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The Role of Architectural Knowledge in Managerial Decision Making: An Experimental Discrete Choice Evaluation of the Adoption of Executional Strategies
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Research in the information systems (IS) field has often been characterized as fragmented. This paper builds on a belief that for the field to move forward and have an impact on practitioners and other academic fields, the existing work must be examined and systematized. It is particularly important to systematize research on the factors that underlie success of organizational IS. The goal here is to conceptualize the IS success antecedents (ISSA) area of research through surveying, synthesizing, and explicating the work in the domain. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, a taxonomy of 12 general categories is created, and existing research within each category is examined. Important lacunae in the direction of work have been determined. It is found that little work has been conducted on the macro-level independent variables, the most difficult variables to assess, although these variables may be the most important to understanding the ultimate value of IS to organizations. Similarly, ISSA research on success variables of consequence to organizations was found severely lacking. Variable analysis research on organizational-level success variables was found to be literally nonexistent in the IS field, whereas research in the organizational studies field was found to provide useful directions for IS researchers. The specifics of the 12 taxonomy areas are analyzed and directions for research in each of them provided. Thus, researchers and practitioners are directed toward available research and receive suggestions for future work to bring ISSA research toward an organized and cohesive future.
This paper investigates boundary decisions that determine governance structures,particularly intermediaries and external contractors, for executing theprimary functions of procurement, sales, and information technology supportfunctions in the value chain model. Utilizing data from 113 firms doing businesson the Internet, the findings indicate that firm resources have a significantimpact on decisions to outsource or internalize electronic value chain functions.Specifically, firms with a greater reliance on sales intermediaries were found todeploy fewer technical e-commerce resources than firms less dependent on salesintermediaries. Moreover, the number of intermediary procurement functionswas positively related to investment in web-based human resources. The resultsalso suggest that firms experiencing lower levels of transaction frequency utilizemore types of Internet sales methods.
The present article is an attempt to resolve the controversies concerning the concept of barriers to entry. We begin by contrasting the definitions of an entry barrier proposed in the economics literature. We then introduce a classification system to clear up the existing confusion, and we employ it to assess the nature of the barriers posed by scale economies and sunk costs.
Multinomial logit (MNL) models are widely used in marketing research to analyze choice data, but it is not generally recognized that the unit of the utility scale in a MNL model is inversely related to the error variance. This means that, for instance, parameters of two identical utility specifications estimated from different data sources with unequal variances will necessarily differ in magnitude, even if the true model parameters that generated the utilities are identical in both sets. Despite a growing number of papers that compare MNL coefficients, no examples of appropriate tests of the joint and separate hypotheses of scale and parameter equality in MNL models exist in the marketing literature. The purpose of this paper is to address the proper procedure for MNL parameter comparisons between different data sets and to propose a simple relative scaling test that can be implemented with standard MNL estimation software. Several examples are given to illustrate the approach.
The recent marketing literature reflects a growing interest in relationship management issues. In particular, several recent studies have drawn on transaction cost and agency theory to examine how interfirm relationships are organized. The general premise is that explicit control mechanisms must be deployed in a relationship to manage a partner's potential opportunism. Although previous research has shown that different mechanisms can be used, the tendency has been to examine individual mechanisms in isolation. The authors develop hypotheses about interdependences between different control mechanisms. They also identify some of the contextual factors that influence their use. The framework is tested empirically by examining how chemical manufacturers organize their supplier relationships. The results generally support the hypothesis that firms’ choices among control mechanisms are influenced by contextual factors. Only limited support is found for the hypothesis that interdependencies exist between different mechanisms.
Co-marketing alliances between firms afford fresh opportunity for strategic advantage. Data from 98 alliances show that gains in effectiveness can be obtained by reducing power and managerial imbalances. Careful project selection and better matching of potential partners also help to enhance alliance effectiveness.
The authors develop a theoretical extension to the basic transaction cost model by combining insights from dependence theory with the TCA approach. They introduce offsetting investments as a means of safeguarding the specific assets of small firms in conventional channels. The traditional TCA safeguards are insufficient here, because vertical integration is not feasible for the small firm at risk and long-term contractual protection is not present in conventional channels. Data from 199 manufacturers' agencies support the theoretical predictions. Agencies with more specific assets invested in their relationship with a principal attempted to bond themselves more closely to their accounts to safeguard those assets. Such bonding efforts resulted in a lower level of dependence on the principal because the agencies were better able to replace the principal if necessary. Also, their financial performance was improved when dependence was reduced, provided levels of specific investments were relatively high.
A central focus of empirical research in strategic management has been to understand the relationships associated with the structure–strategy–performance paradigm. To examine these relationships, investigators have relied extensively on cross-sectional methods that embody the implicit assumption that model parameters are stable across firms and over time. Yet, many of the theoretical constructs used in strategic management have clear firm- and time-specific components. Hence, it might be expected that the parameters of the relationships investigated empirically will vary across firms and over time. Whereas recent research has raised concerns about the use of cross-sectional analysis when parameters vary over time, little attention has been given to the issue of parameter variability across firms. Given the focus of strategy researchers on firm-level effects and the predominant reliance on cross-sectional analysis, accounting for across-firm variability is a significant methodological issue. Failure to account for such variability can lead to biased parameter estimates and incorrect inferences. This paper argues for the adoption of alternative methods that can overcome the limitations of a cross-sectional analysis and it offers guidance on how researchers can proceed to use these alternative methods to explicitly incorporate or test for variation in model parameters across firms or over time. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This paper integrates elements from the theory of agency, the theory of property rights and the theory of finance to develop a theory of the ownership structure of the firm. We define the concept of agency costs, show its relationship to the 'separation and control' issue, investigate the nature of the agency costs generated by the existence of debt and outside equity, demonstrate who bears the costs and why, and investigate the Pareto optimality of their existence. We also provide a new definition of the firm, and show how our analysis of the factors influencing the creation and issuance of debt and equity claims is a special case of the supply side of the completeness of markets problem.
This paper introduces a social network perspective to the study of strategic alliances. It extends prior research, which has primarily considered alliances as dyadic exchanges and paid less attention to the fact that key precursors, processes, and outcomes associated with alliances can be defined and shaped in important ways by the social networks within which most firms are embedded. It identifies five key issues for the study of alliances: (1) the formation of alliances, (2) the choice of governance structure, (3) the dynamic evolution of alliances, (4) the performance of alliances, and (5) the performance consequences for firms entering alliances. For each of these issues, this paper outlines some of the current research and debates at the firm and dyad level and then discusses some of the new and important insights that result from introducing a network perspective. It highlights current network research on alliances and suggests an agenda for future research.© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Lessons from a world-leading management consultancy.
Diverse applications of the concept of loose coupling are embodied in five recurring voices that focus separately on causation, typology, effects, compensations, and outcomes. Each has a tendency to drift away from a dialectical interpretation of loose coupling toward a unidimensional interpretation of loose coupling, thereby weakening the explanatory value of the concept. The authors first use the five voices to review the loose coupling literature and then to suggest more precise and more productive uses of the concept.
The term ‘bounded rationality’ is used to designate rational choice that takes into account the cognitive limitations of the decision-maker — limitations of both knowledge and computational capacity. Bounded rationality is a central theme in the behavioural approach to economics, which is deeply concerned with the ways in which the actual decision–making process influences the decisions that are reached.
This revision of a best selling research methods textbook introduces social science methods as applied broadly to the study of issues that arise as part of organizational life. These include issues involving organizational participants such as managers, teachers, customers, patients and clients, and transactions within and between organizations. In this new edition, chapter 19 now focuses on describing the modeling process and outcomes. An entirely new chapter 20 now addresses challenges to modeling. It goes substantially beyond a discussion of statistical inference. It also discusses issues in interpreting variance, explained estimates, and standardized and unstandardized regression coefficients. A new capstone chapter 21 helps students recognize good research. This textbook is accompanied by an Instructor's Manual for course use. © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Understanding sources of sustained competitive advantage has become a major area of research in strategic management. Building on the assumptions that strategic resources are heterogeneously distributed across firms and that these differences are stable over time, this article examines the link between firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Four empirical indicators of the potential of firm resources to generate sustained competitive advantage-value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability are discussed. The model is applied by analyzing the potential of several firm resources for generating sustained competitive advantages. The article concludes by examining implications of this firm resource model of sustained competitive advantage for other business disciplines.
The traditional methods of probability and non-probability sample selection are applicable to Internet surveys and respondents can be selected in various ways, some of which are unique to the Internet. Specific to the Internet, and important to note from a sampling viewpoint, is the self-completion method of data collection. For this article the method has been sub-divided into six categories, three webpage style questionnaires and three e-mail style questionnaires. Data that show the number of individuals with access to a networked computer are of limited use in sampling. Thirteen types of computer user are identifiable, each of which poses a challenge for sampling. Published examples illustrate how these principles have been applied in practice. Two techniques: saturation surveying and sifting, may be employed usefully in some situations. There are numerous solutions to sampling problems for Internet research and many avenues for further inquiry.
After more than 30 years of hard thinking about strategy, consultants and scholars have provided an abundance of frameworks for analyzing strategic situations. Missing, however, has been any guidance as to what the product of these tools should be - or what actually constitutes a strategy. Strategy has become a catchall term used to mean whatever one wants it to mean. Executives now talk about their "service strategy," their "branding strategy," their "acquisition strategy," or whatever kind of strategy that is on their mind at a particular moment. But strategists-whether they are CEOs of established firms, division presidents, or entrepreneurs - must have a strategy, an integrated, overarching concept of how the business will achieve its objectives. If a business must have a single, unified strategy, then it must necessarily have parts. What are those parts? We present a framework for strategy design, arguing that a strategy has five elements, providing answers to five questions - arenas: where will we be active? vehicles: how will we get there? differentiators: how will we win in the marketplace? staging: what will be our speed and sequence of moves? economic logic: how will we obtain our returns? Our article develops and illustrates these domains of choice, particularly emphasizing how essential it is that they form a unified whole.
The prevailing assumption in recent literature is that strategic choice and environmental determinism represent mutually exclusive, competing explanations of organizational adaptation. The present paper, in contrast, argues that choice and determinism are independent variables that can be positioned on two separate continua to develop a typology of organizational adaptation. The interactions of these variables result in four main types: (1) natural selection, with minimum choice and adaptation or selection out, (2) differentiation, with high choice and high environmental determinism and adaptation within constraints, (3) strategic choice, with maximum choice and adaptation by design, and (4) undifferentiated choice, with incremental choice and adaptation by chance. These types influence the number and forms of strategic options of organizations, the decisional emphasis on means or ends, political behavior and conflict, and the search activities of the organization in its environment.
This study was designed to investigate the relationship between managerial perceptions of, and organizational responses to, a generally similar organizational environment. The top managers of four firms in the college textbook publishing industry were interviewed about the major adaptations which had occurred in their organizations over a three-year period. The findings indicate that managerial perceptions play a significant role in the process of organizational adaptation, but this role is more complex than typically described in the literature. The following arguments are advanced in this paper: (1) management's perceptions of both the environment and the organization are important to the process of adaptation; (2) managerial perceptions interact closely with the organization's strategy for responding to the environment; (3) perceptions fluctuate during the course of adaptation; and (4) manager's perceptions may vary substantially across organizations in a similar environment, but each organization can be effective provided that it is properly designed to pursue its chosen strategy.