Francesca Vicentini

Institutional Approach to Strategic Management

The idea of an institution-based view (IBV) as a third perspective in strategic analysis (the first two being the industry-based and resource-based views) has been recently addressed by several strategy scholars. Institutions are both the medium for and the result of social action: they enable and constrain what firms and other agents wish to accomplish “directly determining what arrows a firm has in its quiver as it struggles to formulate and implement strategy and to create a competitive advantage” (Ingram and Silverman [“Introduction: The new institutionalism in strategic management.” Emerald, Bingley, 20, 2002]). This serves to underline that given the influence of institutions on firm behavior, any strategic choice is inherently affected by the formal and informal constraints of a given institutional framework. Our contribution focuses on a review of the role of institutions in strategic analysis drawing from literature on institutionalism and on the recently developed stream of the institution-based view.

Innovation, Internationalization, and ICTs: Mediation Effects of Technology on Firms Processes of Growth

As innovation and internationalization have increasingly gained importance as core strategies in the processes of growth of firms, it becomes also relevant in the managerial studies related to ICT and to information systems to understand whether such technologies may influence the outcome of these strategic paths. This study focuses on the relevance of ICT adoption in fostering knowledge accumulation, with specific respect to international markets and innovation efforts of firms, and thus in influencing the growth of the international firms.

Experience as a source of knowledge in divestiture decisions: emerging issues and knowledge management implications

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the idea that experience acts as an antecedent in divestiture and triggers an organisational learning process that enables the divesting firm to convert experience into knowledge, increasing the probability that a firm will undertake subsequent divestitures. Design/methodology/approach The approach is quantitative. The research project used a case–control design, with a sample consisting of 274 divesting and non-divesting firms. Given the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable, the relations of the research model are tested using logistic regression. Findings The likelihood of a divestiture increases when firms have already had past experience of divestitures. Firm performance and firm size act as moderating variables, that is, the learning effects are weaker in firms with better past performance and also in larger firms. Research limitations/implications The study contributes to the literature on organisational learning and divestiture. In particular, the knowledge obtained from previous divestitures is positively related to subsequent ones. The results on firm size and performance as contingency factors make it possible to distinguish between the different learning mechanisms in proactive and reactive divestitures, as well as in larger and smaller firms. Accordingly, a two-level framework of experience and knowledge is proposed. Practical implications The results are of interest for practitioners who need a better understanding of the antecedents of their strategic actions in terms of past experience and knowledge. The study also offers insights into the knowledge management practices that fit into the proposed two-level framework of knowledge accumulation. Originality/value The originality of the study consists in the strong evidence of learning effects in divestitures that it finds. This study augments a promising line of research on the effect of experience in rare strategic decisions, enriching our understanding of the learning mechanisms associated with complex experiences.

Team and Time Within Project-Based Organizations: Insights from Creative Industries

By taking together time and team as key themes to analyze project-based organizations, this chapter attempts to shed more light on the diversity literature by focusing on the role of past work experience diversity since experience plays a pivotal role in models of work performance and behavior.Specifically, within this chapter, authors investigate the importance of work experience diversity in two project-based creative contexts: music and TV drama series productions.

Dynamic Capabilities for Open Innovation: The Role of Customer Mindset in Launching an Internet TV

This paper aims at revealing the influence of dynamic capabilities on open innovation in the context of TV broadcasters and at disclosing the importance of customer mindset, when launching an Internet TV project. Accordingly, the paper proposes a theoretical framework which links customer’s mindset in industries to dynamic capabilities for open innovation in the case of launching an Internet TV. The data has been collected from Lithuanian TV broadcasting industry. The results elaborated with Maxqda software imply that the launch of an Internet TV is not only the output of classic external and internal drivers, called company’s dynamic capabilities, but is also the result of customers’ mindset in sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring activities.

Impact of enterprise mobile system implementation on organizational ambidexterity mediated through BPM customizability

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how organizational workers improve their perceived mobile user experience (UX) locus of control affected through organizational ambidexterity when using enterprise mobile systems (EMS). This study investigates the mediation role of business process customizability in the relationship between habitual use of EMS by individuals and organizational ambidexterity. Design/methodology/approach Over 150 possible respondent mobile phone users across 40 organizations in metropolitan National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi with approximately were given the questionnaire. The data of a total of 121 NCR valid respondents aged between 22 and 49, after scrutinizing all collected questionnaires and removing those that had too many missing values or had the same answer to all questions, were used for analysis. The respondents were sampled from a research panel directory of a set of firms of the research firm hired for this survey. Findings The study finds complete mediation between the habitual use of EMS and organizational ambidexterity. Importantly, the empirical findings provide the research community with a deeper understanding of how EMS usage impacts organizational ambidexterity and individual’s UX locus of control. Originality/value It draws some newer areas of research with respect to interactions between enterprise mobile systems, business process customization due to enterprise mobile systems and organizational ambidexterity, which were hitherto unexplored.

Building Organizational Insight: Strategy and Organization

In this chapter we focus on the organizational insight as a pivotal element in understanding the processes required to realize and achieve interrelationships among businesses. We devote particular attention to the element of synergy creation, horizontal strategy, and organizational coordination mechanisms. We do so, because at the corporate level, the development, or expansion, toward new businesses recalls the need for an organizational adaptation. Following Porter (“Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance,” Free Press, New York, 1985), among the possible sources of competitive advantage, lies the potential to develop interrelationships because of the different businesses or products that exist in the organization. Organizations shall therefore aim at developing interrelationships in order to allow the firm to avail of synergies, focusing on horizontal strategies to develop and maintain a competitive advantage. The organizational context—in terms of design, culture, and behavior—can motivate the organization to pursue interrelationships beyond other mere combinations of businesses, as synergies can produce a combined return on resources that is greater than the sum of individual parts.