Manpreet Hora

Intentions, Intermediaries, and Interaction: Examining the Emergence of Routines

A thorough understanding of how routines emerge is necessary to derive the performance benefits they yield for organizations. In this paper, we suggest that a routine emerges from interactions between actors, interactions that are enabled by the exchange of intermediaries. Specifically, intermediaries transmit the intentions of one actor to another and thus potentially align the actions and responses of those actors. If, however, the intermediaries that are exchanged do not clearly transmit the intentions of one actor to another, then a weak routine emerges. Conversely, if intermediaries clearly transmit the intentions, a strong routine emerges in which a given action more often meets with the expected response across iterations. We substantiate our arguments with a field experiment on the towel‐changing routine in a hotel where we manipulated the procedure to exchange towels, which resulted in the emergence of a stronger routine. Our study offers several implications for theoretical and empirical research on routines, including to the burgeoning research on micro‐foundations.

An Empirical Investigation on the Appointments of Supply Chain and Operations Management Executives

This paper provides empirical evidence on the performance effects and choice of appointments of supply chain and operations management executives (SCOMEs). The analysis is based on a sample of 681 SCOME appointments that were publicly announced during the 2000–2011 period. We find that the stock market reaction is positive on the day of the announcement. Categorizing the SCOME appointments as new or old and insider or outsider, we find that the market reaction for newly created SCOME positions is positive. The market also reacts more positively when a SCOME is an outsider rather than an insider. The strongest positive reaction is observed when outsiders are hired for newly created SCOME positions. We find evidence of both poor stock price performance and poor operating performance in the period preceding the appointment of new SCOMEs. New SCOME appointments are not followed by an immediate improvement in stock price and operating performance. However, there is no further decline in performance, suggesting...

Managing operational disruptions through capital adequacy and process improvement

Firms maintain a capital charge to manage the risk of low-frequency, high-impact operational disruptions. The loss distribution approach (LDA) measures the capital charge using two inputs: the frequency and severity of operational disruptions. In this study, we investigate whether or not capital charge could be combined with process improvement, an approach predominantly employed for managing high-frequency, low-impact operational disruptions. Using the categorization of events defined by the Basel Accord for different types of operational risk events, we verify three propositions. First, we test whether classification of operational disruptions is warranted to manage the risk. Second, we posit that classification of operational disruptions will display different statistical properties in manufacturing and in the financial services sector. Finally, we test whether risk of operational disruptions can be managed through a combination of process improvement and capital adequacy. We obtained data on 5442 operational disruptions and ran Monte Carlo simulations spanning both these sectors and seven event types. The results reveal that process improvement can be a first line of defense to manage certain types of operational risk events.

From Invention Success to Commercialization Success: Technology Ventures and the Benefits of Upstream and Downstream Supply‐Chain Alliances

An entrepreneurial ventures supply‐chain partnerships involve upstream alliances (with research universities) and downstream alliances (with large industry incumbents). Even though such partnerships bring the venture many benefits, they also come with significant challenges, notably the need to seamlessly combine a “technology push” philosophy with a “market pull” one. Utilizing a data set of over both upstream and downstream alliance partnerships spanning 603 technology ventures in the biotech industry, interesting results were found with regard to the impact of these two alliance partnerships on the ventures invention success and commercialization success. Upstream partnerships demonstrate a positive impact on invention success but no significant impact on commercialization success. However, with the moderating role of downstream partnerships, the results change: the joint effect of these two types of alliance partnerships is positive for both invention and commercialization success. The study findings have important implications with regard to the role and impact of alliance partnerships at the intersection of small business, entrepreneurship and technology innovation, and for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

When Do Appointments of Corporate Sustainability Executives Affect Shareholder Value

Over the last two decades, firms have been appointing corporate sustainability executives (CSEs) to be part of their top management teams. Although there is a vast literature on sustainable practices and their relationships with various measures of firm performance, little is known about the nature of the empirical link between CSE appointments and financial performance. We add to the understanding of this link by estimating the stock market reactions to a sample of 115 announcements of CSE appointments made by firms during the period 2000–2018. Our findings using event study methodology, followed by regression analyses, suggest that although the stock market reaction to CSE appointments is not significantly different from zero, the stock market reacts more, or less positively under certain firm- and industry-specific conditions. We find that the stock market reaction is more positive in instances where the announcing firms faced a prior adverse sustainability-related incident, and less positive when announcing firms operate in industries that face relatively greater levels of regulatory sanctions. Also, we find that the stock market reaction is more positive when firms announce CSE appointments with focused as compared to broad responsibilities. Additionally, we find that CSE appointments are associated with subsequent improvements in operating performance – partly driven by a decrease in total costs and partly by an increase in sales. Overall, our findings support the strategy of appointing CSEs to top management teams and enable executives and stakeholders to more deeply understand the shareholder value and operating performance effects of appointing CSEs.

How Understanding-Based Redesign Influences the Pattern of Actions and Effectiveness of Routines:

Using a novel, mixed-methods research design, we examine how understanding-based redesign of a routine influences its effectiveness. By understanding-based redesign, we refer to an intentional change in routine design such that it aligns more closely with the understandings of participants regarding how to perform their roles in the routine. We argue that this type of redesign improves the effectiveness of a routine by facilitating the actions and interactions of routine participants. Our empirical examination focused on manipulating the procedure and physical artifacts available for performing the towel-changing routine at a hotel. Through a field experiment, we found that understanding-based redesign results in greater effectiveness of the routine, and based on a qualitative, interviews-based inquiry with key participants in the routine, we propose six processes by which understanding-based redesign influences participant actions that support routine effectiveness. Our study offers important implications for strategy and organizations research on routines, as well as useful implications for management practice.

Market Value Implications of Voluntary Corporate Environmental Initiatives (CEIs)

Although firms engage in a variety of practices to manage their internal environmental performance as well as those of their supply chains, and they often promote those efforts to concerned stakeholders, it is not well understood how those voluntary corporate environmental initiatives (CEIs) affect the financial bottom line, and the market value of the firm. In this chapter, we discuss the various types of environmental initiatives that are reported in the business press, and how they can potentially impact firm costs and revenues. We provide empirical evidence of the relationships between CEIs and the market value of the firm.

The Quick-Fix Effect: Understanding the Role of Mean Time between Failures on the Related Reliability of Subsequent New Products

Much evidence documents the high failure rates of new product introductions. Some of these product failures can provide opportunities for learning and improvement of subsequent products. In this study, we examine the role of mean time between product failures and their influence on subsequent product introductions and their related reliability. Our panel data analysis of 136 firms from 1998 to 2012 in the medical devices industry provides evidence of myopia in learning from failures that happen too close-in-time. There are two parts to what we call the quick-fix effect in new product development. First, firms have a greater probability of introducing a new product when they experience a low mean time between product failures (MTBF) than a high MTBF. However, there is also a greater probability of introducing a new product when the MTBF reaches a certain inflection point. Second, the related reliability of future new product development activities is contingent on this past MTBF. We believe the findings suggest that fast innovation and short-cycle times in product development can lead to chronic quality and operational problems if firms do not afford enough time to fix the underlying causes to the failures.