Professions, Organizations and Institutions: Tenure Systems in Colleges and Universities

A common strategy used by professions to support claims of workplace jurisdiction involves the institutionalization of professionally-endorsed formal structures, yet both theory and research suggest that ensuring the implementation of institutionalized structures after formal adoption can be problematic. This study investigates the influence of organizational characteristics on the implementation of one professionally-created institution in higher education organizations, tenure systems for faculty employment. Our results suggest that implementation of tenure systems is negatively affected by internal resource pressures, but positively affected by countervailing pressures from professionally-linked constituents. The results also suggest self-limiting aspects of the use of tenure systems

Lords of the Harvest: Third-party Influence and Regulatory Approval of Genetically Modified Organisms

Little is known about the factors that influence regulatory-agency decision making. We posit that regulatory agencies are influenced by the firms they regulate, but not exclusively via dyadic exchanges as is traditionally argued in the regulatory capture and business-government literatures. Instead, regulatory decisions are indirectly shaped via third-party actors who shield agencies from legitimacy threats. Focusing empirically on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we find that product assessments by powerful stakeholders and peer agencies influence product approval and that their effects vary under different threats. We also discuss the implications of these findings for business-government relations, nonmarket strategy, and organization theory

Intelligent scheduling with machine learning capabilities : the induction of scheduling knowledge

Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-25)

Incorporating machine learning in knowledge-based process planning systems : an explanation-based approach / 1624

Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30)

Applying machine learning to the design of decision support systems for intelligent manufacturing

This paper presents a Decision Support System (DSS) with inductive learning capability for model management. Simulation is used as the primary environment for modeling manufacturing systems and their processes. We propose an adaptive DSS framework for incorporating machine learning into the real time scheduling of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS).The resulting DSS, referred to as Pattern Directed Scheduling (PDS) system, has the unique characteristics of being an adaptive scheduler. While the bulk of previous research on dynamic production scheduling deals with the relative effectiveness of a single dispatching rule scheduling, the approach presented in this study provides a mechanism for the state-dependent selection of one among a set of dispatching rules.We address the PDS approach in the context of a Model Management System (MMS), with built-in simulation and inductive learning modules for heuristic acquisition and refinement. These modules complement each other in performing the decision support functions. Computational results show that such a pattern directed scheduling approach leads to superior system performance. It also provides a new framework for developing adaptive DSS.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

Too Much Is as Bad as Too Little? Sources of the Intention-Achievement Gap in Sustainable Innovation

Prior work on innovation has generally emphasized the importance of an organization’s exposure to external knowledge. This study, in contrast, redirects our attention toward conditions under which such exposure serves as constraints on organizational endeavors to achieve environmentally preferable innovation. We develop a two-stage model for sustainable innovation. A firm in the first stage explores a variety of alternatives and develops strategic intentions to address broader environmental concerns; thus, it may benefit from access to both diverse sources of external knowledge and network ties that enable an extensive search for new information. In the second stage, a firm exploits limited available options to achieve its strategic intentions. We suggest that dependence on external knowledge in the first stage makes the transition toward the second stage challenging, thereby reducing the probability that a firm’s strategic intentions for sustainability result in actual innovation outcomes. We test our theory using the 2014 Korean Innovation Survey. Our results show that diverse sources of external knowledge through rich network ties, albeit the positive main effects on innovation outcomes, negatively moderate the relationship between a firm’s intentions for environmental sustainability and its achievement of sustainable innovation. Several theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Enhancing firm performance through intra-group managerial experience: Evidence from group-affiliated firms in Korea

Although business groups often benefit from tangible and intangible resource sharing across member firms, little is known about whether and how sharing managers??? human capital within a business group can contribute to the performance of group-affiliated firms. Combining the strategic human capital perspective and studies of business groups, we argue that a business group-affiliated firm can enhance its economic performance by acquiring experience-based human capital from managers from other affiliates within the same group, as such intra-group managerial experience provides a source of strategic benefit that is distinct from either internal (i.e., within the focal firm) or external (i.e., outside the business group) experience. Our analyses of South Korean managers??? career data suggest that managerial experience acquired from other affiliated firms within a business group has a significant and positive effect on the focal firm???s performance. We also show that such intra-group managerial experience is particularly beneficial for firms with weak resources, firms in less diversified groups, and firms in less stable environments

The bounds of boundaryless careers : the contigent value of human capital in job mobility

NUS Business School Research Paper Series; 2012-0021-4

Internal Market for Executives: Inter-divisional Resource Sharing and Executive Transfer

The problem of resource allocation is a particularly pressing issue in large and highly diversified companies, where business divisions of different industry dynamics compete for limited resources. However, prior work has focused primarily on impersonal, often structural, mechanisms for resource coordination and control, paying scant attention to the actual process involving human agents such as executives who perform the role of coordination and control in strategic resource allocation decisions. To address this situation, we explore how the inter-divisional mobility of executives serves as a key mechanism to manage the corporate-wide sharing of both tangible and intangible resources. Using business groups in Korea from 1989 to 2006 as an empirical setting, we demonstrate that patterns of executive transfer among divisions clearly coincide with group-level resources and intra-group dependence relationship. Our results also show that such patterns are reshaped by the influence of external environments, i.e., product market competition and capital market control. This study highlights the unique importance of executives who carry the role of coordination and control in sharing resources within a firm, and thereby provides new insight for extant research that has viewed internal labor markets as sources of individual or firm-specific skills