Grant Miles

Explaining the international intensity and global diversity of early-stage technology-based firms

Abstract Early-stage technology-based firms are confronted with the complexity of foreign markets and global competition from their earliest stages of development. Not only must technology entrepreneurs keep pace with ever-changing technology-based product offerings, but they must also simultaneously stay abreast of competitors and industry trends in multiple countries. We surveyed 75 small technology-based firms in Ontario to evaluate their international activities and try to explain both the intensity of their foreign sales (the percent of total sales coming from foreign sources), as well as the global diversity of the markets in which they operate (the number of major regional areas from which they derive revenue). Our findings suggest that resources necessary to pursue international sales have an important impact on both foreign market intensity and diversity. In contrast, however, attitudes towards foreign markets helped to explain international intensity but not global diversity. Additionally, firm age was positively associated with global diversity but not international intensity. These findings support the notion of small technology firms being “instant internationals” but suggest that proceeding to the next step—achieving global diversity— requires significantly greater time and resources. In line with prior empirical research, these firms tended to increase their international intensity and diversity as they became larger. In contrast with what the literature suggests, however, firms utilizing strategic alliances were no more active internationally than those not using strategic alliances. Finally, government assistance helped to explain the international intensity of these firms, but not the global diversity. These results help managers, researchers and shapers of public policy better understand the international activities of early-stage technology firms. Given the relationship between attitudes and international intensity, there appears to be some opportunity associated with trying to influence the attitudes of CEOs regarding initial expansion into international markets. For firms to become globally diverse, however, there is a greater dependency on the availability of resources as well as accumulated business experience. Managers should recognize the pattern this suggests and perhaps be leery of becoming too globally diverse too quickly. Overall, the relationship between size and foreign activities suggests that growth opportunities are linked to international markets. Although some broad relationships are suggested regarding the need for collaboration and government support, further research is necessary to understand the use of strategic alliances as well as government assistance in both international market intensity and global diversity.

Innovation speed and radicalness: are they inversely related?

Purpose – The objective in this study is to examine the relationship between innovation speed, and radical product and process innovations.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of firms in the high‐tech (semiconductor, audio video equipment and computer hardware) industries was conducted. Hypotheses were tested using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.Findings – The results revealed a significant positive relationship between innovation speed and both radical product and radical process innovations. Radical product and process innovations were highly correlated in the sample.Research limitations/implications – Response rate was relatively low to the survey, however, control variables were included to ensure accuracy of results. This study empirically tested inter‐innovation relationships within the high‐tech industry.Practical implications – Findings suggest that firms should not avoid radical innovations with the fear of being late to market. In addition, based on these results, product and pro...

Some Conceptual and Research Barriers to the Utilization of Knowledge

Whether in high-tech, service, or traditional industries, the role of knowledge as a primary driver of development is being increasingly recognized. It is not clear, however, whether managerial approaches based on mindsets rooted in past practice are appropriate for, or capable of, fully realizing the potential value of knowledge within the firm and/or industry. At least three related issues stand in the way of full knowledge utilization: conceptualization and measurement of knowledge capital as a primary organizational asset, the integration of knowledge capital into the strategic management process, and the development of organizational forms and processes that facilitate the use and development of knowledge. While leading-edge firms are already wrestling with these issues, advances in theory and research are needed to help develop appropriate responses and provide frameworks that will help spread these new approaches. In doing so, advances may also be made that allow for the recognition of the central role of collaboration in the knowledge process.

The I-Form Organization

Every generation of managers experiments with new organizational forms – new business models and the organizational structures and management processes required to support them. Much of the current experimentation with business and organizational models is occurring in knowledge-intensive industries such as biotechnology, computers, telecommunications, and medical and scientific equipment. Based on our ongoing research, the principal business model that we see emerging in these and similar industries can be called market exploration. Market exploration is a firm’s pursuit of opportunities created by intersecting technologies and markets. The market exploration process is complex, involving technology development, product development and commercialization in collaboration with customers and other firms, and the orderly development of markets which have large but unknown potential. Firms that want to be effective at market exploration must organize specifically for innovation – they must be able to build and manage an I-form organization. In this article, we show how many firms are moving towards and improving the I-form organization, and we discuss its purpose, key features, and benefits.

Does Type of Team Matter? An Investigation of the Relationships Between Job Characteristics and Outcomes Within a Team-Based Environment.

The authors examined the relationship between team type (consultative or substantive); job characteristics; and the outcome variables of job satisfaction, satisfaction with team processes and activities, and team commitment. The present results supported the hypothesis that job characteristics mediate the relationship between team type and team commitment and partially mediate the relationship between team type and job satisfaction and satisfaction with team processes and activities. However, contrary to the hypothesis, consultative team members perceived the content of their jobs to be more enriched and reported higher levels of satisfaction and commitment than did substantive team members.

Linking servicescape to customer satisfaction: exploring the role of competitive strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between firm service characteristics and customer satisfaction as moderated by firm competitive strategy. Specifically, this research utilizes Porters depiction of generic competitive strategy to explain the strength of the relationship between a services particular servicescape choices and customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data for this research were obtained from 1,287 customers of ten service organizations representing three industry segments. Multiple regression analysis is utilized to test three hypotheses that propose firm competitive strategy moderates the strength of the relationship between service characteristics and customer satisfaction.Findings – The results support the assertion that firm competitive strategy has an impact on the strength of the relationship between customer satisfaction and servicescape characteristics. Of note, these findings indicate that the payoff for investment in physi...

Corporate social responsibility and executive compensation: exploring the link

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether socially responsible firms recognize the potential conflicts that come with higher levels of executive compensation, and thus limit executive pay relative to what is being paid in other firms. In the process, the relationships between executive compensation and financial performance, and corporate social performance and financial performance are examined to determine whether potential compensation and social performance links are coming at the expense of company financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data for this research were obtained from a stratified sample of Fortune 1000 companies pulled from across more than 15 industries. Multiple regression analysis is utilized to test three hypotheses.Findings – In line with the hypotheses, results indicate that companies identified as good corporate social performers do in fact have lower levels of executive compensation and there is some support found for a positive relationsh...

Trust, learning and a firm's involvement in industrial clusters: a conceptual framework

Purpose – The research of industrial clusters, trust, and learning can be traced back to early strategic management and organization theory. The purpose of this paper is to review past literature and offer a conceptual framework that is related to industrial clusters, trust and learning.Design/methodology/approach – This study incorporates a literature review to filter key factors of industrial clusters, trust and learning by using a deductive approach to conclude a conceptual framework.Findings – This study provides a conceptual framework which includes a firms industrial cluster involvement, trust and learning. Based on the literature, inter‐organizational trust may be strengthened due to reduced proximity and better information flow within a cluster. Further, industrial clusters encourage co‐evolution and co‐adaptation that stimulates effective learning practices for clustering firms.Research limitations/implications – This study uses a literature review and offers a conceptual framework to examine a ...

The ideology of innovation

Undaunted by over a decade of scholarly criticism (e.g. Bebchuk and Fried, 2005; Ghoshal and Moran, 1996), senior American executives have stood firm on their moral beliefs about the free-enterprise system – beliefs that justify extravagant increases in executive compensation despite declining firm competitiveness, and the preservation of corporate profits through outsourcing to low-wage countries, layoffs and reductions in benefits for American workers. Of course, moral positions are built to withstand rational critiques. The current moral foundation was laid in the 1980s when President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher successfully wrapped the US and British economies in a cloak of righteousness as part of their efforts to bring down what was often referred to as the ‘godless’ Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its allies. Given the power of moral beliefs, and the fact that managers’ values reflect broader societal values – a linkage examined in depth in the 1950s and 1960s (Bendix, 1956; Parsons, 1959; Sutton et al., 1956; Weber, 2001; Weber and Parsons, 1968) but mostly ignored in the management literature today – we believe that any attempt to substantially reorient US firms must consider the moral underpinnings of the policies that guide them. A focus on business practices and the managerial values and beliefs underlying them is particularly important, we suggest, because the USA and other advanced countries compete primarily on the basis of knowledge-driven innovation and entrepreneurship (Baumol, 2002; Baumol et al., 2007). Knowledge is shared most freely in organizational settings where trust is anticipated and consistently maintained. Trust, in turn, is created and sustained when equitable treatment is valued and pursued by both the leaders and members of firms. In such settings, the excitement and pleasure of creating value through collaborative innovation is reinforced over time by the equitable sharing of rewards (Miles et al., 2005). It is our contention that the managerial values essential to the creation of conditions such as these have been eroding in the US marketplace for more than two-and-a-half decades, a decline that threatens to weaken the ability of US firms to compete through continuous product and service innovation. Indeed, the relative US position on key indicators of social and economic health has noticeably declined, a phenomenon that began in the midto late 1970s. While the disparity between executive and hourly employee wages is the most dramatic difference between US firms and their international competitors, STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION Vol 5(4): 423–435 DOI: 10.1177/1476127007083350 Copyright ©2007 Sage Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) http://so.sagepub.com

The Configurational Approach to Organization Design: Four Recommended Initiatives

The overall objective of this chapter is to reinvigorate interest in the configurational approach to organization design. Configurational analysis developed in promising ways in the 1970s and 1980s and then stalled. We believe, however, that the configurational approach can be improved such that it will serve the interests of scholars, managers, and organizational designers alike. We discuss four research initiatives that can be combined to produce a theoretically and practically useful approach: (1) adding the configurational elements of organizational capabilities and management philosophy; (2) incorporating into theory development a mechanism for anticipating future organizational forms and helping managers to consider those forms; (3) developing valid quantitative measures of capabilities and other intangible assets; and (4) improving the model of change that underlies the redesign process.