Showing papers by "Danny Miller published in 1986"
TL;DR: These authors have derived extremely suggestive conceptual typologies and empirical taxonomies of strategy, focusing on variables that have enjoyed much attention from industrial economists — variables that were shown repeatedly to influence performance; those that can often be manipulated by managers.
Abstract: In recent years the field of business strategy/policy has made some very significant advances. The conceptual work of Porter (1980) and the empirical studies of the PIMS data by Hambrick and his collaborators (1983, 1983a) are among the most interesting. These authors have derived extremely suggestive conceptual typologies and empirical taxonomies of strategy, focusing on variables that have enjoyed much attention from industrial economists — variables that were shown repeatedly to influence performance; those that can often be manipulated by managers. These include differentiation (e.g. innovation, advertising, product quality); cost leadership (capacity utilization, relative direct costs); focus (breadth of product lines, heterogeneity of clientele); and asset parsimony (fixed assets to revenue). Dimensions of market power are also considered (market share rank, barriers to entry, dependence on suppliers and customers), as are performance variables (ROI, earnings variability, growth in market share). The importance of some of these dimensions had already been suggested by Hofer and Schendel (1978) and Henderson (1979).
1,105 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Toulouse et al. examined the relationships of chief executive need for achievement and the traditional contingencies of size, technology, and environmental uncertainty with organizational structure.
Abstract: The authors would like to thank Jean-Marie Toulouse and Jeannine Robichaud for their help with the data gathering and sample design, Richard Germain for his advice and analytical contributions to the LISREL analysis, Morty Yalovsky, Peter H. Friesen, Donald C. Hambrick, Alex Whitmore, and Richard P. Bagozzi for their suggestions, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Government of Quebec FCAC program, respectively, for grants #494-84-0012 and #EQ1 867. A study was undertaken to examine the relationships of chief executive need for achievement and the traditional contingencies of size, technology, and environmental uncertaintywith organizational structure. A number of models relating the structural constructs of formalization, centralization, and integration with their hypothesized determinants were examined using LISREL and multipleregression analyses. CEO need for achievement and size were found to have the strongest relationships to most structural constructs; technology and uncertainty had very little impact on structure. The relationships between need for achievement and structure were usually highest in samples of small and young firms, suggesting that CEO personality might be influencing structure, rather than the reverse.
835 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an empirical investigation of 97 firms was conducted to determine the relationships that three aspects of the chief executive's CEO's personality have with the strategies, structures, decision making methods and performance of their firms.
Abstract: An empirical investigation of 97 firms was conducted to determine the relationships that three aspects of the chief executive's CEO's personality have with the strategies, structures, decision making methods and performance of their firms. CEO flexibility was associated with niche strategies, simple, informal structures, and intuitive, risk-embracing decision making. CEO need for achievement was related to broadly focussed, marketing-oriented strategies, formal and sophisticated structures, and proactive, analytical decision making. Executives with an internal locus of control pursued more product innovation, were more future oriented, and tailored their approaches to the circumstances facing their firms. The relationships between personality and organizational characteristics were found to be by far the strongest in small firms and also somewhat more significant in dynamic environments. Flexibility and locus of control related to corporate performance under certain conditions; need for achievement did not.
807 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employ methods of taxonomy on the PIMS data base of consumer durable business units to determine whether Porter's differentiation, cost leadership and focus types occur with any degree of regularity.
Abstract: Porter's (1980) three generic strategies have received a great deal of attention recently in the literature on strategic management. In this, the first of two papers, we employ methods of taxonomy on the PIMS data base of consumer durable business units to determine whether Porter's differentiation, cost leadership and focus types occur with any degree of regularity. Then, in a sequel paper to appear in O.S. we examine whether the types differ among each other and between types not displaying differentiation or cost leadership in their growth and ROI performance.
444 citations
TL;DR: In a previous paper as discussed by the authors, the links between executive personality and the strategic and organizational orientations of troubled firms were examined, and it was argued that the personality of the top executive could influence strategy only in centralized firms; now, it is believed that this can happen even in decentralized organizations.
Abstract: In a previous paper, the links between executive personality and the strategic and organizational orientations of troubled firms were examined. In the present paper, original typologies of neurotic styles and corporate pathology are used, but the two are related using the concept of organizational culture which provides a useful vehicle for linking personality with strategy. In the previous paper it was argued that the personality of the top executive could influence strategy only in centralized firms; now, it is believed that through culture this can happen even in decentralized organizations. Several sets of hypotheses are generated to formalize this position.
261 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the strategic clusters that emerged from a taxonomy of consumer durable businesses to three strategies suggested by Porter (1980) and discovered clusters that pursued combinations of Porter's differentiation and cost leadership strategies, and also those that did not.
Abstract: In Part I of this paper, published in O.S. 7/1, we compared the strategic clusters that emerged from a taxonomy of consumer durable businesses to three strategies suggested by Porter (1980). We discovered clusters that pursued combinations of Porter's differentiation and cost leadership strategies, and also those that did not. The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of these groups of clusters, discuss the differences in strategic behaviour among them that may explain performance, and elicit some normative implications.
170 citations
01 Dec 1986
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a comprehensive analysis of the pottery produced in a single village in central India, drawing together and analysing a whole range of aspects - technology, function, design, symbolism and ideology - that are usually studied separately.
Abstract: The aim of Artefacts as Categories is to ask what we can learn about a society from the variability of the objects it produces. Dr Miller presents a comprehensive analysis of the pottery produced in a single village in central India, drawing together and analysing a whole range of aspects - technology, function, design, symbolism and ideology - that are usually studied separately. Central to the analysis is the contention that human categorisation processes mediate in the production of all artefacts and that artefacts therefore constitute an essential and much-neglected 'silent' source of evidence which complements the abundant studies of linguistic categories. Using the concepts of 'pragmatics', 'framing', and 'ideology', the author points to the insufficiency of many ethnographic accounts of symbolism and underlines the need to consider both the social positioning of the interpreter and the context of the interpretation when looking at artefacts.
125 citations
TL;DR: A mathematical model is developed to show the way organizations adapt to changing environments, using a Markovian representation and three types of environments are examined to test the implications that the model has for adopting strategies of generalism vs. specialism, concerted ‘quantum’ 71,s.
Abstract: The recent work on organizational configuration and quantum structural change by Miller and Friesen (1984), and on the population ecology of organizations by Hannan and Freeman (1978, 1983) suggests some integral relationships between eiivironments, structure and optimal adaptive strategies. These appear to warrant a more systematic and formal analysis. Towards that end a mathematical model is developed to show the way organizations adapt t o changing environments. Using a Markovian representation, three types of environments are examined t o test the implications that the model has for adopting strategies of generalism vs. specialism, concerted ‘quantum’ 71,s. piecemeal change, and batching changes together vs. changing gradually and promptly.
32 citations