Brian K. Boyd

How Much Does the CEO Matter? The Role of Managerial Discretion in the Setting of CEO Compensation

The idea that managerial discretion—defined as latitude of action—may be an important determinant of CEO compensation has been recognized for some time. However, in spite of considerable work that ...

Emerging Theories of Communication in Organizations

This article reviews recent theoretical developments in four areas of organizational communication that have a common concern with information processing: communication media choice, computer-supported group decision making, communication technology and organizational design, and communication networks. For each topic the article includes a review of current theory, an assessment of the empirical evidence to date, and proposals for further theoretical and empirical development. The wealth of scholarship in these areas in the last 5 years testifies well to the substantial contribution of information processingrelated theories to a new core of organizational communication theory.

Executive Scanning and Perceived Uncertainty: A Multidimensional Model

The present study examined how executives’perceptions of the environment affected their decisions to collect strategic information. It was hypothesized that two dimensions of perceived uncertainty would have unique relationships with environmental scanning. Interviews were conducted with 72 senior executives in a cross-section of industries and produced the following results: (1) strategic importance was the primary determinant of scanning; (2) scanning declined as the environment was perceived to be more complex; and (3)perceived variability interacted with importance to positively affect scanning.

Reconsidering the Reputation—Performance Relationship: A Resource-Based View

Reputation is thought to differentiate organizations and help explain variability in their performance. A recent study contributed to knowledge about the reputation—performance relationship by depicting reputation as having two dimensions and linking each dimension to the prominence and performance of U.S. business schools. The authors propose an alternative approach that draws on the resource-based view (RBV) wherein reputation is an intangible asset that is composed of complementary and reinforcing relationships whose synergies create causal ambiguities that have positive performance implications. The authors also test a direct effect of faculty experience on prominence. Their results support the merit of the RBV model, indicating that it offers greater explanatory power. The findings suggest that reputation cannot be bought by additive and independent investments. Instead, enhancing a reputation requires managers to carefully nurture interdependencies and complex relationships. The findings also provide new insights about the determinants of business school reputation.

A measurement model of strategic planning

While strategic planning is a key concept in management research, there has been little consistency in its conceptualization or measurement. Our review of prior studies also identifies reliability and validity, dimensionality, crude levels of measurement, and lack of parsimony as additional problems associated with prior use of this variable. Such problems substantially limit our ability to compare results across studies, or to make appropriate normative recommendations. We address these concerns by developing and validating a multiple indicator measure of strategic planning, using two independent samples. Implications for future research are then discussed.

Walking New Avenues in Management Research Methods and Theories: Bridging Micro and Macro Domains

One of the most critical challenges faced by management scholars is how to integrate micro and macro research methods and theories. This article introduces a special issue of the Journal of Management addressing this integration challenge. First, the authors describe the nature of the micro—macro divide and its challenge for the field of management. Second, the authors provide a summary of each of the four guest editorials and seven articles published in the special issue and how each piece, in its own unique way and adopting a different perspective, makes a novel contribution toward addressing this challenge. Finally, they offer suggestions for future research that they hope will stimulate greater integration of management research with the goal of bridging not only the micro—macro gap but also the science—practice gap.

Contingency Hypotheses in Strategic Management Research Use, Disuse, or Misuse?

The answer to many strategic management research questions is often summarized as “It depends.” Faced with the marginal results of many main effect hypothesis tests of one variable on another variable, strategy researchers began developing contingency hypotheses that explored more nuanced relationships involving multiple variables. Herein, the authors examine the development of contingency thinking in strategic management via a review of all empirical articles published in Strategic Management Journal from its inception in 1980 through 2009. Using Venkatraman’s framework, they identify all contingency studies within this sample. Their analysis reveals that, while contingency hypotheses are becoming more common, there is less diversity in the way the effects are tested. Additionally, while the framing of contingency hypotheses has become more sophisticated over time, there remain many opportunities for methodological improvements. Based on this content analysis, the authors offer both theoretical and methodological guidelines for future strategic management studies.

Research Methodology in Strategic Management Past Accomplishments and Future Challenges

Despite being a relatively young discipline, strategic management has grown dramatically in size and influence over the past few decades. As with any field, the findings generated within strategic management are only as robust as the research methods used to conduct the analyses. Although strategic managements accomplishments with regard to methods have been substantial, it is confronted by significant challenges as well. The authors describe these accomplishments and challenges, explain how the articles offered in this feature topic help to address certain challenges, and offer suggestions for future work that may create additional progress.

Dimensions of CEO–Board Relations

Interactions between CEOs and their boards of directors are a prominent focus of management and strategy research. Despite the extensive literature on CEO–board relations, to date there has been limited integration of theoretical perspectives and measurement schemes. Through an extensive analysis of published studies, we hope to facilitate future research on CEO–board relations. We begin with a comparison of key theoretical approaches. Next, we conduct a content analysis of 51 empirical articles. We find that prior studies have an unbalanced focus regarding both topics and theoretical perspectives, and that there is limited consistency in the choice of measures. Based on this review, we lay out a number of promising directions for future research. We also find that, while there has been progress in international research on CEO–board relations, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the generalizability of governance theories across different geographic settings.

New Frontiers of the Reputation—Performance Relationship: Insights From Multiple Theories

Understanding the influences on organizational performance is a key goal of the strategic management field. A prior study (Rindova, Williamson, Petkova, & Sever, 2005) offered significant progress toward this goal in the context of the concept of reputation through the application of multiple theories and alternate empirical tests. In a subsequent article (Boyd, Bergh, & Ketchen, 2010), the authors sought to extend that knowledge via the application of a third theoretical perspective and additional analyses. In this reply, the authors extend on the comments made by Rindova, Williamson, and Petkova (2010) and offer additional theoretical insights on reputation, leveraging ideas from the resource-based view, transaction cost economics, signaling theory, and social status research. The authors also attempt to lay a foundation for future inquiry by using those theories to identify a series of research questions.