Organization Science current issue

Why Pseudonyms? Deception as Identity Preservation Among Jazz Record Companies, 1920-1929

Phillips, D. J., Kim, Y.-K. — 2009-05-19

This paper theoretically and empirically engages the relationship between organizational identity and deception using the market for early jazz recordings as a setting. In this setting, pseudonyms (where a recording is reissued under a fictitious name) were used deceptively as a way to preserve a firm's identity while selling profitable but identity-threatening products to the mass market. Firms founded in the Victorian Era actively sought alignment with the cultural elite and used pseudonyms to deceive observers into believing that their production of cultural products was consistent with their Victorian Era identity. In effect, pseudonyms allowed these firms to decouple their position in identity space from their position in product space by inflating production of identity-preserving products. Using product data from jazz discographies, record company directories, and record advertisements in major U.S. newspapers, we provide strong empirical evidence that Victorian Era firms were active in using pseudonyms to preserve their identities.

Means vs. Ends: Implications of Process and Outcome Focus for Team Adaptation and Performance

Woolley, A. W. — 2009-05-19

Knowledge work frequently involves both the redefinition of desired outcomes and the specification of task processes. The relative emphasis that teams place on these issues early in work can lead members to become "outcome focused" or "process focused," with consequences for performance. This paper develops and explores a theory of how outcome focus and process focus develop in teams and the implications of each for team adaptation and performance. Outcome and process focus were both observed and experimentally manipulated in 90 teams working on an open-ended task. Measures of the teams' performance as well as level of action identification and ability to adapt work processes point to an advantage for outcome-focused teams in dynamic environments. Implications for the design and management of knowledge work teams are discussed.

Pre-Entry Knowledge, Learning, and the Survival of New Firms

Dencker, J. C., Gruber, M., Shah, S. K. — 2009-05-19

New firms are endowed with knowledge and experience at birth through the human capital of their founder(s). Existing empirical research suggests that this pre-entry knowledge and experience will influence the firm's chances of survival; however, the mechanisms underlying this relationship have yet to be investigated. We seek to better understand and unpack this relationship. Specifically, we study the extent to which a founder's pre-entry knowledge of the business activity and pre-entry management experience influence the effectiveness of two subsequent learning activities—namely, early-stage business planning and product-line change. Our findings suggest that pre-entry knowledge and management experience increase firm survival through moderating the effects of these subsequent learning activities. We also find that learning activities are not always beneficial; in our sample, early-stage business planning is associated with decreased firm survival, and product line change is associated with increased firm survival. We examine these patterns using survey data collected from 436 individuals in the Munich region who founded their own firms as an alternative to continued unemployment. Our results have theoretical implications for the entrepreneurship, evolutionary economics, and organizational learning literatures.

Near-Term Liability of Exploitation: Exploration and Exploitation in Multistage Problems

Fang, C., Levinthal, D. — 2009-05-19

The classic trade-off between exploration and exploitation reflects the tension between gaining new information about alternatives to improve future returns and using the information currently available to improve present returns. By considering these issues in the context of a multistage, as opposed to a repeated, problem environment, we show that exploratory behavior has value quite apart from its role in revising beliefs. We show that even if current beliefs provide an unbiased characterization of the problem environment, maximizing with respect to these beliefs may lead to an inferior expected payoff relative to other mechanisms that make less aggressive use of the organization's beliefs. Search can lead to more robust actions in multistage decision problems than maximization, a benefit quite apart from its role in the updating of beliefs.

Value of Strong Ties to Disconnected Others: Examining Knowledge Creation in Biomedicine

McFadyen, M. A., Semadeni, M., Cannella, A. A. — 2009-05-19

Knowledge creation requires the combination and exchange of diverse and overlapping knowledge inputs as individuals interact with exchange partners to create new knowledge. In this study, we examine knowledge creation among university research scientists as a function of their professional (ego) networks—those others with whom they collaborate for the purpose of creating new knowledge. We propose that knowledge creation relies, in part, on two attributes of a researcher's professional network structure—average tie strength and ego network density—and we provide insights into how these attributes jointly affect knowledge creation. Our study of over 7,300 scientific publications by 177 research scientists working with more than 14,000 others over an 11-year period provides evidence that the relationship between a research scientist's professional network and knowledge creation depends on both ego network density and average tie strength. Our evidence suggests that both attributes affect knowledge creation. Moreover, average tie strength interacts with density to affect knowledge creation such that researchers who maintain mostly strong ties with research collaborators who themselves comprise a sparse network have the highest levels of new knowledge creation.

Different Missions and Commitment Power in R&D Organizations: Theory and Evidence on Industry-University Alliances

Lacetera, N. — 2009-05-19

This paper proposes a theory for why firms conduct some research activities in-house but outsource other projects to independent partners and for why firms retain different degrees of control over collaborative research projects. The focus is on the determinants of a company's choice to outsource research projects to academic organizations. Because of the different institutional missions of academic organizations, outsourcing a project to a university allows a firm to commit not to terminate or alter a scientifically valuable project before it is complete. This commitment is potentially valuable for the firm in an environment where scientific value and economic value may not coincide, and scientific workers are responsive to the incentives defined by their community of peers. An economic model that formalizes these arguments is developed. Empirical hypotheses are then formulated about the kind of research activities firms will outsource to universities and activities on which they will exert stronger control. Evidence from a sample of industry-university research agreements, as well as from other large-sample and case studies, shows patterns consistent with the predictions of the model.

Process Capabilities and Value Generation in Alliance Portfolios

Sarkar, M., Aulakh, P. S., Madhok, A. — 2009-05-19

This paper develops a multidimensional, process-based conceptualization of alliance portfolio management capability. Arguing that such a capability consists of organizational processes to proactively pursue alliance formation opportunities, engage in relational governance, and coordinate knowledge and strategies across the portfolio, we examine the impact of such a capability on organizational outcomes in the context of formal structure (alliance function) and strategy (portfolio diversity). Using data from 235 firms, we find that these three processes have a positive effect on a firm's alliance portfolio capital, and some of these effects are conditioned by a formal alliance function and diversity of the portfolio. Whereas the ability of proactive formation and relational governance processes to create value is further strengthened in the presence of an alliance function, that of the coordination dimension is weakened. Furthermore, the benefits of relational governance are strengthened for firms with diverse portfolios, whereas the benefits of coordination processes are weakened. We discuss implications of these findings for the alliance and network literature, and in general, for firm heterogeneity. In summary, we find evidence that variance in process-based capabilities to manage alliance portfolios can explain performance heterogeneity among firms.

Gems from the Ashes: Capability Creation and Transformation in Internal Corporate Venturing

Keil, T., McGrath, R. G., Tukiainen, T. — 2009-05-19

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.

Role of Domain-Specific Facets of Perceived Organizational Support During Expatriation and Implications for Performance

Takeuchi, R., Wang, M., Marinova, S. V., Yao, X. — 2009-05-19

In this study, we integrated social exchange theory with a spillover perspective to examine the relationships between two facets of perceived organizational support (POS) among expatriated managers (at Time 1), their work and general adjustment (at Time 2), affective commitment (at Time 2), and job performance (at Time 3). A longitudinal survey sampled 165 expatriate managers in China across three time periods. POS in the current assignment and in off-the-job life were found to interact with each other to predict work and general adjustment. Work and general adjustment were related to higher affective commitment by the expatriate employees, which, in turn, led to better job performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Perspective--Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory

Nonaka, I., von Krogh, G. — 2009-05-19

Nonaka's paper [1994. A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organ. Sci. 5(1) 14–37] contributed to the concepts of "tacit knowledge" and "knowledge conversion" in organization science. We present work that shaped the development of organizational knowledge creation theory and identify two premises upon which more than 15 years of extensive academic work has been conducted: (1) tacit and explicit knowledge can be conceptually distinguished along a continuum; (2) knowledge conversion explains, theoretically and empirically, the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge. Recently, scholars have raised several issues regarding the understanding of tacit knowledge as well as the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge in the theory. The purpose of this article is to introduce and comment on the debate about organizational knowledge creation theory. We aim to help scholars make sense of this debate by synthesizing six fundamental questions on organizational knowledge creation theory. Next, we seek to elaborate and advance the theory by responding to questions and incorporating new research. Finally, we discuss implications of our endeavor for organization science.

Crossroads

2009-05-19

No abstract available.

Social Reality, the Boundaries of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and Economics

Felin, T., Foss, N. J. — 2009-05-19

Organizational scholars have recently argued that economic theories and assumptions have adversely shaped management practice and human behavior, not only leading to the incorporation of trust-eroding market mechanisms into organizations, but also unnecessarily creating self-interested behavior. A number of highly influential papers have argued that the self-fulfilling nature of (even false) theories provides the underlying mechanism through which economics has adversely shaped not just social science but also management practice and individual behavior. We question these arguments and argue that there are important boundary conditions to theories falsely fulfilling themselves, boundary conditions that have hitherto been unexplored in organizational research, and boundary conditions that question the underlying premises used by organizational scholars and social scientists to attack economics. We specifically build on highly relevant findings from social psychology, philosophy, and organizational economics to show how (1) objective reality and (2) human nature provide two important boundary conditions for theories (falsely or otherwise) fulfilling themselves. We also defend organizational economics, specifically the use of high-powered incentives in organizations, and argue that self-interest (rightly understood) facilitates in creating beneficial individual and collective and societal outcomes.

How and Why Theories Matter: A Comment on Felin and Foss (2009)

Ferraro, F., Pfeffer, J., Sutton, R. I. — 2009-05-19

Theories matter because they affect behavior and can, under certain circumstances, become self-fulfilling. For a theory to become self-fulfilling, people must be aware of the theory and have the ability to make choices according to its dictates, social and physical arrangements are altered on the basis of the theory's prescriptions, and the proponents have the power to implement social arrangements consistent with the theory. Economics and other social science theories often fulfill these conditions, with implications not only for the work of scholars, but also for how we think about testing theories that can change the world they describe.

Performativity of Theory, Arbitrary Conventions, and Possible Worlds: A Reality Check

Felin, T., Foss, N. J. — 2009-05-19

We argue that Ferraro, Pfeffer, and Sutton build on a scientifically problematic conception of the relationship between theory and social reality. Specifically, the performativity perspective that they build on makes tenuous assumptions about the role that theories, whether true or not, play in strongly constructing social reality, but the perspective fundamentally ignores central matters related to human nature and the boundaries of possibility. We argue for a more realistic approach to theory building and social science, one that recognizes the role that true theories play in helping us understand and explain reality, but also in turn shaping that reality given this better theoretical understanding.

About Authors

2009-05-19

No abstract available.

Call for Nominations: Deadline for nominations June 15, 2009

2009-05-19

No abstract available.