C. Carl Pegels

Management heterogeneity, competitive interaction groups, and firm performance

One of the fundamental problems in strategic management is to map a heterogeneous set of firms in an industry into subsets of firms within which firms are homogeneous in their conduct and performance. The strategic group concept provides an answer to this intriguing question. Researchers in strategic group theory argue that firms within the same strategic group are behaviorally similar and thus tend to compete more fiercely within the group than across groups. In this paper, we focus on the question whether firms within the same group show similar decision-making characteristics. Strategic-choice theorists argue that top management teams in firms have substantial discretion in determining the future strategic contour of firms. Upper-echelon theorists also argue that top managers are the strategists who set the direction of firms and the pace of competition in the industry. Further, they argue that top management team characteristics are an important element that determines the market niche in which a firm competes and the strategic direction a firm follows. Based on these arguments, we expect that there will be a significant link between grouping of firms by the patterns of competitive interactions and grouping of firms by top management team heterogeneity. Moreover, we argue that the closer the TMT heterogeneity of a firm is to the dominant heterogeneity in the competitive interaction group, the better it performs. Copyright

Managerial information system success factors within the cultural context of North America and a former Soviet Republic

Due to the magnitude of organizational resource requirements for the development of managerial information systems, both practitioners and researchers have attempted to identify those factors that impact on information system success. This paper presents a cross-cultural analysis of a hybrid model of information systems success within the cultural context of North America and a former Soviet Republic, Latvia. The results of the analysis indicate that some of the factors that impact on managerial information system success have built-in value biases reflecting the value orientations of the culture in which they are developed.

The impact of managerial characteristics on strategic assets management capabilities

In this paper the impact of the top management team’s (TMT) cognitive and demographic characteristics on the firm’s strategic assets management performance is evaluated. Strategic assets are those assets as defined by the resource‐based value of the firm, also often referred to as core competencies. The performance measure used is relative efficiency in converting the firm’s strategic assets into firm performance measured by return on investment and return on sales. The technique used to measure relative efficiency is data envelopment analysis. Of the 13 TMT characteristics evaluated about half were statistically significant. The study was performed on firms in the domestic airline industry.

Top management team impact on strategic assets accumulation capabilities

The impact of the cognitive and demographic characteristics of top management teams (TMTs) on the strategic assets acquisition performance in organizations is evaluated. The evaluation measure is relative efficiency in converting generic inputs into valuable strategic assets using data envelopment analysis. Of the 12 TMT characteristics evaluated about three were statistically significant, and four were inconclusive. The study was performed on firms in the domestic airline industry.

Competitive inter‐firm interactions: determinants of divergence versus convergence

This paper is a study of competitive and cooperative interactions among members of a competitive industry group. There are few strategic, tactical or market moves that do not affect competition in any industry. Competitive and cooperative interactions among competitive firms are studied to determine how the reactions of competitors to an initiator of an action cause convergent or divergent patterns. It is hypothesized that the patterns, or cycles, of competitive and cooperative interactions are a function of complexity of the interaction cycle, degree of offensiveness of participants’ moves, action reversibility, previous interaction experience, interaction cycle visibility and response time. An empirical test of the hypothesis revealed that the two most strongly supported hypotheses were: interaction cycle complexity increases the likelihood of interaction cycle convergence, and interaction cycle visibility increases the likelihood of interaction cycle divergence.

The Nature and Dynamics of Technological Changes in an Automobile Tire Company — A Case Study

In this paper we describe how technological changes in an American automobile tire manufacturing firm helped to improve productivity and quality to a considerable extent over only an 18 month period of time. Technological changes considered not only include higher level technology machinery but also process and numerous managerial changes plus extensive retraining of the work force.