Maurizio Zollo

• Ph.D. in Management, Wharton
• Professor (Full) at Bocconi University

Research summary : We develop an integrative approach to the study of strategic management in a four‐step logical sequence. First, we discuss one of the rare conceptual frameworks of integrated firm strategy introduced by Coda (1984). Second, we focus on competitive, growth, and stakeholder strategies and identify four integrative mechanisms underl...

Can firms deceive their stakeholders, by failing to deliver on their commitments to undertake sustainability practices without being detected? Extant theory posits that, due to information asymmetry, stakeholders struggle to comprehend the actual change in firms’ practices. In contrast, we advance a cognitive-linguistic perspective to explain why s...

Previous literature has shown that the relationship between accumulated experience and performance of a focal task is more complex than how it has been represented by the learning curve pattern. Experience in previous tasks can have a positive, negative or null effect on the performance of a focal task, depending on a number of conditions. The purp...

This chapter discusses the practical challenges and opportunities involved in merging the two fields of cognitive neurosciences and strategic management, starting from the premise that the need to marry them is justified by their complementarities, as opposed to the level of analysis on which they both focus. We discuss the potential benefits and d...

Drawing on the attention-based view of the firm and the experiential learning literature, this paper develops and tests a theory on how firms learn to cope with the strains of activity load. We first empirically test the impact of activity load on the performance of a focal activity. We then study how this relationship is moderated by four dimensio...

The ontology of dynamic capabilities (DCs) is grounded in a systemic perspective of organisational strategy. In a controversial move, DCs theory adopts systems thinking as a metaphorical reference, not a possible research method. Systemic methodologies can provide a holistic management perception and guide managers to develop DCs differently, consi...

Technological breakthroughs, institutional disruptions, and natural disasters often alter the course of organizations and entire industries. Such discontinuous changes threaten organizations’ survival by affecting the value of the knowledge accumulated in routines and capabilities. Although it is widely acknowledged that managerial cognition is a c...

We study how stakeholder orientation influences managers’ ability to learn from prior experience in corporate acquisitions. We argue that increased attention to primary stakeholders’ signals affects both positively and negatively managers’ capacity to analyze causal mechanisms in past acquisitions, draw inferences from them, and apply these inferen...

In this article we argue that in order to understand failure or success in adapting to environmental change, we should better understand why people hesitate to pursue novel choices. This article asks: what forces hinder individuals’ exploration choices of different alternatives, and hence their ability to learn from them? To answer this question, t...

This study builds upon March and Simon's proposition that individual‐level differences must be considered when explaining decision‐making performance. We extend their discussion on the importance of decision‐makers' attention to explain heterogeneous patterns of exploration and exploitation within the same uncertain environment. We develop a model...

Introduction While cross‐sectional studies have shown neural changes in long‐term meditators, they might be confounded by self‐selection and potential baseline differences between meditators and non meditators. Prospective longitudinal studies of the effects of meditation in naïve subjects are more conclusive with respect to causal inferences, but...

This article develops and tests a theory on the evolution of complex organizational decisions, such as the decision to integrate (or not) a target company during the post-acquisition management phase. Using a sample of US bank mergers, we show that persistence in—or variation of—integration decisions depends on two key factors: integration experien...

Research summary : In this article, we study how a firm's stakeholder orientation affects the performance of its corporate acquisitions. We depart from prior literature and suggest that orientations toward employees, customers, suppliers, and local communities will affect long‐term acquisition performance both directly and through its interactions...

Plain language summary This article argues that the rapid evolution of expectations and influence capacity by corporate stakeholders requires managers in MNCs not only to adapt operating activities, but to rethink the purpose and overarching goal of the business enterprise, adapting it from a shareholder‐primacy to a multi‐stakeholder enterprise mo...

We develop an integrative approach to the study of strategic management in a three-step logical sequence. First, a general framework is proposed to describe how competitive, growth and stakeholder strategies influence each other in a dynamic way to create customer and stakeholder advantage on the product and factor markets. Second, we analyze these...

This paper adopts a contingency approach to the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and seeks to establish boundary conditions for the value of certain information technology (IT) capabilities. We first identify inter-organizational alliances as a specific strategy context in which IT capabilities are particularly valuable. We then consider more...

This chapter extends the literature on dynamic capabilities (DCs) to incorporate a more holistic model of human behavior, which includes micro-foundational elements, such as emotion, motivation, and identity. A model is presented, which accommodates the diverse nature of DCs regarding the objects of change that they aim to act upon and can better s...

This paper, among the Best Paper Proceedings of the 2015 Academy of Management annual conference, shows the impact of acquirers' stakeholder orientation on M&A performance. It distinguishes different categories of stakeholders and tests for the moderating effects of business similarity and post-acquisition integration.

Puzzled by the diversity of the learning paths followed by firms when trying to transfer the lessons learned from their prior acquisitions to the new ones, we studied learning processes in the five serial acquirers. We show that in addition to the existence of a sufficient pool of diverse acquisition experiences, the effectiveness of learning is mo...

This paper aims at explaining differences in decision making performance on the basis of choice patterns implemented by a sample of 89 participants while playing a four armed bandit task. We observe the emergence of strategies which differ in terms of content, myopia and ultimately performance. Such choice patterns provide information about search...

This paper studies the cognitive processes that enable decision-makers to switch between exploitation and exploration. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of expert decision-makers to make two main contributions. First, we identify and contrast the specific brain regions and cognitive processes associated with exploitati...

An optimal balance between efficient exploitation of available resources and creative exploration of alternatives is critical for adaptation and survival. Previous studies associated these behavioral drives with, respectively, the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic system and frontopolar-intraparietal networks. We study the activation of these systems...

“Bad management theories are destroying good management practices” was the title of a seminal paper by Sumantra Ghoshal in 2005, which questioned the way we theorize. After a series of recent crises, the call for good management practice is of even greater relevance. Consequently, theories are needed that stimulate positive narratives for value cre...

This purpose of this article is to provide a framework into which we can integrate global strategy with stakeholder theory. Our aim is to create the basis for a research agenda that deals specifically with issues that are unique to global strategy and to use this perspective to demonstrate the insights that may arise for core stakeholder theory thr...

In this article, we strive to contribute to the ongoing shift in the sustainability debate from its historical focus on definitional (“what”) and motivational (“why”) questions to the understanding of change and learning process questions (“how”) connected to the efforts some firms are making to evolve toward “sustainable enterprise” models. A conc...

This purpose of this article is to provide a framework into which we can integrate global strategy with stakeholder theory. Our aim is to create the basis for a research agenda that deals specifically with issues that are unique to global strategy and to use this perspective to demonstrate the insights that may arise for core stakeholder theory thr...

We advance a multilevel argument that challenges and qualifies existing explanations of firms' responses to institutional pressures. In an in-depth study of 17 multinational corporations involving 359 interviews with internal and external actors, we find that firms facing identical pressures decouple policy from practice in different ways and for d...

Working Paper of the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance

INSEAD October 2003 Using a novel and comprehensive database on the performance of US and EU private equity (PE) funds and their underlying investments, we find that the performance of PE funds is comparable to public market performance. We show how sensitive this result is to various assumptions and thereby reconcile existing divergent estimates....

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue, conceptualized and realized by a group of scholars engaged in the Global Organizational Learning and Development Network (GOLDEN) for Sustainability programme. It aims to adopt the overarching research question of the GOLDEN research programme “How do firms learn to integrate and...

To date, the discussion regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily addressed organizational rationale and activities. Little has been said about the individual characteristics and behaviors that promote the development of CSR within organizations. In this paper, we propose and test a model to explain individual differences in the...

What are the origins of the ability to continuously explore novel domains of activity while at the same time exploiting the current knowledge base with increasing efficacy? The conflicting objectives of exploration and exploitation compete for scarce resources, among which managerial attention is possibly the most critical. This paper integrates re...

Most of the discussion by academics and practitioners regarding CSR (corporate social responsibility) pertains to the organisation. Little research has explored how to develop socially responsible behaviour (SRB) at the individual level. As part of a large-scale research project, RESPONSE, four companies took part in randomised controlled experimen...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the limits of stakeholder governance and to contribute a better comprehension of the relationships between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) through the development of a dynamic model that links together innovation and change, stakeholder cohesion, and comp...

This article presents a simulation model of the development of knowledge, operating routines and dynamic capability in organizations at varying levels of environmental dynamism. We draw on system dynamics modeling to explore trade-offs and ambiguities in the decision to invest in deliberate learning processes to enhance the development of dynamic c...

In this paper, the notion of superstitious learning is applied to the context of rare and complex strategic decisions. I argue that superstitious learning is a particularly relevant problem for these types of decisions not only because causal linkages between actions and outcomes might be poorly inferred, but also, more basically, because their per...

Purpose – This paper aims to juxtapose two separate perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in terms of their ability to explain the cognitive alignment between managers and stakeholders on what constitutes the social responsibility of the focal firm, and to explain social performance. Design/methodology/approach – The authors take t...

A major source of errors in managerial decision-making is that individuals tend to respond to stimuli in a homogeneous way, failing to adapt their cognitive and behavioral patterns to the idiosyncrasies of the context. In this paper, we focus on the micro-processes that explain adaptation by drawing on recent findings in the cognitive neurosciences...

This paper aims to leverage neuroscience and psychology to contribute to the development of a microfoundation for an important managerial dilemma: the organizational ability to continuously explore novel domains of activity and exploit the current knowledge base with increasing efficacy. The dilemma for firms is at how to search for sustained compe...

Executive Overview This paper examines the concept of acquisition performance, proposing a model linking task-, transaction-, and firm-level constructs under different time horizons and testing it with a unique dataset created by surveying partners and directors of a major consulting firm advising on the postacquisition integration process of 146 a...

In this paper, the notion of superstitious learning is extended to encompass both causal ambiguity (Levit and March, 1988) and outcome ambiguity phenomena. I argue that superstitious learning is a particularly relevant problem in strategic events not only because causal linkages between actions and outcomes might be poorly inferred, but for the mor...

Purpose This paper sets out to investigate the effect of differences in national cultures on the social and environmental performance of companies around the world. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical propositions on how the various dimensions of national culture influence corporate social responsibility are developed and empirically tested....

This paper investigates the impact of firms' information technology (IT) capabilities on the geographic scope and performance of strategic alliances. Results show that IT capabilities expand alliance scope for ambiguous tasks and shrink alliance scope for highly analyzable tasks. We also find that IT capabilities generally enhance alliance performa...

This paper examines the concept of acquisition performance to develop and test a model linking the various ways in which scholars have studied it in the past. We propose a model linking task-, transaction- and firm-level constructs under different time horizons and test it with a unique dataset created surveying partners and directors of a major co...

During Steve Kaufman’s tenure as CEO from 1986 to 2000, Arrow Electronics developed its post-merger management capabilities to the point where it could complete an integration at breakneck speed. Kaufman and SVP Betty Jane Scheihing, his de facto head of integration, kept up the pace throughout each integration but were particularly active in the d...

The overwhelming emphasis in this book has been on the cognitive challenges of leadership. Paradoxically, however, senior managers often find the personal change required to be more taxing than the subtle debates over the merging company’s health.

In a 2002 speech, UBS Chairman Marcel Ospel told the highly eventful story of how UBS emerged as a financial giant over the course of a decade. The catalyzing events in this story were a series of acquisitions that culminated in the UBS-CSBC merger in 1998.

‘Hey, you know, I’m probably your worst damn nightmare. The evil empire to the south shows up in charge here and it’s somebody from L.A. I mean, if only we could have been from Boston. Any place but L.A.’ Kevin Sharer, CEO of California-based biotech giant Amgen, is in Seattle joking with employees of its 2002 acquisition Immunex. Yet melding toget...

Senior managers need to define a value-added leadership role for themselves based on a creative and expansive understanding of how the merger affects the corporation. As their integration teams become more proficient and their integration tools and techniques more deeply institutionalized, senior managers’ charge is to resist the emergence of compl...

Carlsberg’s Paul Bergqvist, reflecting on the 2001 integration between Carlsberg of Denmark and Orkla of Sweden, captured succinctly what creating the new company at the top entails: ‘You can always have a lot of get-together dinners, but that’s not the point. You have to name the right top team, get it structured correctly, define its new agenda a...

Steve Boehm of Wachovia described to us the ‘big-bang’ model that had been followed for years in the US retail banking industry. All the changes to processes and systems would be introduced in a single weekend. If everything went well, on Monday morning customers from both sides would seamlessly adapt to the merged bank and very few would be lost t...

Academic researchers and consultants have consistently shown that on average mergers and acquisitions deliver at best mediocre performance outcomes. The typical merger is therefore a bet against the odds.1

This paper articulates a theory of the conditions under which the alignment between individual and collective interests generates sustainable competitive advantage. The theory is based on the influence of tacitness, context-specificity and casual ambiguity in the determinants of different types of motivation (extrinsic, normative intrinsic and hedo...

How do ownership networks among business enterprises evolve over time? What roles do corporate governance reforms and privatization programs play in shaping the structural characteristics of these networks? This article addresses these questions by leveraging on small-world analysis techniques applied to the ownership networks among Italian enterpr...

Using a novel and comprehensive database on both US and EU private equity funds and their underlying investments, we study the drivers of private equity fund performance. First, we study whether their hedging properties are attractive enough to justify their low performance. We document that fund performance co-varies positively with both business...

This paper proposes to revisit the debate on the theory of the firm using motivation theory as the primary analytical tool.

The management of technology acquisitions - acquisitions of small technology based firms by large established firms - poses a dilemma in terms of how to organize for innovation. Acquirers must integrate acquired firms in order to exploit their capabilities and technologies in a coordinated manner; at the same time, they must preserve organizational...

We draw upon evolutionary economics and transaction cost economics to examine how alliance experience accumulation at the parent firm level and alliance features at the transaction level jointly and interactively shape the favorability of research alliances’ termination outcomes. Fifteen percent of the terminated alliances we examined were successf...

This paper introduces a knowledge-based view of corporate acquisitions and tests the post-acquisition consequences on performance of integration decisions and capability-building mechanisms. In our model, the acquiring firm decides both how much to integrate the acquired firm and the extent to which it replaces this firm's top management team. It c...

Although acquisitions and alliances are used increasingly to drive the growth in multinational activities, the success rates of both acquisitions and alliances continue to be considered low, both at home and abroad. How do companies make the choice between acquisitions and alliances as a mode of entry? How do they then approach the post-entry manag...

The objective of this paper is to study empirically how post-acquisition decisions and learning from previous acquisition experience affect the long-term performance of acquiring firm. Using financial, accounting and questionnaire response data, we investigate the post-acquisition long-term performance of 47 US bank holding companies that executed...

Technology-grafting acquisitions are the acquisitions of technology-based entrepreneurial firms by established firms. They are often motivated by the need to bring products speedily to market, as well as develop future product pipelines. We argue that these are conflicting objectives; a trade-off between short and long-term performance arises becau...

Abstract In this paper, we study someof the conditions under which “superstitious learning” phenomena (Levitt and March, 1988) become problematic in organizations, and we identify a set of boundary conditions for these effects. In particular, we argue that the tacit accumulation of experience might exacerbate the problem, but that the heterogeneity...

This paper applies evolutionary economics reasoning to the strategic alliance context and examines whether and how routinization processes at the partnering-firm level influence the performance of the cooperative agreement. In doing so, it introduces the concept of interorganizational routines, defined as stable patterns of interaction among two fi...

This paper investigates the mechanisms through which organizations develop dynamic capabilities, defined as routinized activities directed to the development and adaptation of operating routines. It addresses the role of (1) experience accumulation, (2) knowledge articulation, and (3) knowledge codification processes in the evolution of dynamic, as...

This paper investigates the occurrence and determinants of post-formation governance changes in strategic alliances, including alterations in alliances' contracts, boards or oversight committees, and monitoring mechanisms. We examine alliances in the biotechnology industry and find that firms' unique alliance experience trajectories affect the like...

A working paper in the INSEAD Working Paper Series is intended as a means whereby a faculty researcher's thoughts and findings may be communicated to interested readers. The paper should be considered preliminary in nature and may require revision.

When companies decide to engage in technology transfer through exclusive licensing to other firms, they have two basic options: to use standard licensing contracts or to set-up more elaborate partnership-embedded licensing agreements. We find that broader partnership-embedded licensing agreements are preferred with higher levels of technological so...

One important question confronting firms engaged in a strategic alliance is how to adapt the relationship over time. This article identifies specific governance changes firms make in strategic alliances. Using illustrative data on strategic alliances in the biotechnology industry, the authors consider the frequency of governance adaptations and exp...