to research focused on sustainability issues.

This paper sets out to investigate and critique the corpus of recent research into gender dimensions of strategic management and accounting processes with a view to establishing the current state of knowledge and offering both future research and policy implications.

A literature‐based analysis and critique are employed. This is constructed from a social constructionist perspective, drawing on concepts of the variably gendered identity of discourse and of process, and a theory of absence.

The study uncovers major gaps in research attention and consequent knowledge concerning gendered characteristics of managers' and accountants' approaches to, and involvement in, strategic management and accounting processes. Evidence suggests that in these processes both feminine and masculine features constitute important but at present inadequately researched and understood modes of operation.

This research suggests opportunities for androgynous strategic management and accounting processes that draw on characteristics from both feminine and masculine perspectives. Also identified are a significant array of knowledge absences and related further research questions to be addressed.

The study opens up an area of significant research neglect, particularly in accounting. It offers theoretical and methodological paths for moving this research agenda forward.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a firm boundary perspective of operations strategy linking strategic management and business process management.

Relevant operations strategy, business process management and boundary perspective literature is reviewed and critically assessed in order to advance a firm boundary-based approach to operations strategy. Within this perspective, a multi-disciplinary and cross-functional framework is provided with the objective of supporting the process of operations strategy formulation and implementation.

The boundary perspective has the potential to inform a wide range of operations strategies. Strategic management of operations should be increasingly based on boundary operations. The proposed framework clarifies that the adoption of a spanning boundary perspective should improve the operations strategy process and content.

This paper offers implications of interest to managers, noting that the adoption of a new perspective in operations strategy should contribute to innovation in operations strategy development and implementation. Specifically, the framework suggests models and tools useful to support the spanning boundary perspective.

This paper allows operations and process management scholars to focus on key phenomena, such as boundary management. At the same time, the framework responds to the needs of managers who are engaged in operations management for a new perspective that can assist in the strategic management of operations.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an action research project carried out in an Italian university hospital that was facing a strategic challenge. The role of intellectual capital (IC) for university hospital strategic management is discussed after developing and applying an IC framework to enhance the visualisation of strategic IC elements.

An action research process has been applied in the studied setting based on Susman and Evered’s (1978) definition of the engaged research cycle.

The action research process allowed a gap between theory and practice to be bridged; the strategic control process resulted supported by new measures; a different approach to strategy management was launched, and other organisations perceived the relevance of the IC representation and wished to import it.

Research limitations are related to those recognised for the interventionist research approach.

The paper contributes to the improvement of managerial and accounting technologies for practitioners managing university hospitals and discusses a university hospital’s strategic goals.

The paper represents a methodological contribution related to the interventionist research stream of literature, and enriches the limited studies focused on IC in health care organisations. Furthermore, the paper enables appreciation of the role of academics in the convergence of theory and practice.

This paper aims to fill the existing gaps in literature which deal with both the application of a socially oriented philosophy to the theme of strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) integration and to the systematic analysis of the processes of strategic CSR management, and to create a connection between social management philosophy and the dynamic approach to CSR integration based on the strategic management processes. In particular, this study aims at creating a conceptual model to highlight, in a structured and organic way, the dynamic relationships, based on a social management philosophy, characterizing the integration of CSR in the different strategic management processes: formulation and implementation of both intended and emergent strategies. In relation to these goals, the following research questions are formulated: What are the most important strategic management processes in which to integrate CSR following a social management philosophy? How does integration (strategic CSR) based on social management philosophy impact these processes? How do strategic CSR processes based on social management philosophy determine strategic change? Which are the management tools which support integration based on social management philosophy?

The work is a conceptual paper. The paper has been developed as follows: the identification of the theoretical gaps; the definition of the research objectives; the literature review about both CSR integration and strategic management in a dynamic perspective; the formulation of the research questions; the conceptual analysis, based on social management philosophy, of the relevant propositions related to the dynamic approach to CSR integration; the building of the conceptual model based on the propositions; and the description and the analysis of the model.

In this model, three circles of change that are able to describe the integration of CSR into strategic management have been identified: A, the circle for achieving the strategic intent; B, the circle for formulating the strategic intent; and C, the circle of bottom-up innovations.

From a managerial perspective, it is possible to point out the following implications related to the integration of CSR into strategic management and the achievement of a strategic CSR: as for change dynamics which are linked to the formulations of the intended strategy, it is fundamental to develop a social management philosophy; to achieve the strategic intent, it is necessary to incorporate CSR actions into core activity of value chain; to favour the socially oriented bottom-up innovations, it is necessary to define a favourable organizational context; the strategic CSR must be supported by integrated tools and methodologies that make the rationalization of processes of change possible; and the application of tools and processes, even sophisticated ones, which are not based on social management philosophy may lead, in the long run, to negative tensions among stakeholders, as well as to serious repercussions on the firm’s management and its performance.

It is possible to pinpoint other implications for the society: the circle for achieving the strategic intents, with the aim of improving the execution phase, increases the positive externalities and reduces the negative externalities of the economic activities; the circle for formulating strategic intents allows to identify a win–win solution for CSR issues; and the bottom-up entrepreneurship increases the chances to find innovative solutions which combine social aspects and competitive aspects.

The analyses provide an integrated approach, connecting strategic management and CSR in a dynamic perspective.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the components of the management control system (MCS) based on the reform process of the management system of China Resources Group and the influence of these components on the implementation effect of MCS.

This study uses an exploratory research method and an open-ended grounded theory approach to conduct six formal investigations and several in-depth interviews with employees and senior management in China Resources Group. This paper supplements these data by performing a documentary analysis of the internal documents of China Resources Group such as the statistical yearbook, business plan and meeting records.

This study puts forward four propositions. The formal strategic planning process creates an application environment for the strategy map and balanced scorecard (BSC), making it easier for an enterprise to adopt these tools. The combination of the strategy map and formal strategic planning helps to build the logical relationship between strategic goals and budget goals and strengthens the correlation between budget and strategy. In diversified organizations applying MCS, the strategy map and BSC facilitate the implementation of the strategy for specialized business units, while the financial measure system facilitates the implementation of the strategy for diversified business units. Strategic boundaries based on financial measures in the MCS help organizations determine the scope of strategic choices before implementing strategies.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability and the influence of the strategic planning process on budget participation, budget slack and other budget behaviors has not been fully discussed. Therefore, future studies are expected to provide more evidence regarding strategic planning and budget behaviors.

Before establishing a strategy map and BSC, the enterprise should consider the application environment to ensure their feasibility and legitimacy and construct the BSC system under appropriate conditions. A formal strategic planning process should be formed within the enterprise; that is, a set of detailed management methods should be adopted and clear rules should be used to support the enterprise management control process. The enterprise should add strategic boundaries to the MCS to determine the scope of strategic choices and the budgeting bottom line.

This paper sheds light on the impact of the formal strategic planning process on the organization and contributes new evidence on the key success factors for implementing the strategy map and BSC, enriching the researchers’ understanding of the applicability of the BSC.

This research investigates the impact of the strategic sourcing process on the supply chain response to COVID-19. The paper presents practitioners' perspectives (experts in supply chain management, especially involved in the procurement field) on the strategic sourcing process's impact on the supply chain response.

The study follows a survey-based approach for data collection. It uses a descriptive survey methodology where questions related to the impact of the strategic sourcing process on the supply chain response in the face of the coronavirus pandemic were explored by practitioners.

In total, 130 valid responses were obtained. The results showed that the majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that strategic sourcing positively impacts the supply chain response amid the COVID-19 effects. Also, for the five phases of the strategic sourcing process, the majority of respondents considered them as a high and very high impact on the supply chain response.

This paper provides timely insights for practitioners and academics, especially those involved in the supply chain management area, showing how the strategic sourcing process plays an important role in making supply chains more responsive amid disruption situations.

Findings of this paper clearly shows the impact of the phases of the strategic sourcing process on the responsiveness of the supply chains amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This can encourage supply chain leadership to devote more time to strategic sourcing initiatives to generate improvements on the supply chain performance.

This paper is unique since it brings an unexplored relation in respect to strategic sourcing amid disruption situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, from a practitioner's perspective. It also significantly contributes to developing new directions for the supply chain management domain to deal with large-scale disruptions, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

There have been many approaches to answering the question, “What is management?” This article outlines a further, strategic‐operational approach. The discussion is intended to contribute to the development of a theory of management which managers can use to analyse and improve their individual performance and the performance of their organisations.