Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage

Building Theories From Case Study Research - This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.

Building theories from case study research

�Traditional, hierarchical views of leadership are less and less useful given the complexities of our modern world. Leadership theory must transition to new perspectives that account for the complex adaptive needs of organizations. In this paper, we propose that leadership (as opposed to leaders) can be seen as a complex dynamic process that emerges in the interactive “spaces between” people and ideas. That is, leadership is a dynamic that transcends the capabilities of individuals alone; it is the product of interaction, tension, and exchange rules governing changes in perceptions and understanding. We label this a dynamic of adaptive leadership, and we show how this dynamic provides important insights about the nature of leadership and its outcomes in organizational fields. We define a leadership event as a perceived segment of action whose meaning is created by the interactions of actors involved in producing it, and we present a set of innovative methods for capturing and analyzing these contextually driven processes. We provide theoretical and practical implications of these ideas for organizational behavior and organization and management theory.

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Building theories from case study research.

Scholars of the theory of the firm have begun to emphasize the sources and conditions of what has been described as “the organizational advantage,” rather than focus on the causes and consequences of market failure. Typically, researchers see such organizational advantage as accruing from the particular capabilities organizations have for creating and sharing knowledge. In this article we seek to contribute to this body of work by developing the following arguments: (1) social capital facilitates the creation of new intellectual capital; (2) organizations, as institutional settings, are conducive to the development of high levels of social capital; and (3) it is because of their more dense social capital that firms, within certain limits, have an advantage over markets in creating and sharing intellectual capital. We present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/259373.pdf

Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage

This article discusses the research strategy of theory building from cases, particularly multiple cases. Such a strategy involves using one or more cases to create theoretical constructs, propositions, and/or midrange theory from case-based, empirical evidence. Replication logic means that each case serves as a distinct experiment that stands on its own merits as an analytic unit. The frequent use of case studies as a research strategy has given rise to some challenges that can be mitigated by the use of very precise wording and thoughtful research design.

Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges

1. Introduction. 2. Contemporary Views of the Manager's Job. 3. Some Distinguishing Characteristics of Managerial Work. 4. The Manager's Working Roles. 5. Variations in Managers' Work. 6. Science and the Manager's Job. 7. The Future of Managerial Work. Appendix A: Major Studies of the Manager's Job. Appendix B: Seven Research Methods Used to Study Managerial Work. Appendix C: A Study of the Work of Five Chief Executives.

The nature of managerial work

This [reading] argues that […] spans of control, types of formalization and decentralization, planning systems, and matrix structures should not be picked and chosen independently, the way a shopper picks vegetables at the market or a diner a meal at a buffet table. Rather, these and other parameters of organizational design should logically configure into internally consistent groupings. Like most phenomena — atoms, ants, and stars — characteristics of organizations appear to fall into natural clusters, or configurations.

/pdf/the-structuring-of-organizations-1mm850dft3.pdf

The Structuring of Organizations

How do strategies form in organizations? Research into the question is necessarily shaped by the underlying conception of the term. Since strategy has almost inevitably been conceived in terms of what the leaders of an organization ‘plan’ to do in the future, strategy formation has, not surprisingly, tended to be treated as an analytic process for establishing long-range goals and action plans for an organization; that is, as one of formulation followed by implementation. As important as this emphasis may be, we would argue that it is seriously limited, that the process needs to be viewed from a wider perspective so that the variety of ways in which strategies actually take shape can be considered.

http://sjbae.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/58197561/mintzberg_waters_1985.pdf

Of strategies, deliberate and emergent

Henry Mintzberg, Duru Raisinghani, and Andre Theoret A field study of 25 strategic decision processes, together with a review of the related empirical literature, suggests that a basic structure underlies these \"unstructured\" processes. This structure is described in terms of 12 elements: 3 central phases, 3 sets of supporting routines, and 6 sets of dynamic factors. This paper discusses each of these elements in turn, and then proposes a general model to describe the interrelationships among them. The 25 strategic decision processes studied are then shown to fall into 7 types of path configurations through the model.'

The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes

Acknowlegdements xv A Note to the Reader xvii Introduction: The "Planning School" in Context 1 1.Planning and Strategy 5 2.Models of the Strategic Planning Process 35 3. Evidence on Planning 91 4. Some Real Pitfalls of Planning 159 5.Fundamental Fallacies of Strategic Planning 221 6. Planning, Plan, Planners 323 References 417 Index 445 About the Author 459

Henry Mintzberg

Papers

The nature of managerial work

The Structuring of Organizations

Of strategies, deliberate and emergent

The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes

The rise and fall of strategic planning