Nitin Nohria

Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action

Part 1 Linking structure and action: problems of explanation in economic sociology the social structure of competition agency as control in formal networks Nadels paradox revisited - relational and cultural aspects of organizational structure doing your job and helping your friends - universalistic norms about obligations to particular others in networks structural alignments, individual strategies and managerial action - elements towards a network theory of getting things done. Part 2 Different network ties and their implications: centrality and power in organizations the strength of strong ties - the importance of philos in organizations information and search in the creation of new business ventures - the case of the 128 Venture Group complementary communication media - a comparison of electronic mail and face-to-face communication in a programming team face-to-face - making network organizations work. Part 3 Organizational environmental relations as inter-organizational networks: strategic alliances in commercial biotechnology the make-or-cooperate decision in the context of an industry network competitive co-operation in biotechnology - learning through networks? Part 4 Network forms of organizations: the network organization in theory and practice fragments of a cognitive theory of technological change and organizational structure small-firm networks on the limits of a firm-based theory to explain business networks - the Western bias of neoclassical economics the organization of business networks in the United States and Japan. Conclusion: making network research relevant to practice.

Breaking the code of change

Breaking the Code of Change is the published outcome of a research conference by the same name held at Harvard Business School during 1998. The volumes editors, Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria, note in the preface that the participants consisted of a relatively small group of leading academics, consultants, and senior managers brought together to address the issue of why corporate change efforts are so often unsuccessful.

The economic modeling of strategy process: ‘clean models’ and ‘dirty hands’

We argue that our model of learning in alliances (Khanna, Gulati and Nohria, 1998) is an economic model of strategy process. We discuss implications of this view for the strategy process vs. content debate, for the appropriate testing of models of strategy process, and for the role of economics in helping understand strategy process. We propose that the ‘clean models’ from economics and ‘dirty hands’ of traditional process inquiries offer research designs that are complementary rather than incompatible (Hirsch, Michaels and Friedman, 1987). Copyright

The Performance Consequences of CEO Turnover

Previous research on executive turnover treats the departures of predecessors and the origin of successors as independent events. This approach has led to mixed empirical findings with respect to measuring the effects of executive turnover on firm performance. Using a longitudinal data set, we show that the conditions under which the predecessor departs (forced versus natural turnover) and the origin of the successor (insider versus outsider) are theoretically coupled phenomena with distinct combinations leading to differences in subsequent performance.

The Sidekick Effect: Mentoring Relationships and the Development of Social Capital

This chapter examines the benefits and pitfalls of mentoring relationships with respect to a protege’s ability to develop social capital, measured here as ties across multinational subsidiary boundaries that might produce access to information and resources. The results indicate that early mentoring relationships are negatively related to a protege’s stock of social capital and that later mentoring relationships are positively related to a protege’s stock of social capital. We call for a contingency approach to studying how mentoring relationships affect career outcomes and discuss implications for future research.

Where does Management Knowledge come from

But what is usually called knowledge is structurally similar to knowledge of a problem. Knowledge is an activity which would be better described as a process of knowing. Indeed, as the scientist goes on inquiring into yet uncomprehended experiences, so do those who accept his discoveries as established knowledge keep applying this to ever changing situations, developing it each time a step further. Research is an intensely dynamic inquiring, while knowledge is a more quiet research. Both are ever on the move, according to similar principles, towards a deeper understanding of what is already known. (Polanyi, 1969)1

What Factors Drive Analyst Forecasts

Using survey data to judge how analyst forecasts are related to evaluations of companies’ industry competitiveness, strategic choices, and internal capabilities, the authors found that analyst forecasts are associated with many of the factors that money managers rate as important in their assessments of analyst contributions. They also found wide variation in ratings consistency across variables among analysts covering the same company. On average, consistency is higher for sell-side analysts than for buy-side analysts. Although extensive research has been conducted on analysts’ earnings forecasts and recommendations, relatively little has been written about the factors that underlie them. In our study, we examined which industry, leadership, and company factors are related to analysts’ forecasts of financial and stock performance. We also examined whether analysts covering the same company make consistent assessments of its industry, leadership, and company capabilities. To study these questions, we used data from a survey of 967 analysts who rated 837 companies on their projected future performance, industry economics, company capabilities, and leadership. Analysts were asked to provide forecasts of growth in revenues, earnings, and stock price, as well as gross margins, for up to three companies they covered. For each company, they were also asked to rate industry, company, and leadership factors that prior research suggests influence future performance. These factors include the competitiveness and growth of each company’s industry, whether it competes primarily on the basis of innovation or price, its strategy execution and communication, its innovativeness, existing financial resources, the quality of its top management, whether management sets high performance standards, and its governance. We found a strong relationship between analysts’ forecasts of a company’s performance and their assessments of its industry growth, industry competition, quality of its management, commitment to high performance expectations, ability to execute strategy, and innovation. We found that several factors are generally unimportant, including governance, transparent strategy communication (especially for buy-side analysts), competition via superior products/services, financial strength, and understanding one’s competitors. Considerable variation in ratings consistency exists across factors among analysts who cover the same company. Analyst ratings are relatively more consistent for company revenue forecasts, balance sheet strength, strategy execution, and strategy communication than for industry competitiveness, forecasted stock appreciation, low-price strategy, and understanding one’s competitors. Consistency is significantly higher for sell-side analysts than for their buy-side peers, perhaps reflecting sell-side pressure to herd. Finally, we found no evidence that analysts are more consistent on financial forecast factors than on internal capability factors.

The Future Structure of the North American Utility Industry

A dramatic restructuring is under way in the North American electric utility industry. The structure of vertically integrated utilities operating in protected territories will be replaced by one of “value networks.” We examine the regulatory, market and technological forces leading to the new industry structure. We describe five major changes that we believe will result as the industry becomes more competitive and customers have choice. We discuss how these changes will result in six industry segments: generation, transmission, distribution, power markets, energy services and information technology-based products and services. Then we explore what utilities must do to move from vertical integration to value networks.

Educating Leaders for a Global Century

When I graduated from IIT Bombay in 1984, like almost everyone else in my class, I applied to go to graduate school in America. Indeed, more than two-thirds of my graduating IIT class went to America, and most of us have stayed on to work. We were attracted to America because it was the land of opportunity. It was where the action was—where the best research was being done, where the most interesting innovation was occurring, where the best companies in the world were located, where if you had the raw talent and the hard work to back it up, anything was possible.

Gordon Bethune’s Revival of Continental Airlines

When Gordon Bethune took over Continental Airlines in October 1994, he and his close associate Greg Brenneman had little time to overhaul the airline.1 Net income had plummeted from a loss of