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Underdog stories––in which the disadvantaged and outmatched protagonist overcomes the odds—are ubiquitous. Leaders across industries, from telecom to sports, employ these narratives to inspire members of their organizations. However, little is understood about how underdog narratives influence the actions and attitudes of members of organizations. To address this gap, we explain how a leader's communication of an underdog narrative may instill confidence in members of the organization that together they can overcome their shared disadvantage and achieve a clear set of organizational aspirations. In doing so, we introduce a conceptual model that draws on the sensemaking and social identity literatures to explain how a leader's underdog narrative fosters the adoption of a collective underdog identity by members of an organization. Further, we explain that the specific attributes of the leader's underdog narrative influence how this unique type of collective identity leads to varied outcomes for members of an organization. As such, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding and utilization of a prevalent but underexamined organizational phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasping the true value of ideas is essential for corporate innovation success. When it comes to forecasting the value of one's own innovation ideas, however, people may err systematically. In this paper, we shed light on this ideator's bias, and examine when and why certain ideas are more prone to biased evaluations. Specifically, we argue that biased idea evaluations depend on the self-efficacy that ideators may derive from their specific role and social identity in the firm when generating a specific idea. We test our theoretical predictions of such a situation-specific perspective on overconfidence by using a corporate dataset on process innovations and their valuations. Furthermore, we triangulate our predicted mechanism and rule out alternative explanations through a series of additional interviews and four scenario-based experiments. Consistent with our situation-specific, identity-based account, we find that ideas from employees at a higher (vs. lower) organizational level, and from employees generating ideas in groups (vs. individually) are more prone to an ideator's bias. In doing so, our study helps explain when the ideator's bias prevails in a real-life organizational context, raises caution about some current proxies to identify high-potential ideas, and provides fresh insights to established theories around overconfidence and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an integrative perspective on organizational failure by conceptualizing three levels of failure--organizational learning processes (which can give rise to simple failures), organizational planning processes (which can give rise to complex failures), and strategic capacity for organizational agility (which can give rise to catastrophic failures)--as a Guttman-like model of escalating dysfunctions. Simple failures are the result of learning deficiencies stemming from single-loop decision making and weak learning competencies. Complex failures are caused by structural rigidities and intelligence pathologies. Catastrophic failures are a result of weak knowledge inclusiveness and weak organizational platforms, which occur from a downward spiral of events stemming from simple and complex failures. Areas for further study are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three perspectives on organizations recently have been the object of increasing interest: the resource dependence, efficiency, and population perspectives. This paper reviews the driving force, organizational concept, assumptions, and literatures of each, then identifies three points of integration across the three perspectives. The suggested meta-theoretical framework within which the perspectives can be interpreted as selection processes may provide the basis for more elaborate theory development by enhancing debate and confrontation among different theoretical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first of a series of papers designed to report the various stages of a longitudinal research project on the study of managerial effectiveness. The purposes of this article are: (1) to set forth the various dimensions of the overall research effort; (2) to present a review of the research on the prediction of managerial success or effectiveness; and, (3) to establish the focus for a second paper subsequently to appear in the Academy of Management Journal describing the results and implications of an intermediate research effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of publications received for review, including "The Analysis of Cross-Classified Data Having Ordered Categories," by Leo A. Goodman, "Bond Portfolio Immunication," by Michael R. Granito, and "Business and Its Public," edited by Douglas N. Dickson.

Alliances present a paradox for firms. On the one hand, firms engage in a large number of alliances to secure and extend their competitive advantage and growth; on the other hand, their alliances exhibit surprisingly low success rates. In this paper, we discuss how firms can address these failures by identifying some of the primary drivers of alliance success. First, we discuss how firms can achieve success with any individual alliance by considering critical factors at each phase of the alliance life cycle. Second, we show how firms can increase their overall alliance success by developing and institutionalizing firm-level capabilities to manage alliances. Third, we highlight emerging issues in the alliance context, including the need to recognize a new class of alliances between firms and not-for-profit organizations or individuals, the benefits of taking a "portfolio approach" to alliance strategy and management, and the opportunity to transfer one's alliance capabilities to the effective management of other interfirm relationships, including acquisitions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Viewed historically, strategic planning research in small firms has emerged sporadically rather than in clear research tracks. This paper reviews over 50 planning-related studies from small firm settings. Four major research thrusts are identified from this literature. Key issues and findings associated with each thrust are summarized, and future research guidelines are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of integration and interdisciplinary characteristics on seven performance measures are examined over time for academic research projects in agreement that outputs are important goals of the project. The results support the argument that integrating specialized academic researchers reduces their performance when measured by output goals whose importance was previously agreed upon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coles Myer is Australia's dominant retailing company, with an estimated market share of more than 20 percent of all retail sales in Australia. Its major businesses include Australia's largest department store chain, largest grocery-supermarket chain, and the largest discount chains. Target and Kmart. In addition, it is a major player in food and liquor retailing, office supplies, and apparel. Its 1999 sales were A$ 22 billion, with profits over A$ 400 million. The company began business in 1914, operating variety stores with low-priced goods and a money-back guarantee of satisfaction. After incorporation in 1921 as G. J. Coles & Co. Limited, it continued to operate variety stores until the end of the 1950s, when it branched into supermarket retailing. In 1969, Coles introduced the discount store concept into Australia through the establishment of the Kmart chain. In 1985, Coles acquired The Myer Emporium Limited, the largest department store operator in Australia, which also operated discount and specialty store chains. In 1986, the company changed its name to Coles Myer Ltd. From 1993, the company began to shift from a structure of largely independent retail operations to one retail company operating through a series of brands. The shared services concept was adopted widely across the business for administrative support and achieved many efficiencies and integration. The firm's e-business strategy developed rapidly. Stanley Wallis is chairman of Coles Myer, and of Amcor. formerly Australian Paper Manufacturers. Mr. Wallis joined Australian Paper Manufacturers in 1960 and progressed through positions of chief accountant, mill manager, and finance manager to become managing director in 1977. He led Amcor through a sustained period of profitable growth and internationalization and stepped down from his CEO role in 1996 to become chairman. Mr. Wallis's contribution to reform in Australia has been very significant, as chairman of the Inquiry into the Australian Financial System; as president of the Business Council of Australia, a group of 100 CEOs of Australia's biggest companies; and most recently as a major participant in the tax reform process. He has contributed to advancing management education in Australia, and serves as a chairman and director of a number of major business and educational institutions. He has a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Melbourne. As one of Australia's most respected business leaders, he is particularly well-qualified to comment on the progress and challenges facing the business sector in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that most ventures fail, yet there has been limited work on investors' views of entrepreneurs who have failed in the past. We address this gap and call attention to an innate asymmetry between past failure and success. This asymmetry arises because success requires skill and luck jointly, whereas failure materializes due to either lack of skill (mistakes) or bad luck (misfortune). We ask: Are investors "failure-averse" and discount a failed entrepreneur even in the presence of additional information about entrepreneurial skill? Or do they make "rational inferences" in light of the additional skill information and proceed to fund the new startup? To test whether investors are failure-averse or engage in rational inference, we use experiments in the context of equity crowdfunding. The results suggest that prospective crowdfunding investors rationally integrate informational cues regarding past outcomes and entrepreneurial skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully navigating critical uncertainties during the incipient stages of new ventures requires these ventures to develop learning systems, and building the right team may be key in this process. Drawing on prior work indicating that entrepreneurial teams form using either an interpersonal-attraction strategy (relationships with similar others in a close network) or a resource-seeking strategy (instrumental focus on complementary skills), we theorize that a dual formation strategy, although challenging to execute, is critical for early performance. Using dual formation strategies from the onset fosters the development of stronger transactive memory systems, because close relationships facilitate smooth coordination among founders specializing in complementary tasks. Transactive memory systems thus mediate the relationship between formation strategies and early entrepreneurial success. Findings from two field observational studies and a field intervention study support our theory: teams formed based on a dual strategy raised greater seed funding on Kickstarter--a leading crowdfunding platform--(Study 1), were more successful in a prestigious entrepreneurial competition (Study 2), and gained more profits from selling their initial products (Study 3). Our research advances knowledge on entrepreneurial team formation and offers practical recommendations to facilitate this process at such nascent, but critical, stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has produced contradictory insights into how prior collaboration between organizations--their relational embeddedness--impacts collective collaborative performance. We theorize that the effect of relational embeddedness on collaborative success is contingent on the type of success under consideration, and we develop a typology of two kinds of success. We test our hypotheses using data from Crunchbase on a sample of almost 11,000 U.S. start-ups backed by venture-capital (VC) firms, using the VCs' previous collaborative experience to predict the type of success that the start-ups will experience. Our findings indicate that as prior collaborative experience within a group of VCs increases, a jointly funded start-up is more likely to exit by acquisition (which we call a focused success); with less prior experience among the group of VCs, a jointly funded start-up is more likely to exit by initial public offering (a broadcast success). Our results deepen understanding of the connections between organizational performance and collaboration networks, contributing to entrepreneurship research on the role of investors in technology ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a review of previous landmark studies and in the light of findings of recent research on internal corporate venturing, a model of the strategic process in large, complex firms is presented under which the propositions "structure follows strategy" and "strategy follows structure" can both be subsumed. Current corporate strategy induces some strategic behavior but changes in corporate strategy follow other, autonomous, strategic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition in the 21st century's global economy will be complex, challenging, and filled with competitive opportunities and threats. Effective strategic leadership practices can help firms enhance performance while competing in turbulent and unpredictable environments. The purpose of this paper is to describe six components of effective strategic leadership. When the activities called for by these components are completed successfully, the firm's strategic leadership practices can become a source of competitive advantage. In turn, use of this advantage can contribute significantly to achieving strategic competitiveness and earning above-average returns in the next century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We often lament that certain individuals at work simply "don't seem to get it," and therefore it is very difficult to get them to change. While everybody else may see a co-worker's incompetence, the employee is clueless about his or her serious development need. It may not be enough to provide feedback to this type of employee and hope that performance will improve. However, ignoring feedback has serious consequences for both the individual and the organization. Based on Hanna's individual change model from the therapeutic literature, we argue that individual and organizational factors, or precursors, enhance the speed of individual change in response to feedback. The individual precursors increase the likelihood that an employee will change in response to performance feedback, while the organizational precursors reflect how an organization's environment supports and rewards individual change. Individual change will occur more quickly and effectively to the extent that these precursors are present. This paper describes the precursors, provides a tool that managers can use to assess the precursors, and presents a case example to illustrate these points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally agreed in the strategic management literature that internal organizational assessment is less developed theoretically and practically than other areas of situation analysis. This paper presents a four stage approach to analyzing a firm's internal strengths and weaknesses and illustrates how the technique can facilitate strategy formulation through the integration of value chain concepts and the incorporation of the most recent findings on internal resources and capabilities. A case example is used to illustrate how the approach can be applied by strategic decision makers as a tool for exploring the potential of their companies for sustained competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an interview with Donald Hambrick published within the issue. The author notes the importance of Hambrick's creativity in the building of his career. Hambrick's research on strategic leadership has been enormously influential within the field of managerial studies. Hambrick's early papers are referenced for their effect on communication and diversity in the workforce of international business enterprises. Executive teams have built firms with Hambrick's model of horizontal integration in mind. Hambrick's views on decentralizing and centralizing are discussed in the context of business success.

Male-typed leadership schemas have been widely acknowledged as barriers to women’s success in leadership roles. We explore how local organizational agents and contexts enable women leaders to overcome these barriers and achieve success at the highest levels in firms. Specifically, we focus on chief executive officer (CEO) succession events and study how several facets of predecessor CEOs and the succession context combine to influence incoming women’s post-succession performance. We conduct a qualitative comparative case study of all CEO successions that involved female successors between 1989 and 2009 across the largest corporations in the United States. Our findings suggest that women’s success occurred when a confluence of local firm-level factors and attributes of the (mostly) male predecessors promoted gender-inclusive gatekeeping during succession. Our qualitative comparative analysis approach reveal three recipes for female success: “handing over the legacy,” “partnering the legacy,” and “turning around the legacy.” Moreover, a comparison to a matched-sample of men CEO succession events shows that these three recipes for success are unique to women. Based upon our findings, we propose that male predecessors’ gender-inclusive gatekeeping facilitates female leaders’ success and occurs when local enabling conditions and the embedded context enact agentic and structural mechanisms to alter leadership schemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, many successful private-firm entrepreneurs hold representational appointments in political councils such as the People's Congress (PC) or People's Political Consultative Conference (PPCC). By considering Western theories of life career development and Confucian doctrines of personal development, we seek to understand the complex motivations of successful entrepreneurs for joining political councils. We propose a Confucian social model of role transition to explain the pursuit and attainment of political appointment in China. We hypothesize that the "proself" and "prosocial" motives for seeking political connections will, respectively, attenuate or strengthen the relationship between private-firm entrepreneurs' business success and their intention and attainment in seeking political appointment. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 166 private-firm chief executive officers (CEOs) and chairs, and a longitudinal archival study of 1,323 Chinese publicly listed private firms from 2006 to 2012. The findings support our hypotheses on the moderating effect of the proself and prosocial motives. The study offers insights into how Confucian cultural values may explain the dynamic between business success and political appointments among private-firm entrepreneurs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how different rhythms of change relate to firm performance. An explorative analysis of 67 European insurance companies between 1995 and 2004 reveals that corporate strategic changes occur in four distinct rhythms, which are classified as either regular or irregular (focused, punctuated, and temporarily switching). Subsequent quantitative analysis shows that companies that change regularly outperform those that change irregularly. This finding prevails under different internal and external contingencies, under different change characteristics, and over time periods. We also find that the rhythm and frequency of change have distinct performance effects. Our findings contribute to research on the change-stability paradox by showing that a regular and sequential balance between change and stability is associated with long-term success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reflect on the criteria of effective topics that get published in the journal. They state that effective topics allow researchers to pursue an interesting direction that ignites and maintains curiosity, uncovers actionable insights, and builds an ambitious study. They talk about several topics that had an ambitious scope, such an an examination of social capital and career success, and topics that touch upon multiple perspectives. They recommend against topics that are too familiar.

Why do employees engage in innovative behavior at their workplaces? We examine how employees' innovative behavior is explained by expectations for such behavior to affect job performance (expected positive performance outcomes) and image inside their organizations (expected image risks and expected image gains). We found significant effects of all three outcome expectations on innovative behavior. These outcome expectations, as intermediate psychological processes, were shaped by contextual and individual difference factors, including perceived organization support for innovation, supervisor relationship quality, job requirement for innovativeness, employee reputation as innovative, and individual dissatisfaction with the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-business-unit collaboration is central to large firms' value creation, yet empirical support for the prevailing view that a corporate process best fosters such collaboration has been unconvincing. This study of six firms asks how executives create collaborations that perform at high levels. Our emergent theory unexpectedly emphasizes that a BU-centric process led by "multibusiness teams" of general managers leads to better collaborations than a corporate-centric process. We contribute to concepts in information processing, transaction cost economics, and social network theories. Our most fundamental insight extends complexity theory: we find that multibusiness organizations with strong performance operate as complex adaptive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint ventures aid firms in accessing new markets, knowledge, capabilities, and other resources. Yet they can be challenging to manage, largely because they are owned by two or more parent companies. These companies may have competing or incongruent goals, differences in management style, and in the case of international business, additional complexities associated with differing government policies and business practices. We examine research on joint venture (JV) performance in order to identify prominent academic discussions established over the last 25 years. From this research, we draw implications from past research and areas for future research on successfully managing JVs, taking into account the decisions JV partners must make throughout the partnering process, from initial motivations through partner selection and negotiation of terms to implementation and ongoing management. Key implications include the necessity of honesty, trust, and commitment for the success of the JV, settling disputes by focusing on what is best for the JV rather than individual partner objectives, and division of managerial responsibilities according to the functional expertise of each partner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

We develop a model to explain the process by which corporate failure leads to professional devaluation of individual elites. We envision that corporate failure evokes a stigmatization process, in which society's arbiters engage in constituent-minded sensemaking to interpret the conditions surrounding the failure, including the characteristics of the individual elite, and arrive at judgments about the person's blameworthiness. We discuss implications of this research for the study of stigma and stigmatization, as well as "settling-up" in managerial labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does public ownership create negative consequences for professional service firms by reducing employee incentives? This question was addressed with a panel of advertising agencies. Public ownership was associated with inferior performance for small agencies but not for large agencies, and there was no association between ownership and agency creativity, indicating that public ownership did not preclude agencies from competing with strategies requiring highly skilled professionals. The results challenge existing theories about the ownership of professional service firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central premise of upper echelons theory is that executives' experiences, values, and personalities greatly influence their interpretations of the situations they face and, in turn, affect their choices. At the invitation of the editor, I recap the AMR article in which the theory was originally presented (Hambrick & Mason, 1984), discuss subsequent refinements of the theory, and lay out several promising avenues for future upper echelons research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's business environment, characterized by complex questions without clear, black and white answers, business success requires something more of MBA education. Based on nearly 10 years of observation and deep involvement with MBA change efforts, we at the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program believe nothing short of a new definition of rigor is needed. This new rigor would equip managers with the analytical and conceptual skills to think far outside the gate rather than at the enterprise level, to see new connections between social and environmental challenges on the one hand and firm-level growth and innovation on the other, and to plan far beyond the quarter and into the future. Further, the new rigor would be characterized by a commitment to inquiry, by the opportunity to challenge key assumptions of the MBA canon, and by teaching students how to effectively voice personal and institutional values. While much innovation is currently underway in MBA education, there is enormous potential for courageous faculty to do even more to explore this new rigor in research--and in the classroom. [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]

We examined how social capital and the power of venture capitalists and founder-CEOs affect IPO firm survival. Using data from 218 U.S. initial public offerings conducted in 1992, we found that average management team tenure and an IPO deal's network embeddedness decreased the likelihood of failure during a firm's first five years as a public entity. Founder-CEO presence at the time of an IPO interacted with CEO ownership to decrease the likelihood of failure, and CEO ownership and venture capitalist ownership concentration also decreased that likelihood. [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 develop theory to show how board composition and, consequently, firm performance are a reflection of both the firm's life cycle stage and the relative power of the CEO and external financiers at the time of founding. This theory provides insight into the predictive validity of agency, resource dependence, institutional, and social network theories. We also argue that boards are subject to path dependency, and, thus, board composition is likely to persist over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an investigation of how the age of the knowledge that firms search affects how innovative they are. Two seemingly contradictory propositions are examined: (1) old knowledge hurts by making innovation activities obsolete and (2) old knowledge helps because its reliability and legitimacy promote innovation. Results based on longitudinal data on 131 robotics firms reconcile the contradictory propositions: while old intraindustry knowledge hurts, old extraindustry knowledge promotes innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we argue that (1) legitimacy is an important resource for gaining other resources, (2) such resources are crucial for new venture growth, and (3) legitimacy can be enhanced by the strategic actions of new ventures. We review the impact of legitimacy on new ventures as well as sources of legitimacy for new ventures, present strategies for new ventures to acquire legitimacy, explore the process of building legitimacy in the new venture, and examine the concept of the legitimacy threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In industries characterized by network externalities, a single technology standard often rises to dominance, locking out competing technologies. This research demonstrates that despite 'path dependency,' it is possible to model the technology selection process and predict likely outcomes. This work extends previous work in network externalities by demonstrating that in addition to its 'installed base' and the availability of complementary goods, a firm's learning orientation and timing of entry also play significant roles in its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the phenomenon of entrepreneurship has lacked a conceptual framework. In this note we draw upon previous research conducted in the different social science disciplines and applied fields of business to create a conceptual framework for the field. With this framework we explain a set of empirical phenomena and predict a set of outcomes not explained or predicted by conceptual frameworks already in existence in other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although failure in entrepreneurship is pervasive, theory often reflects an equally pervasive antifailure bias. Here, I use real options reasoning to develop a more balanced perspective on the role of entrepreneurial failure in wealth creation, which emphasizes managing uncertainty by pursuing high-variance outcomes but investing only if conditions are favorable. This can increase profit potential while containing costs. I also offer propositions that suggest how gains from entrepreneurship may be maximized and losses mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction cost economics (TCE), and more specifically the version of TCE that has been developed by Oliver Williamson (1975, 1985, 1993b), has become an increasingly important anchor for the analysis of a wide range of strategic and organizational issues of considerable importance to firms. As argued by some of its key proponents, the theory aims not only to explain but also to influence practice (Masten, 1993). In this article, we argue that prescriptions drawn from this theory are likely to be not only wrong but also dangerous for corporate managers because of the assumptions and logic on which it is grounded. Organizations are not mere substitutes for structuring efficient transactions when markets fail; they possess unique advantages for governing certain kinds of economic activities through a logic that is very different from that of a market. TCE is "bad for practice" because it fails to recognize this difference. We identify some of the sources of the "organizational advantage" and argue for the need to build a very different theory, more attuned to the realities of what Simon (1991) has called our "organizational economy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most perspectives on change propose that communication occurs in the context of change. This article inverts that perspective by proposing both that communication is the context in which change occurs and that the change process unfolds in a dynamic of four distinct types of conversations. The fundamental nature of speech as performative suggests that change is linguistically based and driven and that producing intentional change is facilitated by intentional communication. The relationships among the conversations are discussed, and implications for theory, research, and practice are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New organizations are always vulnerable to the liabilities of newness, but such pressures are especially severe when an industry is in its formative years. We focus on one set of constraints facing entrepreneurs in emerging industries -- their relative lack of cognitive and sociopolitical legitimacy. We examine the strategies that founders can pursue, suggesting how their successful pursuit of legitimacy may evolve from innovative ventures to broader contexts, collectively reshaping industry and institutional environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The singular emphasis on control that has characterized traditional approaches to total quality management (TQM) implementation are not well suited to conditions of high task uncertainty, a limitation that has not been recognized in the popular TQM movement. Although the fundamental precepts advocated by founders of the quality movement can accommodate conditions of high uncertainty, the way that these basic TQM precepts have been articulated, extended, and applied has not reflected the distinct, learning-oriented requirements associated with higher levels of uncertainty. A broader, more theory-driven perspective on TQM is proposed to clearly distinguish control from learning goals and, thus, to begin to address limitations in the way TQM has been conceptualized and applied in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the effect of formal strategic planning on organization effectiveness remains an unresolved issue, a systematic critical review of 18 relevant empirical studies allows valuable insights into the planning-performance controversy The analysis discloses controllable methodological inconsistencies and contingency variable interactions, an awareness of which can improve research designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three attributes that a firm's culture must have to generate sustained competitive advantages are isolated. Previous findings suggest that the cultures of some firms have these attributes; thus, these cultures are a source of such advantages. The normative implications of the analysis are discussed. Firms that do not have the required cultures cannot engage in activities that will modify their cultures and generate sustained superior financial performance because their modified cultures typically will be neither rare nor imperfectly imitable. Firms that have cultures with the required attributes can obtain sustained superior financial performance from their cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many writers on Japanese management emphasize the importance of "soft" skill, staff, style, and superordinate goal factors in managing successful organizations. It is argued here that Japanese firms face turbulent environments, making the "hard" factors of strategy, structure, and systems necessary for success. The idea of organizational learning is used to explain how Japanese firms' hard skills have equalled and sometimes surpassed those of Western firms, despite the limited professional education of Japanese managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity of a decision unit to induce innovation implementation within an adoption unit is crucial to organizational success. Risk and complexity are characteristics of innovations that can lead to resistance within organizational adoption units. Communication costs, types of power, and communication channels are structural characteristics that can be used by a decision unit to overcome this resistance. The interaction of these factors can determine the degree of successful innovation implementation within organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical perspective refers to understanding a subject in light of its earliest phases and subsequent evolution. This perspective differs from history because its object is to sharpen one's vision of the present, not the past. When historical perspective is overlooked in social research, researchers may draw misleading conclusions. Historical perspective expands research horizons by encouraging study of the relative stability of phenomena, providing alternative explanations for phenomena, and aiding problem formulation and research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kuhn's (1970, 1974) concept of paradigm development and the concept of dialectical materialism are used to demonstrate how formal planning may cause intraorganizational contradictions and endanger an organization's viability. These concepts are integrated by a model of planning dysfunctionalities. Ways to resolve such contradictions are discussed, and questions are suggested for empirical investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of the two most frequently cited types of strategy formulation models are compared to illustrate their major differences. A number of research issues emerge. Additional research issues then are identified in a review of literature that has raised questions about the most common model. Recommendations are provided in an attempt to help investigators pursue these and other strategic process questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]