Strategic Input Research Articles

Strategic reference points in family firms

Family firms are classically seen as risk averse organizations, and this is evident in their generally lower R&D investments compared to non-family firms. Recent research, however, challenges this predominant view and suggests that family firms can embrace higher strategic risk when faced with threats to their family-centered goals. Still, the internal and external conditions that drive variations in the strategic risk taking behaviors of family firms are little known and understood. This article adds to this literature by developing and testing a conceptual model of strategic risk taking that incorporates behavioral theory, family business literature, and the logic of the strategic reference point theory. With recognition that the interplay between family and economic goals determines heterogeneity in strategic actions of family firms, this model suggests that family managers respond differentially to the feedback information regarding internal and external reference points, and consequently identifies key drivers of variation in the R&D investment behavior of family firms. By examining the pattern in R&D investments of 437 Spanish private manufacturing firms from 2000 to 2006, this study shows how strategic inputs, strategic outputs, and external benchmarks produce variations in strategic decisions about R&D investments in family and non-family firms. The findings offer insights into how internal and external reference points are considered in family firms’ decision making, thereby contributing a deeper understanding into the circumstances under which family goals cope or collide with the economic goals of the firm, and how this influences strategic risk decisions in family firms.

Executive Gatekeepers: Useful and Divertible Governance

Lawyers now serve as executives in 44% of corporations. Although endowed with gatekeeping titles and responsibilities, these lawyers face increasing tension on their time to add strategic legal input into business development. We quantify lawyer importance along these dimensions. Lawyer fixed effects explain 3.5% of the across-firm variation in regulatory compliance, 10% in monitoring failures, and 3.3% in business development over and above firm and year fixed effects. These effects are 20-60% as large as CEO effects in our sample, and thus quite material. Our main contribution compares executive lawyers hired from law firms (who face more reputational capital exposure) to lawyers poached from corporations to ask whether firms’ optimal contracting of lawyers to induce strategic input implies lower lawyer attention to gatekeeping. We find that lawyers with a standard deviation higher compensation delta (indicative of the importance of strategic goals in compensation contracts) prevent 67% fewer class action frauds and 48% fewer general lawsuits compared to the average gain associated with hiring an executive gatekeeper. Reassuringly, lawyers do not compromise regulatory compliance.

Do privacy laws affect the location decisions of internet firms? Evidence for privacy havens

This paper empirically studies the location decisions of internet firms when they face high legal standards of privacy protection. Many factors might influence them: technological spillovers, lower taxation, and so on. Internet firms can also arbitrate national differences and many of them actually locate their activity in order to escape from national laws they consider over-stringent. In the current stage of development of the internet—the so-called Web 2.0—the ease of access to personal data proved to be strategic input. So the more a jurisdiction makes collecting and using these data easy, the more attractive the country is, if all other things remain constant. One way for a firm to avoid such legal restrictions is to locate or to expand its business in less privacy protective countries. Our empirical results support this ‘no-privacy haven’ hypothesis. In particular, we highlight a new privacy paradox according to which the more stringent certain online privacy laws are, the more they induce firms to locate their business in less stringent countries, and finally the weaker actual privacy protection on the internet is.

Green Information Technology and its Implication for Business Strategy in the Banking Sector in Zimbabwe

Green IT represents a set of initiatives developed to reduce the carbon footprint of corporate IT. Given the high cost structures exhibited by the financial services industry and high dependence on information communication technologies, implementing Green IT is regarded the best alternative for the industry. This study sought to determine the gap in the uptake of Green IT by the financial services industry in Zimbabwe through the use of a multiple case research design. The results of the study show that the financial services industry is still in the primitive stages of embracing Green IT initiatives with their quest being hampered by inadequate resources. The study concluded that banks that have not yet adopted Green IT are missing out on improving their operational efficiency in an environmentally friendly manner. Banks are recommended to adopt eco-efficient strategies making Green IT a strategic input.

Should pay-for-performance schemes be locally designed? evidence from the commissioning for quality and innovation (CQUIN) framework

It is increasingly recognized that the design characteristics of pay-for-performance schemes are important in determining their impact. One important but under-studied design aspect is the extent to which pay-for-performance schemes reflect local priorities. The English Department of Health White Paper High Quality Care for All introduced a Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) Framework from April 2009, under which local commissioners and providers were required to negotiate and implement an annual pay-for-performance scheme. In 2010/2011, these schemes covered 1.5% (£ 1.0 bn) of NHS expenditure. Local design was intended to offer flexibility to local priorities and generate local enthusiasm, while retaining good design properties of focusing on outcomes and processes with a clear link to quality, using established indicators where possible, and covering three key domains of quality (safety; effectiveness; patient experience) and innovation. We assess the extent to which local design achieved these objectives. Quantitative analysis of 337 locally negotiated CQUIN schemes in 2010/2011, along with qualitative analysis of 373 meetings (comprising 800 hours of observation) and 230 formal interviews (audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim) with NHS staff in 12 case study sites. The local development process was successful in identifying variation in local needs and priorities for quality improvement but the involvement of frontline clinical staff was insufficient to generate local enthusiasm around the schemes. The schemes did not in general live up to the requirements set by the Department of Health to ensure that local schemes addressed the original objectives for the CQUIN framework. While there is clearly an important case for local strategic and clinical input into the design of pay-for-performance schemes, this should be kept separate from the technical design process, which involves defining indicators, agreeing thresholds, and setting prices. These tasks require expertise that is unlikely to exist in each locality. The CQUIN framework potentially offered an opportunity to learn how technical design influenced outcome but due to the high degree of local experimentation and little systematic collection of key variables, it is difficult to derive lessons from this unstructured experiment about the impact and importance of different technical design factors on the effectiveness of pay-for-performance. Balancing the policy goal of localism with the objective of improving patient outcomes leads us to conclude that a somewhat firmer national framework would be preferable to a fully locally designed framework.

National and regional estimates of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in Brazil, 2008: a systematic analysis

BackgroundSince Murray and Lopez's 1996 seminal study on burden of disease, the disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) has become a valuable tool to measure the health loss of populations and evaluate health-system performance. Such indicators are essential in a country like Brazil, marked with rapidly changing epidemiology and wide regional inequalities. This study presents timely subnational estimates of burden of disease in Brazil in 2008 to inform health policy. MethodsDALYs are the sum of years of life lost (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs). Mortality data were used to estimate YLLs for Brazil, with adjustments for incomplete information on cause of death, sex, and age. YLDs were estimated from multiple sources, including health databases, literature reviews, and expert consensus. FindingsWe estimated a national average of 195 DALYs per 1000 inhabitants (95% CI 194–196) in 2008. Five causes accounted for almost a third of total DALYs: depression (8·31%, 95% CI 8·31–8·32), ischaemic heart disease (6·78%, 6·76–6·80), diabetes (4·72%, 4·70–4·74), stroke (4·60%, 4·58–4·61), and homicide/violence (3·70%, 3·69–3·71). Large regional disparities were found: from a low of 177 DALYs per 1000 inhabitants (95% CI 177–178) in the Central West region to a high of 209 per 1000 inhabitants (208–210) in the Northeast. In the (more affluent) Southeast and South regions, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was a greater contributor to health loss than homicide/violence. Neonatal sepsis and birth trauma and asphyxia were among the 20 principal DALY contributors in the (poorer) North and Northeast regions. InterpretationNon-communicable chronic diseases, mental health, and injuries weigh heavily on the Brazilian epidemiological profile. However, in the more vulnerable regions, the North and Northeast, diseases associated with poverty and health-system precariousness persist. Health policies need to consider the balance between acute care services and chronic care management to meet population health needs across the country. More research is needed on the underlying social and economic determinants contributing to disparities in health outcomes. FundingDepartment of Science and Technology, Secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Inputs, Ministry of Health of Brazil (DECIT/MoH).

The dairy chains in North Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia): from self sufficiency options to food dependency?

The Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have experienced since the early 1950s a rapid demographic growth coupled to a significant rhythm of urbanization. This has led to a marked increase in the demand of dairy products. In order to secure the supply, specific policies have been implemented. They mainly consisted in the establishment of a dairy industry, based on the processing of either raw milk produced locally (in Morocco and Tunisia) or imported milk powder (in Algeria). These divergent options have had significant consequences on the whole organization of the dairy chains in these countries, from cattle rearing practices, to milk collection and processing. They have also implied differences in milk and its derivatives’ prices and levels of consumption. The paper draws a comparative analysis of milk chains within the three countries: a supply mainly based on imports in Algeria, whereas in Morocco and Tunisia, the demand is satisfied by a chain relying on locally produced cattle milk. The paper also emphasizes on the future challenges that will have to be addressed: a rising volatility of milk and other strategic inputs’ prices (feed, machinery, cattle, etc.) in global markets, an improvement in consumers’ awareness about milk quality, a further pressure on natural resources (mainly soils and water) to get more raw milk, in countries already suffering an acute water stress. The article also establishes recommendations about specific issues related to the development of the dairy chains in the context of North Africa. These are mainly linked to the fragmented offer induced by numerous smallholder farms, which implies obvious difficulties to assess the hygienic and the chemical quality of milk batches delivered daily. Moreover, this fragmented offer also means that specific support programs will have to be designed, as the vast majority of farms are not dairy specialized, expecting both milk and calf crop from their herds.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-162) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Factor‐Market Rivalry and Competition for Supply Chain Resources

Organizations monitor factor‐markets for strategic inputs that directly contribute to the firms' unique advantage. Thus, managers may be unaware of essential supporting inputs that bundle with strategic inputs to sustain the organization's success. Increasingly, supply chain resources are part of that strategic bundle of resources essential for achieving the firm's competitive advantage. This research employs a conceptual theory‐building approach to examine competition among diverse industries in factor‐markets using the example of supply chain services and the relatively new lens of factor‐market rivalry theory. Data relative to air cargo capacity in China, port capacity in South Vietnam and the U.S. port and rail system provide the context for theoretical and practical insights into the implications of factor‐market rivalry on firm performance.

Orta Doğu Bölgesi Enerji Kaynaklarının 21. Yüzyıl Dünya Ekonomisi İçin Stratejik Önemi

20. yuzyilda ulkeler acisindan en stratejik girdi olmaya baslayan enerji kaynaklari, bu onemini giderek daha da artirmaktadir. Enerjiye olan bagimliligin ve talebin bu oranda artmasina karsilik enerji kaynaklari da hizla azalmaktadir. Bu durum tum dikkatlerin enerji bolgelerine yogunlas-masina neden olmustur. Bu bolgelerin basinda da Orta Dogu gelmektedir. Bu kapsamda calismanin amaci, Orta Dogu enerji kaynaklarinin 20 yuzyilda oldugu gibi 21. yuzyilda da dunya ekonomisi acisindan onemini aciklamak-tir. Bu amac cercevesinde, calismanin ilk kisminda Orta Dogu ve stratejik onemi hakkinda bilgiler verilmistir. Ikinci kisimda ise, bolgenin dunyaya oranla petrol ve dogalgaz rezervleri, uretim ve tuketim degerleri incelenmistir. Son kisimda da kuresel guclerin Orta Dogu politikalari ve bolge ulkelerle iliskileri isiginda Orta Dogu bolgesinin 21. yuzyildaki stratejik onemi ortaya konmaya calisilmistir.

A strategic decision model for evaluating inland freight hub locations

This research identifies criteria that can be used to evaluate existing or potential inland multimodal freight hubs. Inland hubs are essential for a more efficient freight distribution system and can play an important role in improving the livability and economic vitality of a region. The research uses data gathered from subject-matter experts to determine the relevant criteria needed to evaluate the location of inland freight hubs. Findings are then categorized in a multi-criteria decision framework. Decision makers can use the findings to identify factors that will provide strategic inputs that are vital to the location decision process.

The benefits of short‐term study abroad as a blended learning experience

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the role blended learning plays in expanding study abroad opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThe approach utilized involves providing a synopsis of research dealing with study abroad and its benefits, particularly for student populations likely to comprise a significant portion of the distance learning market. Perspectives on the benefits derived from incorporating distance learning into short‐term study abroad programs are then discussed based on the experiences of a business college with a significant enrollment of online students.FindingsThis paper highlights the flexibility afforded by online education in fulfilling academic content requirements, showcasing blended learning as a strategic complementary input in content delivery. The enhancement in study abroad options afforded offers the potential to introduce international business experiences to student populations historically underserved.Practical implicationsBlended learning facilitates the inclusion of online students, enhancing the financial viability of study abroad courses and programs.Social implicationsBlended learning facilitates the inclusion of online students, expanding study abroad opportunities to student populations historically underserved.Originality/valueConceptualizing blended learning as a facilitating device for study abroad is a contribution to the literature; research surrounding the nexus between online learning and study abroad is embryonic. Within this nascent area, this paper also provides value in offering suggestions for future empirical research.

Measuring Retail Productivity in Indian Context

In this study, the focus is upon developing a constitutive and operational model of the construct 'Retail Productivity' from a store level application and usage point of view. Retailers over the years have developed and used various methods for their performance measurement as well as development of strategy. Obviously, retail productivity is one of them and probably rather significant too. However, lack of clarity at the conceptual level has made retail productivity a synonym for retail performance and hence retailers use sales per square feet, employee turnover or return on investment to explain retail productivity / store productivity. Ingene (1982) highlights twelve different productivity definitions and their overall measures. As there is complete lack of standardization of the retail productivity score, productivity scores of two different stores (organizations) become totally non-commensurable for any comparative purpose. As a result, a superior retail productivity score fails to develop any sustainable strategy for future and an inferior retail productivity score fails to pinpoint areas of concern. With this core thought process, in this study, it is intended to define retail productivity conceptually, identify exhaustively the various constituents and their measures, determine their significance and finally integrate them all with a model for measuring retail productivity at individual store level. Consequently, it should help identify some store level issues and help development of strategic input to address those issues.

Strategic insights from mystery shopping in B2B relationships

This paper describes how mystery shopping can be used to gain valuable strategic input in B2B service relationships. We account for a longitudinal case study framed as a natural experiment (duration 18 months) in a Swedish group of consultancy companies offering a wide selection of industrial services to large Scandinavian corporations. We account for and analyse the process of building a mystery shopping procedure to get strategic insights from engineers delivering temporary consultancy services to these clients. After a successful trial period with three mystery shoppers the experiment (a guideline covering the themes of map, smoke and mirror as metaphors) has been extended to comprise a larger group of engineers and may be taken up in a company-wide way. The experiment was deemed effective in developing both a procedure for mystery shopping and a new way to train the consultants.

Food and Agriculture: The Future of Sustainability

On our current trajectory, severe disruptions to national and regional food systems are highly likely to happen - the main question is when. This report, commissioned by the UN DESA as a strategic input to SD21 and the Rio discussions, focuses on vital areas and offers a collection of up to date information on the current and likely trends for our global Food and Agriculture systems.With contributions from more than 70 global agri-food leaders in the business, policy, green, and social arenas, the report exposes unforeseen areas of consensus. By opening the silos of partisan thinking to invite reasoned discussion, it also exposes areas of disagreement and lays out a key set of specific high impact areas where smart decisions will make the most difference for sustainable and resilient food and agriculture systems.

The practice of strategy

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the obstacles to human resources (HR) making a strategic contribution and to share ways of overcoming those obstacles.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses case studies to demonstrate how organizations are successfully integrating people and business strategies.FindingsThis author argues that HR has found it difficult to effectively make a strategic contribution to the organizations it supports because it has not defined what form a strategic input should take, a lack of capability within the function and an absence of management support.Originality/valueThe paper explains how organizations can overcome these obstacles and gives examples of how two very different types have integrated business and people strategies, and measured functional impact.

The Ideological Effects of Framing Threat on Immigration and Civil Liberties

Assuming that migration threat is multi-dimensional, this article seeks to investigate how various types of threats associated with immigration affect attitudes towards immigration and civil liberties. Through experimentation, the study unpacks the ‘securitization of migration’ discourse by disaggregating the nature of immigration threat, and its impact on policy positions and ideological patterns at the individual level. Based on framing and attitudinal analysis, we argue that physical security in distinction from cultural insecurity is enough to generate important ideological variations stemming from strategic input (such as framing and issue-linkage). We expect then that as immigration shifts from a cultural to a physical threat, immigration issues may become more politically salient but less politicized and subject to consensus. Interestingly, however, the findings reveal that the effects of threat framing are not ubiquitous, and may be conditional upon ideology. Liberals were much more susceptible to the frames than were conservatives. Potential explanations for the ideological effects of framing, as well as their implications, are explored.

Promoting editorial capacity in psychiatric journals in low and middle income countries (LAMIC)

Under the auspices of the WPA section for publications, the WPA Task Force on publications has been actively involved in promoting editorial capacity in LAMIC countries through workshops. The workshops review selected journals from regions within the LAMIC group. The current workshop focused on Africa and Asia, with selected editors presenting content related to their journals. The aim was to establish the readiness for indexation in international databases, and to provide strategic input to facilitate this process. However, beyond indexation the workshop provided an opportunity to contribute towards improving quality of publications that would lead to a positive impact on mental health content in these regions. A further workshop is planned for Central and South American publications. Key words: Psychiatry; Publishing; Education; Developing countries

Environmental scanning strategy of manufacturing companies in southwestern Nigeria

In this paper, we examine the environmental scanning strategy of manufacturing companies in southwestern Nigeria against the background that manufacturing companies in Nigeria exist in a challenging environment characterised by high import dependency, inappropriate policies, lack of transparent governance and weak industrial capabilities. Empirical data was collected with a questionnaire from a sample of 84 manufacturing firms in southwestern Nigeria. It was observed that generally companies in the industry actively engage in systematic gathering, analyses and assimilation of information about the business environment as strategic input into planning. The main objective of firms’ search was to obtain information required to initiate or support strategies for competing in the domestic market. Central among the factors determining the companies’ level of intrusiveness into the environment are companies’ capacity to interpret changes in the environment, available channels of information and quality of information.

O papel da pesquisa na consolidação do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS)

The challenge of providing quality while maintaining costs at affordable levels for society has motivated the implementation of health system reforms in various countries, seeking “allocative efficiency”, namely, prioritizing actions with the best cost-effectiveness ratio. This situation assigns increasing value to the adoption of evidence-based practices and policies. In Brazil, however, there was a persistent mismatch between scientific output and the use of its results in defining health policies and services. The Department of Science and Technology (DECIT), strengthened by the creation of the Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Strategic Inputs under the Ministry of Health in 2003, has contributed to identifying and promoting strategic research for the SUS. The main guidelines for the work by DECIT are provided by the National Agenda for Research Priorities in Health and the National Policy for Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health (PNCTIS), both approved during the 2 nd National Thematic Conference in 2004. The Conference included extensive involvement by health researchers, professionals, managers, and users of the National Health System (Guimaraes R, et al., Cad Saude Publica 2006; 22:1775-94). Participation by SUS managers has been crucial for including health problems on the scientific research agenda. An example is the growing participation by State health departments in the management of the Research Program for the SUS, implemented in all States of Brazil financed by DECIT and State Foundations to Support Research. The presence of the DECIT in the national coordination of health research has also allowed Brazil to establish multicenter studies and collaborative networks that require broad dialogue among many stakeholders. The Longitudinal Study on Adult Health (ELSA) and the National Networks for Clinical Research and Cell Therapy are examples of this exercise, demonstrating maturity in the management of health research investments. From 2003 to 2009, DECIT financed more than 3,700 research projects and made available R$650 million in funds, 60% of which from its own budget and the rest from partner institutions. In the area of specialized care, the strengthening of the scientific basis for incorporating products and services into the SUS requires serious attention, without which the system’s sustainability will be in jeopardy. Considering the need to guarantee the Constitutional right to health, the high costs of new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, and the growing recourse to court injunctions by users of the SUS to ensure their access to treatment and medicines, decisions by health managers at the 3 levels of government must be backed by cost-effectiveness and cost-utility estimates. In this sense, the creation of the Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies by the Ministry of Health in 2006, the consolidation of the Division for Health Technology Assessment under DECIT, the establishment of the Brazilian Network for Health Technology Assessment (REBRATS), and the approval of the Technology Management Policy in the SUS are important initiatives. Specifically, DECIT has already issued three calls for research projects on health technology assessment and hired 278 studies. These efforts notwithstanding, much remains to be done. In the current context, perhaps the main challenge is to define an organizational structure to promote technology research and assessment in the SUS, ensuring the continuity and extension of the actions under way. Dealing with this challenge requires participation not only by health managers, professionals, and community representatives of social control in the SUS, but also by members of the scientific community.

Strategic Inputs into Patent Pools

This article explores what factors determine the decision of a patent pool to accept new inputs. We propose a dynamic analysis of 1337 U.S. patent inputs into 7 important pools. This analysis highlights a trade-off between firm and patent characteristics as the determinants of inclusion of patents into pools. For instance we prove that firms already member of the pool or holding large patent portfolios are able to include lower quality patents. These findings can be explained both by bargaining power and information asymmetry. In particular, as measured by a new indicator, insiders and firms practicing the technology file patents that are better aligned with the criteria of essentiality.