The missing lens in family firm governance theory: a self-other typology of parental altruism

In this paper, the authors derive a typology of five parental altruistic archetypes that exhausts the possible altruistic influences in the governance at family firms. They argue that when taken in concert, these five types comprise a more balanced explanation of the cross-sectional variance in the governance efficiency of these firms and therefore can better explain why some family firms are more able than others to capitalize on the family governance's positive attributes.family firms; parental altruism; governance

Towards a Post-Structural View of Competition: Three Cases of Horizontal Merger

We examine the question of adaptive firm conduct using longitudinal product-level data from three large horizontal mergers in the food manufacturing industry. Our model is grounded in a poststructural view of competition that we deduce from recent writings from the fields of strategy, organizational ecology, and industrial organization. Consistent with this model, we find that the influence of horizontal merger on product performance (i.e., rent) varies with the product niche, time, the specific firms that merged, and dominance of the product, and its market scope.Industrial Organization,

The role of an entrepreneurially alert information system in promoting corporate entrepreneurship.

The literature has suggested that an entrepreneurially alert information system may be a salient driver of corporate entrepreneurship, even though this role has been neither theoretically articulated nor empirically substantiated. Building upon the organizational learning, information orientation, and entrepreneurial awareness literatures we identify three key elements of a firm's entrepreneurially alert information system, and then develop a parsimonious model that examines the impact of these elements on corporate entrepreneurship. Using both single-and multi-source survey data from 495 small-to medium-sized firms, we test our model and find that each element individually and collectively imparts significant positive influence on corporate entrepreneurship

Ambidextrie – der organisationale Drahtseilakt. Synergie zwischen Exploration und Exploitation als Voraussetzung für die digitale Transformation

Sich disruptiv verändernde Rahmenbedingungen können dazu führen, dass bisher erfolgreiche Geschäftsmodelle innert weniger Jahren obsolet werden. Geschuldet ist dies einer mangelnden Anpassungsfähigkeit, deren Ursache unter anderem in der sogenannten Pfadabhängigkeit wurzeln kann. Die Pfadabhängigkeit bezeichnet eine Situation, in der die Auswirkungen von stark durch die Vergangenheit geprägten Entscheiden dazu führen, dass die Möglichkeit bzw. Notwendigkeit neuer Geschäftsmodelle nicht erkannt, verpasst oder deren Chancen falsch eingeschätzt werden. Das Ausbrechen aus der Pfadabhängigkeit ist für den Fortbestand von Unternehmen daher von zentraler Bedeutung. Das Konzept der organisationalen Ambidextrie widmet sich dieser Problemstellung. Ambidextrie beschreibt die Fähigkeit eines Unternehmens, einerseits das Kerngeschäft stetig weiterzuentwickeln, gleichzeitig aber auch neue Wege und Denkweisen zu etablieren und so sicherzustellen, dass Veränderungen im Umsystem rechtzeitig erkannt und die sich dadurch bietenden Chancen für die Zukunft genutzt werden. Eine Fähigkeit, die gerade im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung an Wichtigkeit gewinnt

CEO succession and the CEO’s commitment to the status quo

Chief executive officer (CEO) commitment to the status quo (CSQ) is expected to play an important role in any firm’s strategic adaptation. CSQ is used often as an explanation for strategic change occurring after CEO succession: new CEOs are expected to reveal a lower CSQ than established CEOs. Although widely accepted in the literature, this relationship remains imputed but unobserved. We address this research gap and analyze whether new CEOs reveal lower CSQ than established CEOs. By analyzing the letters to the shareholders of German HDAX firms, we find empirical support for our hypothesis of a lower CSQ of newly appointed CEOs compared to established CEOs. However, our detailed analyses provide a differentiated picture. We find support for a lower CSQ of successors after a forced CEO turnover compared to successors after a voluntary turnover, which indicates an influence of the mandate for change on the CEO’s CSQ. However, against the widespread assumption, we do not find support for a lower CSQ of outside successors compared to inside successors, which calls for deeper analyses of the insiderness of new CEOs. Further, our supplementary analyses propose a revised tenure effect: the widely assumed relationship of an increase in CSQ when CEO tenure increases might be driven mainly by the event of CEO succession and may not universally and continuously increase over time, pointing to a “window of opportunity” to initiate strategic change shortly after the succession event. By analyzing the relationship between CEO succession and CEO CSQ, our results contribute to the CSQ literature and provide fruitful impulses for the CEO succession literature

The Nature of Managerial Work in Developing Countries: A Limited Test of the Universalist Hypothesis

Is the nature of managerial work universal such that worldwide similarities exist between the activities of managers? We measure the frequency that managers are involved with forty-four skill activities, and then test the universalist hypothesis against two competing hypotheses, situational and convergence. While we find some evidence that refutes the universalist hypothesis, overall we find surprisingly strong support for it, in that the relative frequency with which managers from one stratum of one nation are involved in various skill activities reflects the relative frequency with which managers from other strata within the same nation, and from nations of different cultural-industrialized standing, are involved in the same activities.© 1997 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1997) 28, 711–733

Crossing the Threshold from Founder Management to Professional Management: A Governance Perspective

We argue that the challenges faced by threshold firms are deeply rooted in governance characteristics (i.e. the incentives, authority and legitimacy) which imbue them with characteristic capabilities, disabilities and path dependencies. Whereas Zahra and Filatotchev (2004) reason the principal problem facing threshold firms relates to organizational learning and knowledge management, we posit resource acquisition and utilization to be equally important. Moreover, we argue governance theory is more able than a knowledge-based perspective to explain the "root causes" of the learning and resource issues faced by threshold firms as well as the complex set of processes involved in their effective management. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.