Strategic Differentiation Research Articles

Exploring the role of industry 4.0 in enhancing supplier audit authenticity, efficacy, and cost effectiveness

Supplier audits are frequently criticized for lacking authenticity and objectivity. Technology-enhanced audits (TEA) offer a potential solution to supplier audit problems by enabling enhanced analytical, visualization, modeling, and predictive capabilities. This paper explores the potential of Industry 4.0 practices in enhancing supplier audit authenticity and efficacy, as well as reducing supplier monitoring costs. The application of Industry 4.0 in supplier auditing is still in its infancy. Therefore, this paper adopts an exploratory approach building on an extensive review of the literature. The paper builds upon an inductive-deductive approach to explore how the individual technologies underlying Industry 4.0 can be leveraged to enhance supplier audits. Based on insights from the literature, the paper develops propositions outlining the role of Industry 4.0 in supplier audit authenticity, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. The paper builds arguments against the backdrop of traditional audits' limitations and illustrates how TEA can overcome many of these limitations. TEA can enhance the authenticity and efficacy of supplier audits, while also reducing supplier monitoring costs. TEA are most effective in an Industry 4.0 environment where the use of technologies is supported with governance structures. The application of Industry 4.0 can make supplier audits more transparent and value-adding, benefiting both the buyer and supplier. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are explored. Suppliers can leverage TEA to create opportunities for strategic differentiation, enhance transparency and trust, and stand out from those who view audits solely as a cost. Buyers can use TEA to enhance audit efficacy, enhance insights into supplier operations, cut monitoring costs, and improve their competitiveness. TEA is a new generation of supplier auditing that has the potential to bring fundamental changes to current auditing models and make audits genuine, authentic, prospective, and insightful while building on Industry 4.0 principles.

Mapping \u2018bio geo-body\u2019 of Southeast Asia: strategic differentiation and identification of ethnic identity in Vietnam and Singapore

This research explores how data from population genome projects in Southeast Asia are mobilized for identity formation beyond the lab. We compare two cases, the Vietnamese Genome Project which is funded by a Vietnamese private conglomerate and the Peranakan Genome Project in Singapore, to elucidate how the results from population genomic projects in Vietnam and Singapore are co-constituted with existing political and cultural narratives, as well as with varying notions of ‘Chinese-ness’. We find that while scientists in Vietnam use genomics to construct the Vietnamese as genetically independent from what is perceived to be an increasingly dominant Chinese geopolitical power, scientists and participants involved in the Peranakan Genome Project emphasize genomic and cultural mixing which happened between Southern Chinese migrants and the indigenous Malay population historically to distinguish from the rest of the ‘Chinese’ population in Singapore. The cases illustrate the different ways in which the actors involved in these two genome projects strategically differentiate and negotiate the ‘bio geo-body’ of the Vietnamese and the Peranakan in relation to the Chinese identity and nationalism, thereby revealing how genomics is intertwined with local and regional histories, culture and politics.

Stakeholder Participation in the Strategic Plan Developing Process: A Survey from the Hospital Setting

Background: One of the most important requirements for developing a strategic plan is the effective participation of various stakeholders in plan formulation. The aim of present study was the evaluation of stakeholder participation in the strategic plan developing process in selected hospitals in Tehran. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. This study was conducted in selected hospitals at Tehran in 2015. The data collection tool was a researcher made questionnaire consisting of 3 parts: demographic data, stakeholder participation, and attention to the strategic plan's components. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by experts, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's Alpha test (α = 0.8). The SPSS18 software was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and percentages) were calculated. Results: The findings showed that the highest (42.9) and lowest (34.7) mean score of stakeholder participation in the strategic planning formulation was related to "provision required information for planning" and" presentation of gathering and documentation of the plan, "respectively. Hospital managers (91 percent) had the highest involvement, and external stakeholders had the least participation (1.7 percent) in the strategic planning formulation. The least attention is devoted to evaluating the proposed strategies' feasibility, identifying competitive and strategic differentiation, and identifying stakeholders' concerns and needs, respectively. Conclusion: Stakeholders' involvement in the formulation of the hospitals' strategic plan was not favorable, and hospitals were unable or unwilling to benefit from their participation in the program.

TU69. SCHIZOPHRENIA GENETIC LIABILITY AND CLOZAPINE DOSES: A FIRST STEP TOWARDS THE POLYGENIC ANALYSIS OF RESPONSE TO ANTIPSYCHOTIC TREATMENT

SD–IE is a strategic differentiation effect present amongst indices of life history (LH), such that persons and populations of slow LH are more differentiated compared to those of fast LH. We found that this phenomenon is present amongst provinces in Italy and Spain, similarly to demonstrations among US states and Japanese prefectures. The average effect size of SD–IE was found to be bigger in Spain and Italy. We also tested cognitive differentiation as a function of life history speed and IQ (high-K and high-IQ provinces having higher cognitive differentiation), and found that these effects are also present in the Italian and Spanish regions. Most cognitive differentiation effects were statistically significant in spite of the small number of provinces, but all trended in the predicted direction. We discuss the findings from a bio-historical perspective, taking into account the ethnic variability present in Spain and Italy.

FORMATION OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES IN THE BANKING SECTOR THROUGH THE USE OF CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP TOOLS

The competitiveness of credit institutions in the retail banking market lies in their ability to conduct business in this market in order to obtain the highest possible market share and profits. Achieving these goals is linked to the level of operational efficiency and strategic positioning or differentiation of banking services. Consider the tools of corporate entrepreneurship that form competitive advantages in the banking sector.

Structural or Cultural Pathways to Innovative Change? Faculty and Shared Governance in the Liberal Arts College

BackgroundPopular commentary portrays private liberal arts colleges (LACs) as ensnared within a “death spiral” due to unprecedented enrollment and financial challenges. But, in contrast to ominous predictions, recent evidence suggests strong levels of innovative activity and resilience in the sector, as reflected in the creation and adoption of methods, approaches, and configurations new to these campuses. In periods of rapid change and transition, LAC stakeholders are likely to seek research on how different change-centered strategies enhance or constrain the faculty role and the relationship between shared governance and innovation.PurposeThis study focuses on how faculty engage with administrative leaders and professional staff in academic innovation and decision making in LACs. It applies competing theoretical perspectives—the structural-bureaucratic and cultural lenses of analysis—to determine which one best captures the changes taking place on these campuses and to assay broader outcomes associated with using one approach over another.ParticipantsThe 43 research participants in this study encompassed faculty members (49%), senior-level administrators (21%), trustees (7%), and professional staff (23%).Research DesignThis study employed an embedded case study design that was replicated across three LACs, whose innovative activity was on par with national averages in the sector.Data Collection and AnalysisSite visits were conducted at each LAC, during which individual interviews were conducted, documentary materials were collected, and field notes were recorded. The analysis included an application of process, values, and pattern coding to examine the relative fit of the structural-bureaucratic and cultural accounts.Findings/ResultsThe results indicated that the faculty role largely concentrated on contributing content and operationalizing details of academic innovation. Although emerging forms of shared governance were carefully designed, they had tenuous connections to the overall innovative capacity of faculty and their campuses.Conclusions/RecommendationsThe value of the cultural lens of analysis lies in its ability to account for the ways in which interactions and communication among faculty and stakeholders enhances or constrains academic innovation. A cultural perspective also illuminates three broader patterns from the cases to explain (1) the increasing fragmentation between administrators and faculty and within the professoriate, (2) the compartmentalization of academic work vis-à-vis the “unbundling” of faculty roles, and (3) the failure of purely structural recourses to produce innovative change. Because innovation in LACs matters for strategic differentiation and for the contributions of private higher education to the postsecondary system, broader implications for research and policy are discussed.

The Effect of IT Resource Orchestration on Strategic Behaviors

This study explores how conformity and differentiation in IT resource management influence the strategic behaviors of firms drawing upon the institutional theory literature. Prior studies have suggested two competing arguments (i.e., institutional isomorphism and strategic differentiation) and examined whether conformity or differentiation in IT resource deployment provides superior market performance. This study reconciles these two countervailing views and suggests a specific way that firms can conform to industry isomorphism and differentiate themselves simultaneously in deploying IT resources. Specifically, we introduce a novel concept, IT resource orchestration, which captures how a firm differentiates its IT resources compared to industry peers over time. Using a sample of 1,854 firm-year observations from the United States, we find that IT resource orchestration is associated with differences in the strategic behaviors of firms. Further, our results indicate that a firm’s business environments moderate the relationship between its IT resource orchestration and strategic behaviors. Overall, our research implies that orchestrated IT resources are useful for generating and supporting firms’ strategic behaviors without undermining their institutional legitimacy and competitive advantage.

Understanding the Determinants for the Adoption of Mobile Market Research: An Empirical Study in the Spanish Market Research Industry.

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants for the intention to adopt mobile technology as a data collection methodology in market research projects. A conceptual framework was developed using the technology-organization-environment (TOE) model to identify technological factors (perceived benefits and limitations), organizational factors (open attitude toward change, professional competence, satisfaction with traditional systems, and firm size), and environmental factors (industry pressure, client pressure, and participant pressure) affecting adoption. The empirical study was performed with data from 67 firms in the Spanish market research industry, which were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS). The results suggest that only organizational and environmental factors have a significant influence on adoption. Key factors include professional competence, organizational openness, satisfaction with traditional and online methodologies, and pressure from industry, clients and survey participants. The findings reveal that technological characteristics are no longer a driver, as firms are starting to adopt mobile marketing research based on its greater convenience for participants, and as an element of strategic differentiation.

Does natural environment prefer the right to the left? Governors' partisanship and corporate environmental performance

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between governors' partisanship and the corporate environmental performance of firms in South Korea. According to political ideology perspective, governors' partisanship closely influences the policy directions and preferences of the provincial administration. Conservative (red) governors tend to induce and encourage competition among firms by deregulating and offering policy benefits to businesses at the provincial level. In response to increased competition in provinces governed by red governors, firms commit to aggressive environmental initiatives as a strategic differentiation tool, in contrast to their behavior in provinces controlled by liberal (blue) governors. Moreover, we examine a contingent role of the provincial Congress. According to the principle of checks and balances, the positive impact of red governors on a firm's environmental performance is stronger when the provincial Congress is controlled by the liberal (blue) party, with its checks and balances on the red governors. This study extends an institutional theory by exploring institutional setting mechanisms at the provincial level.

Electronic Arts: Strategic Differentiation in the Global Video Gaming Industry

Electronic Arts Incorporated (EA) is a leading global developer of video game software with FY2018 revenues in excess of $5B. And although the organization has demonstrated innovative leadership in the industry for many years and has an established portfolio of “hit” game titles, industry trends have created an increasingly competitive environment. Digital game distribution, for example, has dramatically reduced the cost of product delivery, but has also negated a previous barrier to entry for new competitors. In a $36B industry that has been completely reshaped by digital content and distribution, EA seeks to better engage and retain players via digital capabilities. This case study analyzes EA’s differentiated competitive strategy founded on three pillars: Player-First, Commitment to Digital, and One EA. Each of these strategic focuses has a direct connection to trends in the transforming video game industry, as the company seeks to expand its player base across platforms, geographies, and business models. Together, these highlight the path for the company to operate more efficiently, create more engaging products and services, and develop increased customer loyalty towards EA games.

Strategic Conformity or Strategic Differentiation? Mimetic Isomorphism Under Institutional Cues

This paper attempts to disentangle the dynamic process when innovators in one field take initiatives, how will the focal firm scan, interpret, and strategically respond to manifold cues from multiple institutional fields. Specifically, the signals and pressures from peers in the same industry or same geographic area. Our study showing that, firms attend to behavioral cues from both peers. Local adopters tend to build up regional ecology and conformation with social infrastructure, while industrial adopters send a competitive signal that forces followers to customize and differentiate themselves. In response, later firms tend to adopt strategic deviation and improve their social performance in reaction to industry competition, instead of simply imitate. In contrast, firms prefer sticking to imitation by taking the advantage of existing social infrastructures developed by local innovators. Furthermore, we also verify that peer effects above would be attenuated with high organizational performance, and low uncertainty. We test our propositions in the context of corporate foundations establishment in China between 2005 and 2015 through event history analysis. We develop a dynamic framework that considers the nature of the position that the focal organization occupies in multiple institutional fields, and provides a new lens for understanding the consequences of embeddedness.

Strategic Differentiation by Business Models: Free-To-Air and Pay-TV

Abstract Broadcasting markets are marked by the coexistence of outlets with radically different business models, some offering content free of charge and relying on advertising, others charging for access and airing few ads. We develop a model with competing broadcasters that leads to endogenous differentiation in business models. Differentiation is not driven by the heterogeneity of agents as in classic works. Rather it relates to the ‘two-sided’ nature of these markets. A key driver is a strong form of strategic substitutability induced by natural properties of technology that allows advertisers to reach viewers.

Competition and strategic differentiation among transnational advocacy groups

Why do some transnational advocacy groups adopt radical, confrontational tactics whereas others focus on ‘inside’ lobbying and information provision? Why do some advocacy groups appeal to large global audiences while others approach decision-makers behind closed doors? Bringing together interest group studies and population ecology theory, this article examines how population ecological dynamics affect strategic specialization among transnational advocate groups. I argue that increasing resource competition resulting from ‘organizational crowding’, along with the introduction of new legal and technological tools has led to growing strategic differentiation among transnational advocates, and has prompted a strategic division of labor whereby some groups (mainly larger, well-established and resource-rich groups) specialize in gaining political access and media attention, while others (mainly smaller, less established groups) focus on developing ‘niche’ agendas and strategies including, inter alia, radical protest, monitoring and enforcement, and litigation. I illustrate my argument with quantitative data and comparative cases from the realm of transnational environmental conservation advocacy.

Assessing the Preparedness of Major Oil and Gas Companies for a Low-Carbon Energy Transition

Given the volume of capital already embedded in the energy sector, the transition of the oil and gas majors towards low-carbon energy will be crucial in meeting global climate objectives. Various commercial indices currently attempt to track climate change risks embedded in these firms. The methodologies employed are largely based on the carbon footprint of a company’s assets, operations and supply chains. These approaches rely on objective information about a company’s greenhouse gas emissions, thereby avoiding inherently subjective evaluations of corporate governance, strategic planning, and risk management policies. The indices generally do not consider the steps being taken by companies to engage in new lines of business and re-shape business models in response to changes in the global energy system. In short, they act as a poor proxy for the investment risks facing oil and gas sector investors. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for identifying strategic differentiation among major international oil and gas companies with regards to a low-carbon energy transition. Our technique scores companies based on the degree of portfolio exposure, R&D, diversification, and observable business development in low-carbon activities. We track stated targets, board-level commitment, and monitoring by senior management. Our multi-dimensional analysis produces a within-sector, relative scoring of the degree of preparedness for the energy transition by the largest publicly-traded oil and gas companies. Our approach offers a path towards meaningful interpretation of qualitative information that is becoming available as a result of recommendations by the Financial Stability Board’s Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and national regulatory initiatives. The framework has potential application in other sectors by simplifying the assessment of potential strategic responses in energy-intensive industries. We conclude that existing information disclosures made by the oil and gas majors facilitate a robust evaluation of strategic positioning ahead of a potential shift to a lowcarbon economy.

Digitalisation, automation and upgrading in global value chains – factory economy actors versus lead companies

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the differences in the application and impact of digital technologies between manufacturing subsidiaries and lead companies, the principal orchestrators of global automotive value chains. Utilising a dataset of 10 in-depth interviews with automotive industry actors, we analyse headquarters–subsidiary differences in the patterns of digitalisation-driven upgrading. A theoretical framework is offered that explains why the significant upgrading achievements of manufacturing subsidiaries deploying industry 4.0 technologies will not reduce the gap between lead companies and manufacturing subsidiaries in terms of value generation. We show that the concept of ‘industry 4.0’ is much narrower than that of ‘digitalisation’ and transition to smart factories is only part of the digital transformation story. Industry 4.0 technologies contribute to the upgrading of operations, and enable subsidiaries to take on production-related knowledge-intensive assignments (functional upgrading). Conversely, digitalisation serves lead companies’ strategic differentiation efforts, and facilitates achieving competitive advantage: the latter are crucial for value capture.

Strategic Differentiation of High-Tech Services in Local Hospital Markets.

This study assesses organizational and market factors related to high-tech service differentiation in local hospital markets. The sample includes 1704 nonfederal, general acute hospitals in urban counties in the United States. We relate organizational and market factors in 2011 to service differentiation in 2013, using ordinary least squares regression. Data are compiled from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals, Area Resource File, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Results show that hospitals differentiate more services relative to market rivals if they are larger than the rival and if the hospitals are further apart geographically. Hospitals differentiate more services if they are large, teaching, and nonprofit or public and if they face more market competition. Hospitals differentiate fewer services from rivals if they belong to multihospital systems. The findings underscore the pressures that urban hospitals face to offer high-tech services despite the potential of high-tech services to drive hospital costs upward.

The ecology of empire

We tracked the relative integration and differentiation among life history traits over the period spanning AD 1800-1999 in the Britannic and Gallic biocultural groups. We found that Britannic populations tended toward greater strategic differentiation, while Gallic populations tended toward greater strategic integration. The dynamics of between-group competition between these two erstwhile rival biocultural groups were hypothesized as driving these processes. We constructed a latent factor that specifically sought to measure between-group competition and residualized it for the logarithmic effects of time. We found a significantly asymmetrical impact of between-group competition, where the between-group competition factor appeared to be driving the diachronic integration in Gallic populations but had no significantly corresponding influence on the parallel process of diachronic differentiation in Britannic populations. This suggests that the latter process was attributable to some alternative and unmeasured causes, such as the resource abundance consequent to territorial expansion rather than contraction.

Rewarding the Extremes: Market Reaction to U.S. Corporations’ LGBTQ Positions

How do investors react to firms “picking sides” along ideological fault lines? Integrating strategic differentiation logic with work on ideological polarization, we argue that some investors will react positively to information that a firm supports a contested social issue and some to information that a firm opposes it. We conduct a financial event study of the Corporate Equality Index (2002-2018), which ranks the largest U.S. firms on LGBTQ policies and practices – naming the “best performers” and the “worst offenders”. We find that on the day the index is released, these companies experience a positive cumulative abnormal return, whereas the companies ranked in the middle do not. Our findings speak to the emerging literature in strategy on the relationship between societal values and financial valuation.

When does it pay to stand out as stand-up? Competitive contingencies in the corporate social performance–corporate financial performance relationship

We develop a competitive contingency model of the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance, focusing on the moderating effects of industry-based factors. We conceptualize corporate social performance as a form of strategic differentiation and predict that the positive link between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance is strongest when a firm competes in an environment that is not conducive to corporate social performance. Analyses of data from roughly 2500 publicly traded firms between 2002 and 2009 support the moderating effects of industry munificence and social orientation. We discuss the implications of our contingency model for firms seeking a competitive advantage through corporate social performance.

Sustentabilidade como vantagem competitiva nas organizações: um levantamento da responsabilidade das empresas

O estudo tem por objetivo descrever a responsabilidade social empresarial e a sustentabilidade organizacional como dois caminhos estratégicos possíveis à serem adotados pelas organizações em prol de ofertarem a busca pelo alcance das metas de vantagens competitivas sustentáveis previstas e dos objetivos traçados pelas empresas responsáveis ecologicamente correta. Metodologicamente, se caracteriza como uma pesquisa básica, conceitual, explicativa, qualitativa, discursiva e bibliográfica. A vantagem competitividade sustentável impulsiona as organizações a refletir constantemente sobre como maximização dos resultados operacionais em busca de uma diferenciação estratégica. Empresas com estratégias sustentáveis têm grandes negócios no ambiente empresarial, podendo abrir novos segmentos de mercado e revolucionar os que já existem desde que invistam nas competências necessárias, não medindo esforços para construir uma sociedade mais justa, começando pelo nível mais alto empresarial, governamental, chegando até no âmbito social.