Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 2007"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use behavioral theory to show that family firms are risk-averse and risk-wary at the same time, and that the predictions of behavioral theory differ depending on family ownership.
Abstract: This paper challenges the prevalent notion that family-owned firms are more risk averse than publicly owned firms. Using behavioral theory, we argue that for family firms, the primary reference point is the loss of their socioemotional wealth, and to avoid those losses, family firms are willing to accept a significant risk to their performance; yet at the same time, they avoid risky business decisions that might aggravate that risk. Thus, we propose that the predictions of behavioral theory differ depending on family ownership. We confirm our hypotheses using a population of 1,237 family-owned olive oil mills in Southern Spain who faced the choice during a 54-year period of becoming a member of a cooperative, a decision associated with loss of family control but lower business risk, or remaining independent, which preserves the family's socioemotional wealth but greatly increases its performance hazard. As shown in this study, family firms may be risk willing and risk averse at the same time.
2,978 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used unobtrusive measures of the narcissism of chief executive officers (CEOs) such as the prominence of the CEO's photograph in annual reports, CEO's prominence in press releases, and CEO's...
Abstract: This study uses unobtrusive measures of the narcissism of chief executive officers (CEOs)—the prominence of the CEO's photograph in annual reports, the CEO's prominence in press releases, the CEO's...
1,520 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the influence of brokerage versus cohesive collaborative social structures on an individual's creativity, and test the hypothesis that brokerage leads to greater collaborative creativity, when collaborators have independent ties between themselves that do not include the individual, and argue for contingent benefits based on the interaction of structure with attributes, career experiences, and extended networks of individuals and their collaborators.
Abstract: Analyzing data on utility patents from 1975 to 2002 in the careers of 35,400 collaborative inventors, this study examines the influence of brokered versus cohesive collaborative social structures on an individual's creativity. We test the hypothesis that brokerage—direct ties to collaborators who themselves do not have direct ties to each other—leads to greater collaborative creativity. We then test interaction hypotheses on the marginal benefits of cohesion, when collaborators have independent ties between themselves that do not include the individual. We identify the moderators of brokerage and argue for contingent benefits, based on the interaction of structure with the attributes, career experiences, and extended networks of individuals and their collaborators. Using a social definition of creative success, we also trace the development of creative ideas from their generation through future use by others. We test the hypothesis that brokered ideas are less likely to be used in future creative efforts....
1,000 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that entrepreneurs are more likely to acquire resources for new ventures if they perform symbolic actions, actions in which the actor displays or tries to draw other people's attention to the meaning of an object or action that goes beyond the object's or action's intrinsic content or functional use.
Abstract: Results of a two-year inductive field study of British ventures show that entrepreneurs are more likely to acquire resources for new ventures if they perform symbolic actions—actions in which the actor displays or tries to draw other people's attention to the meaning of an object or action that goes beyond the object's or action's intrinsic content or functional use. We identify four symbolic action categories that facilitate resource acquisition: conveying the entrepreneur's personal credibility, professional organizing, organizational achievement, and the quality of stakeholder relationships. Our data show that entrepreneurs who perform a variety of symbolic actions from these categories skillfully and frequently obtain more resources than those who do not. Our data also suggest three factors—structural similarity, intrinsic quality, and uncertainty—that moderate the relationship between symbolic management and resource acquisition. We theorize how the various symbolic action categories shape different ...
877 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of two dimensions of organizational interdependence on the performance of those relationships in two major U.S. auto manufacturers, and found that organizational interdependency was a significant predictor of performance of procurement relationships.
Abstract: This study of the procurement relationships of two major U.S. auto manufacturers examines the effects of two dimensions of organizational interdependence on the performance of those relationships f...
850 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the effect of protests on abnormal stock price returns, an indicator of investors' reactions to a focal event, and found that protests are more influential when they target issues dealing with critical stakeholder groups, such as labor or consumers, and when generating greater media coverage.
Abstract: This paper uses social movement theory to examine one way in which secondary stakeholders outside the corporation may influence organizational processes, even if they are excluded from participating in legitimate channels of organizational change. Using data on activist protests of U.S. corporations during 1962–1990, we examine the effect of protests on abnormal stock price returns, an indicator of investors' reactions to a focal event. Empirical analysis demonstrates that protests are more influential when they target issues dealing with critical stakeholder groups, such as labor or consumers, and when generating greater media coverage. Corporate targets are less vulnerable to protest when the media has given substantial coverage to the firm prior to the protest event. Past media attention provides alternative information to investors that may contradict the messages broadcast by protestors.
635 citations
TL;DR: An agent-based computer simulation model of information sharing in which the less successful emulate the more successful suggests that when agents are dealing with a complex problem, the more efficient the network at disseminating information, the better the short-run but the lower the long-run performance of the system.
Abstract: Whether as team members brainstorming or cultures experimenting with new technologies, problem solvers communicate and share ideas. This paper examines how the structure of communication networks among actors can affect system-level performance. We present an agent-based computer simulation model of information sharing in which the less successful emulate the more successful. Results suggest that when agents are dealing with a complex problem, the more efficient the network at disseminating information, the better the short-run but the lower the long-run performance of the system. The dynamic underlying this result is that an inefficient network maintains diversity in the system and is thus better for exploration than an efficient network, supporting a more thorough search for solutions in the long run. For intermediate time frames, there is an inverted-U relationship between connectedness and performance, in which both poorly and well-connected systems perform badly, and moderately connected systems perf...
597 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the effect of structural holes in four high-tech companies in China and assess whether they confer the benefits to individuals occupying the brokering position in a career network.
Abstract: In this paper, we bring structural holes theory to different cultural contexts by studying the effect of structural holes in four high-tech companies in China and assessing whether they confer the benefits to individuals occupying the brokering position in a career network that have been found in Western contexts. On the level of national culture, we propose that the typical collectivistic culture of China will dampen the effects of structural holes. On the organizational level, we propose that in organizations that foster a high-commitment culture—a culture that emphasizes mutual investment between people—the control benefits of structural holes are dissonant with the dominant spirit of cooperation, and the information benefits of structural holes cannot materialize due to the communal-sharing values in such organizations. Empirical results of network surveys confirm our hypotheses, and interview data add depth to our explanations. Brokers do not fit with the collectivistic values of China. Further, the ...
566 citations
TL;DR: Using a study of the relationship between bureaucratic work environments and individual rates of entrepreneurship, this article revisited a fundamental premise of sociological approaches to entrepreneurship, which is that "nothing is static".
Abstract: Using a study of the relationship between bureaucratic work environments and individual rates of entrepreneurship, I revisit a fundamental premise of sociological approaches to entrepreneurship, na...
434 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined whether political network ties can also be a significant factor in a company's performance and found that they have a positive value or no value, depending on whether the company's ties to political networks have positive or negative value.
Abstract: Though prior research has suggested that a company's ties to political networks have only a positive value or no value, this study examines whether political network ties can also be a significant
413 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the political and institutional influences that lead organizational decision makers to avoid terminating unsuccessful investments, even when there is competition and they have the incentive to do so.
Abstract: This study focuses on the political and institutional influences that lead organizational decision makers to avoid terminating unsuccessful investments, even when there is competition and they have...
TL;DR: This paper used electronic name tags to conduct a fine-grained analysis of the pattern of socializing dynamics at a mixer attended by about 100 business people, to examine whether individuals in such minimally structured social events can initiate new and different contacts, despite the tendency to interact with those they already know or who are similar to them.
Abstract: We used electronic name tags to conduct a fine-grained analysis of the pattern of socializing dynamics at a mixer attended by about 100 business people, to examine whether individuals in such minimally structured social events can initiate new and different contacts, despite the tendency to interact with those they already know or who are similar to them. The results show that guests did not mix as much as might be expected in terms of making new contacts. They were much more likely to encounter their pre-mixer friends, even though they overwhelmingly stated before the event that their goal was to meet new people. At the same time, guests did mix in the sense of encountering others who were different from themselves in terms of sex, race, education, and job. There was no evidence of homophily (attraction to similar others) in the average encounter, although it did operate for some guests at some points in the mixer. Results also revealed a phenomenon that we call “associative homophily,” in which guests w...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) races to examine how competitive crowding affects the risk-taking conduct of actors in a tournament.
Abstract: This article uses National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) races to examine how competitive crowding affects the risk-taking conduct of actors in a tournament. We develop three claims: (1) crowding from below, which measures the number of competitors capable of surpassing a given actor in a tournament-based contest, predisposes that actor to take risks; (2) as a determinant of risky conduct, crowding from below has a stronger influence than crowding from above, which captures the opportunity to advance in rank; and (3) the effect of crowding from below is strongest after the rank ordering of the actors in a tournament becomes relatively stable, which focuses contestants' attention on proximately ranked competitors. Using panel data on NASCAR's Winston Cup Series from 1990 through 2003, we model the probability that a driver crashes his car in a race. Findings show that drivers crash their vehicles with greater frequency when their positions are increasingly at risk of displacement by their ...
TL;DR: The authors examined newcomers' cognitive change processes in two investment banks during their socialization, and examined how the two banks managed the duration of junior employees' socialization in a two-year study.
Abstract: This paper examines newcomers' cognitive change processes in two investment banks during their socialization A two-year ethnographic study examines how the two banks managed the duration of junior
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed and tested a model of the effectiveness of selection processes in eliminating less fit organizations from a population when organizations are undergoing adaptive change, and evaluated the model's effectiveness.
Abstract: This paper develops and tests a model of the effectiveness of selection processes in eliminating less fit organizations from a population when organizations are undergoing adaptive change. Stable o...
Abstract: This paper examines the influence of the structural positions of different demographic groups in the science and engineering labor force on their access to the allocation of favorable work experiences and their effect on decisions about the evaluation of their performance. Our hypotheses challenge assumptions in the management literature that each group will necessarily express ingroup bias and outgroup derogation. Instead, we call attention to the status hierarchy that develops from status construction processes, the prototypicality that emerges from social categorization processes, and a framework of stereotype content that is based on an analysis of structural positions among groups in the society. Using hierarchical linear modeling with survey data from scientists and engineers in research and development in 24 major corporations, we find that U.S.-born white males, who constitute the normative ingroup, receive advantages in both allocation and evaluation decisions from all evaluators, not just from o...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a social movement framework of organizational political dynamics that focuses on political interactions between two sets of actors in an organization to explain the micro-foundation underlying the decline and emergence of organizational practices in an organizational field.
Abstract: This paper explores why and how organizations respond to external pressures for institutional change in terms of organizational political dynamics. The focus on organizational political dynamics is important in understanding a period of institutional change when multiple groups of actors are involved in the dynamic political processes of promoting each group's goals, interests, ideologies, and institutional logic. We propose a social movement framework of organizational political dynamics that focuses on political interactions between two sets of actors—incumbents and challengers—in an organization to explain the micro-foundation underlying the decline and emergence of organizational practices in an organizational field. A longitudinal study of changes in the presidential selection systems of Korean universities illustrates how organizational political dynamics between incumbents (a board of trustees at a private university or government agents at a public university) and challengers (faculty councils) sh...
TL;DR: Brokerage and closure as discussed by the authors is a complementary mechanism for producing social capital, where brokers who bridge holes will have "vision" advantages and will consequently be more creative and effective, while closed social networks in which everybody knows everybody create powerful social conditions that promote mutual trust.
Abstract: Brokerage and Closure builds on and extends the central themes developed in Ron Burt’s (1992) innovative and widely read book, Structural Holes. In the earlier book, he argued that social networks that bridged “holes” in social structure accrued information advantages by generating fresh perspectives and information. Counterintuitively, he suggested that dense social networks could short-circuit information flow because many of the information sources in a dense network are redundant. To maximize the flow of information, Burt advised managers to minimize the redundancy of their information networks by increasing the number of structural holes they bridged. Brokerage and Closure continues this theme, arguing that the brokers who bridge holes will have “vision” advantages and will consequently be more creative and effective. At the same time, the new book also greatly refines the earlier argument by incorporating the opposing network mechanism of closure. Closed social networks in which everybody knows everybody, Burt argues, create powerful social conditions that promote mutual trust. In Brokerage and Closure, Burt integrates these two network mechanisms under the broader banner of social capital research. His central argument is that brokerage and closure are complementary mechanisms for producing social capital.
TL;DR: The emerging production regime in these companies is often viewed as consisting of the diffusion of high performance work organizations within firms and of collaborative relationships across firms, especially between the major manufacturers and the multiple tiers of suppliers with whom they contract.
Abstract: The rules of engagement in the global economy and the fragmentation of mass markets have led many manufacturing companies to close down operations in the U.S. Those that survive have done so by focusing on their core competencies in design, marketing, and assembly, subcontracting the manufacture of components to smaller contractors, many still in the U.S. The emerging production regime in these companies is often viewed as consisting of the diffusion of “high performance work organizations” within firms and of collaborative relationships across firms, especially between the major manufacturers—the original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs—and the multiple tiers of suppliers with whom they contract. Skeptics note that old-fashioned, often hostile, arm’s-length contracting between OEMs and suppliers continues to prevail.
TL;DR: The centennial of the first publication of the 1911 Principles of Scientific Management (PWS) has been celebrated in the last few years as discussed by the authors, with a focus on Taylor and his influence on scientific management.
Abstract: Frederick Winslow Taylor continues to fascinate us, as the centennial of his 1911 Principles of Scientific Management approaches. His powerful influence has not been in dispute. Peter Drucker (1954: 280) identified scientific management as “the most powerful as well as the most lasting contribution America has made to Western thought since the Federalist Papers.” But to generations of social scientists introduced to scientific management by Braverman’s (1974) influential Labor and Monopoly Capital, Taylor was often cast as the villain who fostered the separation of conception from execution that impoverished the working experience of multitudes. Recent treatments are more even-handed, highlighting Taylor’s utopian idealism as well as his drive to control work and workers and documenting how his ideas diffused far more widely than his specific scientific management methods.
TL;DR: In this article, a collection of essays on China's domestic private firms is presented, focusing on the characteristics of these private firms and the implications of their development, which will serve as a standard reference and point of departure for future research in this area for years to come.
Abstract: The editors of this volume had a mission in mind when they assembled this collection of essays on China’s domestic private firms: they felt that a lack of understanding of this type of firm would be detrimental to a clear appreciation of China’s recent economic growth. After all, the domestic private sector accounts for more than one third of the country’s gross domestic product, employs a third of the labor force, and is rapidly expanding (p. 6), yet social scientific research has largely focused on the state-owned enterprises and foreignfunded firms operating in the country. What are the characteristics of these domestic private firms? How did they emerge so successfully? What are the implications of their development? These are the main questions the chapters address. The book will find its natural audiences in those interested in China’s economic dynamics, managerial practice, state-firm relationship in particular, and social transformation in general. By bringing together scholarship from three disciplines—sociology, economics, and management— the volume takes stock of the extant social scientific knowledge on the subject and, more importantly, looks ahead. It will serve as a standard reference and point of departure for future research in this area for years to come.
TL;DR: In this article, a collection of lectures on gender inequality presented at Cornell University by leading economists and sociologists in the field offers fresh insight into the composition, history, and persistence of gender inequality over the past halfcentury.
Abstract: Is gender inequality and the gender pay gap old news? Hardly, according to this engaging volume edited by Francine Blau, Mary Brinton, and David Grusky. Assembled from a series of lectures on gender inequality presented at Cornell University by leading economists and sociologists in the field, this collection offers fresh insight into the composition, history, and persistence of gender inequality over the past halfcentury. While the volume’s primary focus is to provide an up-to-date assessment of the status of the gender pay gap, its other central aim is to evaluate whether the elimination of inequality can be anticipated in the foreseeable future.
TL;DR: In this article, Hughes examines the motivations, satisfaction, and financial consequences for self-employed women as well as Canadian policies toward self-employment, and situates her book in the context of larger debates of economic restructuring, debates over the polarization of good and bad jobs, and the individualization of risk.
Abstract: Self-employment accounted for 58 percent of all job growth in Canada in the 1990s, and over a third of those selfemployed were women, the highest among all industrialized countries in 2001. In Female Enterprise in the New Economy, Karen Hughes seeks to understand whether these high numbers offer women a means of bypassing gender segregation or represent increased marginalization. As a result of polarization among the self-employed, the answer seems to be both. In four major chapters, Hughes examines the motivations, satisfaction, and financial consequences for self-employed women as well as Canadian policies toward self-employment. She situates her book in the context of larger debates of economic restructuring, debates over the polarization of good and bad jobs, and the individualization of risk.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combine the analyses from their recent papers with a theoretical overview and several sets of supplemental analyses that provide greater detail on the correlates of entrepreneurship and economic growth.
Abstract: Zoltan Acs has been one of the most prolific contributors to the literature describing regional variation in entrepreneurship and innovation rates, having written dozens of articles on these issues. Following in this line, Entrepreneurship, Geography, and American Economic Growth, written together with Catherine Armington, combines the analyses from their recent papers with a theoretical overview and several sets of supplemental analyses that provide greater detail on the correlates of entrepreneurship and economic growth.
TL;DR: McKenna et al. as discussed by the authors studied the role of management consultants in the last fifty years and found that 97 percent of the top 200 companies in the U.K. and U.S. have used management consultants.
Abstract: Management consultants are a significant social and economic force. Few people, whether as citizens or members of organizations, will have escaped the impact of their interventions. A survey revealed that 97 percent of the top 200 companies in the U.K. and U.S. have used management consultants. The spectacular growth of the industry in the last fifty years is evidenced by the fact that somewhere in the region of 80 percent of firms currently operating were established after 1980. The ratio of consultants to managers, as this book demonstrates, has grown from one to a hundred in 1965 to one to thirteen in 1995. In this clearly written and insightful book, McKenna seeks to answer the question of how “the leading consulting firms come to achieve such a dominant economic and cultural position” (p. 7) by the end of the twentieth century.
TL;DR: In his discussion of the ethics of politicians, Weber (1958: 120) argued that all ethically oriented conduct may be guided by one of two fundamentally differing and irreconcilably opposed maxims: conduct can be oriented to an 'ethic of ultimate ends' or 'ethics of responsibility'.
Abstract: In his discussion of the ethics of politicians, Weber (1958: 120) argued that “all ethically oriented conduct may be guided by one of two fundamentally differing and irreconcilably opposed maxims: conduct can be oriented to an ‘ethic of ultimate ends’ or to an ‘ethic of responsibility.’” Despite the seeming “abysmal contrast” between the two maxims, Weber (1958: 127) argued that they are “not absolute contrasts but rather supplements, which only in union constitute a genuine man—a man who can have the ‘calling for politics.’” International businesses today face a similar ethical dilemma. Increasing globalization of the economy has obliged international businesses to interact regularly with people with diverse and often conflicting moral views. Operating in a morally diverse world, in turn, poses a unique challenge to international businesses that try to be culturally sensitive and relevant (an ethic of responsibility), while not compromising their own core values (an ethic of ultimate ends). In responding to the challenge, most business ethicists resort either to an absolutist approach based on the ethic of ultimate ends or a relativist approach based on the ethic of responsibility.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a simulation model for organizational culture and demography that is fully embedded in the literature and is a parsimonious model of a complex phenomenon, and they explain the model fully so that it can be replicated and validated.
Abstract: Harrison and Carroll have written an invaluable book on organizational culture. They inform us about organizational culture and demography through a synthesis that gives us new insights on what culture is and how it can be managed. The perspective is that of the manager: namely, the manager can change the selectivity and rate of hiring and departures, as well as his or her own socialization efforts. The simulation model they develop is fully embedded in the literature and is a parsimonious model of a complex phenomenon. Harrison and Carroll explain the model fully so that it can be replicated and validated. Finally, the model and the experimental design are carefully crafted, so we can have confidence that the results mean what the authors conclude they mean. In short, Harrison and Carroll have contributed greatly to our understanding of culture and demography and to the methodology of our science.