Showing papers on "Strategic planning published in 2011"

Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement

Abstract: "Strategic planning is an important function in nonprofit and public organizations, and leaders are continually striving to increase efficiency and effectiveness. In this fourth edition of his perennial bestseller Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Bryson provides the most updated version of his thoughtful strategic planning model and outlines the reasons public and nonprofit organizations must embrace strategic planning to improve their performance. The book offers leaders, managers, and students detailed guidance on implementing the process, and specific tools and techniques to make the process work"--

Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Abstract: Strategic planning is a deliberative, disciplined approach to producing fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it. Strategic planning is not a substitute for strategic thinking, acting, and learning, or for leadership. Instead, strategic planning is a leadership tool meant to enhance strategic thinking, acting, and learning. Strategic planning can produce several benefits, but there is no guarantee that it will. There are a variety of approaches to strategic planning; some approaches emphasize process, while others emphasize content. Strategic management is a broader concept that links planning and implementation.

Smart card data use in public transit: A literature review

Abstract: Smart card automated fare collection systems are being used more and more by public transit agencies. While their main purpose is to collect revenue, they also produce large quantities of very detailed data on onboard transactions. These data can be very useful to transit planners, from the day-to-day operation of the transit system to the strategic long-term planning of the network. This review covers several aspects of smart card data use in the public transit context. First, the technologies are presented: the hardware and information systems required to operate these tools; and privacy concerns and legal issues related to the dissemination of smart card data, data storage, and encryption are addressed. Then, the various uses of the data at three levels of management are described: strategic (long-term planning), tactical (service adjustments and network development), and operational (ridership statistics and performance indicators). Also reported are smart card commercialization experiments conducted all over the world. Finally, the most promising research avenues for smart card data in this field are presented; for example, comparison of planned and implemented schedules, systematic schedule adjustments, and the survival models applied to ridership.

A multi-objective optimization for green supply chain network design

Abstract: In this paper, we study a supply chain network design problem with environmental concerns. We are interested in the environmental investments decisions in the design phase and propose a multi-objective optimization model that captures the trade-off between the total cost and the environment influence. We conduct a comprehensive set of numerical experiments. The results show that our model can be applied as an effective tool in the strategic planning for green supply chain. Meanwhile, the sensitivity analysis provides some interesting managerial insights for firms.

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract: We review three theoretical approaches to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR), which can be defined as voluntary CSR actions that enhance a firm's competitiveness and reputation. The end result of such activities should be an improvement in financial and economic performance. Based on an overview of recent empirical evidence, we conclude that economic theories of strategic CSR have the greatest potential for advancing this field of inquiry, although theories of strategic leadership should also be incorporated into this perspective. In the remainder of the manuscript, we provide focused summaries of the papers presented in this special issue and outline an agenda for future research on strategic CSR and environmental sustainability.

Strategic Entrepreneurship: Creating Value for Individuals, Organizations, and Society

Abstract: Executive Overview The foci of strategic entrepreneurship (SE) are broad and rich, building on research from multiple disciplines such as economics, psychology, and sociology, along with other subdisciplines in management including organizational behavior and organization theory. Herein, we examine the contributions of strategic management and entrepreneurship to SE. Building on a previous model of SE, we develop an input-process-output model to extend our understanding of the SE construct. We examine the resource inputs into SE, such as individual knowledge and skills. In addition, we explore the resource orchestration processes that are important for SE and the outcomes, including creating value for customers, building wealth for stockholders, and creating benefits for other stakeholders, especially for society at large. Individual entrepreneurs also benefit through financial wealth, but other outcomes such as personal satisfaction and fulfillment of personal needs (e.g., self-actualization) may be of e...

A risk/return paradox for strategic management

Abstract: The total set of industries from Value Line is used to demonstrate that business risk and return are negatively correlated across companies within industries. Some empirical questions about industries themselves are also raised. The concepts of income smoothing and corporate strategy are utilized to explain this apparent paradox. Further work is both suggested and

Joint Venture Formations and Stock Market Reactions: An Assessment in the Information Technology Sector

Abstract: This study examined the impact of joint venture formation strategies on the market value of parent firms in the information technology sector using an event-study perspective. We found that (1) ann...

Strategic design of public bicycle sharing systems with service level constraints

Abstract: This study addresses the strategic planning of public bicycle sharing systems with service level considerations. In considering the interests of both users and investors, the proposed model attempts to determine the number and locations of bike stations, the network structure of bike paths connected between the stations, and the travel paths for users between each pair of origins and destinations. A small example is created to illustrate the proposed model. Sensitivity analysis is also performed to gain better insights into knowing how several important parameters affect the design of the system.

Employers' perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates

Abstract: The [Scottish Council for Research in Education] SCRE Centre (University of Glasgow) investigated employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates, and the steps which universities take to develop them. The research found that the majority of employers are satisfied with their graduate recruits, but there is a notable minority who are not. Employers expect graduates to demonstrate a range of skills and attributes that include team-working, communication, leadership, critical thinking, problem solving and often managerial abilities or potential. Several recommendations are made, including: employability should be at the centre of [higher education institutions’] HEIs’ strategic planning, both centrally and at the level of individual faculties and departments; and partnerships between HEIs and employers need to be effective, sustained and equitable.

Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization (Concepts & Cases)

Abstract: Volberda, Morgan and Reinmoeller have joined with Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson to develop a truly landmark strategic management textbook that is ideally suited for courses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as other global markets. With a new process perspective to supplement the text’s trademark integrated approach, Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization provides the most comprehensive and thorough coverage of strategic management now available in the market. Whilst maintaining the strengths and hallmark features of the original work, this new strategy text has been specially prepared to match the modern EMEA curriculum with boosted coverage of implementation issues, analysis of how firms use strategic management tools, techniques and concepts, a balanced emphasis on economics and resource-based perspectives and expanded coverage of comparative governance and organizational renewal.

The Effects of Culture and Structure on Strategic Flexibility During Business Model Innovation

Abstract: This study uses responses from 107 multinational firms to reveal CEO perceptions of the drivers of strategic flexibility during business model innovation. While the positive effect of creative culture is confirmed, partner reliance reduces strategic flexibility during business model innovation. Further, structural change is disaggregated into efforts that either focus managerial attention on core activities or reconfigure existing activities. CEOs perceive that structural flexibility requires structural simplification while retaining control of non-core functions. We find that the relative magnitude of business model innovation effort moderates the effect of reconfiguration on strategic flexibility. The implications for theories of organizational design and dynamic capabilities are discussed.

Flexible cognitive strategies during motor learning.

Abstract: Visuomotor rotation tasks have proven to be a powerful tool to study adaptation of the motor system. While adaptation in such tasks is seemingly automatic and incremental, participants may gain knowledge of the perturbation and invoke a compensatory strategy. When provided with an explicit strategy to counteract a rotation, participants are initially very accurate, even without on-line feedback. Surprisingly, with further testing, the angle of their reaching movements drifts in the direction of the strategy, producing an increase in endpoint errors. This drift is attributed to the gradual adaptation of an internal model that operates independently from the strategy, even at the cost of task accuracy. Here we identify constraints that influence this process, allowing us to explore models of the interaction between strategic and implicit changes during visuomotor adaptation. When the adaptation phase was extended, participants eventually modified their strategy to offset the rise in endpoint errors. Moreover, when we removed visual markers that provided external landmarks to support a strategy, the degree of drift was sharply attenuated. These effects are accounted for by a setpoint state-space model in which a strategy is flexibly adjusted to offset performance errors arising from the implicit adaptation of an internal model. More generally, these results suggest that strategic processes may operate in many studies of visuomotor adaptation, with participants arriving at a synergy between a strategic plan and the effects of sensorimotor adaptation.

Strategic planning as communicative process

Abstract: This thesis looks at the construction of a strategic plan within a British university (Unico). After a change in leadership, the well-known strategic planning sequence was adopted to set directions according to Unico’s three Missions, followed by the development of respective goals and measures. The evolving strategic content coincided with the development of Unico’s strategic plan. I was able to follow Unico’s planning efforts over 10 months, from first planning meeting to completion of its strategic plan. The main data source provided non-participant observation (n = 25) and ten versions of Unico’s strategic plan. Additionally, seventy-six interviews were held with participants at various points. In order to examine the strategic plan’s construction, I reconceptualised strategic planning as a communicative process consisting of oral talk and written text. Through this interplay strategic planning activities come in to being. Such reconceptualisation provided a conceptual framework to study the in situ interactions without neglecting contextual characteristics embedding the communicative process. Strategic plans are currently seen as promoting inflexibility and reinforcing the institutional nature of formal strategic planning. Adopting dialogism, as advocated by Bakhtin and Ricoeur, this research provides novel insights into the dialogic of strategy talk and strategy text, such as a strategic plan. Findings illustrated that a strategic plan production cycle provided a meaning making platform for its participants. Through recurrently amending the plan, its content became increasingly specific while at the same time reflecting agreed terminology. This thesis offers an alternative view on strategic planning, elaborates on the strategy-as-practice perspective, focusing on the under-explored area of individuals’ interactions at the micro level, and elaborates on the dialogic of text and agency/conversation, distinguishing between talk and text.

Opening Strategy: Evolution of a Precarious Profession

Abstract: This paper takes the long view on the development of strategy as a profession, from the 1950s to today. We identify strategy as a structurally precarious profession, subject to cyclical demand and shifts in organizational power. This precariousness has increased with the secular shift towards more open forms of strategy-making, with more transparency inside and outside organizations and more inclusion of different actors internally and externally. We analyse four forces – organizational, societal, cultural and technological – driving the evolution of strategy as a profession and discuss implications for the future of strategy work, for effective strategies, for strategy's professional bodies and for strategy research.

Opening Strategy: Evolution of a Precarious Profession

Abstract: This paper takes the long view on the development of strategy as a profession, from the 1950s to today. We identify strategy as a structurally precarious profession, subject to cyclical demand and shifts in organizational power. This precariousness has increased with the secular shift towards more open forms of strategy-making, with more transparency inside and outside organizations and more inclusion of different actors internally and externally. We analyse four forces - organizational, societal, cultural and technological - driving the evolution of strategy as a profession and discuss implications for the future of strategy work, for effective strategies, for strategy's professional bodies and for strategy research

Strategic Thinking about Employee Communication Behavior (ECB) in Public Relations: Testing the Models of Megaphoning and Scouting Effects in Korea

Abstract: In public relations, employees are regarded as one of the most important strategic constituencies because they interact with external publics on a daily basis. However, employees' communication behavior (ECB) has not been extensively researched in public relations. The purpose of this research was to conceptualize and develop concrete measurements of ECB that can help theoretical development and strategic planning in public relations. In particular, the study identified two unique aspects of ECB—megaphoning and scouting—that refer to employees' voluntary efforts to collect and circulate strategic information externally and internally. In addition, a new concept, microboundary spanning, based on the two aspects of ECB is conceptualized. In this study, symmetrical internal communication and employee-organization relationships were posited as antecedent variables to the proposed ECB variables. A survey research was conducted with 300 employees in different types of organizations in Korea.

Exploration and Exploitation Strategies, Profit Performance, and the Mediating Role of Strategic Learning: Escaping the Exploitation Trap

Abstract: This study focuses on the role of strategic learning as a mediating construct between opportunity-seeking (exploration) and advantage-seeking (exploitation) strategies and profit performance. Prior studies argue that the effect of these core elements of strategic entrepreneurship (exploration and exploitation) cannot be fully captured through their direct effects on profit performance, but that this relationship consists of mediating factors. This study proposes that the process of strategic learning, through its intraorganizational elements that enable the dissemination, interpretation, and implementation of strategic knowledge, enables firms to capitalize on the benefits of both exploration and exploitation strategies. Results from 206 Finnish software firms indicate that strategic learning fully mediates the relationship between exploration, exploitation, and profit performance. The result contributes by stressing the importance of strategic learning processes, especially in conjunction with entrepreneurial exploration strategies. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the effect from exploration to strategic learning is moderated by the level of exploitation. This moderation effect suggests that the strategic learning is limited, being a path dependent capability that favors exploitation over exploration when stretched. However, strategic learning effectively allows both types of strategies to improve profit performance.

Towards a strategic place brand-management model

Abstract: Using earlier research into models of place branding-management processes, this paper develops a multi-level conceptual model of strategic place brand management designed to support managers in embracing a holistic approach to place brand management. The model identifies the following components for attention and activity: place brand evaluation; brand infrastructure relationships, including infrastructure (regeneration) and stakeholder engagement (management); place brand articulation; and brand communications. The model identifies the influences and action processes between these components, including brand identity and architecture, influencing brand experience. Existing place branding models take different perspectives on the branding process – respectively, relationship management, communications, and strategic planning; none of these models are comprehensive and neither are they widely adopted or tested. This paper proposes an integrative model that builds on and subsumes these earlier mode...

Implications of Changes in Information Technology for Corporate Strategy

Abstract: Although to date computer technology has been used primarily to automate paperwork, recently we have entered an era in which information availability and new communication processes are having a significant impact on corporate life. In a conceptual model of this phenomenon, one aspect, the way in which technology is now driving corporate strategy, is emphasized.

Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning.

Abstract: Figures and Tables. Preface. Executive Summary. 1 The Challenge of Change. 2 Recent Developments in Technology and Education. 3 Tracking Existing Strategies for Technology Integration. 4 Leadership and Strategy. 5 Organizational Structures and Initiatives to Support Technology Integration. 6 Quality Assurance. 7 Resources, Money, and Decision Making. 8 Barriers to Change and Two Ways to Remove Them. 9 Building a Twenty-First-Century University or College. References. About the Authors. Index.

Erratic strategic decisions: when and why managers are inconsistent in strategic decision making

Abstract: While decision makers in organizations frequently make good decisions rooted in stable and consistent preferences, such consistency in outcomes is not always the case. In this study, we adopt a psychological perspective of judgment to investigate managers' erratic strategic decisions, which we define as a manager's inconsistent judgments that can shape the direction of the firm. In a study of 2,048 decisions made by 64 CEOs of technology firms, we examine how both metacognitive experience and perceptions of the external environment (hostility and dynamism) could affect the extent to which managers make erratic strategic decisions. The results indicate that managers with greater metacognitive experience make less erratic strategic decisions. The results also indicate that in hostile environments managers make more erratic strategic decisions. But contrary to our expectations, in dynamic environments managers make less erratic strategic decisions. Similarly, hostility and dynamism interact in their effect on erratic strategic decisions in that the positive relationship between environmental hostility and erratic strategic decisions will be less positive for managers experiencing high environmental dynamism than those experiencing low environmental dynamism. These results have important implications for strategic decision-making research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sustainability: the missing ingredient in strategy

Abstract: Purpose – This paper explores ways in which different dimensions of sustainability can be addressed at the strategic level within organizations.Design/methodology/approach – Building upon previous research, the authors provide a conceptual overview before developing a framework that outlines how sustainability can be addressed during the strategic decision‐making process and as part of the organization's corporate, business and functional level strategies.Findings – Research has demonstrated that many managers do not understand how to make their organizations more sustainable, even though they recognize the benefits of doing so. The framework developed in this paper suggests a way for managers to integrate sustainability into strategy. It focuses on the strategic decision‐making process, including the cognitive characteristics of strategic decision‐makers and the strategy content at the corporate, business and functional levels. The authors also address the role of organizational culture and vision in sup...

A Fuzzy DEMATEL framework for modeling cause and effect relationships of strategy map

Abstract: Research highlights? The proposed framework can identify cause and effect relationships among strategic objectives of strategy map through processing of the expertise and knowledge of senior managers. In this process, the integrated structure is introduced for the macro level balanced scorecard. And in addition to the mathematical modeling of cause and effect relationships, a decision support system could be presented that may increase the efficiency of the balanced scorecard management system. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a widely adopted performance management framework first introduced in the early 1990s. More recently, it has been proposed as the basic for a strategic management system. Strategy mapping is the most important task in building a Balanced Scorecard system. Strategy mapping is the process for visually making cause and effect relationships between all possible strategic objectives in an organization. The process for building and constructing a strategy map is a human centric activity which could be considered as the combination and integration of all knowledge and preferences of the managerial boards. From the view point of strategic decision making in an organization, the process for building a strategy map could be viewed in a general body of a unified group decision making context. If we see the strategy map, as a structural modeling framework for making the cause and effect relationships among the strategic objectives, it is possible to deploy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) as a framework for structural modeling approach subject to the problem. The DEMATEL method gathers collective knowledge to capture the causal relationships between strategic criteria. The model is especially practical and useful for visualizing the structure of complicated causal relationships with matrices or digraphs. Generally speaking, because in building any strategy map, the assigned preferences between the objectives are not crisp necessarily, and experts' domain knowledge could be extracted in a fuzzy environment, then the extended fuzzy DEMATEL is proposed to deal with the ambiguities inherent of such the judgments.

The Impact of Workplace Incivility on the Work Environment, Manager Skill, and Productivity

Abstract: Objective:The objective of the study was to investigate the impact of workplace incivility (WPI) on staff nurses related to cost and productivity.Background:Healthful practice environments are one of the goals of the American Organization of Nurse Executives 2010 to 2012 Strategic Plan. Healthy work

Planning System Success: A Conceptualization and an Operational Model

Abstract: Research on strategic planning has been handicapped by lack of an appropriate operationalizing scheme for measuring the success of planning systems. In this paper, an operational model for measuring planning system success is developed in terms of two interrelated dimensions—improvements in the capabilities of the planning system and extent of fulfillment of key planning objectives. Multiple items reflecting these dimensions are proposed. Construct validity of the two dimensions are evaluated by applying Joreskog's analysis of covariance structures approach on data on the planning practices of 202 strategic planning units. Validated measurement schemes for the two model dimensions are offered for use in future research efforts on strategic planning effectiveness.

The Value Added of Strategic Is Planning: Understanding Consistency, Validity, and Is Markets

Abstract: The impact of IS technologies on the competitive capacity of the firm has increased the need for effective strategic IS planning. This paper argues that an effective strategic IS planning process must provide for (1) definition of key markets (within the firm) for IS products and services; (2) internal consistency, particularly between the strategic business plan and strategic IS plan; and (3) a means to assess the validity of the planning process. The need to establish validity is seen as critical in today's highly turbulent business environment. Results of an actual planning process are used to illustrate how assumption surfacing can be used as one means to address the validity issue.