Knowledge that Transforms

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose that the ownership structure in the cooperative form acts as an environmental buffer. It is a mechanism to obtain stronger linkages with suppliers by internalizing them, and in this way, obtaining fundamental resources. Using this strategy, the cooperative form can isolate itself from adverse environments and from competition from other organizational forms. Although cooperatives have higher survival probability in any economic context, in rival ideological environments they have less support than other organizational forms. To test these ideas, we have chosen data from the Spanish olive oil milling industry for 1944–98. During this period, Spain changed from a dictatorial to a democratic regime and from a self‐subsistence economy in the post civil‐war period to a broad liberal international economy. The results show that, whereas other organizational forms are affected by economic and ideological influences, the cooperative form isolates itself by changing the competition level.

ABSTRACT This study first develops an empirically based Western charismatic leadership profile. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the profile is compared with a profile of Iranian managers. The results demonstrate that despite major cultural differences in the two countries, there are core similarities in the profiles across the two cultures. The Canadian charismatic profile of vision, tenacity, intellectual challenge, self‐sacrifice, and eloquence is substantially confirmed within the Iranian sample. But we also show that Iranian managers’ ratings are significantly lower than those of the Canadian managers, indicating potentially different behavioural manifestations. The paper speculates that while the differences are probably due to cultural differences, the similarities may be due to universal intrinsic human desire for morality, autonomy, and achievement.

ABSTRACT We argue that the challenges faced by threshold firms are deeply rooted in governance characteristics (i.e. the incentives, authority and legitimacy) which imbue them with characteristic capabilities, disabilities and path dependencies. Whereas Zahra and Filatotchev (2004) reason the principal problem facing threshold firms relates to organizational learning and knowledge management, we posit resource acquisition and utilization to be equally important. Moreover, we argue governance theory is more able than a knowledge‐based perspective to explain the root causes of the learning and resource issues faced by threshold firms as well as the complex set of processes involved in their effective management.

ABSTRACTBy building on a knowledge‐based view of the firm, this paper addresses a relatively unexplored area of roles and dynamics of corporate governance in younger, threshold firms that are undergoing a transition from the emergence to the professional management stage. Our analysis is focused on the process of capability development, exploring the effect of the asymmetry in knowledge that often exists between directors and senior managers on the governance of threshold firms. We examine the key sources of this asymmetry, explore ways directors and senior executives learn, and then discuss the implications of this learning on the evolution of governance systems in the threshold firm.

ABSTRACT Although mistakes may have considerable potential for learning, previous research has emphasized that organizational members are often defensive when their mistakes are pointed out and will even continue with their present course of action despite growing costs. Recent research has shown that team‐level variables, such as psychological safety and shared mental model, can help overcome barriers to learning from mistakes. Structural equation analyses on teams working in a sample of organizations in Shanghai, China, suggested that teams were able to learn from their mistakes to the extent that they took a problem solving orientation. This orientation in turn was based on developing cooperative but not competitive goals within the team. Although competitive and independent goals induce blaming, blaming itself was not significantly related to learning. Blaming, especially when conducted openly, may hold individual team members accountable as well as provoke defensiveness. Findings empirically link the theory of cooperation and competition with the organizational learning literature. Results suggest that cooperative goals and problem solving promote learning from mistakes.

abstract In this paper we analyse two of the e‐mail exchanges that had been posted on Royal Dutch/Shell's Web site in order to investigate how organizational identities are constructed through processes of description, questioning, contestation and defence. Organizational identities may be regarded as ongoing arguments between insiders and between ostensible insiders and outsiders, who deploy various persuasive techniques in their efforts to render hegemonic their versions of an organization's identity. Making plausible through persuasive rhetoric is a complex task, and requires a discourse analytic methodology and an analytical focus on whole utterances, in order to explicate how identity‐as‐argument is enacted. The research implications of our paper are twofold. First, by focusing on language as an opaque phenomenon, taken‐for‐granted ways of being persuasive are made strange and hence more visible. Second, our understanding of organizations as situated in ongoing, multi‐focused arguments, illustrates a new way of conceptualizing the polyphonic, genre‐relevant nature of institutional identities.

ABSTRACT Edith Penrose's work has been widely acknowledged to have played a central role in providing the intellectual foundations of the resource‐based view. This position, however, was recently challenged in a paper by Rugman and Verbeke (2002). In this paper we address the three main arguments of Rugman and Verbeke and, by drawing on her writings, demonstrate that their arguments are materially incorrect. While readily conceding that Penrose's primary goal was to explain the growth of firms, we show that her analysis of path‐dependent firm evolution anticipated many key propositions of the resource‐based view.

ABSTRACT Using data collected from executives in 208 organizations, this study takes a configurational approach to examine how human, social, and organizational capital coexist to form distinct intellectual capital profiles across organizations. We then examine how investments in human resource management (HRM), information technology (IT), and research and development (R&D) differ across these intellectual capital profiles and investigate differences in financial returns and Tobin's q between the profiles. Results indicate that a relatively small group of superior performing organizations exhibit high levels of human, social, and organizational capital. Most firms, however, tend to focus primarily on only one form of intellectual capital, and a small group of underperforming organizations have very low levels of all three types of intellectual capital. At a general level, HRM and IT investments appear to influence intellectual capital development more than R&D investments. More specifically, HRM investments tend to be higher in firms with profiles high in human and social capital, while IT investments are stronger in firms with profiles high in social capital. Further, HRM, IT, and R&D investments are all very high in the group of superior performing organizations that have high levels of human, social, and organizational capital.

ABSTRACT Academic management research has a serious utilization problem. In this field mainstream research tends to be description‐driven, based on the paradigm of the ‘explanatory sciences’, like physics and sociology, and resulting in what may be called Organization Theory. This article argues that the relevance problem can be mitigated if such research were to be complemented with prescription‐driven research, based on the paradigm of the ‘design sciences’, like Medicine and Engineering, and resulting in what may be called Management Theory. The typical research products in Management Theory would be ‘field‐tested and grounded technological rules’. The nature of such rules is discussed as well as the research strategies producing them.

abstract Decentralized post‐bureaucratic organizations are deemed to display superior performance in dynamic environments, but recent evidence indicates that centralized integrative cross‐functional processes may be equally critical. Accordingly, this paper hypothesizes that organizational performance can be ascribed to the simultaneous emphasis on decentralized strategy making and strategic planning processes. This is investigated in a study of 185 manufacturing organizations operating in diverse industries spanning food processing and computer products. The study shows that both decentralized decision structure and planning activities are associated with higher performance in dynamic environments. These findings confirm that effective organizations engage in more complex strategy formation processes that complement the decentralized post‐bureaucratic form with formal mechanisms of rational analyses and operational integration. The paper highlights a need to extend our understanding of the duality between decentralization and planning.