Abstract
In seeking to exploit environmental resources and opportunities, CEOs can either set multiple goals or narrow their focus on a few targets for the organizations. What approach will help organizations to benefit more from industrial munificence? In this paper, we investigate the moderating effects of CEOs’ goal setting (including the number of goals and the prioritization of these goals) on the relationship between industrial munificence and the satisfaction of goal attainment. By examining 277 small and medium-size firms in four countries, we find that CEOs need to stretch their goal list while keeping a clear priority order among these goals in order to capitalize on industrial munificence. Implications of our study are discussed.
Highlights
Individuals find themselves compelled to pursue several types of goals at the same time
Even when related goals are grouped into goal types, one action can impact the attainment of multiple goal types
If pursuing multiple goal types and prioritizing these goal types facilitates organizations’ exploitation of environmental resources and opportunities, it is natural to ask whether the pursuit of multiple goal types is itself facilitated by reducing goal type variability; we explore this possibility as well
Summary
Individuals find themselves compelled to pursue several types of goals at the same time. Theories of entrepreneurship and organizational learning direct attention to the friction between two types of conflicting goals: exploration of new opportunities and exploitation of existing strengths (March, 1991; Rothaermel & Deeds, 2004; Schumpeter, 1934) Solutions such as the ambidextrous organization offer ways of explicitly addressing conflict among these goal types, but they do not and cannot eliminate the inherent conflict between exploration and exploitation because of the different actions required by each. Pursuit of a single goal is arguably not a viable strategy for organizations in complex environments While both individuals and organizations must cope with multiple goals, their mechanisms for doing so are different. We end by discussing our findings and their implications for both the study and management of organizations
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