Learning to synthesise contradictions: an Austrian approach to bridging time concepts in the strategic theory of the firm

Moving from an inquiry on the notions of time underlying strategy studies, in this paper we lay the groundwork for the elaboration of a multitemporal view of the firm. We draw on the Austrian process view in economic studies and on Nonaka's idea of synthesising capabilities to formulate a methodological framework which consents the elaboration of a multitemporal view of the resource-based firm, in which different time concepts are bridged and main actor behaviours crucial for prolonged firm success are encompassed. We then show how the multitemporal view of the firm which emerges from the deployment of the integration of the Austrian and Nonakian approaches consents the reinterpretation and…

Revamping Research on Unrelated Diversification Strategy: Perspectives, Opportunities and Challenges for Future Inquiry

With the aim of achieving an advanced understanding of current research on unrelated diversification and providing fruitful groundwork to foster active interchange between disciplinary traditions, this paper detects articles from two relevant research streams; i.e., strategic management and financial economics. We first provide a brief overview of management thinking on unrelated diversification strategy. Then, we present a conceptual map that offers a comprehensive appreciation of unrelated diversification strategy antecedents (i.e., environmental and institutional, organizational value-enhancing, and managerial drivers), implementation process (i.e., managerial complexity, misallocation o…

The Hubris Hypothesis of Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Evidence from the Parmalat Case

In the last decade, various accounting scandals have come about (such as Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, Worldcom and Parmalat), stimulating the burgeoning debate on the drivers and conditions underlying the emergence of financial frauds.

Structural Dynamics and Intentional Governance in Strategic Interorganizational Network Evolution: A Multilevel Approach

This article aims to shed light on the drivers underlying the role and scope of intentional governance of the structural dynamics of whole interorganizational networks. Prior research has distinguished networks that are emergent from networks that are orchestrated. While empirical studies have shown situations in which the role and scope of intentional governance of whole interorganizational networks has changed in time, and there is a growing interest regarding the endogenous drivers of network dynamics, the dimensions that influence intentional governance of network structure dynamics and the way this is carried out remain still to be elucidated. In order to pinpoint these drivers, we le…

Institutional Contexts, the Management of Patent Portfolios, and the Role of Public Policies Supporting New EntrepreneurialVentures

This chapter aims to increase our understanding of the relationships between firm strategies, the design of institutional contexts on behalf of public agents, and the stimulation of diffused entrepreneurship within the economic system. In particular, it analyzes the way in which firm patent portfolio management strategies may systematically hinder the emergence of entrepreneurial endeavors within the economic system and, on this basis, critically discusses how the acknowledgement of these interactions should influence the design of public policies at the economic system level. We argue that in economic contexts where intellectual property rights (IPR) are influential, large firms may intent…

Interorganizational network and innovation: a bibliometric study and proposed research agenda

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the latent structure of the literature on interorganizational network and innovation as well as to map the main themes and empirical advances in this research stream. Design/methodology/approach – Using bibliometric coupling, the authors analyze the citation patterns in 67 management studies regarding innovation networks, published in ISI-journals from January 1996 to October 2012. Findings – The authors identify the conceptual orientations that studies share. Bibliometric analysis allows us to draw an overview of how this field of research has developed, recognizing in essence six main clustered research themes: networks as a framework that sustains fi…

Unveiling the Role of Multiple blockholders: Evidence from Closely Held Firms.

Research Question/Issue. This paper disentangles how the modes of ownership distribution among multiple blockholders and their heterogeneity shape principal–principal conflicts and, in turn, affect firm performance. The paper offers empirical evidence from a panel of Italian closely held firms over the period 2009–2014. Research Findings/Insights. We explore the principal–principal conflicts among blockholders across two distinct control structures. When a single blockholder controls the firm, principal–principal conflicts are shaped by the trade‐off between the alignment effect and the monitoring effect. In this scenario, we find that the relationship between the two largest blockholders' …

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESOURCE BASED FIRM BETWEEN VALUE APPROPRIATION AND VALUE CREATION

Time and strategy: towards a multitemporal view of the firm

This paper takes into consideration the main views underlying the theory of the resource based firm within strategy studies, underscoring their fundamental monotemporal nature and proposing a way to elaborate a multi‐temporal view of the firm. By analyzing the link between the time concepts used as bases for the formulation of studies within the strategy field and the types of actor behavior implicitly (or explicitly) entailed by such time concepts, the paper shows the inadequacy of any one of the two monotemporal views of the resource‐based firm to encompass all of the main actor behaviors on which the firm's survival and success increasingly rests. The paper draws on the Austrian process …

Diversification Strategy

Temporary Competitive Advantage: An Investigation into the Core of the Literature

Evidence of over 350 citations recorded by the articles published in the 2010 special issue on “The Age of Temporary Advantage” of the Strategic Management Journal shows that the inquiry on temporary nature of competitive advantage is an emergent research area in strategic management. They also exhibit that, most likely, it is going to be a significant research area for the coming years. To assess the current status of the literature as well as to fathom the directions and challenges of future research on temporary advantage, we review prior empirical research on temporary advantage so as to offer a conceptual map that provides a comprehensive appreciation of antecedents, processes, and con…

Temporary Competitive Advantage: A State‐of‐the‐Art Literature Review and Research Directions

In many industries, the traditional sources of competitive advantage tend to evaporate fairly rapidly. Therefore, managers need to continually rethink and reformulate their firm strategies. Likewise, scholars have felt compelled to shift the traditional centre of attention from competitive advantage that is sustainable over time to a focus on how firms compete by achieving a series of temporary advantages. However, the proliferation of research on temporary competitive advantage, far from building a solid body of literature, has produced a series of fragmented studies. This condition calls for detecting the state of knowledge in this realm of strategic inquiry. By leveraging the present sta…

Monotemporalism vs Pluritemporalism: Concepts of Time and the Strategic Theory of the Firm

La hubris manageriale quale antecedente delle scelte d’internazionalizzazione: un framework concettuale

L’obiettivo di questa ricerca è illustrare come la hubris manageriale influisca sensibilmente sulle scelte principali relative all’internazionalizzazione dell’impresa. Alla luce di queste scelte, si discuterà l’impatto sulle performance.

Dietro le quinte della diversificazione conglomerale: il ruolo della leadership strategica

Behind the curtain of international diversification: An agency theory perspective

This paper dissects the antecedents of international diversification through the lens of the agency cost of free cash flow arguments. It explores whether the partial convergence of interests among managers, majority shareholders, and minority shareholders affects a firm's choice to diversify internationally. Using a sample panel of 60 Italian firms evaluated longitudinally from 2004 to 2014, the study tests whether a firm's international diversification is affected by its free cash flow (as the ultimate source of managerial discretion) and debt (as the main constraint to managerial discretion), especially in firm contexts that exacerbate agency problems. We find that the effects on internat…

Unveiling the Antecedents of International Diversification: An Agency Theory Approach

While various studies have developed hypotheses about the antecedents of international diversification drawing mainly on the resource-based view, the behavioral theory of the firm, and the transaction costs literature, we advance our understanding by investigating the explanatory power of agency costs of free cash flow arguments. Using a sample panel of 167 Italian firms longitudinally evaluated during the 1980-2010 period, this study tests whether the firm’s choice to spread operations in multiple foreign countries is conditioned by excess of free cash flow and debt, especially in firm-contexts where agency problems are exacerbated by managers or large shareholders’ opportunism. We find th…

Managing coopetition in diversified firms: Insights from a qualitative case study

Abstract Cooperation among divisions is usually thought to explain the performance of diversification strategies. However, such divisions are also in competition. Through the in-depth analysis of an intraindustry diversified firm operating in the global semiconductor industry, this paper identifies the sources of coopetition and the treatment of coopetitive tensions among divisions in the production allocation process. We find a multipoint origin of cooperation within a competitive setting. Then, we extend a previous study that considers uniquely two substitute views: (a) corporate-centric; and (b) division-centric. Additionally, by employing formal organizational mechanisms, we show that c…

The origin of failure: A multidisciplinary appraisal of the hubris hypothesis and proposed research agenda

The hubris hypothesis complements the extant debate on how people make judgments and decisions in organizations. Drawing on the origin of hubris in Greek mythology, the psychological approach, and finance studies, this paper portrays an informed picture of the current status of managerial hubris literature that develops a more advanced understanding of what is known about hubris. We present a conceptual map that provides a comprehensive appreciation of hubris antecedents-symptoms-strategic choices-feedback performance main cause effect relationships. Our proposed conceptual map draws on the idea that managerial hubris is one of the determinants of CEO judgments, strategic choices, and organ…

La hubris manageriale quale fonte della irresponsabilità d’impresa: uno studio esplorativo

Obiettivo del paper: L’ondata di scandali etici che ha colpito intensamente il mondo delle imprese a partire dalla fine del XX secolo ha fatto emergere l’esigenza di esplorare i meccanismi istituzionali tesi a evitare nuovi casi di corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). S’intende contribuire a tale dibattito introducendo la trappola della hubris manageriale quale determinante della CSI. Metodologia: Esame qualitativo-longitudinale del caso Parmalat nel periodo in cui è stata sotto la guida del suo fondatore Calisto Tanzi (1961-2003). L’analisi del caso segue i criteri scientifici del campionamento teorico, della triangolazione dei fatti e della periodizzazione della narrazione. Risultati:…

Sviluppo e Innovazione nell'Hi-tech in Sicilia. Un'indagine sulle imprese àncora e sulle reti innovative nell'area di Catania

The purpose of this report is to scrutinize the development of the microelectronics and nanotechnology cluster from an original anchor fi rm perspective and to examine the processes through which the roles of anchors and their networks of relationships with the most important players of the cluster evolved over the last quarter of the century. On the ground of the analysis of archival data, internal documents and reports, academic publications, and personal interviews with key managers, researchers, and crucial actors from both private and public sides – performed coherently with the snowballing method – the report identifi es the emergence and development of the microelectronics and nanote…

The bright and dark sides of CEO hubris: Assessing cultural distance in international business

This paper aims to enrich the behavioral theory of international business strategyby investigating how CEO hubris (i.e., excess pride and confidence) affects inter-national strategic choices, that is, location selection, entry timing, and modes ofentry into the target market. Specifically, we focus on the relationship betweencultural distance and international strategic choices and consider hubris as a mech-anism that influences CEOs’ decisions. Our conceptual framework recognizes thatthe performance of international strategies managed by hubristic CEOs isextremely volatile. On the one hand, we corroborate the idea that hubris has adark side that may lead to pernicious outcomes. On the othe…

Learning to Synthesize Contradictions: an Austrian Approach to Bridging Time Concepts in the Strategic Theory of the Firm

Unveiling the Antecedents of International Diversification: An Agency Theory Approach

While various studies have developed hypotheses about the antecedents of international diversification drawing mainly on the resource-based view, the behavioral theory of the firm, and the transaction costs literature, we advance our understanding by investigating the explanatory power of agency costs of free cash flow arguments. Using a sample panel of 167 Italian firms longitudinally evaluated during the 1980-2010 period, this study tests whether the firm’s choice to spread operations in multiple foreign countries is conditioned by excess of free cash flow and debt, especially in firm-contexts where agency problems are exacerbated by managers or large shareholders’ opportunism. We find th…