Organizations enter alliances with each other to access critical resources, but they rely on information from the network of prior alliances to determine with whom to cooperate. These new alliances modify the existing network, prompting an endogenous dynamic between organizational action and network structure that drives the emergence of interorganizational networks. Testing these ideas on alliances formed in three industries over nine years, the authors show that the probability of a new alliance between specific organizations increases with their interdependence, but also with their prior mutual alliances, common third parties, and joint centrality in the alliance network. The differentiation of the emerging network structure, however, mitigates the effect of interdependence and enhances the effect of joint centrality on new alliance formation. 3

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abstract Existing strategic group studies have rarely examined ownership type as a variable to classify firms in an industry. Using Chinese firms of different ownership types, we suggest that ownership type can be a parsimonious and important variable that managers use to cognitively classify firms into different strategic groups. While ownership itself is an objective variable, we contend that different ownership types lead to different managerial outlook and mentality due to a number of macro and micro foundations giving rise to various managerial cognitions. Employing the Miles and Snow typology, we find that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs) tend to adopt defender and prospector strategies, respectively, while collectively-owned enterprises (COEs) and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) exhibit an analyser orientation that falls between defenders and prospectors on the strategy continuum. Three statistical tests suggest that ownership types can be used to successfully predict strategic group memberships in China’s emerging economy.

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This paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center research available to others interested in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions. Most (if not all) of the CAHRS Working Papers are available for reading at the Catherwood Library. For information on what’s available link to the Cornell Library Catalog:

Intensive Work First draft – please do not cite without author’s permission This paper examines how and why a professional elite – the so-called “Magic Circle” of UK law firms – has become a taken-for-granted, legitimate, and extremely durable categorization of the most highly-reputed firms in the UK legal profession. Using both interview and documentary data, this study examines the process of institutionalization and belief formation in the context of two previously unresearched, and unconnected, models- the discursive model of institutionalization proposed by Phillips, Lawrence & Hardy (2004), and the model of industry belief systems described by Porac, Ventresca, & Mishina (2002). The study traces the historical evolution of this elite group, finding evidence to confirm the status of the Magic Circle categorization as both an institution, and as part of a cognitive belief system about the structure of the UK legal market. In particular, the study presents evidence to suggest that the business and professional media are important

Emerging (or "inchoate") industries differ significantly from mature industries. Inchoate industries are characterized by few producers, underdeveloped markets, unclear technologies, and uncertain regulatory forces. Traditional, linear-adaptive approaches to business strategy derived from the study of mature industries, such as Miles and Snow (1978) and Porter (1980), are not applicable to inchoate industries. In this paper, we argue that an interpretive approach to studying organizing and strategy-making -- specifically Daft and Weick's model of organizations as interpretive systems (1984) -- is better suited to the context of industry emergence. Daft and Weick's typology of interpretive stances distinguishes the manner in which managers attempt to make sense of equivocal and uncertain environments, and hence is independent of an industry's maturity level. This study is the first attempt to operationalize the Daft and Weick typology. Propositions and preliminary evidence pres...

The notion that effective relationships between groups improve coordination, cooperation and consequently performance has considerable appeal in a broad range of contexts. In particular, partnerships are viewed as critical organizational mechanisms enabling information systems groups and their clients within organizations to utilize existing information technology investments already in place and to tap the potential offered by information technologies. This paper proposes a theoretical model drawing from socio-cognitive theory, highlighting a convergence in perspectives on key issues between the groups as the mechanism underlying partnerships. Data from a survey of 671 managers on both sides of IS-User relationships in multiple firms provides support for the model and the hypothesized relationship between convergence in perspectives and the performance of IS groups. In particular, the results suggest that a convergent assessment of the perspectives of IS groups by Users significantly enhances the performance of IS groups. This paper is among the first efforts in the IS literature to use dyadic data provided by both IS and User groups to understand IS-User relationships. Keywords: IS-User Partnerships, Social Cognition Theory, Perspective Taking, IS Performance

This paper reports on a study exploring the cognition of executives regarding business-IT alignment. The project uses a cognitive mapping technique, known as the repertory grid, to explore the nature of the social dimension of alignment and its relationship to the intellectual dimension. The primary aims of this paper are to discuss the application and the contributions of the repertory grid to the study of business-IT alignment.

The cognitive diversity of top management teams has been shown to affect the performance of a firm. However, most approaches to measure cognitive diversity never attempt to open the "black box" to understand what makes up the cognitive diversity of the team. This research reports on an approach that identifies diverse belief structures, i.e., cognitive subgroups, through the use of causal mapping and cluster analysis. The procedures of the approach are automated using group support systems technology resulting a Group Cognitive Mapping System (GCMS). The results from a study of 13 top managers on a strategic planning team for an information services firm show that the use of causal mapping provides an efficient and effective way to identify idiosyncratic and shared knowledge among members of a top management team.