Curtis M. Grimm

The Role of Competitive Action in Market Share Erosion and Industry Dethronement: A Study of Industry Leaders and Challengers

Market share erosion and dethronement of market leaders are examined through the lens of “Austrian” economics. Our results suggest that leaders are more likely to experience market share erosion and/or dethronement when—relative to industry challengers—they are less competitively aggressive, carry out simpler repertoires of actions, and carry out competitive actions more slowly. These findings, based on seven years of data collected in 41 industries, contribute to research on hypercompetition, organizational decline, and competitive dynamics.

Organizational Information Processing, Competitive Responses, and Performance in the U.S. Domestic Airline Industry

This study investigates how firms build competitive advantage by focusing on the actions and responses of rivals in the U.S. domestic airline industry. We identified four attributes of competitive ...

Environmental purchasing and firm performance: an empirical investigation

Much debate has occurred in the extant literature as to whether socially responsible actions undertaken by firms result in improved financial performance. One key dimension of social responsibility is environmental initiatives and programs. While the purchasing function can create value and significantly affect the environmental actions of a firm and its upstream supply chain, no research to date has explored the effect of environmental purchasing on firm performance. Our research provides an initial examination of this relationship. We combine survey and archival data to show that environmental purchasing is significantly related to both net income and cost of goods sold, after controlling for firm size, leverage, and primary earnings per share.

Adopting new technologies for supply chain management

Abstract Integration of supply chain activities and the technologies to accomplish it have become competitive necessities in most industries. Accordingly, the trend toward greater use of supply chain technologies is on a clear path forward. As one manager has noted: “With almost daily technology advancement globally in every facet of the business, organizations need to synchronize by adopting and implementing new electronic commerce and supply chain technology in order to protect market share, not to mention improve market penetration”. This paper develops a model of the key factors influencing the adoption of supply chain technology. The following set of variables were hypothesized to have a significant impact upon the pace of technology adoption: firm size, organizational structure, integration of supply chain strategy with overall corporate strategy, past financial performance, supply chain partner pressure, transaction climate and environmental uncertainty. The model provides a better understanding of the supply chain technology diffusion process. The paper also includes a survey, which has been developed to test the model.

Timing, order and durability of new product advantages with imitation

This research examined the effects of timing, order and the durability of first mover advantages by analyzing the stock market reactions to new product introductions and imitations. The major findings are that both timing and order of moves are important and that rival reactions undermine the durability of first mover advantages. More specifically, (1) early and fast movers achieve greater gains than late and slow movers, and (2) first movers suffer at the time of new product imitations. Copyright

Dynamics of competitive strategy

Preface The Beginning of a Research Agenda, 1984 A Communication-Information Theory of Competitive Interaction A Methodology for Studying Competitive Actions and Responses Firm Reputation and Rivalry Competitive Actions and Rivalry Responders and Rivalry Industry Environments and Rivalry Competitive Moves, Responses and Organizational Performance An Alternative Perspective on Rivalry Avoiding Wars with Competitors Summarizing and Integrating the Results

Founder characteristics, start-up process, and strategy/structure variables as predictors of shortline railroad performance

This study combined secondary public data and a survey of founders of 70 shortline railroads to examine correlates of shortline railroad performance. Among founder characteristics, general education level of the founder was positively related to goal attainment, while the number of business courses exhibited a curvilinear relationship. Goal attainment was positively related to three strategy/industry structure variables: the percentage of traffic originated locally, the size of the railroad, and the degree to which the firm focused on customer satisfaction. Supplementary analyses on the determinants of firm growth revealed some overlap with and some differences from these results. In general, the study indicates that models of new venture performance should include a comprehensive set of variables and consider the impact of alternative measures of performance.

STRATEGIC GROUPS AND RIVALROUS FIRM BEHAVIOR: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION

This research examines the question of whether rivalry is greater between or within strategic groups by utilizing more direct, dynamic and fine-grained measures of rivalry. Examining the competitive actions of firms in different strategic groups to determine if competitive responses were more likely to occur from firms in the same strategic group, or from firms in different strategic groups, the research found that competitive responses cannot be predicted by strategic group membership. Importantly, however, strategic group membership is a predictor of the manner by which firms compete with one another, or the frequency with which they undertake competitive actions, cut prices, instigate warfare and imitate rivals.

Decision making behavior in smaller entrepreneurial and larger professionally managed firms

Abstract The main findings in this study are that: • Entrepreneurs from smaller firms are less comprehensive in their decision behavior than professional managers from larger firms, with comprehensiveness defined as the degree to which an individual follows a formal rational decision process; • As decision comprehensiveness declines, so too does organizational performance, both among entrepreneurs and professional managers. The present study was based on the responses of 15 entrepreneurs from smaller firms averaging 25 employees and 13 CEOs and other top level corporate executives from larger, more professionally managed firms averaging 740 employees. The firms were randomly selected from a list of mid-Atlantic electronic manufacturing firms. Field interviews and questionnaires were employed, as well as a decision scenario involving a series of questions to which the entrepreneur or professional manager responded. After reviewing the literature on entrepreneurship, the researchers noted that most of it focused on developing profiles of entrepreneurs—for example, that they were high achievers, impatient and made decisions quickly. However, little—if any—research has focused on the behavior of entrepreneurs, particularly when compared to that of professional managers. Given this gap in the research, a field study was designed to compare the decision behavior of entrepreneurs and professional managers. It was expected that entrepreneurs would be less comprehensive than professional managers, but given previous research on comprehensiveness, it was difficult to predict the consequences of this less comprehensive model for performance. The researchers note in the discussion and conclusion that the results of the study have major implications for entrepreneurs and professional managers. Granted that decision comprehensiveness should be emphasized, they question the ability of entrepreneurs to change their decision behavior. It is argued that many of the drawbacks of comprehensiveness can be overcome by more sophisticated planning techniques and information processing systems. The paper concludes by stressing the need for research on techniques and ways to train entrepreneurs and managers to be more comprehensive. In summary, the present study has produced some important preliminary findings. It confirmed in larger scale studies, they could have major implications for the manner in which entrepreneurs and professional managers are trained and developed.

Firm Level Performance Implications of Nonmarket Actions

This article draws from theories of business-government relations and Austrian economics to develop a model relating firm performance to the firm’s market and nonmarket actions. Nonmarket actions represent one mechanism for the implementation of firm strategies. The model is tested using an original data set covering airlines serving international routes in the North Atlantic region. Results suggest that nonmarket actions have a positive and significant impact on performance, measured in three ways: profits, market share, and capacity utilization.