Warren Boeker

Strategic Change: The Effects Of Founding And History

The research reported here examined the evolution of strategy over time and the conditions under which change in strategy is likely. Findings show that characteristics of an organizations founding imprint its initial strategy by contributing to an internal consensus around a given strategic approach. Conditions subsequent to founding also influence the degree to which an initial strategy is perpetuated. The study examined perspectives on organizational change and inertia and further developed them to explain the role of history and precedence in shaping strategic action.

Turbulence at the Top: A New Perspective on Governance Structure Changes and Strategic Change

Organizational theorists have traditionally focused attention on the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) succession and strategic change. This study extends that perspective and explores the effects of changes in an organizations management, ownership, and board of directors on the process of strategic change. The results of this research suggest that changes in ownership and board have significant independent and interactive effects on strategic change.

PERFORMANCE AND SUCCESSOR CHOICE: THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF GOVERNANCE AND OWNERSHIP

This study examined influences on whether chief executive successors are chosen from inside or outside an organization. We examined the choice of a successor as a function of organizational performance as moderated by the composition of an organizations board of directors and its ownership structure. Results indicate that performance influences successor choice, but board composition, firm ownership, and ownership concentration moderate that relationship. These relationships were examined using data from 67 semiconductor producers over a 22-year period. Few events that occur in organizations are as substantively important or as open to potential contention as chief executive succession. The replacement of a chief executive can critically enhance or diminish the power of organizational members and have important consequences for an organizations future strategy and structure (Pfeffer, 1981). How a succession event occurs and who is appointed as the successor reflect the future direction of an organization and can indicate how organizational resources will be allocated in the future (Allen & Panian, 1982; Friedman & Olk, 1989). In particular, researchers have singled out whether a successor comes from inside or outside a firm as critical in succession (Reinganum, 1985). This study examined the influence of the composition of a firms board of directors and the structure of its ownership in the choice of a chief executive successor. Following past research, we predicted that the type of successor chosen will depend on the organizations past performance. However, the particular focus of this research was on how board and ownership influences moderate the relationship between performance and successor choice.

Entrepreneurial Transitions: Factors Influencing Founder Departure

Research in entrepreneurship and life cycle theories of the firm have both suggested that new ventures may outgrow the managerial capabilities of their founding teams, at which point the founders m...

New Venture Evolution and Managerial Capabilities

This study examines factors influencing changes in the top management of start-up firms. Whereas a significant amount of research has examined top management transitions in established firms, we know much less about the factors influencing the evolution of top management capabilities in a new firm. Our research examines these issues in a sample of new ventures founded from 1983 through 1995, examining each firm for seven years after its founding to evaluate the conditions that influence a firms changes in top management. Results indicate that top management team changes occur in cases of very low or very high firm growth, but are mitigated by a functionally diverse top management team. Power and control of inside and outside constituencies also affect changes in top management, with venture capital ownership and board representation increasing change in top management, and managerial ownership decreasing changes.

Organizational Strategy: An Ecological Perspective

This study demonstrates the application of theories and models from organizational ecology to the study of organizational strategy. Competition between strategic groups and the effects of environme...

The Ecological Analysis of Business Strategy

Research on business strategy suffers because it often relies on retrospective case studies. Strategic alternatives are discussed without information on the range of existing practices. In addition, the rate at which new strategies are adopted and implemented is unknown. Studying populations of organizations over time avoids these problems and offers promise for a more sophisticated and methodologically rigorous approach to strategic studies for both researcher and practitioner.

Professional interests and strategic flexibility : A political perspective on organizational contracting

In this research we consider the interrelationships between professional interests and strategic flexibility. We specifically consider how the relative power of professional and managerial interests facilitate or constrain organizational contracting with external suppliers and providers. We explore these issues by focusing on hospitals competing in the health care industry during a period of heightened competitive and regulatory change. Our findings suggest that professional interests significantly influence the degree of external contracting. These findings have important implications for maintaining strategic flexibility in highly competitive environments.

Innovation adoption by established firms: Unresolved issues

Abstract This research identified a core set of organizational characteristics influencing innovation adoption: forward and backward integration, size, and product diversity. Some prior work has argued that these factors speed innovation; others have argued that they slow adoption. Our findings indicate that backward and forward integration and product diversity speed innovation. Implications of these findings for both theory development and innovation management in practice are discussed.

The role of facial appearance on CEO selection after firm misconduct

We investigate a particular aspect of CEO successor trustworthiness that may be critically important after a firm has engaged in financial misconduct. Specifically, drawing on prior research that suggests that facial appearance is one critical way in which trustworthiness is signaled, we argue that leaders who convey integrity, a component of trustworthiness, will be more likely to be selected as successors after financial restatement. We predict that such appointments garner more positive reactions by external observers such as investment analysts and the media because these CEOs are perceived as having greater integrity. In an archival study of firms that have announced financial restatements, we find support for our predictions. These findings have implications for research on CEO succession, leadership selection, facial appearance, and firm misconduct.