Ken G. Smith

The Interplay Between Exploration and Exploitation

Exploration and exploitation have emerged as the twin concepts underpinning organizational adaptation research, yet some central issues related to them remain ambiguous. We address four related que...

A Multidimensional Model of Venture Growth

An integrated model of venture growth isdeveloped based on management theory, organizational behavior theory,organization theory, and entrepreneurship models. The model is tested by gathering responses from 307 companies from the architectural wood working industry. Five research domains are identified as antecedents to venture performance: personality traits and general motives, personal competencies, situationally specific motivation, competitive strategies, and the business environment. Goals of the research are: (1) to test whether a multi-level model that sampled relevant concepts from individual, organizational, and environmental domains would predict firm performance successfully; (2) to test whether each domainwould contribute something to the prediction, and (3) to explore alternativeforms of the relationship among the domains and performance. Findings indicate that individual, organizational, and environmental research domains predict venture growth better when the connection of complex indirect relationships among them is included than when only multiple simultaneous direct effects are studied. In addition, it is found that all the domains enter into the prediction of venture growth when these total effects are considered, indicating that venture growth cannot be adequately explained from a single perspective. (JSD)

Top management team diversity, group process, and strategic consensus

This study integrated concepts from upper echelons, group process and social cognition theories to investigate how demographic diversity and group processes influence strategic consensus within the top management team (TMT), where strategic consensus is defined as the degree to which individual mental models of strategy overlap. Data from 76 high-technology firms in the United States and Ireland were used to examine three alternative models. The results showed that while demographic diversity alone did have effects on strategic consensus the overall fit of the model was not strong. Adding two intervening group process variables, interpersonal conflict and agreement-seeking, to the model greatly improved the overall relationship with strategic consensus. For the most part, TMT diversity had negative effects on strategic consensus. The model with superior fit showed both direct and indirect effects of diversity on strategic consensus. Copyright

The Paradox of Success: An Archival and a Laboratory Study of Strategic Persistence Following Radical Environmental Change

An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory study revealed that greater past success led to greater strategic persistence after a radical environmental change, and such persistence induced performance declines. The laboratory study also demonstrated that dysfunctional persistence is due to greater satisfaction with past performance, more confidence in the correctness of current strategies, higher goals and self-efficacy, and less seeking of information ixom critics.

The Role of Competitive Action in Market Share Erosion and Industry Dethronement: A Study of Industry Leaders and Challengers

Market share erosion and dethronement of market leaders are examined through the lens of “Austrian” economics. Our results suggest that leaders are more likely to experience market share erosion and/or dethronement when—relative to industry challengers—they are less competitively aggressive, carry out simpler repertoires of actions, and carry out competitive actions more slowly. These findings, based on seven years of data collected in 41 industries, contribute to research on hypercompetition, organizational decline, and competitive dynamics.

Organizational Information Processing, Competitive Responses, and Performance in the U.S. Domestic Airline Industry

This study investigates how firms build competitive advantage by focusing on the actions and responses of rivals in the U.S. domestic airline industry. We identified four attributes of competitive ...

Timing, order and durability of new product advantages with imitation

This research examined the effects of timing, order and the durability of first mover advantages by analyzing the stock market reactions to new product introductions and imitations. The major findings are that both timing and order of moves are important and that rival reactions undermine the durability of first mover advantages. More specifically, (1) early and fast movers achieve greater gains than late and slow movers, and (2) first movers suffer at the time of new product imitations. Copyright

Dynamics of competitive strategy

Preface The Beginning of a Research Agenda, 1984 A Communication-Information Theory of Competitive Interaction A Methodology for Studying Competitive Actions and Responses Firm Reputation and Rivalry Competitive Actions and Rivalry Responders and Rivalry Industry Environments and Rivalry Competitive Moves, Responses and Organizational Performance An Alternative Perspective on Rivalry Avoiding Wars with Competitors Summarizing and Integrating the Results

Using Subjective Evaluations of Organizational Performance in Small Business Research

Frequently small business researchers cannot obtain accurate objective information on organizational performance. However, an important research study of 26 large firms completed by Dess and Robinson (1984) has suggested that researchers can, in certain instances, use subjective evaluations of organizational performance when accurate objective measures are unavailable. The present study of 34 small firms was designed to partially replicate and to extend the Dess and Robinson study. However, none of the significant correlations in the Dess and Robinson study were replicated in the present study. Reasons for these discrepancies are discussed within the context of developing a set of guidelines for using subjective evaluations in small business research.

Strategy, Size and Performance

Miles and Snows four different types of strategy are discussed and operationally defined in terms of three recurring organizational problems. A field study of 47 firms was conducted to investigate the typology and the relationship between the typology, size and performance. Support is provided for the analyzer and prospector strategies but there is less evidence for defenders. Results demonstrate the importance of contingency research and indicate that firm size can explain differences in the relationship between strategy and performance.