Hitoshi Mitsuhashi

From Plan to Plant: Effects of Certification on Operational Start-up in the Emergent Independent Power Sector

In this paper, we study the transition from planned venture to operational start-up in the emergent independent power sector. Planned ventures face tremendous obstacles in assembling the resources necessary to begin operations; we hypothesize and show that formal certification from authorized actors increases the likelihood of making this transition. Moreover, we find that the effects of certification are contingent on the legitimacy of the sector as a whole: Certifications have a stronger effect on start-ups when sector legitimacy is low than when it is high. This research helps us understand a rarely studied organizational transition---from entrepreneurial intention to actual operations---within nascent sectors. It directs attention to the legitimating effects of formal certification, highlights the importance of a multilevel approach to legitimacy, and contributes to the growing rapprochement between entrepreneurial studies and institutional theory.

The effect of human resource management practices on Japanese MNC subsidiary performance: a partial mediating model

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a bundle or system of human resource (HR) practices and firm performance and the processes through which these HR practices affect organizational outcomes. Using a sample of fifty-two Japanese multinational corporation subsidiaries operating in the United States and Russia, we examine the impact of HR systems on firm performance mediated by employee skills, attitudes and motivation in an attempt to shed light on the so-called ‘black box’ through which HR practices lead to firm performance. The results support the notion that employee skills, attitudes and behaviours play a mediating role between HR systems and firm outcomes in multinational corporations. These findings illustrate the varying impact of synergistic systems of HR practices and their generalizability in different national contexts.

Dispositional Resistance to Change: Measurement Equivalence and the Link to Personal Values Across 17 Nations

The concept of dispositional resistance to change has been introduced in a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses through which the validity of the Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale has been established (S. Oreg, 2003). However, the vast majority of participants with whom the scale was validated were from the United States. The purpose of the present work was to examine the meaningfulness of the construct and the validity of the scale across nations. Measurement equivalence analyses of data from 17 countries, representing 13 languages and 4 continents, confirmed the cross-national validity of the scale. Equivalent patterns of relationships between personal values and RTC across samples extend the nomological net of the construct and provide further evidence that dispositional resistance to change holds equivalent meanings across nations.

Power and Glory: Concentrated Power in Top Management Teams

Strategic change is one of the most critical decisions that organizations make. We focus on the role of groups at the upper echelon of hierarchies and propose that concentrated power either in the CEO or the top management team is prone to be exercised, leading to a high rate of strategic change. We derive hypotheses on how formal and informal power concentration in top management teams have an effect on changes in corporate diversification. The findings suggest that power concentration strongly affects decision making.

Dynamics of Unclosed Triangles in Alliance Networks: Disappearance of Brokerage Positions and Performance Consequences

We depart from previous research on brokerage advantages in interorganizational networks by shifting focus to the dynamics of brokerage positions. We investigate causes of the disappearance of these positions and its influence on organizational performance. Using a subnetwork consisting of a broker and its two partners as the unit of analysis, we postulate that the brokerage position disappears either when the two partners develop ties or when the ties between the broker and the partners dissolve. We predict that the patterns of interactions in which this subnetwork is embedded exert multilevel influences on the disappearance, and that embedded structures promoting persistence constrain brokerage advantages. Our analysis of codeshare alliance data in the global airline industry supports the theory and demonstrates that the persistence of brokerage positions decreases broker performance. The findings explain why brokerage positions rarely persist and why the persistence of brokerage positions does not benefit brokers.

Effects of the Social Origins of Alliances on Alliance Performance

This research responds to the charges of two criticisms about the embeddedness approach—(1) that it does not treat embeddedness as a variable and (2) that it does not explain economic performance—by investigating how variations in the social origins of alliances account for alliance performance. The hypotheses of this research state that the strength of ties between individuals who initiate alliance formation processes is positively related to alliance performance, because such ties eliminate the uncertainty that firms face when forming alliances, reduce the likelihood of partners’ malfeasance, and facilitate information exchange for sharing tacit knowledge. However, analysis of the mail survey data on biopharmaceutical R&D alliances indicates that such a simple association does not exist. Rather, one possible interpretation of the findings is that the activation of strong ties in forming alliances seems to be a double-edged sword that not only creates an opportunity for building successful alliances but also restricts the ability of organizations to acquire heterogeneous information and cutting-edge knowledge.

Powerful and Free: Intraorganizational Power and the Dynamics of Corporate Strategy

The questions of how shifts occur between inertia and change and why only some organizations make strategic changes have received significant attention from scholars in strategy and organization theory. Here the horizontal and vertical dimensions of organizational power structures’ influence on the dynamics of corporate strategy are examined.The horizontal dimension of institutionalization of subunit power causes inertia, while the vertical dimension of power differences in the top management team causes strategic change. These effects hold for the simple magnitude of strategic changes, changes that break organizational momentum and changes following performance decline. Analysis of changes in the diversification of Japanese shipbuilding and robotics firms supports the theory.

Look at me: Overt status-seeking behavior and competitive emergence among securities analysts

Abstract Using data from securities analysts, who are awarded status by the third-party organization Institutional Investor magazine, we examine the emergence of competition and articulate a model of competitive response among actors aware of the importance of status and some of the dimensions on which it may be gained. We predict analysts’ initiating or ceasing coverage of stocks in response to other analysts initiating coverage on stocks they cover. We find that competition can emerge because of status seeking rather than as a response to own capabilities or market needs, with compelling, and potentially negative, market implications for overt status seeking.

Academic Spin-offs in Japan: Institutional Revolution and Early Outcomes

Japan has faced two major challenges during the past fifteen years. The first challenge has been to find new sources of competitive advantage, replacing its traditional strength in high-quality, low-cost production systems. Several of the existing manufacturing industries have established a dominant presence in global competitive markets, making a major contribution to the prosperity of Japan’s economy with great strength in low inventory cost and low defect rates. Representative examples of such industries include shipbuilding, automobile assembly, home electric appliances, and audiovisual devices. However, since the late 1980s, these industries have received severe competitive pressures from East Asia and particularly China, with the improved quality of low-cost manpower in labour-intensive industries. The emergence of this new economic order poses an urgent and crucial concern for Japanese society to find new additional sources of competitive advantage.

An Unexpected Windfall? State-level Network Efficiency and Firms' Competitive Advantage

Previous research has examined the effects of state-level dyadic social capital on firm behavior. The present study theorizes the effects of state-level network on firm asset procurement behavior and offers a comprehensive view of contingencies, proposing that the value of state-level networks differs depending on organizational attention to the external environment and foreign experience, as well as the political institutions of different states. Analysis of the global mining industry supports these hypotheses. This study theorizes that firm behavior is embedded not only in a firms network structure but also in the broader social structure. By applying the trade network as a state-level network variable, this paper provides an interface that bridges the literature on political science and organizational management.