Robert Morris Grant

• Ph.D in Management Studies (City University)
• Bocconi University

While some firms build cars or smartphones, Rocket Internet builds companies. The incubator and investment firm has pioneered an extreme approach to new venture creation that is often referred to as a “startup factory:” it rapidly assembles and scales new companies, replicating business models that have been developed elsewhere. Separating the idea...

This entry tracks the development of strategy thought from its origins in military strategy through the era or corporate planning to its twenty-first century flourishing in terms of both the range of phenomena it explores and the variety of concepts and theoretical disciplines it deploys. Keywords: strategy; corporate planning; strategic manageme...

Research into how organizational capabilities develop has focused upon specific types of capability and particular processes for capability development. Yet, to develop and survive, an enterprise must put in place an integrated system of organizational capabilities deploying multiple development processes. Our study enquires into the content, struc...

A review of the knowledge management experiences of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Paragon Engineering Services, BHP, Marathon Oil, and Murphy Oil identified two major types of knowledge management practices: applications of information and communications technology to the management of explic...

Electronic commerce has been considered to represent the ultimate manifestation of the globalisation of business. This paper highlights, however, that the existence of extreme scale economies and uniform global markets must be qualified. Account must be taken of local and national influences together with the fact that the particular economic chara...

While ample literature exists on quality—its context, its processes and structures, its phases, its features and its measurement—attempts to foster quality improvements within the firm still frequently fail. A cross-cultural investigation of a telecommunication company in the US and a paper manufacturing company in Israel illustrates that the meani...

Executive Overview Quality improvement programs and activities have become a way of life in many U.S. companies. However, attempts to foster quality improvements within the firm still frequently fail. Critics of quality improvement programs point out that companies often do not link improvement programs to specific results. Based upon an in-depth a...

A major cause of the slow adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies by U.S. industry, and the disappointing performance gains from such technologies, is the failure to adapt oreganizations and work practices to the new technologies. This article proposes "sociotechnical systems" as a framework for examining the organizational implications of...

An empirically based study yielded significant positive relationships between small business complexity and interactivity; uncertainty and new product innovation; and diversity and new product innovation. Significant negative correlations were found between environmental complexity and pricing; environmental staticity and interactivity; and statici...

God made us all a certain way. We're all creative, capable of making decisions, trustworthy, able to learn, and perhaps most important, fallible. We all want to be part of a community and to use our skills to make a difference in the world.