Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Companies are increasingly asked to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery, even as economic theory instructs managers to focus on maximizing their shareholders' wealt

Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business:

The central premise of upper echelons theory is that executives' experiences, values, and personalities greatly influence their interpretations of the situations they face and, in turn, affect their choices. At the invitation of the editor, I recap the AMR article in which the theory was originally presented (Hambrick & Mason, 1984), discuss subsequent refinements of the theory, and lay out several promising avenues for future upper echelons research.

Upper Echelons Theory: An Update

Boards of directors serve two important functions for organizations: monitoring management on behalf of shareholders and providing resources. Agency theorists assert that effective monitoring is a function of a board's incentives, whereas resource dependence theorists contend that the provision of resources is a function of board capital. We combine the two perspectives and argue that board capital affects both board monitoring and the provision of resources and that board incentives moderate these relationships.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30040728.pdf

Boards of Directors and Firm Performance: Integrating Agency and Resource Dependence Perspectives

This paper presents a dynamic, firm-level study of the role of network resources in determining alliance formation. Such resources inhere not so much within the firm but reside in the interfirm networks in which firms are placed. Data from extensive fieldwork show that by influencing the extent to which firms have access to information about potential partners, such resources are an important catalyst for new alliances, especially because alliances entail considerable hazards. This study also assesses the importance of firms’ capabilities with alliance formation and material resources as determinants of their alliance decisions. I test this dynamic framework and its hypotheses about the role of time-varying network resources and firm capabilities with comprehensive longitudinal multi-industry data on the formation of strategic alliances by a panel of firms between 1970 and 1989. The results confirm field observations that accumulated network resources arising from firm participation in the network of accumulated prior alliances are influential in firms’ decisions to enter into new alliances. This study highlights the importance of network resources that firms derive from their embeddedness in networks for explaining their strategic behavior. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Network location and learning: the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation

This book provides a sophisticated and informative analysis of the 'inner circle' of top American executives who play a leading role in the international corporate network by promoting a political environment favourable to all business.

The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K.

A behind-the-scenes look at today's kingmakers: institutional investors. Out of the public eye, a small group of professionals--investment experts who handle other people's monies--are exerting ever-greater control over corporate managers, firing CEOs and pushing through 'restructurings' that cost thousands of jobs. Michael Useem's "Investor Capitalism" portrays the quiet, veiled nature of this dance of elephants, and portrays the enormous implications of its results. --John Rekenthaler, Publisher, Morningstar, Inc.

Investor Capitalism : How Money Managers Are Changing the Face of Corporate America

This book illuminates what is really happening in the American workplace. The contributors explain how the widespread restructuring of American firms-usually resulting in a reduction of the workforce to cut costs-has had a profound impact on the lives of workers. The book explains how the new relationship requires high skill levels, but does not provide training for them. Workers themselves now must take charge of their personal development instead of relying on their employers. Their alienation from their firms is compounded by the large disparity between the pay of top managers and that of workers. The future is uncertain, but the authors argue that the traditional relationship between employer and employees will continue to erode.

Change at Work

A quiet revolution came to corporate America during the late 1980s and early 1990S. Large shareholders - pension funds, insurance companies, money managers, and commercial banks - exercised new-found muscle, pressuring senior managers to meet heightened financial expectations by reshaping their organizations. Michael Useem attempts to reveal how those shareholder pressures have transformed the inside structures of many corporations. Useem draws on numerous sources, including interviews with senior managers and intensive studies of seven large corporations representing a range of restructuring experiences and industries - including pharmaceuticals, transportation, chemicals, retailing, electronics, and financial services. He shows that organizational changes have affected many areas of corporate life: headquarters staffs have been reduced, authority has filtered down to operating units, and compensation has become more closely tied to performance. Change also extends to corporate governance, where managers have sought legal safeguards against takeovers and board terms have been staggered. Companies have made significant commitments to building more effective relations with their major investors. As Useem demonstrates, this revolution has reached even beyond the corporation, influencing American politics and law. As new ownership alignment has caused companies to focus attention on shareholders, corporate political agendas have shifted from fighting government regulation to resisting shareholder intrusion. This book aims to be useful reading for managers, economists, lawyers, financial analysts, and all observers of American business.

Michael Useem

Papers

The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K.

Investor Capitalism : How Money Managers Are Changing the Face of Corporate America

Change at Work

Executive Defense: Shareholder Power and Corporate Reorganization

The impact of corporate outsourcing on company value