Capabilities: Structure, Agency, and Evolution

2012 | Organization Science | Citations: 15

Authors: Jacobides, Michael G.; Winter, Sidney G.

Abstract: This paper examines conceptual issues and reviews empirical results bearing on t ... Expand

Abstract: This paper examines conceptual issues and reviews empirical results bearing on the relationship between research approaches emphasizing organizational capabilities and those based in transaction cost economics (TCE)—or in organizational economics more generally. Following a review of conceptual fundamentals—what capability is and why organizations differ in capability—it assesses recent progress toward an integration of the capabilities and transaction cost approaches, primarily in the context of the analysis of vertical structure and related phenomena. This review suggests that progress has been substantial and that the key elements of a promising dynamic synthesis have been identified. The paper then considers issues that call for attention if further progress is to be achieved. The first of these is the role of agency, which must be seen in expansive terms (relative to standard economic rationality) if its evolutionary significance is to be fully appreciated. The second is the role of structure, or more specifically, industry architecture, which affects capability development by way of its effect on the feedback that firms receive. After drawing on the recent financial crisis for an illustration of these ideas, this paper considers the rise of interest in business models as a useful field of application, and it concludes with a discussion of the role of organizational economics (beyond TCE). We argue that, whatever the theoretical perspective at the level of the firm, analyses must reach beyond that level to grasp the important causal forces affecting capability development, firm boundaries, and structural features more generally. Collapse

Topics: business model knowledge base knowledge sharing

Methods: cross sectional research theory development literature study synthesis

Theories: transaction cost economics

Why Pseudonyms? Deception as Identity Preservation Among Jazz Record Companies, 1920--1929

2009 | Organization Science | Citations: 0

Authors: Phillips, Damon J.; Kim, Young-Kyu

Abstract: This paper theoretically and empirically engages the relationship between organi ... Expand

Abstract: This paper theoretically and empirically engages the relationship between organizational identity and deception using the market for early jazz recordings as a setting. In this setting, pseudonyms (where a recording is reissued under a fictitious name) were used deceptively as a way to preserve a firm's identity while selling profitable but identity-threatening products to the mass market. Firms founded in the Victorian Era actively sought alignment with the cultural elite and used pseudonyms to deceive observers into believing that their production of cultural products was consistent with their Victorian Era identity. In effect, pseudonyms allowed these firms to decouple their position in identity space from their position in product space by inflating production of identity-preserving products. Using product data from jazz discographies, record company directories, and record advertisements in major U.S. newspapers, we provide strong empirical evidence that Victorian Era firms were active in using pseudonyms to preserve their identities. Collapse

Topics: pseudonymity advertising management marketing management corporate social responsibility innovation management

Methods: Student's t-test statistical hypothesis test parametric test econometric modeling regression analysis method

THE SUSTAINABILITY OF INDIA’S COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE IN IT OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING

2006 | European Conference On Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Jelassi, Tawfik

Abstract: In an increasingly competitive business environment characterized by more global ... Expand

Abstract: In an increasingly competitive business environment characterized by more globalization, deregulation and technological advances, companies have been looking for ways of differentiating their products and services and also rethinking their business model through leaner operations and reduced costs. In this context, a new practice that has recently gained a lot of attention is the offshore outsourcing of information technology (IT) activities and services. It has become an increasingly attractive proposition to co mpanies and organizations in industrialized countries. The most often cited benefit of such a practice is its cost-effectiveness; i.e., the ability of having business tasks or processes performed in an offshore country (most often in India) at an equal quality but significantly reduced cost than doing them at home. This paper presents the benefits and concerns in IT offshore outsourcing and discusses the sustainability of the comparative advantage that India has as the leading offshoring destination in the world. It argues that the currently low wages of skilled IT staff in India may be eroding over time and companies will be shifting their attention to other value-adding benefits as opposed to looking in offshoring countries for just lower cost provision of IT tasks and services. Collapse

Topics: offshoring productivity IT skill business function

How Organizational Resources Affect Strategic Change and Performance in Turbulent Environments: Theory and Evidence

2001 | Organization Science | Citations: 26

Authors: Kraatz, Matthew S.; Zajac, Edward J.

Abstract: This study examines how historical resource endowments and competencies affect s ... Expand

Abstract: This study examines how historical resource endowments and competencies affect strategic change and its outcomes amid environmental turbulence. Drawing from both behavioral and economics-based literatures, we develop four distinct perspectives regarding the likely effect of resources on strategic change. These four perspectives offer alternative predictions about how and why resource endowments should affect the likelihood or magnitude of strategic change, and how and why they should moderate the relation between strategic change and performance. We examine the predictive power of these four alternative arguments using extensive longitudinal data from a single industry context characterized both by substantial resource heterogeneity and environmental turbulence. Results indicate that organizations possessing greater stocks of historically valuable resources were much less likely to engage in adaptive strategic change, but also that this resource-driven disinclination towards change tended to have a benign or even beneficial effect on performance. We discuss the implications of our theory and findings for the strategic change literature and also for the literature on the resource-based view of the firm. Collapse

Topics: human resource management innovation management competitive advantage organization learning marketing management

Methods: longitudinal research hierarchical linear modeling time series analysis synthesis survival analysis

Theories: dynamic capabilities theory resource based view of the firm organizational theory institutional theory evolutionary theory