Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 2005"

Creating Something from Nothing: Resource Construction through Entrepreneurial Bricolage:

Abstract: A field study of 29 resource-constrained firms that varied dramatically in their responses to similar objective environments is used to examine the process by which entrepreneurs in resource-poor environments were able to render unique services by recombining elements at hand for new purposes that challenged institutional definitions and limits. We found that Levi-Strauss's concept of bricolage—making do with what is at hand—explained many of the behaviors we observed in small firms that were able to create something from nothing by exploiting physical, social, or institutional inputs that other firms rejected or ignored. We demonstrate the socially constructed nature of resource environments and the role of bricolage in this construction. Using our field data and the existing literature on bricolage, we advance a formal definition of entrepreneurial bricolage and induce the beginnings of a process model of bricolage and firm growth. Central to our contribution is the notion that companies engaging in bri...

Rhetorical Strategies of Legitimacy

Abstract: This paper describes the role of rhetoric in legitimating profound institutional change. In 1997, a Big Five accounting firm purchased a law firm, triggering a jurisdictional struggle within accoun...

Affect and Creativity at Work

Abstract: This study explored how affect relates to creativity at work. Using both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data from the daily diaries of 222 employees in seven companies, we examined the nature, form, and temporal dynamics of the affect-creativity relationship. The results indicate that positive affect relates positively to creativity in organizations and that the relationship is a simple linear one. Time-lagged analyses identify positive affect as an antecedent of creative thought, with incubation periods of up to two days. Qualitative analyses identify positive affect as a consequence of creative thought events, as well as a concomitant of the creative process. A preliminary theory of the affect-creativity cycle in organizations includes each of these links and proposes mechanisms by which they may operate.

Social Networks, the Tertius Iungens Orientation, and Involvement in Innovation:

Abstract: This study examines the microprocesses in the social networks of those involved in organizational innovation and their strategic behavioral orientation toward connecting people in their social network by either introducing disconnected individuals or facilitating new coordination between connected individuals. This tertius iungens (or “third who joins”) strategic orientation, contrasts with the tertius gaudens orientation emphasized in structural holes theory, which concerns the advantage of a broker who can play people off against one another for his or her own benefit. Results of a multimethod study of networks and innovation in an engineering division of an automotive manufacturer show that a tertius iungens orientation, dense social networks, and diverse social knowledge predict involvement in innovation. Implications of the study for innovation and social networks, as well as for social skill and agency within firms are presented.

Power Imbalance, Mutual Dependence, and Constraint Absorption: A Closer Look at Resource Dependence Theory

Abstract: Despite ubiquitous references to Pfeffer and Salancik's classic volume, The External Control of Organizations, resource dependence theory is more of an appealing metaphor than a foundation for test...

The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science

Abstract: There is plenty of evidence to suggest that social network analysis is a flourishing enterprise. Social network analysts have their own international organization, the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA), which sponsors journals and organizes annual meetings for its burgeoning membership; the field has seen a steady accumulation of standard texts and software programs; there is a growing number of academic centers for network training and research; and the publication of social network articles has become almost routine across a range of elite scientific journals. These signs of vitality and respectability have given rise, naturally enough, to questions about the field’s origins, its development, and the reasons for its apparent success. There are some fragmentary notes in circulation that speak to these questions, but to date there has been no comprehensive account of the origins and development of social network analysis. Nor, apparently, was it Linton Freeman’s intent in this book to provide us with one.

Two Routes to Influence: Integrating Leader-Member Exchange and Social Network Perspectives

Abstract: We develop and test a model of the relational antecedents of members' influence in organizations that is based on an integration of leader-member exchange (LMX) and social network perspectives on individuals in organizations. We focus on how the relationships between LMX and members' centrality in the advice network and influence depend on two factors: the extent to which members share ties with their leaders in the organization's trust network, which we define as sponsorship, and the centrality of their leaders in the advice network. Our model seeks to explain how sponsorship and leaders' centrality shape the influence members gain by virtue of their LMX relationships and their centrality in advice networks. Longitudinal data gathered from two organizations, using survey and network measures, offer strong support for a nuanced model of the relational antecedents of influence. Both LMX and members' advice centrality are related to influence, but those relationships in turn depend on sponsorship and leader...

Dancing with Strangers: Aspiration Performance and the Search for Underwriting Syndicate Partners

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce performance feedback models to specify conditions under which organizations' decision makers are more (or less) likely to accept the risk and uncertainty of nonlocal interorganizational partnership ties rather than prefer embedded ties with partners with which they have either past direct or third-party ties. Learning theory suggests that organizations performing far from historical and social aspirations may be more willing to accept the uncertainty and risk of such nonlocal ties with relative strangers. An analysis of Canadian investment banks' underwriting syndicate ties from 1952 to 1990 supports predictions from learning theory and, in addition, indicates that inconsistent performance feedback (i.e., performance above either historical or social aspirations but below the other) triggers the greatest risk taking in selecting partners.

Organizational Identity Orientation: Forging a Link between Organizational Identity and Organizations' Relations with Stakeholders:

Abstract: To better understand the connection between organizational identity and how organizations relate to their stakeholders, this paper introduces the construct of identity orientation, previously applied at the individual-level of analysis, at the organizational-level of analysis and proposes that organizations have three distinct identity orientations: individualistic, relational, and collectivistic. In a field study using qualitative and quantitative methods and including 1,126 participants from 88 organizations in the legal services and non-alcoholic beverage industries, I assess the construct's viability, explore its properties, and analyze its predictors at multiple levels of analysis. Results reveal that organizations' relations with stakeholders constitute a prominent feature of organizational identity, that relations with external and internal stakeholders are perceived as tightly coupled, that both pure and hybrid identity orientation types are relatively common, and that identity orientation varies ...

Keeping it all in the Family: The Role of Particularistic Relationships in Business Group Performance during Institutional Transition

Abstract: We examine the role of particularistic relationships (such as family and prior social ties) in business groups during institutional transition and test how particularistic ties between top leaders affect business group performance in Taiwan, where such ties have been central to the functioning of business groups. We propose that during market-oriented transition, family and prior social ties could improve group performance by providing informal norms that strengthen the intermediation within business groups and that family relationships could reduce strategic restructuring and generate performance benefits. Results of a longitudinal study over 24 years show that market transition enhanced the contribution of family and prior social relationships but not that of common-identity relationships, such as being from the same hometown, which do not involve prior direct personal contact. We also found that during transition, the positive contribution of family members would rise up to a threshold, after which add...

Risky Business? Entrepreneurship in the New Independent-Power Sector

Abstract: Building on sociological research on institutions and organizations and psychological research on risk and decision making, we propose that the development of institutions that reduce the risks of entering new sectors has a stronger effect on the founding rates of firms using novel technologies than on firms using established technologies. In an analysis of the independent-power sector of the electricity industry from 1980 to 1992, we found that the development of regulative and cognitive institutions legitimated the entire sector and provided incentives for all sector entrants; thus, foundings of all kinds of firms multiplied rapidly but had a stronger impact on those using risky novel technologies. In contrast, the central normative institutions that developed in this sector, state-level trade associations, provided greater support for particular forms (those using established technologies) and thus increased foundings of those favored forms more than foundings of less favored forms (those using novel t...

Pluralistic Ignorance in Corporate Boards and Firms' Strategic Persistence in Response to Low Firm Performance:

Abstract: This study examines how a social psychological bias referred to as pluralistic ignorance may occur in corporate boards and how this bias could contribute to strategic persistence in response to rel...

One Foot in Each Camp: The Dual Identification of Contract Workers

Abstract: We examine the organizational identification of contract workers who are associated with two organizations, their primary employer and their client. We conducted a study of contract workers in the information technology industry to address three questions: (1) What are the antecedents of contract workers' identification with the work organizations with which they are associated? (2) Do these antecedents differentially predict identification with each of the target organizations? and (3) What is the relationship between contract workers' identification with their employing organization and their identification with their client organization? Results indicate that contract workers identify with both the employing and client organizations based on perceived characteristics of the organization as well as social relations within the organization. Perceived characteristics of the organization are more closely related with identification with the employer, and social relations variables are more closely related ...

Flow in Knowledge Work: High Performance Experience in the Design of National Security Technology:

Abstract: Knowledge work, which consists of goal-oriented activities that require high levels of competency to complete, comprises a large and increasing amount of work in modern organizations. Because knowl...

Organizational Genealogies and the Persistence of Gender Inequality: The Case of Silicon Valley Law Firms

Abstract: Using a study on foundings of Silicon Valley law firms, I propose and test an organizational theory on the genealogical persistence of gender inequality that emphasizes the routines (or blueprints) and experiences that founders transfer from their parent firms to their new firms. This transfer links the parent firm's gender hierarchy to women's advancement opportunities in the new firm. Founders from parent firms that historically had women in leadership positions, such that female leadership is institutionalized, are more likely to found firms that promote women into prominent positions. Conversely, founders from firms that historically had women in subordinate positions, such that female subordination is institutionalized, are less likely to promote women into prominent positions. Findings are consistent with the theory and also show that the persistence effect is stronger for founders who were previously lower-ranked employees and for founders who institute an organization of work similar to their pare...

Mergers and Acquisitions: Managing Culture and Human Resources:

Abstract: Roughly 20 years ago, Business Week (Prokesch et al., 1985) ran a cover story questioning whether mergers “really worked,” focusing on the extent to which the organizational combination strategy actually enhanced such desired outcomes as market share, profitability, and shareholder value. The analysts’ conclusion was “not very often.” During the subsequent two decades there has been a literal avalanche of work, by scholars and practitioners alike, delving into the nuances, subtleties, and dynamics underlying the merger and acquisition (M&A) process, with an eye toward enhancing our understanding of this complex strategy and improving M&A performance. The literature is too voluminous to even reasonably cite, but a few oft-noted works include Buono and Bowditch (1989), Haspeslagh and Jemison (1991), Hitt, Harrison, and Ireland (2001), Jemison and Sitkin (1986), Mirvis and Marks (1992) and Schweiger (2002). Yet despite all of this work and related intervention, a recent Business Week cover story (Henry and Jespersen, 2002) reached essentially the same conclusion as its 1985 counterpart, pointing out that M&As continue to wreak havoc on organizations, often destroying shareholder value in the process.

The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States

Abstract: Baker, W. E., and R. R. Faulkner 2001 “Interorganizational networks.” In J. A. C. Baum (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Organizations: 520–540. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Brass, D. J., J. Galaskiewicz, H. R. Greve, and W. Tsai 2004 “Taking stock of networks and organizations: A multilevel perspective.” Academy of Management Journal, 47: 795–814. Lincoln, J. R., M. L Gerlach, and C. L. Ahmadjian 1996 “Keiretsu networks and corporate performance in Japan.” American Sociological Review, 61: 67–88. ses show repeated cross sections of whether a given tie was present, which is different from dynamic analysis of tie formation and dissolution. Lincoln and Gerlach make the methodological adjustments necessary to make the findings from a cross-sectional analysis plausible, but a dynamic analysis is still the preferred method because of its greater precision.

Book Review Essay: Promises and Perils at the Bottom of the Pyramid*

Abstract: The World Bank offers us some disquieting news. Four billion people in the world earn less than $2 per day (World Bank, 2002). We learn that 52 percent of the people in China and 86 percent of the people in India live under these circumstances, while no one in the U.S., Japan, or Germany lives in such poverty. Poverty and prosperity live side by side in a very uneasy relationship. The prosperous among us feel called upon to act.

Professionalizing and Masculinizing a Female Occupation: The Reconceptualization of Hospital Administration in the Early 1900s:

Abstract: This paper examines the earliest boundary work for a female-dominated occupation that portrayed men rather than women as the appropriate practitioners. According to the concept of gender primacy, m...

Downsizing in America: Reality, Causes, and Consequences

Abstract: Noting that corporate downsizing in the U.S. deserves more attention—even the ASQ has yet to publish an article on it— the authors of this book propose to offer the “most comprehensive treatment” (p. 5) of the issue to date. They begin by focusing on downsizing trends using various sources, including their data on 133 downsizings between 1993 and 1997. The sources generally link the business cycle to job cuts, which have tended to decrease during economic upturns (the mid-to-later 1980s and the mid-1990s) and to increase during downturns (the early 1990s, the later 1990s, and the early 2000s). Among the 133 firms studied, there is evidence that large (manufacturing) firms have tended to downsize, while smaller (non-manufacturing) ones actually have tended to upsize. There also is evidence that personnel reducers during 1993–1997 have been below the national average on three indicators involving the effects of reductions: change in profits, stock values, and output from 1990 to 1998.

Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural, and Individual Perspectives

Abstract: Research in the work-family or work-life field is interdisciplinary, burgeoning, and growing exponentially every day. Despite a common substantive focus on the relationships among people’s workplace responsibilities and family and personal lives, this literature diverges wildly by disciplinary style, theoretical assumptions, and quality, as well as by emphasis on basic research versus policy. A tempting response to this cacophony is for researchers in this area to shut out all but a few others who share one’s own disciplinary or theoretical proclivities. Editors Ellen Ernst Kossek and Susan J. Lambert have chosen a different response. In their 23-chapter, 500-plus pages volume, they have composed some polyphony.

The Science Glass Ceiling: Academic Women Scientists and the Struggle to SucceedRosserSue V.. New York: Routledge, 2004. 165 pp. $23.95, paper.

Abstract: In The Science Glass Ceiling, Rosser explores the career progressions and experiences of women faculty in science and engineering disciplines at prestigious research institutions and liberal arts colleges across the country. Drawing on survey and interview data from 1997 to 2000, she recounts the opportunities and challenges faced by these women scientists, particularly in the early stages of their academic careers. In addition to considering general climate issues for women operating in male-dominated disciplines, Rosser gives special attention to the working culture in research laboratories. She considers how the laboratory climate can affect women’s abilities to be successful in their research programs and how women’s presence can ultimately challenge and transform that climate. Rosser’s analysis results in four categories of predominant challenges faced by academic women in the sciences and engineering. Rosser presents these as policy issues, from which she generates a set of recommendations for academic and foundation leaders concerned with attracting women to academic positions in science and engineering and retaining them, once there. Rosser’s approach reflects a recent change in perspective among social researchers and other stakeholders about the salient factors influencing women’s progress in the labor market, specifically in academia. She aims to identify institutional barriers to women’s progress, rather than explaining gender inequality as the consequence of individual choices about work and family balance.

Fragmenting Work: Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies

Abstract: The extent to which functions and tasks previously done under the umbrella of a single organization have been pushed outside that umbrella through outsourcing, vendors, and other relationships is a widespread development not only in the U.S. but increasingly around the world. A widely used term for this development is “disintermediation.” In this volume, the authors examine in detail case studies of such arrangements in the U.K. and the apparent effects they have on employment relationships.

Women's Work: Gender Equality vs. Hierarchy in the Life Sciences:

Abstract: In bureaucratic firms, and increasingly in the courts, the received wisdom is that if management is serious about promoting equal opportunity, it will institute and monitor formal evaluation procedures. These formal procedures are there to guard against subtle and not-so-subtle discrimination processes such as cognitive bias, in-group preferences, attribution errors, network-based social exclusion, harassment, and targeted discrimination. But what happens to equal opportunity when the organizational context is not bureaucratic and hierarchical? It is this question that Smith-Doerr examines in her study of women Ph.D.s’ careers in the life sciences. SmithDoerr’s previous work with Powell, Koput, and others on the networked form of the biotechnology industry provides the substantive focus for answering this question. Life science Ph.D.s typically end up in three destinations: academia, pharmaceutical companies, and, increasingly, biotechnology startups. With a strong mix of historical, qualitative, and quantitative analysis, Smith-Doerr examines the impact of gender on scientists’ careers across these organizational contexts.

Blind Trust: Market Control, Legal Environments, and the Dynamics of Competitive Intensity in the Early American Film Industry, 1893-1920

Abstract: This study of the emergence of the film industry in the U.S. between 1893 and 1920 contributes to the growing literature linking legal environments and population dynamics. This was an era characterized by a shift to active anti-trust policy, which manifested itself in legal action to disband a trust that had dominated the industry, the Motion Pictures Patents Corporation (MPPC). We use archival data to show that mortality was reduced by trust membership and increased with the market share of the trust members. The effects of litigation are varied, with litigation filed by trust members enhancing mortality and litigation filed against trust members decreasing mortality. Analysis of coded headlines from media reports on the emerging industry shows that a shift in the view of the trust in the normative environment toward a more negative view was also associated with decreased mortality. Results also show that learning and the compensatory fitness enjoyed before anti-trust law was enforced prevented the MPPC...

The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology: Innovation, Actors, and Contexts

Abstract: The study of information and communication technology (ICT) in organizations has historically focused on the organizational outcomes of the development, implementation, or use of this technology. Such research has largely focused on how organizations shape and are in turn shaped by technological change. Paralleling this organizational research, however, a plethora of anthropology, sociology, social psychology, political economy, and philosophy theorists have written on ICT change outcomes. Increasingly, a number of commentators have proffered theoretical perspectives that incorporate the congruency between these different approaches, evinced, for example, by the growing popularity of structurational theory or actor network theory. In particular, research that incorporates the human dimension to explain the development, emergence, and use of ICTs epitomizes this more encompassing perspective. Yet, while ICT research in organizations has grown to encompass an increasingly broad field, our knowledge of this technology outside the domain of management and computer science is still limited. Exploring this subject, The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology is an attempt to expand the horizons of mainstream ICT research.

Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation

Abstract: According to Lynn Eden, “Nature is read from inside institutions” (p. 288). When it comes to reading nature in the form of damage produced by nuclear weapons, analysts read nature as behaving predictably when damage from blast pressures is examined, but unpredictably when damage from fire is examined. What analysts fail to see is that this conclusion is an artifact of their own organizational activities. It is driven by self-reinforcing knowledge-laden routines that date back to World War II, not by truths inherent in nature. This differential, path-dependent understanding of blast and fire is at the center of Lynn Eden’s masterful analysis of the incomplete prediction of nuclear weapons damage. This partial understanding is important because the neglected effects of fire appear to be two to five times greater than the effects of blast. To some planners, these larger effects are “gravy.” To others, they seriously understate the lethalness and “collateral damage” of nuclear explosions. To get some idea of the truly unimaginable scale of destruction involved here, if a 300-kiloton bomb exploded 1500 feet above the Pentagon on a clear day (the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15

Corporate Governance and Firm Organization: Microfoundations and Structural Forms

Abstract: In this edited volume, Grandori has an agenda: to show management scholars that traditional economic approaches to corporate governance should and are being challenged in interesting and novel ways. In this collection of articles, scholars adopt a discipline-based approach, drawing on corporate law, organizational theory, or comparative institutional analysis to inform their inquiry. A real contribution stems from this approach because authors speak directly to the limitations of traditional economic approaches by either creatively relaxing oversimplifying assumptions or broadening the inquiry of factors that influence corporate governance or of institutions that complement it.