“Reshaping demand landscapes: How firms change customer preferences to better fit their products.” A conversation with the author, Natalya Vinokurova.

October 2, 2019

Every so often, we stumble upon an article that we know is bound for greatness. With a conceptual model rooted in the fitness landscape tradition, insights from marketing and psychology, multiple real-life examples, and empirical findings from a longitudinal case study, Vinokurova’s forthcoming SMJ article has all the ingredients to become a classic of our field. … More “Reshaping demand landscapes: How firms change customer preferences to better fit their products.” A conversation with the author, Natalya Vinokurova.

Directed by Words: How Entrepreneurs Rely on Salient Frames to Devise a Market Entry Strategy

July 15, 2019

Language is powerful; scholars have shown that organizations rely on language to guide stakeholder interpretations to create value for the focal firm. For example, entrepreneurial firms can use language to access resources and to generate other support from stakeholders. But language also has the power to direct the actions of firms. Shon Hiatt and W. … More Directed by Words: How Entrepreneurs Rely on Salient Frames to Devise a Market Entry Strategy

Searching for a Strategy but Afraid of Commitment: Reflections on ‘Foundations of Entrepreneurial Strategy’ by Gans, Stern, and Wu (2019)

April 27, 2019

In the current issue of Strategic Management Journal, Joshua Gans, Scott Stern, and Jane Wu put forward a theory that revisits a foundational question of entrepreneurial strategy: what is the role of search in how entrepreneurs determine their strategy? They engage with an important practitioner-led body of knowledge on entrepreneurial strategy that has emerged in … More Searching for a Strategy but Afraid of Commitment: Reflections on ‘Foundations of Entrepreneurial Strategy’ by Gans, Stern, and Wu (2019)

Stepping beyond market concerns: How should firms engage with non-profit stakeholders to create value?

December 11, 2018

Should firms care about resolving social issues beyond their market boundaries? How can they create value by doing so? Concerns outside the boundaries of firms’ markets, such as environmental sustainability, infrastructure gaps, climate change, the rise of nationalism and protectionism around the world among many others, have an increasingly clear impact on firms’strategy. This is … More Stepping beyond market concerns: How should firms engage with non-profit stakeholders to create value?

A STRATEGY CONTRIBUTION TO THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE

November 2, 2018

Do skilled ethnic migrants steal jobs from local skilled workers? According to Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury and Do Yoon Kim, this question may originate from a flawed assumption—that domestic and foreign workers carry equal skills, and are essentially interchangeable. Yet, evidence from their recently accepted SMJ paper reveals that foreign and domestic workers differ in the … More A STRATEGY CONTRIBUTION TO THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE

Just how stigmatized are dismissed CEOs?

September 10, 2018

Stigma is a strange thing—the very attributes that can result in stigma for some, may not be nearly as damaging to others. A new study entitled “How stigmatized are dismissed chief executives? The role of character questioning causal accounts and executive capital in dismissed CEO re‐employment” by Donald J. Schepker and Vincent L. Barker III … More Just how stigmatized are dismissed CEOs?

Are activist investors the villains?

August 31, 2018

Are activist investors the villains? In the movie “Pretty Woman (1990),” Richard Gere plays a corporate raider who takes over a struggling shipping company. The climax of the movie is when Gere’s character punches his colleague and old-time friend Phillip Stuckey in the face (played by Jason Alexander), decides not to break up the company … More Are activist investors the villains?

Reflections on Hannah and Eisenhardt’s “How Firms Navigate Cooperation and Competition in Nascent Ecosystems”: Exploring Bottlenecks as a Central Concept in Innovation Ecosystem Theory

June 21, 2018

Industries in an early phase of emergence are steeped with uncertainty. When this is combined with a complex, novel technology, managers face a deeply challenging environment in which to strategize. In an article forthcoming in the Strategic Management Journal, Douglas Hannah and Kathleen Eisenhardt explore the strategies managers used in the emerging US residential solar industry. … More Reflections on Hannah and Eisenhardt’s “How Firms Navigate Cooperation and Competition in Nascent Ecosystems”: Exploring Bottlenecks as a Central Concept in Innovation Ecosystem Theory

Are outside CEOs detrimental to innovation?

April 19, 2018

The slow down in investment in innovation in large corporation is obviously concerning but it is also puzzling. In a recent SMJ paper, Trey Cummings and Anne Marie Knott argue that some of that decline may be the unintended consequence of corporations relying on outside CEOs. According to the authors, the emphasis on general managerial … More Are outside CEOs detrimental to innovation?

SMJ Article – The Decline of Science in Corporate R&D

January 10, 2018

Summary by SMJ Associate Editor, Olivier Chatain (HEC Paris) Arora A, Belenzon S, Patacconi A. The decline of science in corporate R&D. Strat Mgmt J. 2017;1–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2693 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2693/full The topic and the findings of this paper are of interest to anyone who wants to know about the role of firms in the production of scientific knowledge … More SMJ Article – The Decline of Science in Corporate R&D