Planning effectual growth: a study of effectuations and causation in nascent firms

Two main contrasting approaches are used in the entrepreneurship literature to explain how new ventures strategize: causal/planned strategies and effectual/emergent strategies. In this study, we explore the use of these strategies within micro and small firms. Our results show that larger companies typically used more planned strategies while simultaneously relying on effectual mechanisms. We observe that companies operating in known markets, anchoring their business ideas on experience and having a strong growth intention grow larger. This suggests that causal and effectual mechanisms can co-exist and lead to growth when combined. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Sequence of thinking and acting in strategy making

This paper gives an answer to the continuing emergent-deliberate debate. Thinking and acting are two outstanding features of this controversy. What is needed in the field is a framework that can explain under what circumstances each of these two features takes place along the strategy-making process. The focus of the paper is on the sequence of thinking and acting in the strategy-making process. A framework is developed to show how thinking co-evolves with action in a succession of strategic activities. Within boundaries, strategic activities are carried forward by social automatic behaviour, following a set pattern. Yet, when an action crosses a certain threshold, a different condition of awareness is achieved. Similarly, thought can cross an equivalent threshold, giving rise to consciousness. Either condition enhances the organization's ability to make changes in the direction of its strategic activity.strategy-making process; strategic activities;

The COVID-19 pandemic: resilient organisational response to a low-chance, high-impact event

The global healthcare sector is currently in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a ‘low-chance, high-impact’ event which will require healthcare systems, and the organisations within them, to maintain organisational resilience in order to respond effectively. However, contrary to the instinctive reaction to tighten control, the quality of response depends on healthcare systems’ capacity to loosen control and, subsequently, enhance improvisation. Three factors critical to enhancing an organisation’s capacity for improvisation are highlighted; increasing autonomy, maintaining structure and creating a shared understanding. By drawing on the case of Christchurch Hospital’s response to a major earthquake, this paper demonstrates the vital role that improvisation can play within a clinical setting, when responding to a low-chance, high-impact event. This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ's website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained

Corporate communications: audiences, funding and crisis management

Who are the key audiences of corporate communications? Is the communication department adequately funded? And how are crisis handled? This paper reports an empirical research conducted in 20 British organisations, with a focus on these three questions. It is found that internal publics, financial PR and opinion formers are viewed as the three most important audiences. Although most organisations now are more conscious of their corporate identity than ever before, the function is generally funded inadequately

Organizational time: a dialectical view

We present twelve propositions constituting a contribution to a contingency view of time in organizations and synthesize apparently opposite perspectives of time. To articulate them, we relate the planning, action and improvisation strategic orientations to the dependent, independent and interdependent perspectives of the environment. Then, we relate these strategic orientations related to approaches to the problems of scheduling, synchronization and time allocation. Action strategies rely on event time to handle scheduling, use entrainment to synchronize with their environment and view time as linear. Planning strategies use even time to handle scheduling, impose their internal pacing upon the environment and view time as cyclic. Improvisation strategies use even-event time to handle scheduling, synchronize via internal-external pacing and hold a spiral view of time. Our argument strengthens the case for a more deliberate approach to time in organizations and favors a dialectical view of organizational phenomena.action, contingency, dialectics, improvisation, planning, synthesis, time

Describing and treating marginality in the Italian peripheries. Some advice from a UK case study

Even though they have been considered out of fashion for years in the mainstream public debate, research practices and urban policies, the peripheries of the big cities are still a problem in Italy. Due to the economic crises and its effects at the urban scale, especially in terms of urban poverty and social exclusion, the problems of these areas are clearly increased without appropriate tools. Moreover, the spatial effects of the spread of urban marginality have not been sufficiently included in urban planning practices, neither in the deprived areas of the inner city nor in the outskirts. Nonetheless, the claim for “policies for the peripheries” does not indicate the intention to develop a sector of specific policies, but the need to identify and integrate more effective actions and strategies for these fragile urban environments. In this framework, the paper presents and discusses, first, the deficiencies of the Italian debate and the consequent inadequacy of public urban policies, and second, some relevant approaches coming from the British context that could be useful for better intervene on our territories

Management: thesis, antithesis, synthesis

Increasingly, managers live in a world of paradox. For instance, they are told that they must manage by surrendering control and that they must stay on top by continuing to learn, thus admitting that they do not fully know what they do. Paradox is becoming increasingly pervasive in and around organizations, increasing the need for an approach to management that allows both researchers and practitioners to address these paradoxes. A synthesis is required between such contradictory forces as efficiency and effectiveness, planning and action, and structure and freedom. A dialectical view of strategy and organizations, built from four identifiable principles of simultaneity, locality, minimality and generality, enables us to build the tools to achieve such synthesis. Put together, these principles offer new perspectives for researchers to look at management phenomena and provide practitioners with a means of addressing the increasingly paradoxical world that they confront.dialectics, improvisation, paradox, synthesis

Prospects of a mathematical theory of human behavior in complex man-machine systems tasks

A hierarchy of human activities is derived by analyzing automobile driving in general terms. A structural description leads to a block diagram and a time-sharing computer analogy. The range of applicability of existing mathematical models is considered with respect to the hierarchy of human activities in actual complex tasks. Other mathematical tools so far not often applied to man machine systems are also discussed. The mathematical descriptions at least briefly considered here include utility, estimation, control, queueing, and fuzzy set theory as well as artificial intelligence techniques. Some thoughts are given as to how these methods might be integrated and how further work might be pursued