Winfried Ruigrok

The ‘‘What’’ and ‘‘How’’ of Case Study Rigor: Three Strategies Based on Published Work

To provide evidence-based strategies for ensuring rigor of case studies, the authors examine what rigor types authors report and how they report them by content analyzing all case studies published 1995—2000 in 10 management journals. Comparing practices in articles addressing rigor extensively and less extensively, the authors reveal three strategies for insuring rigor. First, very few case study authors explicitly label the rigor criteria in terms of the concepts commonly used in the positivist tradition (construct, internal, and external validity, as well as reliability). Despite this, papers addressing rigor extensively do report concrete research actions taken to ensure methodological rigor. Second, papers addressing rigor extensively prioritized rigor types: more, and more detailed, strategies were reported for ensuring internal and construct validity than for external validity. Third, emergent strategies used in the field were reported, such as setbacks and serendipities, that necessitated changes to the originally planned research procedures. Authors focus squarely on the concrete research actions taken, carefully relaying them to the reader so that the reader may appreciate the logic and purpose of trade-off decisions in the context of the specific case study.

Board Characteristics and Involvement in Strategic Decision Making: Evidence from Swiss Companies*

Boards of directors have a number of roles. The boards monitoring function has been the subject of much work. Less examined is the role that the board has in setting company strategy. This paper uses agency and network perspectives in developing and testing the relationship between board characteristics and involvement in strategic decision making. Using primary and secondary data, our results suggest that the level of board involvement in strategic decision making is related to a number of governance variables. We demonstrate that involvement is generally lower where boards are highly interlocked. We also show that certain types of board interlocks - namely horizontal (same industry) and those involving direct links with the banking sector - are particularly associated with this negative effect. There is weaker evidence that board strategic involvement is lower where the roles of company chief executive and chair are combined. We find no evidence that factors such as board size, or the percentage of outside directors per se are related to board involvement in strategic decision making. In doing so, this paper adds to the growing literature synthesizing the structural features and processes of boards. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006.

Hiding behind the flag? Prospects for change in german corporate governance

This paper summarises the views of 149 company Chairmen from the top 500 publicly listed German companies on a number of significant issues relating to the German corporate governance system. In the wake of some high profile mergers involving German companies and the publication of OECD Principles on corporate governance, we used a fax survey to canvass views on a range of topics including shareholders rights, the structure and accountability of supervisory boards, the role for codes of conduct, shareholder participation and top management compensation. The results of the survey suggest company chairmen are divided on a number of these issues which may have implications for any reform of the German system. We also find evidence of the adoption of key board committees dealing with audit, compensation and nominating matters. Further analysis of the survey results shows that larger companies are generally against reform to make supervisory boards more independent and accountable for company performance. The German financial sector, and banks in particular, which have played a pivotal role in the corporate governance system, are also shown to be largely against measures to increase direct shareholder involvement in corporate governance affairs and measures to increase disclosure of executive compensation. We suggest that opinions on corporate governance arrangements are unlikely to be reconciled by the OECD Principles in Germany, and may indeed run counter to many of them.

CEO Succession Origin and Firm Performance: A Multilevel Study

There has been much controversy concerning the relationship between outside CEO succession origin and firm performance. Some scholars take the organizational-adaptation view to highlight the benefits of outside succession; yet others adopt the organizational-disruption view to pose the selection of an outsider CEO as a disruptive and disadvantageous event for organizations. In this study, we develop an integrated multilevel framework that reconciles these opposing perspectives and examines the conditions under which the benefits of outside CEO succession outweigh the costs. Data from 109 CEO succession events in large international firms show that the performance advantages of outside succession materialize when the new CEO: (a) socio-demographically resembles incumbent executives, (b) possesses a variety of experience, and (c) is hired by a well-performing firm operating in a munificent industry. Overall, our research demonstrates that the performance implications of new CEO origin should not be considered in isolation, but in interaction with multilevel characteristics.

Public Testing and Research Centres in Japan: Control and Nurturing of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Automobile Industry?

Many industrialized economies have seen a relative increase in the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compared with large companies since the 1980s. To foster the rise of SMEs, many governmenls have established Innovation and Diffusion Institutes. This paper examines the role of the Japanese public testing and research (PTR) centres (kosetsu shiken kenkyu kikan), which have been proposed as a model for other countries: The paper traces the backgrounds and general activities of the PTR centers, and subsequently focuses on how PTR centres have assisted SMEs in the vicinity of Japans five large car makers. It is found that in 1986 the PTR centre near Toyatas main assembly facilities performed the largest number of test inspections of SMEs in Japan, indicating that the Toyata production system relies to an extraordinary degree upon certification by a PTR centre. Technical consultations played a greater role at PTR centres in the vicinity of other Japanese auto producers, indicating that sup...

Regionalization strategy and performance: The moderating role of industry dynamism and top management team diversity

Purpose – This paper contributes to the debate about the performance implications of adopting a regional as opposed to a global strategic posture. The aim of this paper is to argue that the performance effects of a regionalization strategy vary based on the characteristics of the industry in which the MNE operates and the composition of its top management team (TMT).Design/methodology/approach – This analysis is based on a cross‐sectional dataset of 211 large European MNEs headquartered in four Western European economies at the end of 2005.Findings – Results show that firms adopting a regional orientation outperform MNEs with global strategic positioning. This positive relationship is less pronounced under conditions of industry dynamism and inter‐regional TMT diversity.Originality/value – The study contributes to our understanding of whether and under what conditions MNEs benefit from adopting a regional as opposed to a global strategic posture.

International experiential diversity and performance at project organizations: The case of national football teams

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the link between diversity in project teams and team performance by examining the effects of players’ international career diversity on the performance of national football teams.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon the literature on project organizations and experiential diversity in teams. Using data on players’ international career backgrounds and team performance from the FIFA World Cup 2006, the authors test two hypotheses linking experiential diversity in teams and a measure of relative team performance. The dataset includes detailed individual background profiles of the 736 participating players and performance data from the 64 games played at the tournament.Findings – The findings suggest that different types of experiential diversity have contrasting effects on team performance in a time‐limited project team setting.Research limitations/implications – These findings encourage team diversity researchers to further examine th...

Internationale Standortverlagerung und Mitarbeiterproduktivität: Eine empirische Untersuchung deutscher Industrieunternehmen

SummaryAlthough there are numerous empirical examinations of the relationship between foreign direct investment and corporate performance, researchers to date have not been able to reach a consensus on findings. In this article, we report the results of an inquiry into the relationship between foreign direct investment and operational performance (i.e., labour productivity). Our findings indicate that a U-curve best reflects the form of the relationship and that the curve’s inflection point is dependent on firms’ industrial membership.In conceptual terms, these results lend support to organizational learning theory. By relocating production facilities worldwide, firms can reap labour cost advantages. However, international production relocation can also come along with an employee qualification disadvantage that requires costly and time-consuming workforce training. Therefore, managers should aim for including both productivity components (i.e., labour costs and employee qualification) into their relocation decision-making process. Only then can the strategic instrument ‘international production relocation’ foster sustainable corporate success.

Corporate Governance and Initial Public Offerings: Corporate governance and initial public offerings in Switzerland

This chapter describes the current state of corporate governance in Switzerland following the most recent governance reforms introduced in 2007. Further, using a sample of all Swiss IPOs between 2006 and 2008, it investigates whether newly listed firms tend to follow the recommended corporate governance principles, and whether ownership concentration in these firms continues to be high. Results show that Swiss IPOs and, in extension, the Swiss governance system are increasingly falling in line with international corporate governance standards. Despite this positive picture, however, ownership concentration in Swiss IPOs continues to be high. Implications and future research directions are discussed

From Niche to Mass Markets : Rival Strategies in Promoting Fair Trade Organic Commodity Chains

Abstract This article examines rival strategies employed by public, private and civil society actors to promote fair trade organic commodity chains. The article analyses the case of fair trade organic cotton as a produce that is on the brink of reaching a mass market, and compares this with patterns of the more widely documented fair trade organic fruit case. It is shown how variations in commodity chain configurations and interfaces reflect different stakeholder positions and interests, as well as development philosophies. The case of fair trade organic cotton chains illustrates how stakeholder involvement may speed up learning and thus facilitate mass-market entry. Finally, it is argued that rival commodity chain configurations make it difficult to agree upon common fair trade organic cotton certification strategies.