| The Business Federation Form in Strategy Consulting Firms in Europe: Basic dimensions and their effect on performance |
| | Vilà, Joaquim | IESE, U. of Navarra, Barcelona | jvila@iese.edu | 34-93-2534200 |
| | Syvertsen, Carsten M. | IESE, U. of Navarra, Barcelona | syvertsen@iese.edu | 34-93-2534200 |
| | This paper presents the Business Federation as a new organizational form, empirically tests the extent to which national offices of top strategya consulting firms in Europe are organized according to the principles of the federation and explores the relationship between closeness to the federation and performance.
The paper builds on the work of management thinkers such as Handy and Bennis to operationalize the functioning of this new form along five organizationl choices. With factor analysis, the five selected dimensions generate 14 meaningful factors: autonomy of national offices (4 factors), control mechanisms used by corporate level to regulate the activitiy of offices (3), rules governing the use of shared services (2), ownership of resources generated at the SBU level (2), and resource sharing and interdependence across offices (3).
The initial response was 62, a 35% rate of relevant national offices within the ten major countries in Western Europe. The final sample is 44; all top 10 players in the industry are represented. A self-assessment of rank order on profits per partner is used as dependent variable. Through the use of factor and regression analysis, the paper finds significant support for the model (p<0.01, F=5.421). Overall R square is 0.80. At least one factor per dimension is significant at p<0.05.
The paper concludes with a discussion of results and implications. It elaborates on the strengths and requirements of the BF form for knowledge-based companies and how the BF form can provide sound responses to prominent management challenges. |
| | Keywords: New organizational forms; Knowledge-based companies; Business federation |
| An effective global integration of distinctive competences: A study on multinational businesses in global industries |
| | Kim, Kwangsoo | City U. of Hong Kong | mgkkim@cityu.edu.hk | (852)-2784-4905 |
| | Park, Jong-Hun | City U. of Hong Kong | efpark@cityu.edu.hk | (852)-2788-8674 |
| | This paper investigates how multinational businesses(or business units) in global industries integrate their distinctive competences across borders. Specifically, the research identifies the more effective modes of integrating a given competence globally and the ideal usage levels (or the ideal usage profile) of global integrating modes for the competence. It further examines the effect on business performance of a fit between distinctive competences and the ideal profiles of integrating modes for respective distinctive competences. In doing so, we employ pattern analysis based on a systems approach. The study shows that, within the context of global industries, there exist a different set of more effective integrating modes and a distinct ideal profile of integrating modes for each distinctive competence. It further reveals that multinational businesses which utilize integrating modes at the levels closer to the ideal profile perform better in terms of both sales growth and return on investment than those which do not use the ideal profile. |
| | Keywords: Distinctive competences; Global integrating modes; Economic performance |
| Balancing Standardization and Adaptation of Global Products: The Influence of Leveraging Knowledge Across Borders |
| | Subramaniam, Mohan | U. of Connecticut | msub@worldnet.att.net | 860 486 4690 |
| | This study examines how the process of balancing standardization and adaptation of global products influences the global new product development capabilities of MNCs.
Using a knowledge-based perspective, we investigate both the direct effects of balancing standardization and adaptation on global product development capabilities, and the moderating influence of three approaches MNCs employ to leverage overseas knowledge when balancing standardization and adaptation - namely, cross-national teams, cross-national communication and cross-national collaboration. We report our findings based on a cross-sectional survey of ninety global product development projects from forty-five MNCs across several industries.
We find the effectiveness of balancing standardization and adaptation to be critically dependent on the approach MNCs adopt to leverage overseas knowledge in the process. More specifically, of the three approaches for knowledge leverage that we examine we find that only cross-national collaboration makes the process of balancing standardization and adaptation effective in terms of greater global new product development capabilities. Surprisingly, cross-national teams and cross-national communication do not appear to have the same influence - suggesting that the effectiveness of individual knowledge leveraging mechanisms are contingent upon the business processes they are employed in. Our findings also reveal no direct effects of balancing standardization and adaptation on global new product development capability. We discuss the wider implications of these results to the literature streams of global strategy, international marketing and the strategic management of knowledge.
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| | Keywords: Global Products; Knowledge Leverage; Firm Capabilities |
| External Network of Alliances and Internal Network of Subsidiaries: An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Global Strategic Alliance Activity and Global Integration |
| | Vasudevan, Ash | Washington State U., Pullman | ashvy@wsunix.wsu.edu | (509)-335-1185 |
| | Matherne, Brett P. | Georgia State U. | mgtbpmx@gsu.edu | (404)-651-2884 |
| | This article explores the relationship between global integration and global strategic alliances (GSAs). While researchers have advanced competing perspectives of the use of GSAs as a core component of global strategy, the empirical validation and theoretical resolution of this use is largely unexplored. This study tested the hypotheses that, for a multinational corporation pursuing a global strategy, global integration positively influences the use of GSAs to a threshold point, after which increases in global integration result in decreases the patterns of alliance activity. The study also examined the assertion that, in a global context, technological intensity and firm performance influence
the use of GSAs. The testing was based on a sample of 112 firms and 453 alliances from four global industries. The results support the proposed hypotheses. |
| | Keywords: Globalization; Alliances; Networks |