Richard C. Hoffman

Top Management Influence on Innovations: Effects of Executive Characteristics and Social Culture

Innovation is a growing source of strategic advantage across a variety of industrialized cultures. Top managers often seek to influence or champion strategic innovations. This study examined the extent to which executive characteristics explains top management influence on product/market (PM) and administrative (A DM) innovations in four Western cultures. The results support the proposition that different executive characteristics explain influence on each type of innovation. The influence process differed across cultures for A DM but not for PM innovations. The implications of this study for practice and research are discussed.

Franchising: Selecting a strategy for rapid growth

Abstract Franchising has become an important growth strategy but there are few guidelines for managing franchise systems ‘strategically”. This article develops a strategic perspective on franchising by first discussing the growth and strategic importance of franchising. The authors then show how the strategic concepts of portfolio management, global strategy and network analysis can be used in formulating and implementing franchise strategies. These perspectives are combined into a framework for the use of practising managers.

Global franchising: current status and future challenges

About a decade ago positive predictions were made regarding the international growth of franchising. This study was undertaken to examine the actual growth and development of franchising globally during the 1990s. Using survey and archival data findings regarding the state of franchising in 40 countries are presented. Franchising has met or exceeded the growth expectations, generating an average of

Strategies for Corporate Turnarounds: What do we Know about them?

3.7 billion in annual sales in the nations investigated. However, considerable regional differences in franchising activities do exist. The business sectors experiencing the most franchising growth are retail and restaurants. Franchising firms tend to export their business formats to neighboring countries or to countries with similar cultural characteristics. Operational concerns regarding legal and social issues across borders are also examined. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Strategic alliances for competitive advantage: evidence from Israel's hospitality and tourism industry

More than a dozen years have passed since one of the first studies on corporate turnaround strategies was published in this journal. Currently, it seems opportune to assess what we know about turnaround strategies for two reasons. First, corporate turnarounds appear to be making front page news with greater regularity, and, secondly, a sufficient period of time has elapsed to accumulate more research on the topic. Thc vast majority of modern management knowledge has been developed to handle conditions of growth and abundant resources. Since the late seventies, the media has reported an increasingly large number of wellestablished firms both in Europe and the US who have had to fight for their survival in the face of financial crisis. A dramatic indicator of this is the fivefold increase in bankruptcies among US lirms in the last few years [I]. Firms in both traditional and high-tech industries have had to implement turnaround strategies, including: lCL Computers, Dunlop and BSR and in the UK; Peugeot, Waterman, and SAS on the continent; and Westinghouse, Control Data, Walt Disney Co., and United Airlines in the US. The reasons for t-inancial crises are as varied as the finns themselves: recession, declining industry, deregulation, and simply mismanagement. The solutions for turning these firms around are varied as well, ranging from internal cost cutting to government bailouts. Thus, an increasing number of general managers are having to cope with crisis and decline, yet they have little experience or management theories upon which to draw. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the small but growing body of knowledge concerning turnaround strategies. This paper

Corporate social responsibility in the 1920s: an institutional perspective

Abstract The paper portrays the role of franchising in the hospitality and restaurant industries in Israel. Franchising constitutes an alliance between atleast two organizations, where each side benefits from the skill and resources held by other. Independent hotels benefit from the global brand name of the international hotel chain and its reservations system. The franchising firm (foreign) gains a quick, often smooth, access to a new market without the risk involved in ownership. Moreover, this strategies enables a quick entry to other Middle East or Mediterranean countries, with Israel serving as a platform for entry. The article focuses on several cases to illustrate the diffusion of franchising in the hospitality and fast-food segments of the Israeli economy.

Convert to Compete: Competitive Advantage through Conversion Franchising *

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to better understand the origins of modern corporate social responsibility. The paper seeks to examine some factors that enabled the new industrial corporation to expand its role in society.Design/methodology/approach – Using institutional theory, this paper describes how some of the institutional characteristics of the modern corporation itself provided some opportunities or challenges in terms of gaining social legitimacy.Findings – The institutional features of the corporation, its technology and management created new demands on the corporation by society. These in turn led to the development of such concepts of corporate social responsibility as: public relations, service, trusteeship, and public welfare.Research limitations/implications – Future research on social legitimacy should focus on demands placed by the institutional characteristics of new organizations. Other research might include comparative studies of corporate legitimacy in Europe or Asia or an ex...

The Nature of Ethics Codes in Franchise Associations Around the Globe

This paper offers an in–depth treatment of conversion franchising, where new franchisees are added to a franchised system by recruiting existing independent entrepreneurs or competitors’ franchisees. The first part of the paper examines conversion franchising as a source of competitive advantage. This discussion leads to the articulation of four propositions. The second part of the paper looks at the empirical results of our study of 72 North American franchisors. Seventy–two percent of these firms use conversion franchising in their domestic markets, and 26 percent use conversions in international locales. The propositions relating to a franchisors decision to use conversions based on increased levels of experience, economic resources, and to a lesser extent skills/knowledge, all were supported. These results lend support to the literature indicating that resources and skills serve as sources of competitive advantage. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Competitive advantage through specialty franchising

The worldwide growth of franchising has been phenomenal during the past decade. At the same time there has been increased media attention to questionable business practices in franchising. Similar to some trade associations and professions, franchising has sought self-regulation by developing codes of conduct or ethics. This study examines the codes of ethics covering franchising activities in 21 countries. The results reveal that there is considerable variation in the activities/issues covered by the codes. Specifically, the codes cover most stages of the franchising relationship, focus on a narrow set of stakeholders, are short on ethical guidance, and offer few enforcement provisions. The implications of these findings for international franchising and research are discussed.

Who influences strategic decisions

Suggests that competitive mobility is based on strategic adaptation to meet customer needs and market trends. This type of competitive advantage is characteristic of mobile service franchises, and it also has implications for non‐franchised businesses. Reviews the growth of mobile service franchises and the consumer trends supporting their development, and examines how these franchises use mobility to create competitive advantage. Identifies and describes seven dimensions/elements defining the competitive mobility of these organizations, based on a study of 25 mobile franchise systems. Discusses the implications of competitive mobility for most types of business.