Vittorio Coda

Stakeholder cohesion, innovation, and competitive advantage

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the limits of stakeholder governance and to contribute a better comprehension of the relationships between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) through the development of a dynamic model that links together innovation and change, stakeholder cohesion, and competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of theory building through the development of eight testable propositions.Findings – Stakeholder cohesion may have a “dark side” to the extent that it results in inertia and resistance to change, thus reducing propensity to innovation and change. The latter, in turn, are vital for both competitive advantage and stakeholder cohesion itself. Therefore, propensity to innovation and change is the pivotal variable that helps to explain the complex, non‐linear, often inextricable relationships between CSP and CFP. Furthermore, external (environmental dynamism) and internal (firm culture) varia...

Dynamics of Strategy: A Feedback Approach to Corporate Strategy-Making

The object of the article is a company’s strategic management processes. The aim is to propose a dynamic model to explain how a company’s realised strategy does emerge from interactions of purposes, tensions, and pressures dynamically interplaying. The paper contributes to strategy literature in two directions. First, we expect the model will be useful to management as a reference frame for understanding and efficiently governing a company strategy-making behaviour, both in cases in which the aim is to transform it radically, and when it is to be innovated by means of gradual evolutive change. Second, the model constitutes a set of hypotheses to orient further empirical and theoretical analysis. The analysis which we conduct, examining theoretic contributions and empirical settings, is strongly influenced by the assumption that the subject of the strategic government of companies may benefit from a systemic approach which considers the dynamic interaction among the many processes which impact a company’s situation.

Ethical Codes and Market Culture

There is growing awareness of the enormous damage inflicted on the economy by behaviors driven by corruption and the allocation of appointments on the basis of a spoils-sharing system rather than a desire to serve the good of the business world and the country. Furthermore, the public has realized the hardships caused by actions that have jeopardized entire production sectors.1 This awareness brings into sharp focus the need to change direction. We must immediately begin the work of rebuilding a healthy economy, one based on new rules established to prevent the re-emergence of past pathologies.

Management Theory: Its Content, Specificities, and Role

The key questions that lead directly to the heart of the problem are “What is Management Theory?” and “How can the identity of the Management Theory scholar be defined?”

Governing Strategy Dynamics

In this chapter we analyze strategic management processes in an organization. Our interest is to understand how top management develops strategic intentions and how those intentions can turn into realized strategy. In our study, we consider both theoretical work and empirical evidence. Our research is greatly influenced by the premise that a systemic approach to strategic governance in organizations is beneficial. Such an approach takes into account the dynamic interaction of numerous processes that affect an organization. In particular, we examine learning processes which give rise to the strategic intentions of top management, managerial processes which top management enacts, and organizational behaviors instigated by top management or developed independently of the executive body. All of these processes unfold in environments which, as a rule, are in a state of constant flux. Our aim, therefore, is to propose a dynamic model of strategy-making (realized strategy) which can be useful to management as a frame of reference for understanding and effectively governing the dynamics of the organizational system and strategy in action. Our model can be applied both in cases where a radical change is needed and in cases when innovation follows an incremental, evolutionary logic.

The Purpose of the Firm: Physiology and Pathology

Corporate success or crisis often originates in the conception of the firm underlying the behavior of management and ownership. This conception consists of guiding ideas or basic principles which underpin the concrete choices which lead the firm to operate in particular competitive arenas, apply specific managerial and organizational practices, and give priority to certain objectives.

Strategy and Communication: The Missing Link

A firm communicates simply because it exists — it produces and markets certain products or services and interacts with its myriad audiences. In communicating, it sends and receives information internally and externally. In addition to communications implicit in the firm’s culture and daily behavior, there are also explicit communication activities, specifically targeting broad or select publics.