A Multilevel Model of Minority Director Participation Linking Board Diversity and Firm Performance

A board’s work is largely dependent on the collective contributions of individual directors; thus, greater board diversity, with increased knowledge complementarity, should encourage firm performance. However, empirical evidence of a board diversity/firm performance relationship is weak and inconsistent. We address this issue theoretically and empirically by moving from a monolithic, compositional view of board diversity to a multi-level approach. We argue that the realization of diversity benefits is likely dependent on individual and board processes that help transform the potential value of diverse directors into realized board and firm benefits. Drawing from the boards and team diversity literatures, we develop a multi-level model to investigate the antecedents and consequences of minority directors’ participation. Strong empirical support offers several contributions to the literature

Institutions, industries and entrepreneurial versus advantage-based strategies: how complex, nested environments affect strategic choice

With primary and secondary data on 658 firms from 17 countries across three continents, we examine the combined influence of country-level institutions on industry attributes and in turn their effects on the choice of a defensive advantage-based strategy and an entrepreneurial strategy. We find that strong and efficient institutions constrain both dynamism and munificence in industries. In turn, industry dynamism has a negative effect on both entrepreneurial and advantage-based strategies. However, firms having strong relational capital with important stakeholders can better navigate these uncertain environments to employ both strategies with increasing strength. Alternatively, in more munificent environments, firms are less likely to employ advantage-based strategies and more likely to employ entrepreneurial strategies. This study demonstrates the environmental conditions under which firms are more-or-less likely to employ entrepreneurial strategies and defensive advantage-based strategies

How management control systems can facilitate a firm's strategic renewal and creation of financial intelligence

This chapter presents how management control systems and financial intelligence can facilitate a firm’s strategic renewal. Although the strategic accounting literature has recognized the importance of financial intelligence to a firm’s strategic decision making and formulation of strategy, the question of how a management control system (MCS) can help a firm to revamp and reallocate its resources has been overlooked in the prior strategy literature. In response, this chapter presents a conceptual model, which presents how advanced management accounting systems can foster a firm’s strategic renewal in light of the available theoretical foundations (the strategy implementation view, the dynamic capability perspective, and management accounting). This chapter advances managers’ understanding of firm’s renewal practices through the use of an MCS. Practical examples have been used to illustrate how firms renew their business operations in practice.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Ability-based view in action: a software corporation study

This research investigates antecedents, developments and consequences of dynamic capabilities in an organization. It contributes by searching theoretical and empirical answers to the questions: (a) What are the antecedents which can provide an organization with dynamic and ordinary capabilities?; (b) How do these antecedents contribute to create capabilities in an organization?; (c) How do they affect an organization's competitive advantage?; (d) Can we assess and measure the antecedents and consequences to an organization? From a first (theoretical) perspective, this paper searches answers to the first, second and third questions by reviewing concepts of an ability-based view of organizations that involves the abilities of cognition, intelligence, autonomy, learning and knowledge management, and which contributes to explain the dynamic behavior of the firm in the pursuit of competitive advantage. From a second (empirical) perspective, this paper reinforces and delivers findings to the second, third and fourth questions by presenting a case study that evidences the ability-based view in action in a software corporation, where it contributes by investigating: (a) the development of organizational capabilities; (b) the effects of the new capabilities on the organization; and (c) the assessment and measurement of the abilities and consequences

International experience and FDI location choices of Chinese firms: The moderating effects of home country government support and host country institutions

We examine the extent to which Chinese government support of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and host country institutional environments interact with prior entry experience by Chinese firms, and how this interrelationship affects FDI undertaken by Chinese firms. We hypothesize that home country government support and well-established host country institutions enhance organizational capabilities to take risks in FDI. As such, they reduce the need to accumulate experiential knowledge and capabilities relating to entering host countries based on prior entry experience in a particular country when undertaking follow-up investment projects. Using a unique, hand-collected panel data set of Chinese publicly listed firms during 2002–2009, we find that home government support and well-developed host country institutions reduce the importance of prior entry experience and significantly increase the likelihood of FDI entry into a host country. Further, from our subsample analyses we identify differences between entering developed and developing host countries in terms of the impact of home country government support and quality of host country institutions. Our findings help explain the puzzle concerning why emerging economy firms have rapidly internationalized in a short period of time and do not follow the pattern predicted by classical IB theories

Family Businesses and Adaptation: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach

The main objective of this research was to propose a framework centred on the dynamic capabilities approach, and to be applied in the context of family businesses’ adaption to their changing business environment. Data were gathered through interviews with ten FBs operating in Western Australia. Based on the findings, the clusters of activities, sensing, seizing, and transforming emerged as key factors for firms’ adaptation, and were reinforced by firms’ open culture, signature processes, idiosyncratic knowledge, and valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable attributes. Thus, the usefulness of the proposed framework was confirmed. Implications and future research opportunities are presented. © 2018, The Author(s)

Dynamically Integrating Knowledge in Teams: Transforming Resources into Performance

In knowledge-based environments, teams must develop a systematic approach to integrating knowledge resources throughout the course of projects in order to perform effectively. Yet, many teams fail to do so. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we examine how teams can develop a knowledge-integration capability to dynamically integrate members‘ resources into higher performance. We distinguish among three sets of resources: relational, experiential, and structural, and propose that they differentially influence a team‘s knowledge-integration capability. We test our theoretical framework using data on knowledge workers in professional services, and discuss implications for research and practice