How to turn asymmetry into effective corporate-startup partnerships?

Startup-corporation partnerships are vital to stay relevant and competitive. However combining capabilities creates a paradox between sometimes ineffective collaboration and a high pay-off for innovation and creativity. Shameen Prashantham discusses how corporations can address goal, structure and attention asymmetry by clarifying synergy, creating interfaces and cultivating exemplars

Paradoxical cognition and decision quality: the moderating effects of flexibility and rationality

While recent research has provided valuable insight into how paradox facilitates dynamic decision making, the positive effect of paradoxical cognition on strategic decision quality has not been empirically tested, and its boundary conditions are unclear. We addressed these lacunae using survey data from 110 firms in China, an intriguing setting for studying paradox. We found the effect of paradoxical cognition on decision quality to be positive and significant. Furthermore, we found that firms adopting high levels of comprehensiveness and low levels of strategic flexibility benefit more from paradoxical cognition. We thus shed light on the boundary conditions of paradoxical cognition’s positive effect on strategic decision quality: it is a complement to comprehensiveness, but is a substitute to strategic flexibility

Decision making process: conceptualizing how Chinese and Western managers differ

In this paper we pose the question: How does the decision making process of Chinese managers differ from that of Western managers? Integrating Chinese notions of thinking with the stages of decision making process, our central argument is that in contrast to Western managers, Chinese managers are more likely to identify problems collectively (rather than set goals individualistically), synthesize conflicting alternative views (rather than analyze mutually exclusive alternatives), and arrive at non-binding solutions (instead of committing to a unique solution). We offer a depiction of the decision making process of Chinese managers, which we show to differ fundamentally from that of Western managers

Cultural differences in paradoxical tensions in strategy episodes

In this conceptual paper, we ask: How does the larger cultural context influence the way that groups of managers deal with paradoxical tensions in strategy episodes? We focus on three sources of tension in the conduct and design of strategy episodes – inclusion, formality and coordination/communication. We argue that in each case, cultural influences affect the extent to which these facets of strategy episodes are dealt with using a paradox lens. Specifically, in Western cultural contexts, managers tend to have a lower proclivity for adopting a paradoxical frame resulting in a separation of tensions in strategy episodes; by contrast, managers in Eastern cultural contexts such as China more readily adopt a paradoxical frame, and embrace tensions in strategy episodes. We suggest that, over time, non-paradoxical thinking likely promotes inter-episode plurality and planned emergence, while paradoxical thinking tends to foster intra-episode plurality and emergent planning. We contribute to a deeper understanding of strategy episodes as culturally embedded practices

How entrepreneurs and managers can find common ground in big data

Large corporations are increasingly seeking to collaborate with startups as part of their open innovation strategy. Each has strengths that the other lacks. Corporations have resources and legitimacy, startups have creativity and agility. Given the disruptive effects of digitalization, corporations are reaching out to startups with digital capabilities

The cultural roots of compositional capability in China: balanced moderation

A large number of Chinese firms lack the resources for having competitive advantages. Under this severe constraint, such firms are forced to find new paths toward developing certain competitive advantages, including the ability to combine ordinary resources into novel competitive advantages, which is referred to as compositional capability. Such a special capability underlying novel competitive advantages is related to certain cultural factors, such as the Chinese cultural tradition in the case of China. However, the potential links between compositional capability and the Chinese cultural tradition remain poorly understood and largely unspecified. This paper responds to the call for more research on identifying relevant cultural factors by explicating the inherent connections between compositional capability and the Chinese cultural value of balanced moderation