Effective Strategy-Making in Multinational Subsidiaries

We outline commonalities between studies of subsidiary decentralization and autonomous strategy-making in the international business and strategic management fields. This suggests that corporate headquarters should engage in strategy-making processes that provide a combination of formal direction for global efficiencies and autonomy for effective local responses. Strategic guidance from headquarters frames subsidiary decisions in line with corporate priorities and distributed decision power coupled with informal exchange of information facilitates strategic responses in tune with local market requirements. We identify some important nuances in the integration-responsiveness conundrum supported by an empirical study of 351 multinational subsidiaries. We discuss the implications for multinational strategy practice and suggest future research venues to investigate strategy-making in multinational firms

Startups versus incumbents in ‘green’ industry transformations : A comparative study of business model archetypes in the electrical power sector

Scholars have recently argued that startups and incumbents play differential roles in the disruptive transformations of industries toward sustainability and that the transformations are only likely to succeed if both startups and incumbents contribute. To understand their respective contributions and, thus, to understand how industries make the transition toward sustainability, comparative studies of incumbents versus startups during this transformation have been identified as a central pursuit, but yet they are mostly lacking. Since business models have become a principal way of characterizing firms, the present study takes a business model perspective and derives business model archetypes in the electrical power sector from an analysis of 280 startups and incumbents in three different countries. The selected countries (USA, UK, and India) represent three different energy profiles and leading instances of disruption in the energy sector. The article, then, undertakes a comparative analysis of startups and incumbents based on the empirically distilled business model archetypes and develops propositions on startups, incumbents, and business models in industry transformations. This analysis produces several important insights. First, incumbents do not seem to engage in less business model experimentation than startups. Second, incumbents have adopted several new business models that are not pursued by startups. Third, startups have espoused some business models that are not pursued by incumbents. Fourth, foreign firms can also affect the ‘green’ transformation of an industry in a focal country. Finally, the identified business model archetypes are likely to be of interest to scholars and practitioners who are seeking an improved understanding of business models in the electrical power industry and the industry's competitive landscape.© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)This research project is financially supported by the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse and is part of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research SCCER CREST. Innosuisse had no influence on study design, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, and on the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. We thank the editors, three anonymous reviewers, as well as Rolf Wüstenhagen for their helpful comments.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Connection successfully established: How complementors use connectivity technologies to join existing ecosystems – Four archetype strategies from the mobility sector

Supporting fast and extensive data transfer, connectivity technologies entail opportunities for stronger inter-firm collaboration and new value propositions, resulting in business model innovation. Whereas prior research has mainly focused on connectivity-induced changes in the business models of ecosystem orchestrators, we turn our attention to (prospective) ecosystem complementors. We examine how digital service providers can configure business model mechanisms to enter an ecosystem and connect themselves to its value proposition. Based on an explorative qualitative study of four cases in mobility, we develop four archetypical connection strategies for complementors. We observe that the four archetypes differ in their implications for the ecosystem value proposition, for the role of other actors in the ecosystem, and the triple-bottom-line performance of the ecosystem. Connectivity technologies can combine economic, environmental, and social benefits.ISSN:0166-497

Clarifying the scaling concept: A review, definition, and measure of scaling performance and an elaborate agenda for future research

Scaling has recently found its way into the academic discourse. However, the term has been used inconsistently and mixed up with other terms such as growth. To overcome these impediments to knowledge accumulation, we review the literature, identifying four broad applications of the scaling concept: market scaling, volume scaling, financial scaling, and organizational scaling. Building on their commonalities and setting scaling apart from growth, we develop an inclusive definition of scaling: Scaling describes an increase in the size of a focal subject that is accompanied by a larger-than-proportional increase in the performance resulting from the said subject. We further propose a set of measures that makes it possible to compare the scaling performance of organizations and track their scaling performance over time. Based on our insights as well as a list of “hot topics” in the management literature, we conclude by identifying promising areas for further research.Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-02-10 (hanlid);Funder: The Research Council of Norway</p

The “golden” voice of “green” employees : The effect of private environmental orientation on suggestions for improvement in firms’ economic value creation

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsThis study examines whether employees’ private environmental orientation matters for the economic performance of their firms. It argues that employees’ private environmental orientation affects not only their pro-environmental and pro-social behavior (PEPSB) in the workplace but also their inclination to make suggestions for improvements (i.e., their voice behavior). It also contends that their voice behavior is not limited to suggestions rooted in PEPSB but includes suggestions for other economically attractive improvements besides pro-environmental and pro-social improvements. This study further maintains that firms can support the transformation of employees’ private environmental orientation into voice behavior at work by influencing employees’ perception of the firm. Specifically, it posits that an employee's private environmental orientation leads to more suggestions for economically attractive improvements at work, the more she or he perceives the company to emphasize sustainability. An analysis of 283 employees in the hospitality industry provides strong support for our theoretical account.Peer reviewe

An introduction and agenda for future research on disruptive innovations in ecosystems

At a time when many mature industries have been fundamentally transformed by disruptive innovations, prominent examples such as Apple and Uber reflect how disruptive innovations often originate at the ecosystem or system level rather than in individual firms. Unfortunately, the academic literature has paid little attention to the role of ecosystem development and evolution in relation to disruptive innovations. To overcome this oversight, our study defines disruptive innovation ecosystems and illustrates the impact that the financial technology (FinTech) ecosystem has had on disrupting the financial services industry. We offer an agenda for future research on disruptive innovations and ecosystems and discuss the evolution of the FinTech ecosystem. Our study shows that disruptive innovation ecosystems are not only in need of but also deserving of further attention.peerReviewe

Clarifying the scaling concept : A review, definition, and measure of scaling performance and an elaborate agenda for future research

Scaling has recently found its way into the academic discourse. However, the term has been used inconsistently and mixed up with other terms such as growth. To overcome these impediments to knowledge accumulation, we review the literature, identifying four broad applications of the scaling concept: market scaling, volume scaling, financial scaling, and organizational scaling. Building on their commonalities and setting scaling apart from growth, we develop an inclusive definition of scaling: Scaling describes an increase in the size of a focal subject that is accompanied by a larger-than-proportional increase in the performance resulting from the said subject. We further propose a set of measures that makes it possible to compare the scaling performance of organizations and track their scaling performance over time. Based on our insights as well as a list of “hot topics” in the management literature, we conclude by identifying promising areas for further research.Peer reviewe