| A Cognitive Model of Firm and Industry Level Strategic Change |
| | Schultz, Frank C. | U. of Minnesota | fschultz@csom.umn.edu | 612-928-3727 |
| | In this paper we introduce a new model of firm and industry level
strategic change. Based on an inductive study of the Minnesota
healthcare industry, we develop a model of strategic change based on
three potential drivers of change: executive cognitive processing,
firm strategic actions and organizational performance. We contrast
this model with existing models and show that it provides greater
explanatory power in describing observed phenomenon such as: 1)
Changing mental models of executives, 2) Proactive and responsive
strategic actions, 3) Forces driving both competition and cooperation,
4) Executives' "thinking about the thinking" of other executives 5)
Executive's thinking about the strategic actions of other firms and 6)
The reciprocal causation and coevolution of firm and industry levels
of analysis. |
| | Keywords: Executive Cognition; Strategic Change; Organizational Performance |
| Forms, Frames and Fit: Managing Transitions in Organizational Sense-making in a Pluralistic World |
| | Wolfe, Terance J. | California State U., Northridge | terry.wolfe@csun.edu | (818)-677-4510 |
| | Li, Mingfang | California State U., Northridge | mli@csun.edu | 818-677-2421 |
| | Multinational business enterprises in a pluralistic world must deal with new challenges by aligning the fit between the needs of the environmental situation, the strategic form of organization, and the mental frames of top managers. This paper reviews the various approaches to multinational strategic operations, and proposes a model of the requisites of multinational enterprise transition from traditional forms to the transnational. It develops the argument that top managers' mental frames are integral to effective transitions. We explicate the proposed model, and provide some case illustrations. The paper concludes with recommendations for effecting transitions in top management mental frames. |
| | Keywords: Frames; Multinational Strategy; Alignment |
| Markets as Cognitive Systems: Identities and Equivocality in the US Minivan Market 1982-1988 |
| | Porac, Joseph F. | U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | j-porac@uiuc.edu | (217)-333-4240 |
| | Rosa, Jose Antonio | U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | jrosa@uiuc.edu | (217)-333-5160 |
| | Mishina, Yuri | U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | ymishina@uiuc.edu | (217)-333-4240 |
| | Spanjol, Jelena | U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | jspanjol@uiuc.edu | (217)-333-4240 |
| | This paper presents a view of markets as socially constructed transactional networks that cohere around what we label "product conceptual systems." Product conceptual systems are social knowledge structures that bind producers and consumers together around an artifact whose meaning is derived from such knowledge. We explore this socio-cognitive view of market transactions within the context of a study on the US minivan market. Our analysis shows that the minivan conceptual system evolved as a contest between "car-like" and "truck-like" ideals, with the former eventually winning out over the latter. This evolution of the minivan conceptual system has interesting implications for theories of markets and market boundaries. |
| | Keywords: cognition; markets; minivan |