Sveinn Vidar Gudmundsson

Entrepreneurial Orientation, Firm Strategy and Small Firm Performance

This article explores how individual entrepreneurial orientation dimensions influence the relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance. The findings show the different impacts of individual entrepreneurial orientation dimensions on competitive strategy and the effects of cost leadership and differentiation on performance. Innovativeness is related most highly to differentiation strategy. Risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness are negatively associated with both differentiation and cost leadership strategies. Both differentiation and cost leadership strategies are positively related to performance. This study refines our understanding of the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on small firm performance.

The Development of Electronic Markets in Logistics

Logistics integration through market systems is the coming revolution in supply chain management. A number of systems have been attempted facilitating documentation exchange, matching of supply and demand, and providing other essential links and information. However, such systems have had limited success raising important questions about whether a truly useful global system can be developed. In this article, we conceptualize development of an all‐inclusive system termed the Logistics Brokerage System.

Cognitive biases, organization, and entrepreneurial firm survival

Entrepreneur’s cognitive biases have emerged as one of the central themes in understanding the performance of entrepreneurial firms. Research has shown that entrepreneur’s overconfidence and optimism bias help firm creation, but also contribute to firm failure. Prior studies using cognitive biases to explain entrepreneurial outcomes are lacking. First, they usually focus on a single cognitive bias. Second, as yet no studies have identified a cognitive bias that, unlike overconfidence and optimism, acts positively both on firm creation and survival. In research on failure avoidance in high consequence industries, distrust is emerging as an important cognitive bias explaining non-failure in non-routine situations, but entrepreneurship research has paid little attention to distrust in entrepreneurs. Third, research on cognitive biases is generally affected by survival bias: most studies have focused on cognitive biases among surviving firms alone, but we still know little about diverse multilevel impacts on both survivors and non-survivors. To address this gap, we built a multilevel model explaining the interplay of cognitive biases, the different cognitive make-ups of entrepreneurs, and their influence on organization and survival. Our results show that overconfidence is the chief negative influence on survival. Optimism bias and distrust are conflicting cognitive biases influencing overconfidence, but showing a directly opposite influence on firm survival respectively. Further, entrepreneur’s cognitive types show diverse influence on organization such as the propensity to delegate and financial orientation, but congruent positive influence on opportunity orientation. The study concludes by suggesting that entrepreneurs should balance their organizations, for instance through hiring policies, to prevent extreme overconfidence, optimism or distrust becoming a predominant organizational culture.

Integrating frequent flyer programs in multilateral airline alliances

Forming branded alliances has become a common strategy in the airline industry. These can be defined as ‘multilateral alliances’ as opposed to bilateral alliances. Limited attention has been paid to assessing the impact of multilateral alliances on complex sub-networks, such as distribution networks, cargo alliances and frequent flyer programs. These sub-networks are ‘derivative networks’ within multilateral alliances. These derivative networks create several dilemmas as they evolve causing airline managers to confront fundamental questions regarding harmonization, conflict resolution, and organizational structure.

Collaborative learning in logistics and transport: The application of 3WIM

The article reports on the development of a collaborative learning method in two master’s level courses given as part of a logistics track within an international business degree programme. The method, termed the three‐way interaction method (3WIM), combines traditional case teaching and problem‐based learning through high intensity three‐way interaction between student groups. The method involves one group taking the role of problem‐solvers (presenters/consultants), another group taking the role of decision‐makers (company executives/board of directors), while the third group evaluates the performance of the other two groups (skill development/quality improvement). As usual in collaborative learning, the 3WIM is student‐driven, so the tutor takes on the role of a facilitator rather than the main disseminator of knowledge. Comparing the course evaluations of the previous approach to learning and the 3WIM, a statistically significant improvement was detected in satisfaction among students. What is more, the method solved other problems, such as increasing the intensity of the learning experience, reducing passenger tendencies and absences.

NEW AIRLINE ENTRY RATES IN DEREGULATED AIR TRANSPORT MARKETS

This paper studies the influencing factors on entry (certification) of new airlines into the US airline industry over 21 years (1979-1999). These rates exhibit considerable fluctuations over the observed period. We analyze the US airline industry for a period of 21 years to determine the relationship of the observed fluctuations in the entry rates with political and extraordinary events, economic conditions and several industry specific variables. We present maximum likelihood estimates of an entry model on the negative Binomial distribution. This methodology reflects the discrete nature of the dependent variable. The results support the notions of positive macro-economic and industry specific developments on the entry opportunities of new airline companies.

Liberalization of Air Transport

Several countries and regions have liberalized air transport markets, spearheaded by the US Deregulation Act of 1978, and later, air transport liberalization in the European Union. The historic and political drivers and expectations associated with liberalization are examined and how the regulatory environment developed during the post deregulation years both in the US and Europe. Four principal areas of regulatory reforms in air transport are covered: (1) domestic markets; (2) air services agreements; (3) associated services; and (4) inter-regional open aviation areas. Examples of each type are discussed, such as: US Deregulation and EU liberalization; Open Skies air services agreements; ground-handling, charter and air cargo liberalization; and the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) and the EU-US Open Aviation Area (OAA). The chapter covers the common industry expectation of stability and equilibrium in deregulated air transport markets, and the role of entry and exit costs. A brief history of market entry is covered, including new entrant failures and successes, and how the incumbent airlines adjusted to the new competitive environment. The chapter concludes by questioning if raising regulatory barriers will either achieve industry financial stability or raise consumer benefits in the long-term.

A Global Electronic Market (GEM) for logistics services and supply-chain management: the expert view

The aim of the research was to clarify why integration efforts in logistics, through electronic markets, have been difficult to accomplish and to seek industry expert opinion on where the key benefits and barriers lie. A three round Delphi approach was used. The first step was to generate factors in response to three probes and then to iterate the responses among the experts until stability occurred. Factors suggested by the experts fall into groupings suggested in prior research on Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS). Factors having high consensus likely to influence adoption, fell into three categories: trust, pressure and perceived benefits. This research indicates that logistics integration through electronic markets is viable and sellers are likely to feel pressure from buyers, but are most likely to resist market adoption on trust and competition issues.

Multilevel Embeddedness in Multilateral Alliances: A Conceptual Framework

In this paper we propose a conceptual framework for understanding inter-partner dynamics in multilateral alliances involving common alliance processes, dyadic ties, and external transaction networks. The difference between alliance networks and multilateral alliances is the formalization of organization and common alliance processes in the latter. The firm-specific value in multilateral alliances is often buried in dyadic ties, that can be the prime motivator to join in the first place, but at the same time hindering common alliance processes. This multiplexity of relations, multilevel embeddedness, is both a source of strategic constraints and opportunities. Multilateral alliances set firms heading towards increased rigidity, cooperation and long-term orientation, requiring careful management of rising exit barriers to preserve strategic flexibility.

Which Types of Resources are Necessary to Achieve Competitive Advantage

Resource-based research sustains that organisations (and thus teams) create value through in-ternally developed and complementary acquired resources, through the management of re-sources and the development of routines. In this study, we advance the understanding of the impact of resources and capabilities by investigating the role of moderators on the key factors of team performance and address the question when the whole is more than the sum of its parts. We develop and test hypotheses as to how managerial experience helps to foster the development of internal resources and group routines, to extract more value from bought re-sources, how internally developed resources reinforce group routines and how financial resources influence group routines, the acquisition of resources as well as the development of internal resources. Data consisted of 270 observations from European professional football leagues over a five-year period. The results confirm that the edifice of competitive advantage is based on a complex resource bundle based on non-obvious interactions between its ele-ments. The complex inter-linkages, reinforcing effects and trade-offs between resources require non-obvious decisions regarding their employment and are best understood by experienced managers.