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Thomas C. Powell

Bio: Thomas C. Powell is an academic researcher from University of Oxford. The author has contributed to research in topics: Competitive advantage & Empirical research. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 42 publications receiving 7966 citations. Previous affiliations of Thomas C. Powell include University of New South Wales & Bryant University.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine TQM as a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage, review existing empirical evidence, and report findings from a new empirical study of TQLM's performance consequences.
Abstract: Total Quality Management (TQM) has become, according to one source, ‘as pervasive a part of business thinking as quarterly financial results,’ and yet TQM's role as a strategic resource remains virtually unexamined in strategic management research. Drawing on the resource approach and other theoretical perspectives, this article examines TQM as a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage, reviews existing empirical evidence, and reports findings from a new empirical study of TQM's performance consequences. The findings suggest that most features generally associated with TQM—such as quality training, process improvement, and benchmarking—do not generally produce advantage, but that certain tacit, behavioral, imperfectly imitable features—such as open culture, employee empowerment, and executive commitment—can produce advantage. The author concludes that these tacit resources, and not TQM tools and techniques, drive TQM success, and that organizations that acquire them can outperform competitors with or without the accompanying TQM ideology.

2,696 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the IT literature, developed an integrative, resource-based theoretical framework, and presented results from a new empirical study in the retail industry, and found that IT alone has not produced sustainable performance advantages in retail industry.
Abstract: This paper investigates linkages between information technology (IT) and firm performance. Although showing recent signs of advance, the existing IT literature still relies heavily on case studies, anecdotes, and consultants' frameworks, with little solid empirical work or synthesis of findings. This paper examines the IT literature, develops an integrative, resource-based theoretical framework, and presents results from a new empirical study in the retail industry. The findings show that ITs alone have not produced sustainable performance advantages in the retail industry, but that some firms have gained advantages by using ITs to leverage intangible, complementary human and business resources such as flexible culture, strategic planning-IT integration, and supplier relationships. The results support the resource-based approach, and help to explain why some firms outperform others using the same ITs, and why successful IT users often fail to sustain IT-based competitive advantages.

2,110 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is shown that some organizational alignments do produce supernormal profits, independent of the profits produced by traditional industry and strategy variables, which is consistent with the resource view of the firm: to the extent that alignments result from skill, it is reasonable to regard alignment skill as a strategic resource capable of generating economic rents.
Abstract: In explaining financial performance variance, strategic management researchers and industrial organization economists have emphasized industry factors, market share, generic strategy, and strategic group membership, whereas organizational contingency theorists have emphasized alignments involving environment and internal structure. This study integrates these perspectives, testing the financial performance consequences of organizational alignments, in context with the effects of industry, market share, and strategy. In an empirical study in two manufacturing industries, it is shown that some organizational alignments do produce supernormal profits, independent of the profits produced by traditional industry and strategy variables. The results are consistent with the resource view of the firm: to the extent that alignments result from skill rather than luck, it is reasonable to regard alignment skill as a strategic resource capable of generating economic rents. The article suggests that, by focusing on industry and competitive strategy variables, contemporary industrial organization and strategy research has understated the role of organizational factors in producing sustainable competitive advantage.

877 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The logical and philosophical foundations of the competitive advantage hypothesis are explored, locating its philosophical foundations in the epistemologies of Bayesian induction, abductive inference and an instrumentalist, pragmatic philosophy of science.
Abstract: Strategic management theories invoke the concept of competitive advantage to explain firm performance, and empirical research investigates competitive advantage and describes how it operates. But as a performance hypothesis, competitive advantage has received surprisingly little formal justification, particularly in light of its centrality in strategy research and practice. As it happens, the core hypothesis - that competitive advantage produces sustained superior performance - finds little support in formal deductive or inductive inference, and the leading theories of competitive advantage incorporate refutation barriers that preclude meaningful empirical tests. The logical and philosophical foundations of the competitive advantage hypothesis are explored, locating its philosophical foundations in the epistemologies of Bayesian induction, abductive inference and an instrumentalist, pragmatic philosophy of science.

681 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an alternative sample and a methodology based on executives' perceptions was used to replicate the findings reported in previous studies, with industry factors explaining about 20 percent of overall performance variance.
Abstract: Empirical studies using Federal Trade Commission Line of Business data have reported that industry membership explains between 17 percent and 20 percent of financial performance variance among firms. This study attempts to replicate these findings using an alternative sample and a methodology based on executives' perceptions. The results support those reported in previous studies, with industry factors explaining about 20 percent of overall performance variance. Moreover, the analysis produces empirically derived industry factors, and examines their relative power in explaining industry performance variance.

315 citations


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Posted Content
TL;DR: Deming's theory of management based on the 14 Points for Management is described in Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982 as mentioned in this paper, where he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.
Abstract: 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.

9,241 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of IT as an organizational capability is developed and empirically examining the association between IT capability and firm performance indicates that firms with high IT capability tend to outperform a control sample of firms on a variety of profit and cost-based performance measures.
Abstract: The resource-based view of the firm attributes superior financial performance to organizational resources and capabilities. This paper develops the concept of IT as an organizational capability and empirically examines the association between IT capability and firm performance. Firm specific IT resources are classified as IT infrastructure, human IT resources, and IT-enabled intangibles. A matched-sample comparison group methodology and publicly available ratings are used to assess IT capability and firm performance. Results indicate that firms with high IT capability tend to outperform a control sample of firms on a variety of profit and cost-based performance measures.

4,471 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a contingency view of process management's influence on both technological innovation and organizational adaptation is developed, arguing that while process management activities are beneficial for organizations in stable contexts, they are fundamentally inconsistent with all but incremental innovation and change.
Abstract: We develop a contingency view of process management's influence on both technological innovation and organizational adaptation. We argue that while process management activities are beneficial for organizations in stable contexts, they are fundamentally inconsistent with all but incremental innovation and change. But dynamic capabilities are rooted in both exploitative and exploratory activities. We argue that process management activities must be buffered from exploratory activities and that ambidextrous organizational forms provide the complex contexts for these inconsistent activities to coexist.

3,814 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors formalizes the RBV, answering the causal "how" questions, incorporating the temporal component, and integrating RBV with demand heterogeneity models for strategic management, and outlines conceptual challenges for improving this situation.
Abstract: As a potential theory, the elemental resource-based view (RBV) is not currently a theoretical structure. Moreover, RBV proponents have assumed stability in product markets and eschewed determining resources' values. As a perspective for strategic management, imprecise definitions hinder prescription and static approaches relegate causality to a “black box.” We outline conceptual challenges for improving this situation, including rigorously formalizing the RBV, answering the causal “how” questions, incorporating the temporal component, and integrating the RBV with demand heterogeneity models.

3,634 citations

Posted Content
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray as discussed by the authors, and a good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan's economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker's Rule.
Abstract: The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

3,447 citations