Crossing the technology adoption chasm: implications for DoD

Acquisition research (Graduate School of Business & Public Policy)DoD faces significant challenges in delivering promising new technologies to service members quickly and cost-effectively. To better understand DOD's technology adoption challenges, we review the technology diffusion literature to identify factors associated with successful and unsuccessful technology adoption processes, conduct case studies of DoD's advanced technology programs and propose a conceptual technology adoption model. The literature review identifies three overarching factors reflecting the complexities of defense technology adoption: benefit-cost uncertainty, organizational externalities, and direct and indirect network externalities. Technology adoption clearly involves benefit and cost uncertainties. Organizational externalities arise because there are typically multiple stakeholders from different DoD constituencies. Direct and indirect network externalities reflect the joint and interrelated nature of defense technologies on the battlefield. A closer look at one of DoD's advanced technology development programs indicates that success factors in this program generally parallel the results of the literature survey: the importance of benefit-cost uncertainty, management commitment (organizational externalities), technology champion (network externalities) and the prospects for future technology transfer (network externalities). Finally, we present conceptual technology adoption models incorporating benefit-cost uncertainty, organizational externalities and network externalities. These models can explain the diffusion patterns observed in the defense department: no adoption, full adoption, and partial adoption/de-adoption.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Behavioral Integrity: The Perceived Alignment Between Managers’ Words and Deeds as a Research Focus

This paper focuses on the perceived pattern of alignment between a manager\u27s words and deeds, with special attention to promise keeping, and espoused and enacted values. It terms this perceived pattern of alignment “Behavioral Integrity.” The literatures on trust, psychological contracts, and credibility combine to suggest important consequences for this perception, and literatures on hypocrisy, social accounts, social cognition, organizational change, and management fashions suggest key antecedents to it. The resulting conceptual model highlights an issue that is problematic in today\u27s managerial environment, has important organizational outcomes, and is relatively unstudied

Connecting the dots and merging meaning: using mixed methods to study primary care delivery transformation

pre-printObjective: To demonstrate the value of mixed methods in the study of practice transformation and illustrate procedures for connecting methods and for merging findings to enhance the meaning derived.. Data Source/Study Setting: An integrated network of university-owned, primary care practices at the University of Utah (Community Clinics or CCs). CC has adopted Care by Design™, its version of the Patient Centered Medical Home. Study Design: Mixed methods. Data Collection/Extraction Methods: Analysis of archival documents, internal operational reports, in-clinic observations, chart audits, surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database and the Utah All Payers Claims Database. Principal findings: Each data source enriched our understanding of the change process and understanding of reasons that certain changes were more difficult than others both in general and for particular clinics. Mixed methods enabled generation and testing of hypotheses about change and led to a comprehensive understanding of practice change. Conclusions: Mixed methods are useful in studying practice transformation. Challenges exist but can be overcome with careful planning and persistence

Corporate Strategy and Analyst Behaviour

This dissertation investigates whether and how corporate strategy affects analyst behaviour, ranging from the coverage decision to forecasting efficiency. Both firm and industry level strategic information are important inputs to analyst reports which are useful to investors in a market where information asymmetry exists between the firms and their (potential) shareholders. In this thesis, I employ Miles and Snow’s (1978, 2003) strategy typology to identify three types of firms (or industries): those adopting an innovation-focused ‘Prospector’ strategy, those pursuing cost-efficient ‘Defender’ strategy and those adopting ‘other strategies’ (‘Analyzer’ and ‘Reactor’ strategies). The first study in this thesis examines how firm strategy and industry strategic orientation affect the demand for analyst coverage and the task complexity analysts face if they choose to covering a firm. I find that Prospector firms receive, on average, higher analyst coverage, than Defender firms, but are less likely to be covered by expert analysts. These findings suggest that the reduced task complexity associated with Prospectors’ superior discretionary disclosure outweighs any impact of task complexity from these firms’ greater inherent uncertainty. Defenders low analyst coverage, but abnormally high coverage from experts suggests that the high task complexity from weaker disclosure dominates the low task complexity arising from Defenders’ relatively stable operations. I find similar effects for the association between industry strategic orientation and analyst coverage. The second study investigates whether industry strategic orientation moderates the impact of firm-level strategy on the analyst coverage decision and analyst forecast accuracy. I find that firms adopting a Defender strategy in an industry with the opposite strategic orientation (Prospector-oriented industries) receive abnormally low analyst coverage, which I attribute largely to reduced value of information spillovers. I also find (weaker) evidence that firms adopting an extreme of the same nature as the industry orientation (‘Extreme Prospectors’ and ‘Extreme Defenders’) are associated with lower forecast accuracy. In Defender-oriented industries, I find evidence consistent with the potential impact on profitability of pursuing a strategy contrary to the industry orientation (i.e. a Prospector strategy) reducing both analyst coverage and forecast accuracy. The final study investigates how firm strategy affects asymmetric cost behaviour, and in turn, whether analysts’ understanding of strategy and its association with asymmetric cost behaviour, reduces the bias in their forecasts. I find that forecast optimism is, on average, increasing in the degree of cost stickiness, suggesting analyst do not perfectly incorporate realised cost stickiness in their earnings forecasts. Saliently, I find that analyst forecast bias for firms for which cost stickiness is most predictable (Prospectors) are less sensitive to the incidence of cost stickiness than is the case for other firms, and that the opposite is true for firms for which cost stickiness is less likely to prevail (Defenders), and thus should be more of a shock to analysts

Corporate Control and Idiosyncratic Vision

This Article offers a novel theory of corporate control. It does so by shedding new light on corporate-ownership structures and challenging the prevailing model of controlling shareholders as essentially opportunistic actors who seek to reap private benefits at the expense of minority shareholders. Our core claim is that entrepreneurs value corporate control because it allows them to pursue their vision (i.e., any business strategy that the entrepreneur genuinely believes will produce an above-market rate of return) in the manner they see fit. We call the subjective value an entrepreneur attaches to her vision the entrepreneur\u27s idiosyncratic vision. Our framework identifies a fundamental tradeoff, stemming from asymmetric information and differences of opinion, between the entrepreneur\u27s pursuit of her idiosyncratic vision and investors\u27 need for protection against agency costs. Entrepreneurs and investors address this inevitable conflict through different ownership structures, each with different allocations of control and cash-flow rights. Concentrated ownership, therefore, should not be viewed as an unalloyed evil. To the contrary, it creates value for controlling and minority shareholders alike. Our analysis shows that controlling shareholders hold a control block to increase the pie\u27s size (pursue idiosyncratic vision) rather than to dictate the pie\u27s distribution (consume private benefits). Importantly, when the entrepreneur\u27s idiosyncratic vision is ultimately realized, the benefits will be distributed pro rata to all investors. Our framework provides important insights for investor protection and corporate law doctrine and policy. We argue that corporate law for publicly traded firms with controlling shareholders should balance the controller\u27s need to secure her idiosyncratic vision against the minority\u27s need for protection. While the existing corporate-law scholarship has focused solely on the protection of minority shareholders, we show that it is equally important to pay heed to the rights of the controlling shareholders

Indirect procurement management: Maturity model development and validation

Indirect procurement management still lags direct procurement in many aspects. Whereas the value creation capability and strategic contribution of direct procurement are widely recognized, indirect procurement is often seen as overly complex, minor, and irrelevant compared to direct procurement. As a result, it receives much less managerial attention and resources, degrading the efforts to manage them professionally. Yet, indirect procurement often represents more than 40 percent of all procurement spend – a share that no company should overlook. With ever toughening competition, indirect procurement management development has the potential to offer a new source of savings and competitive advantage. However, there is only little academical support for developing indirect procurement management. The literature of indirect procurement is also very fragmented, and a large part of it dates to 1990s and 2000s. This study aims to create a synthesis of indirect procurement research and bridge the gap between academia and practice by creating a comprehensive research-based tool for measuring and developing indirect procurement management capability. Maturity models have been recognized as useful tools to measure current capability and guide development. Therefore, this study creates an indirect procurement management maturity model. This thesis adopts a constructive approach to developing the maturity model. The first version of the model is created through an extensive literature review and is then empirically validated by conducting qualitative research utilizing semi-structured interviews. Two research questions are first posed to guide the process and later answered: Which issues and management practices characterize indirect procurement management? and What are the characteristics of a comprehensive indirect procurement maturity model? The study identified multiple issues and managerial solutions characteristic for indirect procurement management that are present at different stages of maturity. The issues are intertwined in their root causes and require comprehensive development and implementation of best practices to be overcome. The developed maturity model was seen to accurately reflect reality and to be a useful tool to measure current capability and to guide indirect procurement management development in practice. Improvements with soft factors, such as communication, cross-functional cooperation, and managerial recognition, were recognized as key enablers and solutions for improving indirect procurement management performance. When properly resourced, correctly appreciated, and comprehensively developed indirect procurement can offer a sought-after source of untapped potential in cost reduction and value-creation and improve everything from functional performance to work-wellbeing of all employees in an organization.Epäsuorat hankinnat ovat jääneet suorien hankintojen varjoon niin yrityselämässä kuin tutkimuksessakin. Suorien hankintojen arvonluontipotentiaali ja strateginen merkitys ymmärretään käytännön yrityselämässä, mutta epäsuorat hankinnat nähdään edelleen usein kompleksisena ja merkityksettömänä osana hankintoja. Epäsuoriin hankintoihin ei kiinnitetä tarpeeksi huomiota eikä niille allokoida riittävästi resursseja, joka heikentää merkittävästi niiden johtamista ja kyvykkyyttä. Epäsuorat hankinnat vastaavat kuitenkin usein yli 40 prosentista hankintakuluja. Ne ovatkin siis merkittävä kokonaisuus, jota yhdenkään yrityksen ei tulisi väheksyä. Epäsuorien hankintojen kehittämisessä piilee suurta potentiaalia kulusäästöille ja kilpailukyvyn kehitykselle. Akateeminen kirjallisuus tarjoaa kuitenkin vain vähän tukea niiden kehittämiselle. Epäsuorien hankintojen johtamisen kirjallisuus on hyvin hajanaista ja merkittävä osa siitä yli 20 vuotta vanhaa. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on luoda synteesi epäsuorien hankintojen kirjallisuudesta ja kuroa umpeen akateemisen maailman ja käytännön välistä kuilua luomalla kattava ja ajantasainen, tutkimukseen perustuva työkalu epäsuorien hankintojen johtamisen kyvykkyyden mittaamista ja kehittämistä varten. Maturiteettimallit on tunnistettu hyviksi työkaluiksi kyvykkyyden mittaamiseen ja kehitystoimien ohjaamiseen. Tässä tutkimuksessa luodaankin maturiteettimalli epäsuorien hankintojen johtamiselle ja validoidaan se empiirisesti. Maturiteettimalli kehitetään konstruktiivista tutkimusotetta soveltaen. Mallin ensimmäinen versio luodaan kattavan kirjallisuuskatsauksen pohjalta, jonka jälkeen se validoidaan laadullisen tutkimuksen avulla puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja aineistonkeruussa hyödyntäen. Tutkimuksen tueksi asetetaan kaksi tutkimuskysymystä, joihin vastataan lopuksi. Nämä kysymykset ovat: Mitkä ongelmat ja hankintojen johtamisen käytännöt ovat tyypillisiä epäsuorille hankinnoille? Sekä Mitkä ovat kattavan epäsuorien hankintojen maturiteettimallin tunnuspiirteet? Tutkielmassa identifioitiin monia epäsuorien hankintojen johtamiselle tyypillisiä ongelmia ja ratkaisuja, jotka esiintyvät eri tavalla maturiteettipolun eri vaiheissa. Ongelmien juurisyyt liittyvät toisiinsa ja ratkaisujen implementointi edellyttää kokonaisvaltaista kehitystä. Kehitetyn maturiteettimallin nähtiin olevan realistinen ja hyödyllinen työkalu nykyisen kyvykkyyden mittaamiseen ja kehittämiseen. Viestinnän, poikkifunktionaalisen yhteistyön ja johdon huomion ja ymmärryksen lisääminen epäsuoria hankintoja kohtaan tunnistettiin olevan avainasemassa epäsuorien hankintojen johtamisen kehittämisessä. Asianmukaisen resurssoinnin, oikeanlaisen arvostuksen, sekä kattavan kehittämisen kautta epäsuorat hankinnat voivat tarjota arvokkaan kilpailukyvyn lähteen, sekä parantaa organisaatioiden sisäistä kyvykkyyttä jokaisella osaalueella

The alignment between performance measurement and strategy in central government agencies

This research involved an investigation of the alignment between performance measurement and strategy in central government agencies. A review of the literature suggested that, although the topic is of great interest and importance, it has been underresearched. The context of the existing studies appears to be based primarily on for-profits/business rather than not-for-profit/public sector domain. Moreover, the existing research is mainly normative lacking supporting empirical evidence. The objectives of this research were to (1) develop greater understanding of performance measurement in the public sector, and (2) provide supporting empirical evidence in place of the normative arguments regarding the alignment between performance measurement and strategy. This research aimed to answer the question, ‘how, in central government agencies, is the alignment between performance measurement and strategy managed?’ This interpretive multiple-case research comprised of the studies of four central government agencies in Thailand. The primary data source was interview data supported by documentation. The interpretational analyses were conducted both at intra-case and inter-case levels. This research found that public officials often regarded, ‘strategy’ as equivalent to ‘policy’ and that these terms were used interchangeably. The research also found that the existing definitions of fundamental performance measurement/management terminologies did not fit comfortably with public sector management owing mainly to their lack of practical perspectives. This research proposed refined terminologies. Additionally, the research found eight advantages of stategy-misaligned performance measurement despite the absence of their recognition in the existing literature. As a result, misalignment could be preferable in some circumstances. However, public managers were under pressure to demonstrate alignment between performance measurement and strategy thus ‘alignment tensions’ occurred in practice. In order to deal with these tensions, three strategies were identified including (1) neglecting the tensions (as in ‘do-nothing strategy’), (2) attempting to realign performance measurement with strategy (as in ‘realigning strategy’, and (3) directing attention from the alignment issue (as in ‘distracting strategy’)