Journal of Strategy and Management

The purpose of this paper is to define and then investigate the incidence of organizational leadership practices that encourage a culture of strategic thinking.

Discussions with 400 US healthcare executives attending focused educational seminars identified 18 leadership practices that encourage strategic thinking and 117 participants in subsequent seminars completed a survey assessing their use of the practices. Central tendencies, patterns across high and low users, and demographic differences were analyzed.

The two most frequently used practices involved reactions to crises. Executives using most of the practices employed long time horizons and made investments in human resource development and organizational learning. Industry suppliers and those responsible for parts of organizations were more likely to formally develop subordinates' strategic thinking ability.

While the study used a convenience sample with self‐ratings, it identified salient leadership practices for encouraging strategic thinking. This research should be expanded to other industries and countries. Case study methods would provide additional insight.

The findings support enhanced practitioner education regarding strategic thinking and provide practitioners with a place to start in looking for ways to enhance strategic thinking among individuals in their organizations.

The study fills a gap in the literature regarding specific ways in which organizational culture may impact strategic thinking in others. The study also provides a model for scholar‐practitioner inquiry, exemplifying practitioner involvement in methodology development and the interpretation of findings.

Nghiên cứu hiện tại về chiến lược quản lý công nghiệp chủ yếu được hướng đến các khách hàng cuối trong ngành công nghiệp. Trong quá trình này, nghiên cứu hiện tại đã bỏ qua một nhóm quan trọng – các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp, tức là các công ty bán sản phẩm được sản xuất bởi các nhà sản xuất công nghiệp cho các công ty khác sử dụng những sản phẩm này để tạo ra sản phẩm hoặc dịch vụ hoàn chỉnh. Khi tài liệu hiện có khẳng định rằng các nhà bán lẻ chủ yếu quan tâm đến lợi nhuận biên của loại hàng và khả năng sinh lời (không phụ thuộc vào các thương hiệu cụ thể), thì không rõ liệu các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp có đánh giá thương hiệu một cách quan trọng hay không. Mục đích của bài báo này là xác định tầm quan trọng của các thương hiệu công nghiệp so với các tiêu chí mua khác đối với các nhà phân phối công nghiệp.

Ba nghiên cứu được tiến hành để xem xét tầm quan trọng của các thương hiệu so với các tiêu chí mua khác đối với các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp và người dùng cuối. Trong một nghiên cứu theo chiều dài sử dụng phân tích đồng thời, các tác giả phát hiện rằng các thương hiệu công nghiệp có ảnh hưởng lớn hơn đến sự lựa chọn của các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp so với giá sản phẩm hoặc biên lợi nhuận.

Đầu tiên, những kết quả này cho thấy rằng các thương hiệu công nghiệp là động lực mua mạnh mẽ cho cả các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp (chứ không chỉ cho các người dùng cuối công nghiệp). Thứ hai, các nhà quản lý marketing công nghiệp vì vậy nên đầu tư vào việc xây dựng thương hiệu để tác động tích cực đến sự lựa chọn của các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp, thay vì giảm giá hoặc tăng biên lợi nhuận sản phẩm như tài liệu hiện ở gợi ý. Kết luận, các nghiên cứu này dường như chỉ ra rằng các nhà bán lẻ sử dụng thương hiệu không chỉ như là những tín hiệu liên kết hoặc dự đoán về hiệu suất sản phẩm, mà còn là những chỉ báo dự đoán về khả năng sinh lời trong tương lai dự kiến của một sản phẩm.

Từ quan điểm lý thuyết, các nghiên cứu của các tác giả cho thấy rằng các thương hiệu công nghiệp không chỉ truyền đạt tín hiệu cho các khách hàng cuối tiềm năng, mà còn gửi tín hiệu đến các trung gian – chẳng hạn như các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp – điều này ảnh hưởng đến quy trình quyết định của họ. Tầm quan trọng mạnh mẽ mà các nhà bán lẻ B2B đặt vào thương hiệu như một yếu tố mua chính là một chỉ báo rằng các nhà bán lẻ sử dụng thương hiệu không chỉ như là những tín hiệu liên kết hoặc dự đoán về hiệu suất sản phẩm, mà còn là những chỉ báo dự đoán về khả năng sinh lời trong tương lai của một sản phẩm (tức là biên lợi nhuận và vòng quay tài sản), điều này tác động tích cực đến khả năng sinh lời của chính các nhà bán lẻ. Kết quả của nghiên cứu này cũng chỉ ra rằng mối quan hệ giữa các nhà sản xuất công nghiệp và các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp có thể được thúc đẩy nhiều hơn bởi các cân nhắc hợp tác hơn là các cân nhắc xung đột.

Như là một ý nghĩa quản lý, có thể gợi ý rằng các giám đốc marketing công nghiệp nên đầu tư vào việc xây dựng thương hiệu để tác động tích cực đến sự lựa chọn của các nhà bán lẻ công nghiệp, thay vì giảm giá hoặc tăng biên lợi nhuận sản phẩm, như tài liệu hiện tại gợi ý.

Trong bài báo này, ba nghiên cứu thực nghiệm riêng biệt được thực hiện để xem xét vai trò của các thương hiệu trong thực tiễn quản lý công nghiệp.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to reconcile managerial and economic approaches of the firm. Strategic management seems to be the perfect playground for this.

The paper shows many divergences between the economic and managerial approach of the firm but also highlights many topics where both approaches come in handy.

The authors underline the topics and theories in strategic management with the greatest benefits of mixing economics and management can be expected and they echo the papers in this special issue.

The paper comes as a warning for those using only managerial perspective without listening to the caveats and ideas put forward by the economic approach of the firm.

The paper offers an agenda of how economics and management could be reunited, and shows the relevance of doing so to both theory and practice.

The aim of this paper is to explain how the globalisation of services can be limited or enhanced by societal effects.

This analysis is based on a single case study. The authors use a qualitative and longitudinal approach, with in‐depth interviews and archives collected during a six‐year period of participant observation inside the firm.

The authors argue that societal dimensions are at play in the evolution of services activities, and that their influence is especially strong in ex‐public services monopolies. They illustrate the limits of strategic change due to the specific dynamics of societal effects. The authors first look at the evolution of strategic fit before and after multiple changes in La Poste. They then identify different types of reactions at local level. They conclude by insisting on the enduring influence of social patterns and traditions on the adoption of new technologies and modes of organisation.

The main limitation of this research is that a more thorough comparison with other European national leaders in postal services would have helped strengthen this analysis.

A first practical implication for services firms is that societal changes should be greatly considered in their globalisation process and that societal changes are often underestimated. Another practical implication is that a globalisation of services process must certainly be situated at a global level based on national and local specificities built in time.

While comparative studies on international management have often focused on the different modes of organisation depending on culture and institutions, the impact of globalisation on services have been left relatively under‐explored. This paper takes the example of the service industry to show that cultural reasons are not sufficient to explain why the internationalisation of services may encounter difficulties. Other factors such as societal effect should be included.

This paper aims to articulate strategic dilemmas faced by a Chief Executive of a highly successful company and how such dilemmas were resolved.

The case is based on a semi‐structured interview with Mr Jeremy Darroch – Chief Executive of BSkyB – and analysis of documentary evidence.

It is often difficult to implement strategies that simultaneously yield high organic growth rate, innovation, and a healthy balance‐sheet. The paper sheds light on how Sky has met this challenge.

The research offers a unique insight into the views of a principal strategist and articulates the background to offer context, however, because of its design the findings are not generalisable.

Very few articles offer insight into the thinking of those with principal responsibility for design and delivery of strategy. This paper offers such an insight based on a detailed interview with a highly successful Chief Executive.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between chief executive officer characteristics and corporate turnaround performance of declining firms attempting turnaround.

A sample of 60 US manufacturing firms that experience severe performance decline and turnaround from 1985 to 2000 are selected from a population of declining manufacturing firms in the COMPUSTAT database. Data on leadership characteristics are collected and analyzed using ordinary least square regression analysis and ANOVA.

The general findings of the study provide empirical support for the upper echelons theory that emphasizes leadership characteristics as predictors of organizational outcomes. More specifically, the findings suggest the strong and adverse influence of long executive tenure on corporate turnaround performance. The findings also indicate that executives with output‐related functional background positively influence corporate turnaround performance in declining firms attempting turnaround.

The findings of this paper have important implications for corporate governance issues in declining firms attempting turnaround. In addition, the findings also lend further empirical support for the role of strategic leadership in shaping organizational outcomes especially under declining environmental conditions.

This paper contributes to the turnaround literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of strategic leadership in formulating and implementing turnaround strategies in declining firms. It also provides further support for the upper echelons perspective and strategic decision making.

This paper attempts to deploy a systematic and structural approach to examine Macau's strengths and weaknesses and to scan its external opportunities and threats. A fresh way to quantify the extent of perceived opportunities and threats is introduced here. This is adopted and modified from the quality management tool box, i.e. the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and success mode and effects analysis (SMEA).

The internal factors, i.e. its strengths and weaknesses are systematically and structurally gauged using a Likert scale of 0 to 10 (i.e. 0 representing least important or least well performed … to 10 representing most important and best performed).

Following the matching of internal factors with the external factors in the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, a list of meaningful responses is identified as possible strategies for the Macau SAR Government. The SWOT analysis is simple to use yet powerful and flexible in responding to changes in the external environment and should be useful to organizations both in the commercial sector and government machinery.

This innovative and structured strategic formulation approach is useful to both business practitioners and management consultants.

The purpose of this paper is to determine what the effects of acquisition are on R&D patterns.

This paper tests whether the actual post‐acquisition R&D intensity of the combined firm deviated from the predicted R&D intensity, where the predicted amount is an asset‐weighted average of pre‐acquisition values.

The results indicate that the combination of technology sourcing and technological relatedness have strong predictive powers for determining changes in post‐acquisition R&D intensity. Technology sourcing acquisition of unrelated technologies results in an increase in post‐acquisition R&D intensity, as predicted. Acquirers in this situation may be using their acquisition as a platform for research expansion.

The dataset used in this paper was restricted to public acquirers and targets for completeness of financial information. It would be useful to determine the extent to which a technology sourcing acquirer is predicted to enter into an acquisition and also whether technology sourcing can be used as a predictor for the ultimate target company out of a pool of potential targets.

The results can be used to inform managers on a strategic level when research strategy deviates from what the theory would predict. For example, if a company that did a technology sourcing acquisition of an unrelated product subsequently decreased R&D intensity, then rival pharmaceutical firms can ascertain that the acquired research was ultimately determined to be too risky or unviable.

The value in this paper is the unique measurement for technology sourcing.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual approach to determining an optimal strategy development process and controlling of the defence spending, by utilizing the decision‐making system adopted in the Republic of Estonia.

The author offers a part of the Balanced Scorecard model named “Management and Control Perspective” as one of the improvement tools for the system of planning military expenditures and effective utilization of budgetary funds.

The results show that the Balanced Scorecard application, using the “utility function”, will allow the Estonian Defence Forces to overcome important barriers to strategy implementation by interrelation of military planning and budgeting processes.

One suggestion for further research might be established as a way of improvement and development of methods directed to application of the utility function in the decision‐making process. This approach will improve calculations of strategic perspective plans and will reveal the essence of the budgetary policy on the whole by taking into consideration expenses features of the business and non‐profit organizations.

By using the Balanced Scorecard the paper offers a new strategic method of planning and controlling the military expenditure in the Estonian Defence Forces.

The present paper provides direct evidence of the alternative methods forecast measures and the possibility of using mathematical models in the strategic planning process.