William Q. Judge

Total Quality Management Implementation and Competitive Advantage: The Role of Structural Control and Exploration

The authors explored the relationship between the degree to which total quality management (TQM) practices were adopted within organizations and the corresponding competitive advantages achieved. T...

Performance Implications of Incorporating Natural Environmental Issues into the Strategic Planning Process: An Empirical Assessment†

This paper explores the ability of firms to integrate a critical strategic issue, the natural environment, into the strategic planning process within the natural resource-based perspective. Using survey data collected from a wide variety of firms and industries based in the United States, we empirically examined the antecedents and effects of integrating the natural environment into the formal planning process. These data were analysed using structural equation modelling with the LISREL technique. Overall, our data provided strong support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, we found that the level of integration of environmental management concerns in the strategic planning process was positively related to financial and environmental performance. Furthermore, we found that the greater the functional coverage and the more resources provided to environmental issues, the greater the integration of environmental issues in the planning process. These results suggest that concern for environmental issues may yield competitive advantages in the marketplace as the natural resource-based perspective suggests

Antecedents and Outcomes of Decision Speed in Different Environmental Contexts

This study refined and extended some findings of previous research on decision-making speed. Decision speed was associated with simultaneous consideration of many alternatives, regardless of context. In contrast, the relationship between board experience and decision speed was context-specific. Similarly, decision speed was associated with higher performance only in high-velocity environments.

DIVERSIFICATION AND TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM COMPLEMENTARITY: IS PERFORMANCE IMPROVED BY MERGING SIMILAR OR DISSIMILAR TEAMS?

This study examines the impact of complementary top management teams (defined as differences in functional backgrounds between the acquiring and acquired firm managers) on post-acquisition performance. Based on a sample of 147 acquisitions completed during 1986-88, we find that complementary backgrounds have a positive impact on postacquisition performance in both related and unrelated acquisitions. Another major finding is that complementarity is negatively related to top management team turnover among acquired managers, suggesting that differences in functional backgrounds are more easily integrated into the new organization. Finally, top management team turnover among acquired managers is negatively related to postacquisition performance. These findings highlight the importance of examining complementarity in terms of differences, and reinforce the notion that differences have the potential to create unique value for the organization.

The New Task of R&D Management: Creating Goal-Directed Communities for Innovation

How do firms manage research and development units to optimize their innovation capabilities? First, the most innovative RD relying much more heavily on intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards; building cohesive teams that preserve individuality; and assuring a continuous supply of slack resources.

Strategic Alliance Outcomes: A Transaction-Cost Economics Perspective

Empirical research on strategic alliances has been limited because previous studies examined alliance outcomes, and the factors associated with them, from a single partner in a manufacturing alliance. Furthermore, many of these studies have been done from a transaction cost perspective and researchers have inferred opportunistic behavior, rather than directly measuring it and observing its actual relationship with alliance performance. Building on previous transaction cost theory and research, this study seeks to address these gaps by analyzing factors associated with both opportunistic behavior and alliance performance within a major service sector, namely the US healthcare industry. After controlling for asset specificity and alliance age, we found that partner trustworthiness and contractual safeguards were negatively related to opportunistic behavior. Furthermore, opportunistic behavior was negatively related to alliance performance, as hypothesized. Interestingly, mutual equity investments were found to be unrelated to opportunistic behavior, counter to transaction-cost logic. These findings refine and extend the transaction-cost economics perspective regarding our understanding of strategic alliance behavior and outcomes, and offer executives in service-based industries some practical ideas for assuring favorable strategic alliance outcomes.

Institutional Antecedents of Corporate Governance Legitimacy

The authors studied panel data for corporate governance ratings in 50 countries between 1997 and 2005 to understand what the country-level predictors of corporate governance legitimacy might be. Using neo-institutional theory, they found that all three pillars of institutionalization influenced perceptions of corporate governance at the national level—specifically, (a) the greater the extent of law and order, (b) the more the culture emphasized global competitiveness, and (c) the less the prevalence of corruption, the higher the corporate governance legitimacy within a nation. This study refines and extends the comparative corporate governance literature, as well as the neo-institutional perspective.

Belaboring the Not-So-Obvious: Consensus, Commitment, and Strategy Implementation Speed and Success

One of the accepted beliefs among strategic management researchers is that strategic decision consensus among decision-makers facilitates decision implementation speed and implementation success. Despite this belief, there has been little empirical research directly examining these relationships. Using hierarchical regression, this study examines the effects of strategic decision consensus and commitment on decision implementation speed and success. Results from a sample of 68 intact strategic decision-making teams in Southeastern United States hospitals support the normatively accepted ideal that decision consensus helps build decision commitment, which in turn positively affects implementation success. Contrary to our expectations, however, decision commitment serves to slow implementation speed. The implications of these results for consensus and implementation research are discussed.

Using information-processing theory to understand planning/performance relationships in the context of strategy

This study reveals the importance of viewing planning processes within the context of strategic orientation. Information-processing theory is used to examine the differences in planning processes given variable strategy content in the banking industry. Findings suggest that banks implementing different strategies require their planning systems to focus on different kinds and amounts of information. Moreover, the relationship between planning and bank performance is clarified when information requirements of a specific strategy are considered. It appears the strategy moderates the relationship between planning and performance. Copyright

Antecedents of Shareholder Activism in Target Firms: Evidence from a Multi‐Country Study

This study seeks to understand target firm specific antecedents of shareholder activism, and how the causal relationships vary depending on the governance environments in a multi-country setting, comprising three common law countries (USA, UK and Australia) and three civil law countries (Japan, Germany & South Korea). Our findings suggest that the antecedents of shareholder activism vary by the motivation of the activist. We identify that activists target firms with two motives, (a) to improve the financial performance, and (b) to improve the social performance of the firm. With respect to the target firm level antecedents, we find that firm size is unrelated to financial activism, but positively related to social activism; ownership concentration is negatively related to both financial and social activism; and prior profitability is negatively related to financial activism, but positively related to social activism. Further, these relationships in the case of financial activism are generally stronger in common law legal systems, whereas those in the case of social activism are generally stronger in environments with a greater level of income inequality.