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

According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

This paper reviews the literature on gender differences in economic experiments. In the three main sections, we identify robust differences in risk preferences, social (other-regarding) preferences, and competitive preferences. We also speculate on the source of these differences, as well as on their implications. Our hope is that this article will serve as a resource for those seeking to understand gender differences and to use as a starting point to illuminate the debate on gender-specific outcomes in the labor and goods markets.

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Gender Differences in Preferences

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:

Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3094223.pdf

Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning

Most theorizing on the relationship between corporate social/environmental performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) assumes that the current evidence is too fractured or too variable to draw any generalizable conclusions. With this integrative, quantitative study, we intend to show that the mainstream claim that we have little generalizable knowledge about CSP and CFP is built on shaky grounds. Providing a methodologically more rigorous review than previous efforts, we conduct a meta-analysis of 52 studies (which represent the population of prior quantitative inquiry) yielding a total sample size of 33,878 observations. The meta-analytic findings suggest that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility is likely to pay off, although the operationalizations of CSP and CFP also moderate the positive association. For example, CSP appears to be more highly correlated with accounting-based measures of CFP than with market-based ...

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Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Observers have long noted a considerable gap between organizational research findings and management practices. Although volumes have been written about the probable causes and consequences of this gap, surprisingly little empirical evidence exists concerning the various viewpoints. The articles in this forum provide data on the role of academic-practitioner relationships in both generating and disseminating knowledge across boundaries. The contributions of each article are summarized in light of recent theories of knowledge creation, and suggestions are made for increasing the value and relevance of future research to both academics and practitioners.

Across the Great Divide: Knowledge Creation and Transfer Between Practitioners and Academics

Excerpt] "Technology in employee selection is more highly developed than in recruiting or placement; therefore, the major emphasis is on selection Recruiting or placement are not less important processes; to the contrary, they probably are more vital and more profitable to the organization. An organization's success in recruiting defines the applicant population with which it will work; selection is more pleasant, if not easier, when any restriction of range or skewness of distribution is attributable to an overabundance of well-qualified applicants... Unfortunately,the contributions and confusions of the literature, the central social pressures, and the facts of contemporary practice conspire to place the emphasis on selection" (pp. 777779)

Recruitment, Job Choice, and Post-Hire Consequences: A Call For New Research Directions

Recent literature reviews have called into question the impact of recruitment activities on applicants’job choices. However, most previous findings have been based on cross-sectional ratings obtained immediately after initial screening interviews, thus raising questions about the degree to which prior conclusions are bound to that particular methodology. In contrast, the present study used longitudinal structured interviews to let job seekers explain, in their own words, how they made critical job search and choice decisions. Interview transcripts revealed that recruitment practices played a variety of roles in job seeker decisions. For example, consistent with signaling theory, subjects interpreted a wide variety of recruitment experiences (recruiter competence, sex composition of interview panels, recruitment delays) as symbolic of broader organizational characteristics. In addition, a number of “contingency” variables emerged that seemed to affect the perceived signaling value of recruitment experiences (e.g., prior knowledge of the company, functional area of the recruiter). Also notable were the strongly negative effects of recruitment delays, particularly among male students with higher grade point averages and greater job search success. Finally, our results suggest that certain applicant reactions may be systematically related to sex, work experience, grade point average, and search success. The article concludes with practical and research implications.

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The Importance of Recruitment in Job Choice: A Different Way of Looking

Labor shortages, which are predicted to last into the next century, are expected to increase the importance of applicant attraction for organizations. Unfortunately, previous research has provided little unified theory or operational guidance for organizations that are confronted with such difficulties. In part, this is because much research has been framed from the applicant's, rather than the organization's, perspective. In addition, attraction-related theories and research are scattered across a variety of literatures, and often are identified with other topics (e.g., wage, motivation, or discrimination theories). Drawing on multiple literatures, this article develops a model of applicant attraction from the organization's perspective, which (a) outlines three strategies for enhancing applicant attraction, (b) proposes categories of contingency factors that are expected to affect the choice (and potential effectiveness) of alternative strategies, (c) suggests probable interrelationships among the strat...

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Sara L. Rynes

Papers

Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Across the Great Divide: Knowledge Creation and Transfer Between Practitioners and Academics

Recruitment, Job Choice, and Post-Hire Consequences: A Call For New Research Directions

The Importance of Recruitment in Job Choice: A Different Way of Looking

Applicant Attraction Strategies: An Organizational Perspective