Strategic groups, cognitive groups and environmental change in the UK pharmaceutical industry

This chapter explores the relationship between changes in strategy and environmental pressures within the UK Pharmaceutical Industry during a ten- year period. Two stable strategic time periods (SSTPs) were identified each of five years duration. Within each time period seven strategic groups were found but 11 out of 29 firms (37.9%) changed strategic groups membership during the period studied. The break between these two SSTPs was found to coincide with a sharp increase in the substitution of branded pharmaceuticals by cheaper parallel imports. A significant relationship was found between firms that changed groups and both their continent of origin and nationality. Firms whose home markets are more vulnerable to substitution were more likely to switch strategic groups. © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Strategic practices:an activity theory perspective on continuity and change

This paper draws upon activity theory- to analyse an empirical investigation of the micro practices of strategy in three UK universities. Activity theory provides a framework of four interactive components from which strategy emerges; the collective structures of the organization, the primary actors, in this research conceptualized as the top management team (TMT), the practical activities in which they interact and the strategic practices through which interaction is conducted. Using this framework, the paper focuses specifically on the formal strategic practices involved in direction setting, resource allocation, and monitoring and control. These strategic practices arc associated with continuity of strategic activity in one case study but are involved in the reinterpretation and change of strategic activity in the other two cases. We model this finding into activity theory-based typologies of the cases that illustrate the way that practices either distribute shared interpretations or mediate between contested interpretations of strategic activity. The typologies explain the relationships between strategic practices and continuity and change of strategy as practice. The paper concludes by linking activity theory to wider change literatures to illustrate its potential as an integrative methodological framework for examining the subjective and emergent processes through which strategic activity is constructed. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.

Evaluating local strategic partnerships:theory and practice of change

Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are a major recent innovation in English local governance. As the 'partnership of partnerships' in a locality, the ability of the LSP to provide an arena for community leadership and joined up service delivery is vital to the Local Government Modernisation Agenda. Drawing on material from the national evaluation of LSPs, this paper assesses their progress. A theory of change (ToC) approach was adopted in the evaluation, and the paper shows how this approach was developed and utilised. The main findings from the evaluation are then presented and discussed. In conclusion, the article draws some wider conclusions both about the strengths and weaknesses of the ToC approach and about LSPs themselves.

Managing enterprise resource planning and multi-organisational enterprise governance:a new contingency framework for the enterprisation of operations

This research has been undertaken to determine how successful multi-organisational enterprise strategy is reliant on the correct type of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information systems being used. However there appears to be a dearth of research as regards strategic alignment between ERP systems development and multi-organisational enterprise governance as guidelines and frameworks to assist practitioners in making decision for multi-organisational collaboration supported by different types of ERP systems are still missing from theoretical and empirical perspectives. This calls for this research which investigates ERP systems development and emerging practices in the management of multi-organisational enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver complex product-service systems) and identify how different ERP systems fit into different multi-organisational enterprise structures, in order to achieve sustainable competitive success. An empirical inductive study was conducted using the Grounded Theory-based methodological approach based on successful manufacturing and service companies in the UK and China. This involved an initial pre-study literature review, data collection via 48 semi-structured interviews with 8 companies delivering complex products and services across organisational boundaries whilst adopting ERP systems to support their collaborative business strategies – 4 cases cover printing, semiconductor manufacturing, and parcel distribution industries in the UK and 4 cases cover crane manufacturing, concrete production, and banking industries in China in order to form a set of 29 tentative propositions that have been validated via a questionnaire receiving 116 responses from 16 companies. The research has resulted in the consolidation of the validated propositions into a novel concept referred to as the ‘Dynamic Enterprise Reference Grid for ERP’ (DERG-ERP) which draws from multiple theoretical perspectives. The core of the DERG-ERP concept is a contingency management framework which indicates that different multi-organisational enterprise paradigms and the supporting ERP information systems are not the result of different strategies, but are best considered part of a strategic continuum with the same overall business purpose of multi-organisational cooperation. At different times and circumstances in a partnership lifecycle firms may prefer particular multi-organisational enterprise structures and the use of different types of ERP systems to satisfy business requirements. Thus the DERG-ERP concept helps decision makers in selecting, managing and co-developing the most appropriate multi-organistional enterprise strategy and its corresponding ERP systems by drawing on core competence, expected competitiveness, and information systems strategic capabilities as the main contingency factors. Specifically, this research suggests that traditional ERP(I) systems are associated with Vertically Integrated Enterprise (VIE); whilst ERPIIsystems can be correlated to Extended Enterprise (EE) requirements and ERPIII systems can best support the operations of Virtual Enterprise (VE). The contribution of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, this work contributes to a gap in the extant literature about the best fit between ERP system types and multi-organisational enterprise structure types; and proposes a new contingency framework – the DERG-ERP, which can be used to explain how and why enterprise managers need to change and adapt their ERP information systems in response to changing business and operational requirements. Secondly, with respect to a priori theoretical models, the new DERG-ERP has furthered multi-organisational enterprise management thinking by incorporating information system strategy, rather than purely focusing on strategy, structural, and operational aspects of enterprise design and management. Simultaneously, the DERG-ERP makes theoretical contributions to the current IS Strategy Formulation Model which does not explicitly address multi-organisational enterprise governance. Thirdly, this research clarifies and emphasises the new concept and ideas of future ERP systems (referred to as ERPIII) that are inadequately covered in the extant literature. The novel DERG-ERP concept and its elements have also been applied to 8 empirical cases to serve as a practical guide for ERP vendors, information systems management, and operations managers hoping to grow and sustain their competitive advantage with respect to effective enterprise strategy, enterprise structures, and ERP systems use; referred to in this thesis as the “enterprisation of operations”.

Understanding the labour–environmental relationship in Britain, 1967–2011:a new narrative using political opportunity structure and coalition theory

Orthodox depictions of a fraught labour–environmental relationship privileging class, ideological and programmatic differences are problematised by newly quantified evidence of British unions' pro-environmental policy-making since 1967. The following narrative blends widely accepted accounts of the fortunes of both movements with an evaluation of Britain's shifting political opportunity structure and coalition theory to identify an alternative range of constraints and opportunities influencing the propensity and capacity of both movements to interact effectively, culminating recently in unions' emergence as environmental actors in their own right.

Building theory at the intersection of ecological sustainability and strategic management

This article builds theory at the intersection of ecological sustainability and strategic management literature—specifically, in relation to dynamic capabilities literature. By combining industrial organization economics–based, resource-based, and dynamic capability–based views, it is possible to develop a better understanding of the strategies that businesses may follow, depending on their managers’ assumptions about ecological sustainability. To develop innovative strategies for ecological sustainability, the dynamic capabilities framework needs to be extended. In particular, the sensing–seizing–maintaining competitiveness framework should operate not only within the boundaries of a business ecosystem but in relation to global biophysical ecosystems; in addition, two more dynamic capabilities should be added, namely, remapping and reaping. This framework can explicate core managerial beliefs about ecological sustainability. Finally, this approach offers opportunities for managers and academics to identify, categorize, and exploit business strategies for ecological sustainability.

Strategic planning research:toward a theory-driven agenda

This review incorporates strategic planning research conducted over more than 30 years and ranges from the classical model of strategic planning to recent empirical work on intermediate outcomes, such as the reduction of managers’ position bias and the coordination of subunit activity. Prior reviews have not had the benefit of more socialized perspectives that developed in response to Mintzberg’s critique of planning, including research on planned emergence and strategy-as-practice approaches. To stimulate a resurgence of research interest on strategic planning, this review therefore draws on a diverse body of theory beyond the rational design and contingency approaches that characterized research in this domain until the mid-1990s. We develop a broad conceptualization of strategic planning and identify future research opportunities for improving our understanding of how strategic planning influences organizational outcomes. Our framework incorporates the role of strategic planning practitioners; the underlying routines, norms, and procedures of strategic planning (practices); and the concrete activities of planners (praxis).

What is the Future of Strategic Management?

The history of planning and creating strategies has a past of over half a century. Throughout this lifetime period we have witnessed both the evolution of theory and practice. The MBA study books in the last-third of the 20th century have with predilection exhibited this very process as a complex of monetary centered budget planning, forecast-based planning, strategic planning and strategic management. There might be a controversy existing about the naming, characteristics and timing of these different sections but there is an accordance that the changes that we have taken place in the last decade as a whole without a doubt can be derived from these very changes in the business environment or in some outstanding cases (like 9/11) they can be acknowledged as the ability of corporate foreseeing and the ability to adapt to the vision of the future. The main purposes of the research is to provide a summarized picture about the changing process of this procedure during last decades as far as the planning and creating strategies are concerned and also their milestones and periods. Try to explore and systemize the very aspects of these changes. The happenings of the first decade of the new millennium are outstandingly interesting if we consider their real effect on the theory and practice of strategic management. Let us remember the euphoria around the year 2000, the predictions of „new technologies”, „new economy”, „new organization” and „new leadership”. We have implied before on the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center which meant a new era, a new quality of international terrorism and its consequences (Afghanistan, Iraq). But the „product” of this decade is the strategic aim that companies focus on, which is the social responsibility regarding the unavoidance of the effects of climate change on the long run. During the research the big question has risen concerning how did the science of strategic management do as far as the predictions of the global monetary and economic crisis are concerned? And also its solutions this very science has to offer in order to handle and get over the crisis. Does it conclude from the answers given to the questions that a change in paradigms are necessary, a new quality is needed or may be we have come to a new crossroad of the development process that will take over strategic management? (...)

The New (Marketing) Role of Firms as Media Content Providers – The case of SME’s Strategic Social Media Presence

In the new social media context, it is gradually more common to say that each party can itself be considered a media content provider, firms included (through their brand pages). This tendency is reflected in a rising professional field called “content marketing”. This study incorporates the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into the scope of social media (SM) as a marketing communications and media content distribution system. In an exploratory content analysis of 20 official SM brand pages with 1281 analyzed posts the authors study how SMEs respond to the advent of a new paradigm of marketing communications with special attention to their usage of media-specific contents. SM impels companies to eventually rethink the traditional one-way communication flow of their marketing messages and to incorporate a new, two-way communication into their marketing strategy, where (their engaged and involved) users can create, modify, share and discuss content related to the firm’s activity. This study’s preliminary results show that diffusing content generally acts for SMEs as a facilitator to involve fans by offering a thematized space for them to manifest themselves in company-related topics. Therefore, content adds to the firms’ possibilities of brand positioning by offering a reflection of fans’ company- and contentrelated behavior, which is a supplementary source of information.

A referenciapont-elmélet mint a hiányos információjú szerződések gondolatkörének új irányzata (The concept of ‘reference points’ as a new direction in the ‘incomplete contract’ theory)

A cikk az alig több mint öt éve született referenciapont-elméletet mutatja be, ismerteti és értékeli a témában eddig megjelent cikkeket és a nagyobb horderejű munkaanyagokat. A referenciapont-elmélet arra a kérdésre keresi a választ, hogy mi a vállalat optimális mérete, és mikor érdemesebb a termelési kooperációt nem a vállalaton belül, a különböző egységek koordinációjával megoldani, hanem külső vállalatok segítségével, a piacon keresztül megvalósítani. A referenciapont-elmélet az azonos kérdések megválaszolására törekvő hiányos szerződések elméletét ért kritika hatására született meg, és saját, újonnan megfogalmazott feltételrendszerét számos ponton ötvözi a hiányos szerződések hipotéziseivel, ugyanakkor bizonyításai során felhasználja a standard közgazdasági irányzat több eszközét is. A cikk a friss eredmények bemutatása mellett megkísérli előre becsülni a referenciapont-elmélet várható jövőbeli fejlődési irányait is. ____ The concept of reference points was established slightly more than five years ago, and it deals with the same boundary of firm related questions as the incomplete contract theory. The present review shows the most important journals and research papers in this field. Reference point theory arose out of a criticism of some of the elements of incomplete contract theory. Reference point theory combines newly- formulated hypotheses with some of the assumptions of incomplete contracts. The theory also uses some of the proving tools of standard economics. The author’s study not only shows the main results of the reference point theory, but it also tries to predict some possible future developments within the theory.

The Attributes of Social Media as a Strategic Marketing Communication Tool

New digital trends are transforming the media industry landscape, modifying elemental characteristics and attitudes of companies as well as of consumers. Firms often claim that their presence in social media (SM) is a key element to success. SM helps companies rethink the traditional one-way flow of their marketing messages and to incorporate a new interactive pattern into their communications. Nevertheless, these tendencies involve problems of strategic myopia for firms that do not structurally integrate these tools. One main problem is that institutions can rarely differentiate between the various types of SM and the attributes thereof, while the literature equally reveals a number of contradictions in the subject. The present conceptual paper lays the foundations of a strategic approach to SM and discusses its theoretical implications. Following an overview on the concept of SM, through a content analysis of the specialized management literature (n = 14), we present various best practices and reflect on the apparent lack of strategic thinking in using SM as a marketing application. Then, we compare these practical examples with general marketing strategy theory. By merging theory and practice, we aim to provide an insight towards a well-founded application of SM as a genuinely strategic marketing tool.

The new Jamaican migration : implications for theory and practice

While analysis of the effect which education and migration have on development is neither clear cut, nor obvious, regimes such as those of Jamaica have traditionally placed great emphasis on development through education at all levels. The process of human resource development and the accumulation of human capital is intended to unlock the door to modernization. Nevertheless, our findings indicate a considerable loss of professional and skilled personnel -- the same group that embody a disproportionate amount of educational expenditure relative to the population. Insofar as planning is concerned this migration represents a negative factor. The developing country of Jamaica is unintentionally supplying the developed world with an "annual gift" of human capital which its economy cannot afford. The major issue becomes: to what extent can any government "protect" its investments by restricting movements of capital and people. The general assumption of this paper is that the question of human rights cannot be ignored especially in democracies (which Jamaica decidedly is), where movement is seen as an ingrained human right. During the 1970s and 1980s, Jamaica and the Caribbean as a whole has lost much through intellectual capital migrations. Yet brains may also die in their own environment, if deprived the ability to create their own criteria and goals. Forcing people to stay with their money and know-how may only serve to produce and economic environment overgrown with weeds of lethargy, indolence and mediocrity.