Abstract not found

When two or more separate products bear a functional complementarity to one another, but also pose hazards related to compatibility and joint performance to consumers wishing to exploit such complementarity, upstream bundling by producers can function as a means of exploiting demand that would otherwise remain latent. The specific organizational form that a bundling arrangement takes- and its corresponding governance structure- depends on the distribution of capabilities among firms and the amount of time during which the window of opportunity for earning rents is expected to remain open. Under some circumstances, inter-firm collaboration is required to provide the bundle. Firms engaged in such collaboration must undertake “support ” transactions related to billing, marketing and especially guaranteeing the functional complementarity customers want, as well as customer support and product repair. "Support " transactions differ from "core " transactions. The latter are those traditionally perceived as required to produce the product in question. Support transactions create transaction costs of their own, so that the market may turn to be a costly means of governing collaborative arrangements undertaken for bundling purposes, even when the "core " transactions could be normally undertaken through the market. The telecommunications service sector provides an illustration.-1-

julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa (S212)

In strategic literature, the problems involved with the observation of the way organisations and their environment constitute each other has been neglected for far too long. The inherent circularity between organisations and their environment in defining strategies is often obscured by making either the environment or the capabilities of organisations the point reference in defining successful strategies. In this paper, it will be illustrated that with a focus on self-reference it is possible to observe, both theoretically and methodologically, the way organisations and their environment constitute each other reciprocally. For this, we will develop a both/and-approach to strategy to illustrate that organisations need to make sense of both their environment and organisation.

Abstract not found

This thesis is the result of a case study which has its starting point in the fact that mergers and acquisitions are characterized by a high level of risk and often fail to reach stated goals such as leverage of synergy, many times due to the inability of integrating the concerned organization’s information systems. Existing problem perspectives do not include what could be a factor contributing to successful information system integration and thus lead to the leverage of synergy to organizations in a mergers and acquisitions context. This factor is proactive IS integration. Conducted research concerning proactive IS integration is limited and no conceptualizations have been done. This has a negative effect on the applicability of the term in order to describe IS integration from an academic as well as practical point of view. The main research question stated in the thesis is: Does proactive IS integration lead to the leverage of synergy effects? In order to give an account of this question a working concept of the term proactive IS integration is developed. The study presents theoretically deduced concepts influencing proactive IS integration. With these concepts as the base, a case study involving the Swedish organization Trelleborg Industrial Hose’s acquisition of the French company Dynaflex, built on qualitative interviews was conducted. The study result involves an extension to the theoretically deduced concepts, based on a mismatch between theory and findings, which involves knowledge and prior experience of IS integration as essential factors, leading to the proposition of regarding proactive IS integration as a capability.

The traditional strategic management theories have strong emphasis on accumulating and controlling resources within a single firm. However, the shift towards increasingly networked business environments raises a question whether these theories can still be considered as valid. Most organizations have limitations in terms of resources they can possess internally and hence need to develop a range of external linkages to gain access to needed resources. In this paper, existing strategic management perspectives are analysed from the point of view of how they have integrated the idea of interorganizational networks into strategy theorizing. The analysis reveals that only few researchers, mainly from two research areas – the industrial network theory (IMP) and strategic network research – have touched the issue. Moreover, combining the idea of networks and strategic management is still an emerging and rather amorphous perspective. The authors argue that the strategic management field would definitely benefit from cross-fertilisation of ideas and thus propose a synthesis towards a network approach to strategic management, together with implications for further research. 1

This paper offers a refined conceptualization of consensus formation and demonstrates in three organizations how this conceptualization enables us to uncover new patterns of consensus building. It describes a longitudinal study which investigated consensus formation in three organizations undergoing major strategic change. The study explored whether consensus building occurred during the strategic change, and if so, how. Initial participants of consensus were also investigated as well as changes in the scope of participants in consensus. Consensus building did occur, but contrary to some views, less through an increase in the strength of consensus and more through an increase in the scope of consensus. Additionally, initial consensus was not located among members of the top management team, but more within an interest group whose members benefited from the given direction of the change.

We use the language of variation, selection and retention to create a uniform way of modeling and comparing different change journeys. We identify the genealogical and ecological processes that underlie four engines that drive renewal. This language allows us to trace how initiatives are formed, subsequently selected or rejected and how they subsequently unfold into new units or change existing units. From this we can categorize and analyze journeys that can be more or less suitable in different environments.

Criteria for Performance Excellence (CPE) has become a widespread practice among all types of organizations. Empirical evidence suggests that Baldrige Award-based assessment typically results in improvements to managerial processes. Although the notion of process change is embedded within the CPE framework, the criteria do not explicitly address how an organization manages such change. In this article, the linkage between the criteria and change management is described. It is suggested that an effective process change management model can be derived from the framework of the criteria for performance excellence. Using concepts from the literatures on organizational change, assessment, and learning, a model for managing change in the context of the criteria is generated. The change process model parallels the model of strategic change that has been historically well specified by the CPE and refines the criteria notion of learning. These two models are linked by the exchange of information between the organizational performance review item and diagnostic self-assessment activities. Suggestions on how the organizational performance review item in the criteria can be expanded to incorporate change management as an explicit area to address are made. Key words: evaluation, organizational change, quality management, self-assessment Self-assessment using the Malcolm Baldrige Award Criteria for Performance Excellence (CPE) has been an