Konzernstrategieabteilungen binden Unternehmensbereiche ein, um eine konzernweit integrierte Strategiearbeit zu ermöglichen. Doch woher weiss die Strategieabteilung, wie wertschöpfend sie diese Rolle aus Sicht der Unternehmensbereiche ausübt? Basierend auf einer Fallstudie eines globalen Mehrgeschäftsunternehmens der Automobilindustrie erläutert dieser Beitrag, wie sich der strategische Wertbeitrag der Strategieabteilung zusammensetzt und wie er messbar gemacht werden kann.
This study incorporates the external environmental context into the study of competitive dynamics by examining how market shocks affect a firm's inclination to take new competitive action. We propose that market shocks temporarily change the rules of the competitive game. While we agree with prior research that third party rivalry is a major antecedent of competitive actions, we argue that in the aftermath of market shocks new competitive opportunities arise that lead managers to detach their focus from the competitive behavior their rivals have displayed. Considering the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as natural experiments, we study the amount and types of competitive actions firms within the global property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry have taken in their efforts to outmaneuver their rivals. We find support for our arguments and demonstrate how market shocks punctuate and alter patterns of interfirm rivalry.
Wir können weder "objektive" Wissenschaftstheorien noch "objektive" Methoden entwickeln, ohne a priori normative Entscheidungen hinsichtlich erkenntnistheoretischer Annahmen und grundlegender Wertvorstellungen zum Sinn wissenschaftlicher Tätigkeit getroffen oder implizit als selbstverständliche Vorgabe übernommen zu haben. Solche grundlegenden normativen Entscheidungen sind als "Weltanschauung" zu verstehen. Dies bedeutet, dass wissenschaftstheoretische Grundpositionen und davon abgeleitete Methoden nicht anhand vorfindicher objektiver Rationalitätskriterien abschliessen legitimiert werden können. Somit ist die Entscheidung für die eine oder andere wissenschaftstheoretische Denkschule letzlich immer eine Frage der (persönlichen) Weltanschauung, die es offen zu legen und zu reflektieren gilt.
Auch die Managementlehre ist durch einen theoretischen und erkenntnistheoretischen Pluralismus gekennzeichnet. Nicht nur wissenschaftsinterne, sondern auch anwendungsbezogene und ökonomische Gründe tragen dazu bei, dass es periodenweise zu mehr odewr weniger stark ausgepräten Schwerpunkten in der Forschung kommt.
Je nach "Brille", durch die man also ein Problem betrachtet, und je nach Problemformulierung, aus deren Blickwinkel man dessen Bearbeitumg anpackt, wird bereits der Rahmen möglicher, als sinnvoll erachteter Lösungen abgesteckt. Diesen Rahmen mit zu reflektieren, ist Voraussetzung für konstruktive Kritik und für Innovation - auch in der Wissenschaft.
A firm's behavior is constrained by its access to resources owned or controlled by different constituencies in its environment. Mergers and acquisitions are one way to proactively manage these resource dependencies. Research on resource dependence reducing merger and acquisition patterns provides an important cornerstone of resource dependency theory and a basis of our present knowledge of the aggregate industry-level merger and acquisition patterns. However, due to the predominant focus on inter-industry merger and acquisition patterns in earlier research, much less is known as to whether the same logic could also be applied to explain intra-industry merger and acquisition patterns. In this chapter, we extend the resource dependence results to an intra-industry context. In particular, we show that mergers and acquisitions among pharmaceutical firms tend to take place among firms with technological and competitive interdependencies. To distinguish our finding from the competing resource scale and scope explanations, we show that the likelihood of a resource dependence reducing acquisition is moderated by the crowding of firms' technological positions and prior alliance ties. Consistent with the resource dependence explanation, both weaken the effect of overlapping technological positions even though both alliance ties and crowding otherwise are positively related to merger and acquisition patterns in line with the social structural explanations
This paper contributes to research on mental models of dynamic systems (MMDS). Such models are compared at the level of variables and causal links, feedback loops, and the entire model. At the level of variables and links, only direct links in the same causal direction are taken into account. We use exemplary data from a current case study to show that there are blind spots in the current methods: (1) when there are intermediate variables in between two key variables in one of the compared models or in both, the number of differences in the details of the MMDS results in an exaggerated Element Distance Ratio (EDR). And (2) when two variables are linked in the two compared model with different directions, the fact that both models posit a relationship between the variables is amalgamated with the complete absence of a relationship, which also exaggerates the EDR. The paper first demonstrates these problems and then discusses modifications to the current method and shows how they overcome the detected problems. We propose that the same modifications could be useful for mental model research in general.
This paper contributes to research on mental models of dynamic systems (MMDS). MMDS research works with qualitative data that has to be elicited and analyzed to represent the MMDS as qualitative models which can be analyzed and compared by analysis tools like the distance-ratio method. We have revised the SD literature on collecting and analyzing qualitative data and devised an interview-based method which minimizes influence on interviewees and applies a coding process which yields a qualitative model according to the current definition of MMDS. We use exemplary data from a case study which is currently in process to show how the method is applied. We extract some observations concerning the particularity of coding for MMDS and the double competence which researchers should have. We also raise two questions for future research, dealing with the proper aggregation level of MMDS and with the unknown amount of researcher influence that a MMDS can resist without bias.
The system dynamics field requires a definition what a modeller needs to know and to be capable of doing to become a system dynamicist. This paper builds on previous work in the field to elaborate which knowledge is to be expected at successive stages of learning system dynamics modelling. It adopts the Dreyfus & Dreyfus model of stage-wise competency development from beginner to competent. It also uses Bloom's taxonomy a widely accepted educational framework to articulate an organized set of learning objectives. A Delphi process with reknowned system dynamics experts enabled us to develop a system dynamics competence framework with clear statements about the learning objectives for beginners, advanced beginners, competent, proficient/practitioner, and expert. The resulting ordered and classified set of learning objectives is a necessary, though not sufficient, step towards a shared standard for system dynamics instruction and training. Building on our result, standard learning activities and materials as well as certification devices can be designed and developed.
Corporate strategy departments as a collective of strategy professionals need to integrate organizational unit managers in strategy-making through participation. However, research on how they are doing it and how effective such integration efforts are is scarce. Addressing this gap, we propose a measure for integration effectiveness from a unit manager perspective. We identify integration effectiveness as a multidimensional construct consisting of a relational, cognitive, and functional dimension. The way how the strategy department exploits its capabilities along these dimensions leads to four characteristic effectiveness states: seminal, lagging, routine, and rushed. This conceptualization is based on an in-depth case study of a global multibusiness automotive company with empirical evidence from 43 interviews with unit managers and a pilot-test including initial construct validation (EFA).
Exploring how the dispersion of power affects the interpretation of complex strategic issues, this study elaborates on the dependencies created by complex strategic issues and suggests the cross-functional dispersion of power on strategic activities as central mechanism enabling a firm to develop a comprehensive and unified interpretation of the strategic issue. Using a large-scale survey, the study develops and will test hypotheses on the positive effect of dispersion of power on issue interpretation outcomes. Further, we expect a stronger effect of slowly evolving and contextual strategic issues. The study contributes to the sensemaking literature by challenging the implicit assumption that "meanings survive as a result of voting" and to the strategic issue literature by studying the dependencies created by specific issue characteristics.
