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Beside making organizations look like their peers through the adoption of similar attributes ("alignment"), this paper highlights the fact that conformity also enables organizations to stand out by exhibiting highly salient attributes key to their field or industry ("conventionality"). Building on the conformity and status literatures, and using the case of major U.S. symphony orchestras and the changes in their concert programming between 1879 and 1969, we hypothesize and find that middle-status organizations are more aligned and middle-status individual leaders make more conventional choices than their low- and high-status peers. In addition, the extent to which middle-status leaders adopt conventional programming is shown to be moderated by the status of the organization and by its level of alignment. Thus, this paper offers a novel theory and operationalization of organizational conformity, and contributes to the literature on status effects, and, more broadly, to the understanding of the key issues of distinctiveness and conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent management research suggests that firms try to orchestrate conformity and distinctiveness in their behavior to reconcile opposing demands of norm compliance and competitive distinction in order to appear optimally distinct. Whether they succeed or not depends on how audiences perceive the multiple signals they elicit. Extant literature has not fully uncovered how the media combine these different signals to form a representation of firms' behavior and their subsequent reactions to these combinations. We adopt a configurational approach to address this gap in the environmental sustainability context. Drawing on unique proprietary data on 118 cases in the energy utility industry and using fsQCA, we determine that different equifinal signal configurations are associated with positive media coverage regarding environmental behavior or the lack thereof. We then generate five patterns of signals that explain media reactions and disentangle the underlying logics behind them. Our study adds to the research on the multifaceted nature of signal (in)congruence perception by discussing the role of conformity and distinctiveness and highlighting that this perception depends on the signals' credibility. Delivering a balanced orchestration of conformity and distinctiveness signals is possible, but complex, because audiences tend to penalize incongruent postures they cannot associate with a given category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of partner substitutability and alliance network structure on organizational profitability. Although firms are expected to benefit from the exclusive resources brought in by resource-rich, nonsubstitutable alliance partners, the costs of allying with such partners could offset those benefits. Analyzing alliances in the U.S. telecommunications industry, we show that a firm facing nonsubstitutable partners was better off when its alliances were embedded in third-party ties, which allowed the firm to gain indirect leverage on such partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a resource-based perspective for predicting the sequencing of a firm's resources that best provides for firm growth. The sequencing that generated the highest firm growth combines a Penrosian (1959) perspective with the more recent resource-based literature. This resource development path may be generalizable to other industries, such as airlines, telecommunications, and railroads, that have been deregulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative models of business strategy can be developed upon the key relationship between a firm's objectives, its strategy and the environment in which it operates. To be meaningful, this paper shows, such models depend upon the identification of strategic groups--groups of firms within an industry which follow similar (but not identical) strategies. Properly estimated strategic models can help management evaluate proposed strategies and check the usefulness of conventional wisdom in specific competitive situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops and tests a thesis derived from the law of requisite variety. We contend that the greater the experiential variety of a top management team, the more likely it is that the complexity and consistency of the firm's competitive repertoire will be calibrated to relevant external variety. In addition, for firms that achieve such calibrated repertoires, we expect that their financial performance will be superior to that of their peers. We then integrate these arguments and examine whether top management team experiential variety indirectly, through calibrated repertoires, contributes to firm performance. Analyzing hand-collected data for firms operating in the 3D printing industry over the past three decades (1986-2017), we find support for the overall thesis and associated hypotheses. The discussion section elaborates on the study's contributions, limitations, and future research potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their prevalence and significance, competitive wars have received limited attention in the strategy literature. Our knowledge of how interorganizational linkages influence competitive wars is particularly lacking. Drawing on the social embeddedness perspective, we argue that both direct linkages (i.e., strategic alliances) and indirect linkages (i.e., common ownership ties and common analyst ties) reduce the likelihood of war, thereby functioning as the glue that binds firms together. Yet once competitive wars are launched in related markets, indirect linkages through common third-parties may continuously function as glue, reducing the likelihood of war spillover, whereas direct linkages, such as strategic alliances, may facilitate the spillover of competitive wars, akin to adding gasoline to a fire. Using data from the U.S. domestic airline industry between 1991 and 2010, our empirical evidence offers strong support for our predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting the internationalization of the marketplace and the increasing prominence of entrepreneurial firms in the global economy, the research paths of international business and entrepreneurship are intersecting with increasing frequency. International business researchers are broadening their traditional focus on large multinational companies to also include entrepreneurial firms in their research agendas. Cross-border business activity is of increasing interest to entrepreneurship researchers, and accelerated internationalization is being observed in even the smallest and newest organizations. This Special Research Forum on International Entrepreneurship reflects the fusion of these two areas and the developing worldwide academic interest in this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and organizational leaders alike have long known that securing human capital (HC) is critical for organizational success. The bulk of research in this domain has addressed issues regarding the accrual of HC stocks. However, there has been a dearth of research exploring the underlying mechanisms through which accrued HC stocks translate to competitive advantage. We expand on Wolfson and Mathieu's (2018) human capital resource complementarity (HCRC) theory by incorporating the deployment of human capital resources (HCRs) as well as the role of social capital resources (SCRs) in the form of members' shared team task-specific experience in predicting performance. We empirically test HCRC theory-derived hypotheses using a sample of 448 cyclists from 17 world teams who competed in 26 races during the 2015 season of the Union Cycliste Internationale World Tour. Our results revealed that higher-level HCR stocks indirectly led to deployed HCR performance through deployed HCR alignment with situational characteristics. Furthermore, SCRs acted as a critical boundary condition for the value of aligning deployed HCRs with situational characteristics such that the alignment of deployed HCRs was only advantageous when paired with relatively high levels of SCRs. Implications for future theory building, research, and practice related to HCR deployment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in competitive dynamics has primarily analyzed how characteristics of observable attacks influence firms' competitive responses. Why and how firms take action in response to critical events that affect their rivals, without being attacked themselves, is less well understood. Focusing on negative earnings surprises, we argue that a focal firm is likely to view a rival's negative earnings surprise as an opportunity to exploit its vulnerability. Therefore, such surprises are positively associated with the intensity of competitive actions initiated by a focal firm. Furthermore, the complexity and vagueness of a rival's language in an earnings conference call strengthens the positive relationship between the negative earnings surprise and the focal firm's intensity of competitive actions. We tested our arguments using data from 3,202 earnings releases and conferences calls of publicly listed firms between 2003 and 2014 in the United States. The results and robustness checks support our predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the literature on optimal distinctiveness, this study explores the effects of conformity versus differentiation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on evaluations by security analysts and responses of the financial market in general. We develop the argument that while conformity in CSR scope enhances analyst coverage, differentiation in CSR emphasis leads to more-favorable analyst recommendations and higher market value. This suggests that firms may be able to simultaneously conform in CSR scope and differentiate in CSR emphasis to achieve optimal distinctiveness. To further enhance our understanding of the variation in the relationship between conformity and differentiation and the response of analysts and the market, we investigate how some firm- and analyst-level factors moderate this relationship. Using the case of corporate social activities of Chinese listed firms during the period from 2008 to 2014, we show that scope conformity has a stronger effect on analyst coverage for state-owned firms and firms with higher visibility; on the other hand, the relationship between emphasis differentiation, and analyst recommendation and market value strengthens for firms covered by high-status brokerage houses but weakens for those experiencing high earnings pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on human capital theory, strategy scholars have emphasized firm-specific human capital as a source of sustained competitive advantage. In this study, we begin to unpack the micro-foundations of firm-specific human capital by theoretically and empirically exploring when employees perceive their skills to be firm-specific.We first develop theoretical arguments and hypotheses based on the extant strategy literature, which implicitly assumes information efficiency and unbiased perceptions of firmspecificity. We then relax these assumptions and develop alternative hypotheses rooted in the cognitive psychology literature, which highlights biases in human judgment. We test our hypotheses using two data sources from Korea and the United States. Surprisingly, our results support the hypotheses based on cognitive bias--a stark contrast to expectations embedded within the strategy literature. Specifically, we find organizational commitment and, to some extent, tenure are negatively related to employee perceptions of the firm-specificity. We also find that employer-provided onthe- job training is unrelated to perceived firm-specificity. These results suggest that firm-specific human capital, as perceived by employees, may drive behavior in ways unanticipated by existing theory--for example, with respect to investments in skills or turnover decisions. This, in turn, may challenge the assumed relationship between firm-specific human capital and sustained competitive advantage. More broadly, our findings may suggest a need to reconsider other theories, such as transaction cost economics, that draw heavily on firm-specificity and implicitly assume widely shared and unbiased perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study highlights competitive market conditions as an important structural determinant of escalation of commitment. Bridging escalation behavior literature and competitive dynamics research, we argue that reference to certain rivals may enable or disable decision makers to justify continuing investment in an underperforming initiative, thereby influencing a firm's tendency toward escalating commitment. We test our ideas using data on a set of leading companies in the information technology industry and their investment activities in China. Empirical analysis reveals strong evidence that a firm's escalating tendency is increased by larger competitors' high action volume and smaller competitors' positive performance. In contrast to prior research focus on decision makers' persistence irrespective of external cues, we also find that a firm's escalation behavior is decreased by larger rivals' negative performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of responses to change in competitive environments focus on competitor-specific adaptations. However, rivals are often acutely aware of one another, and this awareness should influence their competitive behavior. In this study, we focus on three market structures that affect competitive behavior: competitive parity, status disparity, and multipoint contact. In particular, we examine how securities analysts responded to a regulatory discontinuity, Regulation Fair Disclosure ("Reg-FD"), which promotes competitive parity by eliminating privileged access to proprietary firm information as a critical source of competitive advantage. We predict and find that Reg-FD activated mutual forbearance among analysts linked through multipoint contact. We also predict and find that high-status analysts forbear more strongly. Analysts' responses to heterogeneity in competitive advantage thus depend importantly on their competitive overlap and status, which has implications for both their behavior and the information they provide to investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the knowledge-based view of strategy has significantly advanced understanding of the foundations of competitive advantage, less is known about how knowledge becomes a strategic resource. In this study, we develop an inductive, process model of the relationships among (1) top managers' beliefs about knowledge as a resource (termed executive knowledge schemes ), (2) the ways that executives search or scan for knowledge, and (3) how they use that knowledge in practice to transform common knowledge into distinctive, uncommon knowledge as a way of achieving competitive advantage. In the course of generating the grounded model, we also uncovered a new concept, scanning proactiveness , and identified two distinct forms of knowledge use in practice: knowledge adaptation and knowledge augmentation . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A resource-based theory postulate is that firms must defend their resources against imitation to sustain competitive advantage. However, by deterring imitation, firms may induce rivals to create substitutes. This study shows that, contrary to received wisdom, firms are not uniformly inclined to deter resource imitation. Rather, this inclination decreases in response to substitution threat. By examining how firms manage the trade-off between inimitability and nonsubstitutability, this study suggests that the scenario wherein firms have omnipotent resources that are both inimitable and nonsubstitutable may be unrealistic and that managing the tension between these two attributes is key to sustainable competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that home country network advantages shape firms' foreign expansion. We argue that a social status advantage is transferable from one market to another as a signal of quality but that a brokerage advantage is more context-specific and difficult to transfer. Furthermore, the value of network advantages changes as networks evolve. Data on the foreign market entries of 1,010 U.S. venture capital firms provide robust support for the effects of social status. We also find that brokerage reduces foreign entry in the absence of home country partners in a new market and increases it when partners are already operating in that market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research suggests knowledge spillovers often benefit imitators at the expense of originators, we investigate how originating firms may also benefit from their own spillovers. When an originating firm's spillovers are recombined with complementary knowledge by recipient firms, a spillover knowledge pool is formed, containing opportunities for the originator to learn vicariously from recipients. In a longitudinal study of 87 telecommunications manufacturers, we found that a firm's rate of innovation and the extent to which these innovations integrate knowledge from the spillover knowledge pool is greater when this pool is larger in size and similar to the firm's knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between multimarket contact and service quality. We offer two hypotheses: (1) multimarket contact negatively affects service quality and (2) multimarket contacts in less competitive markets more negatively affect service quality. We test these hypotheses using U.S. airline on-time performance data to measure service quality. We find that multimarket contact increases delays and that this effect is greater for contacts on more concentrated routes, although the effect diminishes on very highly concentrated routes. These findings provide support for the mutual forbearance hypothesis and suggest that multimarket contact facilitates tacit collusion on quality as well as price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although resources are instrumental to a competitive advantage, management must effectively bundle and deploy an organization's resources for an advantage to be realized. Despite their importance, little research has examined these managerial actions. Using a sample of competitive dyads, we tested theory regarding the effects of rivals' comparative resource stocks and managers' bundling and deployment actions on competitive outcomes. Results indicate that both comparative advantages in resource stocks and managerial actions affect performance. However, their efficacy depends on contextual factors and the deployment flexibility of specific resources. Thus, resource management actions are critical to achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the Red Queen effect as a contest of competitive moves or actions among rivalrous firms. The results from a multi-industry study of over 4,700 actions confirms the existence of Red Queen competition, whereby a firm's actions increase performance but also increase the number and speed of rivals' actions, which, in turn, negatively affect the initial firm's performance. We further show that this Red Queen effect depends on industry context and a focal firm's market position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although interest in the workplace trends of downsizing and high-involvement work practices continues to grow, research examining the intersection between them has been limited. In this study, we examine (1) how layoffs moderate the relationship between high-involvement work practices and productivity, and (2) how continued investments in these work practices throughout layoff periods maintain workforce productivity. Findings indicate a negative relationship between high-involvement work practices and productivity in workplaces with higher layoff rates. However, workplaces that continue investments in high-involvement work practices are able to avoid productivity losses, as compared to workplaces that discontinue such investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What implications does a firm's specialization have for the performance the firm achieves by spanning structural holes between its partners? By analyzing networks within the Canadian investment banking industry, I found that, in networks rich in structural holes, both specialists and generalists performed better than banks of moderate specialization levels, and that generalist banks, in turn, performed better than specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we developed and tested a theory of how human resource practices affect the organizational social climate conditions that facilitate knowledge exchange and combination and resultant firm performance. A field study of 136 technology companies showed that commitment-based human resource practices were positively related to the organizational social climates of trust, cooperation, and shared codes and language. In turn, these measures of a firm's social climate were related to the firm's capability to exchange and combine knowledge, a relationship that predicted firm revenue from new products and services and firm sales growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine how firms use alliances to respond to the alliance networks of their rivals, by either allying with their rivals' partners or by building countervailing alliances. Evidence from the global airline industry (1994-98) suggests that these strategic responses depend on alliance cospecialization. Cospecialized alliances by rivals may involve exclusivity, precluding alliances with the rivals' partners and thus encouraging countervailing alliances. Nonspecialized alliances are less exclusive and are used when rivals share the same partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A proposed theoretical framework for the study of multinationality and performance includes both benefits and costs of geographic expansion over different phases of internationalization. Data on 1,489 Japanese firms over 12 years show a consistent horizontal X S-shaped X relationship between multinationality and performance. Further, firms investing more heavily in intangible assets, such as technology and advertising, achieved greater profitability gains from growth in foreign direct investment. Our framework and findings highlight complexity and temporal dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I base an integrated model of innovation development and launch on the behavioral theory of the firm. This model specifies that research and development expenses are increased when low performance causes "problemistic search" and when excess resources cause "slack search." Innovations generated by search are launched if low performance gives managers high risk tolerance. Using data from shipbuilding firms, I show that high performance reduces R&D intensity and innovation launches, and high slack increases R&D intensity, as predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use social capital theory to explain how human and social capital affect a venture's ability to accumulate financial capital during its growth stages (before an initial public offering) and its performance during the two-year period after going public. Consistent with theory, data drawn from a sample of 275 ventures that went public indicate that social capital leverages the productivity of a venture's resource base and provides the venture with a durable source of competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies have consistently shown that firms favor past partners when forming new alliances. This behavior has been associated with a need to have knowledge of potential partners' capabilities and reliability. We consider inertia as an alternative rationale. Inertia and evaluation factors were tested in the context of underwriting syndicate formations in the U.S. investment banking industry. The results suggest both inertia and several evaluation criteria, including reciprocity, experience, and prior performance, influence partner selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a constantly changing business environment, firms with access to those who make public policy enjoy competitive advantage. To gain such access, politically active firms engage in a variety of tactics. Modeling the determinants of corporate political activity as a single, multivariate phenomenon, we demonstrate that politically active firms combine tactics. We also show that political activism, institutional features of Congress, firm size, government contracts, and industry concentration drive firms to use multiple political tactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recruitment is a practical strategy young and poorly connected firms can use to overcome constraints on product innovation, it has received little attention. Younger firms and poorly connected firms have lower rates of product innovation than their advantaged counterparts and recruit more from rivals to surmount resource constraints. Younger firms recruit veterans, and poorly connected firms poach from large firms. However, recruit characteristics have stronger effects on product innovation in poorly connected organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate a central tenet of the resource-based view of the firm—that tacit knowledge often lies at the core of sustainable competitive advantage—and attempt to articulate it with greater theoretical precision than has been done previously. Using data from the National Basketball Association, we find support for a predicted positive relationship between shared team experience and team performance that declines as shared experience grows, eventually becoming negative. The implications of this study for non-sports-related firms are discussed along with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In hypercompetitive environments, the established paradigms of sustainability of competitive advantage and stability of organizational form may have limited applicability. Using an in-depth case analysis of the firms Yahoo! and Excite, this study examines how the organizational form, function, and competitive advantage of these firms dynamically coevolved. The study introduces the concept of continuous morphing to describe the comprehensive ongoing transformation through which the focal firms sought to regenerate their transient competitive advantage on the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors propose a process framework for understanding the evolution of intraindustry firm heterogeneity, drawing on a longitudinal study of the development of the cellular telephone service business in seven 'Baby Bells.' The framework depicts market, competitive, and organizational forces whose dynamic interplay shapes a process in which diversity among firms within an industry is created, magnified, and sustained. It elucidates path dependence in firm evolution and highlights possible roles for management in affecting that path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By defining strategy as a sequence of competitive actions carried out over time, the author develops and tests a dynamic process model of competitive interaction among firms. Results based on a sample of thousands of competitive actions carried out by rivals competing in 16 different industries over a seven-year period suggest that characteristics of firms' sequences of competitive actions account for differences in their relative performance. The findings also suggest that a firm's sequence of competitive actions is influenced by top management team heterogeneity, past performance, slack, and three important industry characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop resource- and dynamic capability-based arguments that CEOs with international assignment experience create value for their firms and themselves through their control of a valuable, rare, and inimitable resource. Supporting this view, U.S. multinationals performed better with CEOs with international assignment experience at their helms, especially when such human capital was bundled with other organizational resources and capabilities. Moreover, in highly global firms, CEOs with international assignment experience appropriated a greater proportion of performance in their pay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three research theories used to explain firm boundaries are transaction cost economics, an options perspective, and a resource-based view of the firm. The authors' integrated model addresses the degree to which each of these three perspectives explains firm boundaries for technology sourcing is contingent on managerial risk taking, which is partly determined by organizational context. The authors' results suggest that, in general, management stockholdings, firm risk orientation, and slack resource availability moderate the extent to which the perceived threat of opportunism, the threat of commercial failure, and opportunity for sustainable advantage all influence firm boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces and validates a measure of country institutional profile for entrepreneurship consisting of regulatory, cognitive, and normative dimensions. Subscales based on data from six countries show reliability, discriminant validity, and external validity. The instrument provides researchers with a valuable resource for exploring why entrepreneurs in one country may have a competitive advantage over entrepreneurs in other countries and how specific country-level institutional differences contribute differently to levels and types of entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine the effects of organizational strategic variables, such as management values regarding human resource management (HRM) and the sources of competitive advantage, the authors developed a model and tested it with data from 138 firms in Korea. The workers studied were nonmanagers. Firms with high scores on valuing HRM and people as a source of competitive advantage were more likely to have high-involvement HRM strategies. These variables also had positive effects on firm performance. In addition, firms with high-involvement HRM strategies had better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a framework for examining the export strategies of firms from emerging economies and their performance in foreign markets. Hypotheses derived from this framework were tested on a sample of firms from Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Findings suggest that cost-based strategies enhance export performance in developed country markets and differentiation strategies enhance performance in other developing countries. Adapting marketing mix variables to the specific needs of developed country markets also enhances export performance. The relationship between geographical diversification and export performance is nonlinear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory suggests and results show that firm performance is initially positive but eventually levels off and becomes negative as international diversification increases. Product diversification moderates the relationship between international diversification and performance. International diversification is negatively related to performance in month- versified firms, positively related in highly product-diversified firms, and curvilinearly related in moderately product-diversified firms. International diversification is also positively related to R&D intensity, but the interaction effects with product diversification are negative. The results of this study provide evidence of the importance of international diversification for competitive advantage but also suggest the complexities of implementing it to achieve these advantages in product-diversified firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on propositions from social identity theory and signaling theory, we hypothesized that firms' corporate social performance (CSP) is related positively to their reputations and to their attractiveness as employers. Results indicate that independent ratings of CSP are related to firms' reputations and attractiveness as employers, suggesting that a firm's CSP may provide a competitive advantage in attracting applicants. Such results add to the growing literature suggesting that CSP may provide firms with competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines two alternative views--universal and contingency-of the human resources (HR)-performance relationship in manufacturing settings. Results from a survey of 97 plants primarily support a contingency approach to human resource management (HRM). An HR system focused on human capital enhancement was directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance (i.e., employee productivity, machine efficiency, and customer alignment), but subsequent analysis revealed that this main effect was predominately the result of linking human-capital-enhancing HR systems with a quality manufacturing strategy. Other manufacturing strategies also moderated the HR- performance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined how firm-specific competitive conditions influence firms' patterns of market entry and exit, focusing on two features of firms' competitive conditions: market domain overlap, which measures the potential for competition, and multimarket contact, which measures the potential for mutual forbearance. A dynamic analysis of California commuter airlines from 1979 through 1984 showed that increases in market domain overlap raised airlines rates of market entry and exit, but increases in multimarket contact lowered them, especially in markets clearly dominated by a single airline. Thus, paradoxically, close competitors are not the most intense rivals: airlines that meet in multiple markets are less aggressive toward each other than those that meet in one or a few markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe why human resource management (HRM) decisions are likely to have an important and unique influence on organizational performance. Our hope is that this research forum will help advance research on the link between HRM and organizational performance. We identify key unresolved questions in need of future study and make several suggestions intended to help researchers studying these questions build a more cumulative body of knowledge that will have key implications for both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether strategic decision-making processes are related to decision effectiveness, using a longitudinal field study design. We studied 52 decisions in 24 companies to determine if procedural rationality and political behavior influence decision success, controlling for the favorability of the environment and decision implementation. Our results indicate that decision-making processes are indeed related to decision success. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of strategic choice in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that related diversification enhances performance only when it allows a business to obtain preferential access to strategic assets--those that are valuable, rare, imperfectly tradable, and costly to imitate. As the advantage this access affords will decay as a result of asset erosion and imitation by single-business rivals, in the long run only competences that enable a firm to build new strategic assets more quickly and efficiently than competitors will allow it to sustain supernormal profits. Both short- and long-run advantages are conditional, however, on organizational structures that allow the firm's divisions to share existing strategic assets and to transfer the competence to build new ones efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationships among levels of involvement between customers and suppliers, customers' evaluations of core and peripheral factors in their transactions, and customers' overall satisfaction were examined. Highly involved customers who were dissatisfied with core factors expressed greater overall dissatisfaction with the relationship than those less involved who also were dissatisfied with core factors. Peripheral aspects, such as supplier responsiveness to customer inquiries, appeared to influence how customers evaluated a core product as well as their overall satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationships among strategy, human resources, and performance among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball teams. Results based on survey data and a widely used performance rating indicated that coaches' preferred strategies influence the characteristics that they look for in recruits. Also, teams implementing a strategy different from a coach's preferred strategy performed less well than those implementing the preferred strategy. Finally, human resource capacities interacted with strategy in determining team performance for two different measures of performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how small firms differ in their competitive behaviors front their large rivals in an industry and explored the implications of differences for performance. Data on competitive moves and countermoves exchanged by major U.S. airlines supported the predicted differences. The small airlines more actively initiated competitive challenges and were speedy but low-key, even secretive, in executing their actions. They were also less likely and slower to respond when attacked and, contrary to expectations, their responses were more visible than those of their larger opponents. Deviations from group norms hurt performance for both the large and small firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]