Cross-divisional innovation in large, multi-divisional firms: Economic relevance and managerial actions

--

The impact of information presentation on the efficiency of managerial decisions

It is a basic premise of accounting that supplying managers with "good", problem-adequate, reliable, valid, actual, and material information will increase the efficiency of their decisions. However, production of such information is only a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for better decision-making. One also has to secure that this information is used properly. This is the research domain of behavioral accounting (and behavioral MIS/DSS-research). It posits that decision quality is not only affected by content and quality of information, but also by the way how it is communicated and perceived. Therefore one also has to analyze how variables like amount of information offered, aggregation level, communication medium, and presentation form affect decision quality. One of these instruments, presentation form, will be analyzed in this paper. In particular, we test how tree-structured presentation formats affect information behavior and decision quality. Tree-structured presentation formats have been used in controlling for a long time, as the example of the well-known Du-Pont-Control-Tree documents. However, despite its widespread use, as far as we know, the efficiency impacts of this tool have not been tested systematically. We shall first review the empirical studies which have tested the impact of graphical decision aids and then present results from our own experimental work

Founder team interaction, customer and competitor orientation in software ventures

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Purpose – Developments in the software industry have shown the need for sustainable and effective management strategies, especially for new ventures. Entrepreneurship literature suggests marketing to be one of the pivotal predictors of business performance. Previous empirical studies have shown the importance of social interaction and team work quality for new venture performance. The purpose of this paper is to apply founder team interaction quality (IQ), and the customer and competitor orientation concept of marketing research to new software venture performance. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical study using a fully standardized questionnaire was conducted in 101 young software ventures. Two founders in each company filled out the questionnaire separately allowing superior tests for reliability and validity of the research framework. Findings – The results show team IQ to be a powerful predictor of both customer orientation and competitor orientation. Furthermore, a positive, linear relationship between competitor orientation and technological performance has been found. There is a curvilinear U-shaped relationship between customer orientation and all examined success dimensions, i.e. economic, market and technological success. Originality/value – Based on a theoretical research framework and a comprehensive empirical study, the paper contributes to a limited body of research and provides insight for managers of young ventures in the nature of teamwork and IQ and its effects on market orientation and company performance

Strategic and cultural contexts of real options reasoning in innovation portfolios

Decision makers find creating an innovation portfolio challenging, because more innovative projects are associated with a higher degree of uncertainty. In this study, we investigate the potential benefits of applying real options reasoning (ROR) in innovation portfolio management from an attention‐based view. Using a sample of 137 innovation portfolios with multiple informants, we investigate ROR's influence on portfolio innovativeness and, ultimately, on portfolio success in a mediated model. Further, we analyze the moderating influence of an innovation portfolio's organizational context — entrepreneurial orientation and innovation climate — on ROR's application. The results support ROR's positive relationship to portfolio innovativeness and portfolio success. The analysis also supports the positive interaction between entrepreneurial orientation and ROR with respect to portfolio innovativeness. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the relationship between ROR and portfolio success, mediated by portfolio innovativeness. In addition, the study's analysis offers an explanation of previously mixed findings regarding ROR's benefits by considering the firm's strategic and cultural innovation contexts. The findings underline the relevance of strategic support for ROR's effectiveness in innovation portfolio management. Furthermore, the findings encourage managers to implement ROR, but also stress the essential contribution an entrepreneurial orientation makes when the managers do so

Enforcing strategic fit of project portfolios by project termination: An empirical study on senior management involvement

Abstract Project portfolios are vehicles for strategy implementation. Senior management should terminate projects no longer conforming to corporate strategy in order to ensure strategic fit. This paper investigates how rigorous termination of bad and troubled projects affects portfolio effectiveness and senior management's decisive role in this context. We introduce the concept of project termination quality, analyse its consequences for strategic fit and how it is affected by senior management involvement. Using a quantitative longitudinal study of a sample of project portfolios, we show that termination quality positively affects strategic fit. We also show a positive, but inverted u-shaped relationship between senior management involvement and termination quality. We conclude that there is an optimal degree of involvement, beyond which an additional involvement of senior managers results in negative effects

Der Einfluß der Ablauforganisation auf die Effizienz von Entscheidungen: Eine empirische Untersuchung am Beispiel von Bilanzanalysen

Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich einem in der Organisationstheorie stark vernachlässigten Problem: der Ablauforganisation von Entscheidungen. Am Beispiel von Bilanzanalysen wird empirisch geprüft, in welcher Weise eine Gliederung des Prozesses nach Verrichtungen oder Objekten die Qualität der Analyse beeinflußt. Hierzu wird ein validiertes Konzept zur Messung der Qualität von Bilanzanalysen entwickelt. Es wird gezeigt, wie man mittels prozeßbegleitender experimenteller Organisationsforschung die direkten und indirekten Einflüsse der Ablauforganisation auf Informationsverhalten und Effizienz bestimmen kann. Die Prüfung falsifiziert die Effizienzbehauptung eines verrichtungsorientierten Phasentheorems für einen wiederholt durchlaufenen individuellen Informationsprozeß. Sie bestätigt die Zweckmäßigkeit einer objektorientierten Ablaufgliederung, die eine modulare relevanzgesteuerte und kapazitätsentlastende Dekomposition komplexer Probleme ermöglicht. Dieses Ergebnis deckt sich mit Studien aus mehreren Disziplinen, die das Verhalten von Experten und Novizen vergleichen

Führungsentscheidungen: Eine Realtypologie

Was sind Führungsentscheidungen? Welche Eigenschaften müssen Entscheidungen aufweisen, um auf die Tagesordnung einer Sitzung der Geschäftsleitung zu gelangen? Welche Typen von Entscheidungen sind vom Führungsgremium einer Unternehmung zu treffen? Wie könnte ein typgerechtes Mix von Entscheidungstechniken zur Organisation dieser unterschiedlichen Arten von Entscheidungen aussehen? Empirische Antworten auf diese wichtigen Fragen ist die Literatur bisher weitgehend schuldig geblieben. Deshalb wird in der vorliegenden Untersuchung keine idealtypologisch-normative, sundern eine realtypologisch-deskriptive Vorgehensweise gewählt: Untersucht werden 83 Entscheidungen, die von einem sechsköpfigen erweiterten Geschäftsleitungsgremium einer mittelgroßen, recht stark wachsenden Industrieunternehmuna im Familienbesitz in der Rechtsform einer Personengesellschaft getroffen werden

Managing inter-organizational conflict: Efficient interaction strategies for buyer and seller organization

The transaotion of a oomplex innovative oapital good between a seller and a buyer Organization is seen as a oomplex task being oomposed of two important subtasks: the development of a problem Solution whioh is to be implemented into the buyer Organisation, and the management of inter-organizational oonfliot. In this paper the author analyses how both parties oan manage their inter-organizational oonfliots and whioh effioienoy effeots will result when they dhoose a oertain inter-aation strategy. A general effioienoy hypothesis is deduoted proposing a D-shaped relation between oonfliot handling in-tensity and buyer's and seller's effioienoy. More preoisely two H -shaped relation are developed3 stating that the seller will reach its maximum effioienoy at a quite low level of oonfliot handling intensity whereas the buyer will reaoh its maximum effioienoy at a quite high level of oonfliot handling intensity. To test this hypothesis empirioally a oonaept to measure the transaotional effioienoy of buyer and seller Organization and a typology of oonfliot handling interaotion stra-tegies are developed and applioated to 195 transaotion prooesses where eomputers were bought or leased for the first time