Suchergebnisse

Organizations are often conceptualized as systems of interdependent choices that exhibit a core–periphery structure. Research is inconclusive, however, regarding whether organizations should focus their search efforts on their core or peripheral choices. In this paper, we seek to reconcile contradictory arguments and suggest that the efficacy of a search focus depends on the time horizon, environmental change, and how the core and periphery interact. In so doing, we demonstrate that the directionality of interdependence and whether interdependencies occur mostly within the core or between the core and periphery are key determinants of the implications of focus. We discuss the implications of our findings for various streams of research, including research on structural inertia and business model innovation.

As in several other states, Kentucky passed legislation to get tough with juveniles and battle a rising tide of delinquency and violent crime. The necessity of this policy was unquestioned. This analysis examines national juvenile crime statistics and data on juvenile homicides in Kentucky. It uses the Barnett scale to examine whether juvenile murderers were more deliberate, random, or vicious killers over time. The results of the study do not support the get tough movement or the continued availability of the death penalty for juveniles in Kentucky.

This study uses the Barnett scale of homicide severity to analyze the capital sentencing process in Kentucky. In his analysis of Georgia cases, Barnett found that whites were disproportionately the victims of homicides that the scale considered as most serious. This conclusion was cited as an explanation for racial disparity in capital sentencing. When the scale is applied to Kentucky data and the level of seriousness of the murder is controlled, however, we Jind that prosecutors were more likely to seek the death penalty in cases in which blacks killed whites and that juries were more likely to sentence to death blacks who killed whites.

We draw on group information-processing theory to investigate how target boards of directors may contribute to target value capture during the private negotiations phase in acquisitions. We view target boards as information-processing groups and private negotiations as information-processing tasks. We argue that target board meeting frequency is associated with increased processing—gathering, sharing, and analyzing—of acquisition-related information, which improves target bargaining and, ultimately, target value capture. We further posit that this value-enhancing effect of target board meeting frequency is more pronounced when target board composition improves the ability of target boards to process acquisition-related information. Finally, we expect that meeting frequency is more consequential for target bargaining and value capture when acquisition complexity imposes high information-processing demands on the target boards during private negotiations. Empirical evidence from a sample of acquisitions of publicly listed firms in the United States offers support for our group information-processing perspective on board contribution to shareholder value in firms targeted for acquisition. Funding: This work was supported by the Strategy Research Foundation [Dissertation Grant SRF-2015DP-0016]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1643 .

Our longitudinal study of the entire population of internal corporate ventures within a large European electronics manufacturer finds that the conventional focus in the corporate venturing literature to evaluate ventures based on business growth and financial performance may be misguided. Instead, we found that ventures are temporary conduits for capability development and play a primary role in launching the founding stage of new capability life cycles. Ventures' main contribution was often to transfer valuable capabilities to other ventures or the firm's existing business units. The benefit from investing in ventures was therefore largely independent of their commercial success. Furthermore, estimation of success rates proved highly sensitive to the stage of the ventures at which sampling began. These findings suggest the need to reconceptualize the notion of early stage ventures and their success. We further found that the venturing process can be conceptualized as a nested system of simultaneous selection at both the venture and the capability level. We show that these selection processes are distinct yet operate in a coevolutionary way and are amenable to proactive management.

We draw on the behavioral theory of the firm and prospect theory to examine how performance feedback (decision context) and the characteristics of the alternatives (decision content) that decision makers face jointly determine organizational risk-taking choices. While the behavioral theory of the firm has identified performance feedback's important role in driving organizational risk-taking decisions, it has not considered the intrinsic attributes of alternatives, specifically the magnitude and likelihood of their outcomes, which have been the focus of prospect theory. We argue that these two attributes play a key role in decision makers' assessment of alternatives, but because achieving organizational goals is the prime objective in organizations, performance feedback drives how decision makers process information regarding these attributes. Analyzing 23,895 fourth-down decisions from the U.S. National Football League, we find that decision makers weigh attainment discrepancy and the magnitude and likelihood of outcomes in their choices, depending on deadline proximity. Furthermore, the size and valence of attainment discrepancy modify the weight of the magnitude and likelihood of outcomes in risky choices. Our arguments and findings suggest extensions to the behavioral theory of the firm and imply modifications to prospect theory when applied to the organizational context.