Knowledge that Transforms

To make high-quality research more accessible and easier to explore.

Fields:
66 results ✕ Clear filters

Made to Fit: How Practices Vary As They Diffuse

Shahzad M. Ansari; Peer C. Fiss; Edward J. Zajac
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(1), 67-92
We extend research on the diffusion of corporate practices by providing a framework for studying practice variation during diffusion processes. Specifically, we theorize about how population-level mechanisms of diffusion link with organization-level mechanisms of implementation that lead to the adaptation of practices. We also identify technical, cultural, and political elements of fit (or misfit) between diffusing practices and adopters and analyze how the process of attaining fit across these elements can trigger different patterns of adaptation.

Open Versus Closed Innovation: A Model of Discovery and Divergence

Esteve Almirall; Ramon Casadesus-Masanell
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(1), 27-47
When is open innovation superior to closed innovation? Through a formal simulation model we show that an open approach to innovation allows the firm to discover combinations of product features that would be hard to envision under integration. However, when partners have divergent goals, open innovation restricts the firm's ability to establish the product's technological trajectory. The resolution of the trade-off between benefits of discovery and costs of divergence determines the best approach to innovation.

What About the Leader in Leader-Member Exchange? The Impact of Resource Exchanges and Substitutability on the Leader

Kelly Schwind Wilson; Hock-peng Sin; Donald E. Conlon
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(3), 358-372
To date, leader-member exchange (LMX) research has primarily examined member outcomes, such as member attitudes and performance. However, little research exists regarding outcomes specific to the leader. Focusing on the leader-member dyad, we develop a framework of leader outcomes resulting from resource exchanges with members. We propose specific resource substitutes and discuss the impact of LMX quality on the leader.

Identification in organizations: The role of self-concept orientations and identification motives

Danielle Cooper; Sherry M. B. Thatcher
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(4), 516-538
We develop an integrative framework that sheds light on managing multiple targets of employee identifications—specifically, coworker, workgroup, and organizational identifications. Drawing from cross-cultural and gender studies, we distinguish between individual tendencies (self-concept orientations) and self-definitions with specific relationships or groups (identifications). We explicate the role of individualist, relationist, and collectivist self-concept orientations, as well as identification motives, on organizationally relevant identifications and conclude with a discussion of the implications for identification in organizations.

Integrating Modernist and Postmodernist Perspectives on Organizations: A Complexity Science Bridge

Max Boisot; Bill McKelvey
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(3), 415-433
Competition between modernism and postmodernism has not been fruitful, and management researchers are divided in their preference, thereby undermining the legitimacy of truth claims in the field as a whole. Drawing on Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety, on complexity science, and in particular on power-law-distributed phenomena, we show how the order-seeking regime of the modernists and the richness-seeking regime of the postmodernists draw on different ontological assumptions that can be integrated within a single overarching framework.

When Worlds Collide: The Internal Dynamics of Organizational Responses to Conflicting Institutional Demands

Anne-Claire Pache; Filipe Santos
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(3), 455-476
Organizations are increasingly subject to conflicting demands imposed by their institutional environments. This makes compliance impossible to achieve, because satisfying some demands requires defying others. Prior work simply suggests that organizations develop strategic responses in such situations. Our key contribution is to provide a more precise model of organizational responses that takes into account intraorganizational political processes. As a result, we identify situations in which conflicting institutional demands may lead to organizational paralysis or breakup.

The Role of the Interlocking Director and Board Receptivity in the Diffusion of Practices

Christine Shropshire
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(2), 246-264
Board interlocks are frequently examined as conduits of practices between firms. I propose that variance among the individual directors who create these linkages affects the likelihood information is transmitted across them. Further, I discuss organizational characteristics that shape how receptive a board is to the diffusion of practices. I conceptualize a model to investigate, first, which directors are more likely to transmit experience or knowledge about organizational practices and, second, what factors influence how that information is received.

That's Our Turf! Identity Domains and Competitive Dynamics

R. Scott Livengood; Rhonda K. Reger
Academy of Management Review 2010 35(1), 48-66
We examine the effects of organizational identity on the competitive dynamics of firms. Identity increases the awareness, motivation, and capability to respond to competitors' actions within the firm's identity domain, defined as cognitive competitive space that holds psychological value for a focal firm's management. Because of the psychological and motivational importance of a firm's identity, we predict that the actions and reactions within an identity domain may not adhere to traditional economically based explanations of managerial behavior.