Joseph Lampel

The Role of Status Seeking in Online Communities: Giving the Gift of Experience

This article examines online gift giving in the form of opinion, information, and advice that individuals post on websites. Research has highlighted altruism and reciprocity as the key motives behind such gift giving. We argue that informational gift giving is also strongly driven by status and status seeking, and that status sentiments are more likely to sustain virtual communities. Using theories of status seeking and self-presentation, we investigate the ways in which consumers construct status in online consumer communities. The data reveal insights into the strategies behind constructing a digital status and the rise of online systems to promote celebrity status within online communities.

Beyond the life cycle: organizational and technological design. I. an alternative perspective

The lift cycle model has become part of the everyday vocabulary of management and is used as a rough simplification of rather complex phenomena. Chris DeBresson and Joseph Lampel have undertaken a thorough re-examination of the underlying assumptions of the model and propose a reformulation that they believe gives a better approximation of the dynamics of technological and organizational change. The basis for their reformulation is a survey of 4000 British and Canadian innovations in many industries over some 30 years.

Experiencing the Improbable: Rare Events and Organizational Learning

Organizations that go through rare and unusual events, whether they are costly or beneficial, face the challenge of interpreting and learning from these experiences. Although research suggests that organizations respond to this challenge in a variety of ways, we lack a framework for comparing and analyzing how organizational learning is affected by rare events. This paper develops such a framework. We begin by first outlining two views of rare events. The first view defines rare events as probability estimates, usually calculated from the frequency of the event. The second view defines rare events as opportunities for unique sensemaking based on the enacted salience of specific features of the rare events. We next use these definitions to explore how rare events trigger learning, and then examine the kind of learning processes that are triggered by rare events. We conclude with a discussion of promising areas of research on learning from rare events.

The Core Competencies of Effective Project Execution: The Challenge of Diversity

The successful planning and execution of large projects relies on the flexibility of engineering-construction-procurement (EPC) firms. It is argued that the effective management of this flexibility depends on the acquisition and development of a set of core competencies. Field and archival research in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Malaysia, and Japan, are used to modify and extend current core competency theory to the execution of large projects. The research discloses four distinct groups of core competencies: entrepreneurial, technical, evaluative, and relational. These core competencies support core project processes that structure activities and routines involved in project development and delivery. We describe each core competency, and we examine how they impact core processes and through them project performance. We argue that the strategy of EPC firms evolves under the pressure of two opposing forces. Firms experience pressure to seek project opportunities in diverse areas and regions with a view to creating a robust project portfolio, and they experience pressure to remain close to their core competencies in order to minimize costs and maximize the probability of gaining individual contracts. Three types of strategies develop in response to these opposing pressures: focusing strategy which is competency driven; switching strategy which is opportunity driven; and combining strategy which attempts to strike a balance between the two imperatives.

Critical Push: Strategies for Creating Momentum in the Motion Picture Industry

In a growing number of industries, higher rates of new product introduction leave firms with a short window of opportunity during which they must overcome obstacles to market acceptance. We argue that relatively autonomous information providing institutions that have primarily emerged to alleviate consumer uncertainty may also end up assisting firms in generating momentum for their new products. We examine the linkage between these institutions and strategy in the motion picture industry, showing that studios incorporate the anticipated response of critics into their pre-production, production, and post-production decisions.

Probing the Unobtrusive Link: Dominant Logic and the Design of Joint Ventures at General Electric

Prahalad and Bettis (1986) have proposed that the successful management of highly diversified firms can be attributed to the concept of a corporate “dominant logic” that guides all of its business units. We argue that dominant logic addresses the problem of balancing the needs of business units against those of the corporation as a whole. We also suggest that the presence of a clear and consistent dominant logic must lead to a high degree of consistency in the strategic moves that are undertaken by each of the business units within the diversified firm. Based on a study of the joint ventures initiated by General Electric between 1984 and 1993, we show that the design of these ventures follows a pattern that is consistent with the presence and influence of dominant logic. Finally, we demonstrate that the early failure of joint ventures can generally be linked to a shift away from this dominant logic.

The business of culture : strategic perspectives on entertainment and media

Contents: A.P. Brief, J.P. Walsh, Foreword. Preface. Introduction. J. Lampel, J. Shamsie, T.K. Lant, Toward a Deeper Understanding of Cultural Industries. W.R. Scott, Observations on Research on Cultural Industries. Part I: The Process of Value Creation. J. Keyton, f.l. smith, Conflicts Over Creative Control: Power Struggle on Prime Time Television. J. Lampel, The Genius Behind the System: The Emergence of the Central Producer System in the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. M.A. Glynn, Maestro or Manager?: Examining the Role of the Music Director in a Symphony Orchestra. Part II: The Challenge of Positioning. M.A. Schilling, Game Not Over: Competitive Dynamics in the Video Game Industry. A.B. Eisner, Q.R. Jett, H.J. Korn, Playing to Their Strengths: Strategies of Incumbent and Start-Up Firms in Web-Based Periodicals. J. Shamsie, D. Miller, W. Greene, A Question of Timing: Strategies for Scheduling Television Shows. Part III: The Nature of Markets. N. Anand, Charting the Music Business: Billboard Magazine and the Development of the Commercial Music Field. J.A. Ahlkvist, R. Faulkner, Are They Playing Our Song? Programming Strategies on Commercial Music Radio. J. Shamsie, Skating on Thin Ice: Confronting Knowledge Ambiguity in the U.S. Motion Picture Industry. Part IV: The Role of Technology. C. Jones, From Technology to Content: The Shift in Dominant Logic in the Early American Film Industry. T. Dowd, From 78s to MP3s: The Embedded Impact of Technology in the Market for Prerecorded Music. T.K. Lant, P.F. Hewlin, Silicon Alley.com: Struggling for Legitimacy in New Media. Part V: The Impact of Globalization. J. Lampel, B. Honig, Let the Children Play: Muppets in the Middle of the Middle East. W.L. Guild, M.L. Joyce, Surviving in the Shadow of Hollywood: A Study of the Australian Film Industry. J. Lampel, J. Shamsie, Uncertain Globalization: Evolutionary Scenarios for the Future Development of Cultural Industries. Conclusions. J. Lampel, J. Shamsie, T.K. Lant, Untangling the Complexities of Cultural Industries: Directions for Future Research. W.R. Scott, Promising and Neglected Types of Studies on Cultural Industries.

Organizational Ingenuity: Concept, Processes and Strategies

In this introduction to the special issue we explore the main features of ‘organizational ingenuity’, defined as ‘the ability to create innovative solutions within structural constraints using limited resources and imaginative problem solving’. We begin by looking at the changing views of the importance of ingenuity for economic and social development. We next analyse the nature of ingenious solutions. This is followed by a discussion of structural, resource and temporal constraints that face problem solvers. We next turn our attention to creative problem solving under constraints. We contrast ‘induced’ and ‘autonomous’ problem solving. The first arises when external stakeholders or top managers impose tasks that define problems for the individuals and groups that must solve them; the second arises when these individuals and groups recognize and define the problems for themselves. We argue that in both induced and autonomous problem solving, individuals and groups that wish to act creatively confront two types of constraint. The first are ‘product constraints’ that define the features and functionalities that are necessary for a successful solution. The second are ‘process constraints’ that stand in the way of creative problem solving in a given organizational context. We argue that both types of constraints can lead to organizational ingenuity, but that dealing with process constraints is crucial for organizational ingenuity, and hence for sustaining organizational ingenuity more generally. We provide an overview summary of the articles in the special issue, and conclude with suggestions for future research.

Keeping Both Eyes on the Competition: Strategic Adjustment to Multiple Targets in the UK Mobile Phone Industry

Research suggests that firms avoid excessive differentiation or conformity by using industry competitors as reference targets in a process that Snow and Hambrick call ‘strategic adjustment’. To date explanations of strategic adjustment have focused on the influence of one of two sources: (1) firms base targets on the collective strategic decisions of other firms in the industry; and (2) firms base targets on the strategic decisions of the market leader. This article explores how both these sources influence strategic adjustment by looking at the product portfolio strategies of firms in industries where competitive positions depend on periodically launching models with multiple features and functionalities. The authors develop hypotheses on when firms use targets based on collective industry product decisions and/or the market leader product decisions. These hypotheses are tested using data on 570 mobile phone models launched in the UK by 14 firms from 1997 to 2008.

Toward a deeper understanding of cultural industries

Contents: A.P. Brief, J.P. Walsh, Foreword. Preface. Introduction. J. Lampel, J. Shamsie, T.K. Lant, Toward a Deeper Understanding of Cultural Industries. W.R. Scott, Observations on Research on Cultural Industries. Part I: The Process of Value Creation. J. Keyton, f.l. smith, Conflicts Over Creative Control: Power Struggle on Prime Time Television. J. Lampel, The Genius Behind the System: The Emergence of the Central Producer System in the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. M.A. Glynn, Maestro or Manager?: Examining the Role of the Music Director in a Symphony Orchestra. Part II: The Challenge of Positioning. M.A. Schilling, Game Not Over: Competitive Dynamics in the Video Game Industry. A.B. Eisner, Q.R. Jett, H.J. Korn, Playing to Their Strengths: Strategies of Incumbent and Start-Up Firms in Web-Based Periodicals. J. Shamsie, D. Miller, W. Greene, A Question of Timing: Strategies for Scheduling Television Shows. Part III: The Nature of Markets. N. Anand, Charting the Music Business: Billboard Magazine and the Development of the Commercial Music Field. J.A. Ahlkvist, R. Faulkner, Are They Playing Our Song? Programming Strategies on Commercial Music Radio. J. Shamsie, Skating on Thin Ice: Confronting Knowledge Ambiguity in the U.S. Motion Picture Industry. Part IV: The Role of Technology. C. Jones, From Technology to Content: The Shift in Dominant Logic in the Early American Film Industry. T. Dowd, From 78s to MP3s: The Embedded Impact of Technology in the Market for Prerecorded Music. T.K. Lant, P.F. Hewlin, Silicon Alley.com: Struggling for Legitimacy in New Media. Part V: The Impact of Globalization. J. Lampel, B. Honig, Let the Children Play: Muppets in the Middle of the Middle East. W.L. Guild, M.L. Joyce, Surviving in the Shadow of Hollywood: A Study of the Australian Film Industry. J. Lampel, J. Shamsie, Uncertain Globalization: Evolutionary Scenarios for the Future Development of Cultural Industries. Conclusions. J. Lampel, J. Shamsie, T.K. Lant, Untangling the Complexities of Cultural Industries: Directions for Future Research. W.R. Scott, Promising and Neglected Types of Studies on Cultural Industries.