Managerial Attention and Sensing and Seizing Emerging Technologies: The Role of Structure

Abstract

Prior research contends that managerial cognition plays an important role in explaining the firm’s effective response to environmental dynamism. However, evidence suggests that firms may cope with significant change without the involvement or despite initial disapproval of senior managers. In this contested terrain, this study examines the influence of structural attributes on the relationship between cognition and effective adaptation to change. Drawing on the existing literature on dynamic capabilities, we study how formal coordination mechanisms, i.e. centralization and formalization, moderate the relationship between managerial attention and early recognition and commercialization of an emerging technology. The empirical base of this study is a combination of an exploratory qualitative study and a survey of Cloud computing adopters in the Dutch IT sector. Our analysis confirms that while managerial attention positively affects the speed of making investment decision and the timing of benefiting from investments on emerging technologies, this link is strengthened when high levels of centralization and low levels of formalization are present.