Anthony L. Iaquinto

Inertia And Creeping Rationality In Strategic Decision Processes

In two earlier studies, comprehensiveness, a characteristic of rational strategic decision-making processes, exhibited a positive relationship with organizational performance in a stable environmen...

Top management team agreement about the strategic decision process : A test of some of its determinants and consequences

The level of agreement among a firm’s top executives about how things are done in that firm has a variety of important implications. For example, agreement about a firm’s decision-making norms may allow members of the top management team (TMT) to focus on the substance of their most critical decisions and not get bogged down in debates about the process. In the present study, data from 65 firms in two industries were used to identify determinants and consequences of TMT agreement about the comprehensiveness of the strategic decision process. Results for consequences indicate that the level of TMT agreement was positively related to organizational performance. As for the determinants of agreement, organizational size was negatively related to agreement but past performance exhibited no association. Therefore, the results suggest that it is TMT agreement that influences performance, not the reverse. In addition, a surprising result was that firms in an industry with an unstable environment exhibited significantly more agreement about the process than did their counterparts in an industry whose environment was stable.

Can winners be losers? The case of the Deming prize for quality and performance among large Japanese manufacturing firms

Much literature suggests a positive relationship between winning a quality award and subsequent firm performance. However, for the vast majority of the large Japanese manufacturing firms that have won the Deming Prize results in this study indicate a negative association. Results also show that for a minority of these firms there does appear to be a positive relationship between winning and subsequent performance. Two theories, the danger of simplicity and the winner’s curse, are utilized to explain these results. Firms that compete for quality awards have a significant risk of putting undue pressure on organizational resources or focusing too narrowly on winning and neglecting other aspects of their business, thereby leading to performance shortfalls. Significant experience in TQM/TQC prior to competing for a quality award may moderate these risks. For managers, there should be serious consideration as to whether their companies should compete for a quality award in the hope of improving performance. Instead, they may want to ask if there are any alternative methods for designing and implementing improvements in quality control.

The Performance Implications of Asset versus Transactional Advantages of MNEs

The current paper found no significant relationships between performance and the degree of a MNEs foreign direct investment. The current paper did find a significant positive association between performance and the degree to which a MNE internalizes its intermediate product market. However, this latter relationship also appears to be mediated by the industry in which the firm is embedded.

Kaizen: a Japanese philosophy and system for business excellence

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a definitive and insightful working definition of kaizen for practitioners and academics in the West through which they may better understand the kaizen phenomenon and its intangible but critical underpinning philosophy. Design/methodology/approach – A phenomenological study of the utility of kaizen within in the bounds of active kaizen environments in name Japanese industrial organisations was conducted over a three-year period in Japan. The research explored how Japanese workers acknowledge, exercise, identify and diffuse kaizen in a sustainable manner. Findings – Kaizen is found to be a broad philosophical approach to work that serves different purposes for different members of the organisation, where no universal definition appears to exist yet differing ideologies are tolerated. Kaizen in Japan has a considerably deep meaning: it channels worker creativity and expressions of individuality into bounded environments, and creates an energy that drives a ...

Female managers in Japan: early indications of career progression

Purpose – Aims to determine the self‐perceptions of Japanese female white‐collar employees regarding defined aspects of their work environment.Design/methodology/approach – The sample consisted of Japanese workers employed in Japanese and foreign (US and European) financial services companies. The self‐perceptions were tested and compared: directly with the self‐perceptions of male counterparts, and within an exclusively female sample divided into two subsets of Japanese and foreign companies operating in Japan.Findings – Results show that despite recent employment system changes, clearly segregated gender roles persist in the Japanese workplace with female employees reporting significantly lower self‐evaluations of their training‐received, future prospects and understanding of operations than their male counterparts. However, when female results are subdivided by national origin of their company, Japanese women employed in foreign companies show significantly higher self‐evaluations of training‐received,...

Win a quality award and lose your competitive advantage

For the vast majority of firms there is a negative relationship between winning a quality award and subsequent firm performance. ‘The dangers of simplicity’, ‘the winners curse’, or ‘the smothering bureaucracy’ can be used to explain how winning a quality award may lead to declines in competitive advantage. Firms should look at alternatives to quality awards as a means to improve quality management in their firm. Careful planning and implementation, as well as years of experience, can moderate the adverse effects that winning a quality award has on a firms competitive advantage. Copyright

Firm-specific risk, managerial certainty and optimism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on investor reactions to unanticipated changes in income, and whether those reactions can be mitigated by managerial discussion. The authors investigate how top-management team certainty and optimism during post-earnings announcement conference calls can serve as corrective actions and add back firm value in times of unexpected changes in firm-specific risk. Design/methodology/approach – The research question is tested empirically in the context of large, publicly traded, US firms’ quarterly earnings announcements, and their subsequent post-earnings announcement conference calls. The authors use the advanced content analysis software DICTION to measure the levels of managerial certainty and optimism displayed during post-earnings announcement conference calls, and event-study methodology to measure investors’ reactions. Findings – Results indicate that earnings surprises are negatively associated with firm value, but that this relationship is mitigated posit...