Kamel Mellahi

An Exploratory Study into Failure in Successful Organizations: The Case of Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer (M&S) was one of the world’s great retailers, enjoying legendary and iconic status, being often held up as one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world. Its ‘fall from grace’ has been spectacular and dramatic and the company is currently fighting for its life. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with company managers and utilizing a case-study approach, this paper provides an exploratory study into failure at M&S and presents this in the context of the wider literature on organizational and managerial failure. It concludes that whilst external factors in the various trading environments affected the business, there were internal aspects of the crisis which exacerbated the situation and the problems.

Does it pay to be a first mover in e.commerce? The case of Amazon.com

Using Amazon.com as a case study, the present research explores first mover (dis)advantages in e.commerce. It examines whether or not Amzon.com has sustained early mover advantages. What are these advantages? And how has Amazon.com reacted to late movers? Evidence generated from the case study suggests that the maintainability of first mover advantages in e.commerce depends on three main factors: continuous innovation, speed of implementation and patenting.

Differences and similarities in future managerial values: a five cultures comparative study

Highlights the opinion that the importance of national culture in cross‐cultural management is diminishing, suggesting that the world is moving towards a single, global management culture that is basically Western and, more specifically, American. Attempts to test this hypothesis by examining values held by future managers from five different cultures. Uses the Kruskal‐Wallis One Way ANOVA and the Mann‐Whitney tests to show that future managers from different cultural backgrounds will neigher adopt a mirror image of current management style in their cultures nor a global unified management style regardless of local culture.

Shutting up shop: understanding the international exit process in retailing

Internationalisation is a much-studied phenomenon. Exit from international markets has been less analysed. Where it has been studied, most work has been on motives and causes, with relatively little on processes. This article explores the process of international exit in a retail context. It examines the run-up to, announcement of and fall-out from the decision by Marks and Spencer (one of Britains leading retailers) to close its French stores. The article concludes that understanding the process of market exit is at least as important both for theoretical and practical reasons as understanding the decision to exit or divest. Further research needs to be undertaken on market exit and the processes involved, in order to contribute further to the theory and practice of internationalisation.

From Kinship to Trust Changing Recruitment Practices in Unstable Political Contexts

Research on recruitment has neglected the possible influence of political instability and civil wars. This article seeks to redress this gap, by providing insights into recruitment and selection criteria in African countries during a time of political instability, based on the case of Algeria. The research focuses on how small businesses in highly unstable political environments vet candidates, the recruitment channels they use, and the type of criteria small businesses use during the recruitment process. Through interviews with 14 managers of small and medium sized enterprises, data were collected on recruitment and selection criteria of 144 employees. It was found that a tradition of basing recruitment on extended family networks has mutated into narrower and more confining networks based on trust.

Maintaining Corporate Dominance after Decolonization: the 'First Mover Advantage' of Shell-BP in Nigeria

Nigerias oil industry came into being during colonial rule. Preferential treatment by British colonial authorities had given a British oil company — Shell — a virtual monopoly over oil exploration in the country and Shell has remained the dominant oil company in Nigeria. While there is substantial evidence to suggest that Shell‐BP established its dominant position in Nigeria with the support of British colonial officials, it was by no means clear that Shell would be able to maintain this advantageous position. Indeed, the historical record shows that both the Nigerian government and a number of competitors posed a potential threat to Shells dominant position. The purpose of this article is to answer the question why Shell was able to maintain a position of dominance in Nigeria. It examines Nigerias diversification and nationalisation policies from the late 1950s to‐date with the view of identifying the factors which allowed Shell to maintain its position vis‐à‐vis potential competitors. This investigation is based on the analysis of secondary sources as well as documents from the Public Record Office (PRO) in London and the BP Archive. In order to explain Shells dominance in Nigeria, the article proposes to utilise the concept of a ‘first mover advantage’. On the most basic level, this concept suggests that pioneering firms are able to obtain positive economic profits as the consequence of early market entry, that means, profits in excess of the cost of capital. The article concludes that a micro‐theoretical analysis based on the idea of a ‘first mover advantage’, which explores the position of individual corporate entities within a political economy framework, provides a superior explanation of Shells dominance in Nigeria as compared to conventional macro‐theoretical structuralist approaches.

Human resource development through vocational education in Gulf Cooperation Countries: the case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract After a third of a century of extensive investment in vocational education in less developed countries, return on investment has been disappointing and the future of vocational education seems uncertain. Yet, in Gulf Cooperation Countries, vocational education is emerging as the cornerstone of the national human resource development strategy. This article examines the key factors inhibiting the effectiveness of vocational education in Saudi Arabia and takes colleges of technology as a case study. Evidence generated from the research leads to the conclusion that social values and labour market distortion are the main impediments which could severely hamper Saudi Arabias human resource development strategy.

ROVER-BMW: from shotgun marriage to quickie divorce

This paper discusses the reasons why the German luxury car maker BMW purchased the ailing British volume car producer Rover/Land Rover and why it disposed of both after only six years. This merger went against the trend in the industry as normally it was volume producers that acquired luxury brands, but being vulnerable to potential predators, BMW sought size. The paper demonstrates how BMW failed to turn its UK protege round to the extent that Rovers downwards spiral was thought to threaten BMWs own long-term viability. The end result was that, under severe pressure from BMWs main directors, the company sold off its British subsidiaries with Rover being sold to Phoenix and Land Rover to Ford.