The Internet and the Strategies of Firms: Does Technological Orientation of the Firm Make a Difference?

Designed to track how growth of the Internet and the burst of the dot.com bubble might affect strategies of the firms, this study found that most respondents want to become more entrepreneurial and risk-taking when exploiting the opportunities afforded by the Internet. Based on the findings of the study, we note that firms that are more entrepreneurial will assimilate the Internet as a technology. The Internet is an enabling technology that provides a set of tools that could be used in any industry as part of a firm’s strategy, and the brick and mortar firms must integrate the Internet so as to enhance the distinctiveness of the strategy of the firm

Corporate Entrepreneurship in the Digital Era: The Cascading Effect through Operations

This study examines a firm’s response to perceived changes in the environment, such as the growth of the digital era, at different levels of a firm—beginning with the adoption of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) down to process renewal (PR). We further explore if the technological intensity of a firm, high-tech or low-tech intensity, influences its choice of mode for organisational renewal (OR)—use of internal competence or outside acquisition—to exploit the opportunities created by the digital era. Using survey data from 170 firms, we test a sequential relationship among environmental changes (growth of the digital era), CE, OR and finally PR that involves operating procedures at the functional level. We conclude by identifying the study’s interdisciplinary contributions, which open new research avenues in the field of CE

International Growth Strategies of Service and Manufacturing Firms: The Case of Banking and Chemical Industries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in growth strategies – domestic and international – of manufacturing and service firms. Hardly any literature exists that empirically investigates the differences on account of the distinctive characteristics of goods and services, and such studies rarely draw from the operations management field. Design/methodology/approach – Multiple analysis of variance is used to analyze longitudinal data from multiple secondary sources. Findings – Mixed services, such as banks, focus more on domestic growth and less on international growth. Manufacturers, such as chemical firms, focus more on international activities as compared to domestic activities. Mixed service firms seem to prefer collaborative approaches, whereas goods producers prefer wholly owned ventures. Research limitations/implications – The data collection methodology applied in this study may be applicable to many other topics of operations management. Future researchers may examine internationalization of services from front and back office perspectives, and compare information‐processing, possession‐processing, and people‐processing services in their choices of mode of entry and resultant performance differences. Practical implications – The findings are relevant for developing operations strategy, including location alternatives, for both manufacturing and service firms as different nations become a part of the global village. Appropriate modes of entry in an international arena for both service and manufacturing firms are identified. Originality/value – A cross‐functional study that uses longitudinal data from secondary sources in an innovative way with significant implications for operations managers and researchers

Organizational Alignment and Performance: Past, Present and Future

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and define the types of organizational alignment – vertical and horizontal; to examine the evidence for the alignment‐performance relationship, and propose research questions and practical implications to advance the theory and practice of managing alignment. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a conceptual examination based on a thorough review of both theoretical and empirical research. Findings – The paper finds that vertical alignment has received considerably more attention in the literature. Studies of horizontal alignment within organizations are less common. When horizontal alignment is studied, the focus tends to be dyadic – between two functional areas. The limitations posed by the dyadic approach suggest gaps in the research and opportunities for future research. As firms grow and diversify, becoming multi‐business organizations, the importance of horizontal alignment will be elevated. Research limitations/implications – Research on vertical alignment should focus on developing larger sets of moderating variables, such as the morale of the workforce, or the life cycle of the firm or industry. Research on horizontal alignment should explore multi‐point horizontal alignment. Practical implications – Managers in organizations with multiple strategic business units could use the application questions in the study to assess the state of alignment in their respective units and the organization as a whole. Originality/value – The paper documents existing literature on the concept of organizational alignment and identifies new opportunities to continue to build and expand the research stream. It also provides a list of application questions that may be used to assess organizational alignment in organizations

Experiential Learning Process: Exploring Teaching and Learning of Strategic Management Framework Through The Winter Survival Exercise

This article examines an attempt to introduce experiential learning methods in a business strategy course. In organizational behavior and industrial/organizational psychology, experiential teaching methods have been so widely adopted that some authors have suggested dropping the distinction between experiential and traditional teaching. Although intuitively appealing, experiential methods have not yet become popular among professors teaching strategy to traditional-age undergraduate students. It seems that heavy reliance on case-based teaching has resulted in a lack of emphasis on experiential learning tools for strategic management. In this study, the Winter Survival Exercise was used to introduce, concisely and effectively, the strategic management framework to 97 traditional-age undergraduate strategic management students in three different sections over three semesters. Statistical analysis supported the efficacy of this teaching method. Implications for teaching business strategy using experiential methods as a complement to rather than a substitute for traditional case studies are discussed

Strategy Implementation Styles Of Malaysian, Thai And Hungarian Middle Managers

There is a need for more comparative empirical research that examines middle manager roles in strategic change. This paper reports a study of middle managers in two dynamic settings: the Asia/Pacific region – Malaysia and Thailand; and Central/Eastern Europe – Hungary. Results of 213 respondents across three countries indicate that middle managers from all three tend toward use of authoritarian management styles even in proactive strategic change situations. However, Hungarians are less likely to use these styles than Thai and Malaysian middle managers. For all three countries, managers with less work experience were found to have lower tendencies to use an authoritarian style of implementation. When top managers exhibit an aggressive strategic posture, middlemanagers from all three countries are also less likely to use an authoritarian style

The Digital Economy: A Golden Opportunity for Entrepreneurs?

Does the network economy strengthen brands, suppliers alliances, customer relationships, and the value of information-or does it obliterate them

Trestenshult och den tidiga småländska glashanteringen

Extant research suggests that managing strategic change has become a key managerial function and this duty encompasses changes in organizational product-market boundaries and organizational structure among many related organizational activities. The need to achieve strategic change arises because of major shifts in the external environment and the subsequent need for the organization to remain viable and competitive in the changed environment. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if middle managers are likely to adopt authoritative style while implementing strategic change when they sense organizational survival. “Sensemaking” literature led to development of the authors’ hypotheses and these were tested using the responses of 117 middle managers. The authors used survey-based instrument to collect data and used regression analysis to explicate the responses of the middle managers. Results indicate that when middle managers sense that the survival of the organization is at stake, they are likely to choose an authoritative style. The authors also investigated the moderating role of organizational commitment, strategic posture of the top management team, and hostile business environment on the relationship between perception of survival urgency and the choice of authoritative implementation style. Only organizational commitment moderates this relationship. The authors’ data collection was survey based and the authors used a single source for each questionnaire and this process may lead to possibilities of mono-method bias. However, steps were taken to reduce the resultant mono-method bias. The respondents are from a variety of industries and future research may focus on one specific industry. The first implication of this study allows us to expand research focus on the adoption of authoritative style, a research area that is not explored very much. The second implication of the study is that middle managers tend to focus on their emotions when it comes to implementing strategic changes. Using arguments from sensemaking the authors show that the perception of need for survival or the perception that business environment is hostile will determine how strategic change could be implemented. Middle managers must be treated as more than just the implementers of the directives/fiats/orders/edicts that originate from the top. Role of middle managers in strategic change management is critical and the authors suggest that the perception of organizational survival at risk leads to choice managerial style by middle managers. The authors have combined ideas from both the strategic management and organizational development fields to understand successfully the implementation of strategic change in a survival urgency situation. In the past, the strategic management literature focused primarily on understanding strategy formulation process, and the process of implementation was generally neglected. The respondents are from a variety of industries. The analysis indicate that membership to any one firm was not impacting the results obtained by the authors and as such allows for results to generalized