Strategic Literature Research Articles

Effect of green tea on glucose control and insulin sensitivity: a meta-analysis of 17 randomized controlled trials

The results of studies investigating the effect of green tea on glucose control and insulin sensitivity in humans are inconsistent. We aimed to quantitatively evaluate the effect of green tea on glucose control and insulin sensitivity. We performed a strategic literature search of PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (updated to January 2013) for randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effects of green tea and green tea extract on glucose control and insulin sensitivity. Study quality was assessed by using the Jadad scale. Weighted mean differences were calculated for net changes in glycemic measures by using fixed-effects or random-effects models. We conducted prespecified subgroup and sensitivity analyses to explore potential heterogeneity. Meta-regression analyses were conducted to investigate dose effects of green tea on fasting glucose and insulin concentrations. Seventeen trials comprising a total of 1133 subjects were included in the current meta-analysis. Green tea consumption significantly reduced the fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1c (Hb A1c) concentrations by -0.09 mmol/L (95% CI: -0.15, -0.03 mmol/L; P < 0.01) and -0.30% (95% CI: -0.37, -0.22%; P < 0.01), respectively. Further stratified analyses from high Jadad score studies showed that green tea significantly reduced fasting insulin concentrations (-1.16 μIU/mL; 95% CI: -1.91, -0.40 μIU/mL; P = 0.03). This meta-analysis suggested that green tea had favorable effects, ie, decreased fasting glucose and Hb A1c concentrations. Subgroup analyses showed a significant reduction in fasting insulin concentrations in trials with high Jadad scores.

Effect of Fruit Juice on Cholesterol and Blood Pressure in Adults: A Meta-Analysis of 19 Randomized Controlled Trials

BackgroundThe effect of fruit juice on serum cholesterol and blood pressure in humans has generated inconsistent results. We aimed to quantitatively evaluate the effect of fruit juice on serum cholesterol and blood pressure in adults.MethodsWe performed a strategic literature search of PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (updated to October, 2012) for randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effects of fruit juice on serum cholesterol and blood pressure. Study quality was assessed by using the Jadad scale. Weighted mean differences were calculated for net changes in cholesterol and blood pressure by using fixed-effects model. Prespecified subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted to explore the potential heterogeneity.ResultsNineteen trials comprising a total of 618 subjects were included in this meta-analysis. Fruit juice consumption borderlinely reduced the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 2.07 mm Hg (95% CI: −3.75, −0.39 mm Hg; p = 0.02), but did not show significant effects on total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations or systolic blood pressure (SBP) values. A significant reduction of TC concentration was observed in low-median intake of total polyphenols group. Subgroup analyses for HDL-C and LDL-C concentrations did not show statistically significant results. No significant heterogeneity was detected for all the measures.ConclusionThis meta-analysis suggested that fruit juice had a borderline significant effect on reducing DBP, but had no effect on TC, HDL-C, LDL-C concentrations or SBP.

Senior Executives, IT Reputation Building &amp; Implications for Market Valuation

The objective of this study is to identify factors that help build an IT reputation, and to evaluate whether markets value a firm’s ability to develop and sustain its IT reputation. Building on IT strategic leadership and IT business value literature, we argue that a similarity in the background and hierarchical proximity between CEO and senior IT executive increases the likelihood that the firm will develop an IT reputation, and this similarity/proximity is more important for product differentiating companies. Building on signaling theory, we argue that IT reputation matters to investors because it reduces information asymmetry. Investors interpret a firm’s sustainable IT reputation as a signal of its superior past IT strategy and future IT investment prospects thus raising its market value. The predicted relationships are validated by results from over 1300 US firms that have appeared in the Information Week 500 lists in the period from 1997 to 2009.

Incorporating on-farm water storage safety into catchment policy frameworks: International best practice policy for private dam safety accountability and assurance

The safety of catchment basins is threatened because of the potential and severe consequences of private on-farm dam failure. Such failure follows inadequate development and implementation of accountability and assurance policy in relation to water storage, a consideration which resources and land use policy planning must take into account if lives, private property, public infrastructure and the environment downstream are to be saved. Thus, this paper aims to explore the interrelated policy issues associated with improving safety of farm dam water storage structures to mitigate individual and cumulative dam failure threats. The paper provides insights into the design of best-practice resources and land use policy for the Australian setting based on contemporary international best practice in private dam safety accountability and assurance policy. A strategic literature review identifies international dam safety policy benchmarks from minimum to best practice. Practical application of the benchmarked policy is then undertaken through case studies in two contrasting Australian states, Tasmania and South Australia, which literature suggests represent a leader and laggard in terms of best international policy practice. Whilst Tasmania provides leadership and best practice in comparison with international policy benchmarks, the paper reports data from a 15-year longitudinal case study which confirms that South Australia lags and demonstrably would benefit from application of the policy guidelines developed. The case study on appropriate dam safety management accountability and assurance policy development for catchments in two strongly contrasting state jurisdictions in Australia is novel, as are the recommendations developed for how resources and land use policy can best address cumulative threats from smaller dams in catchments. The case study and recommendations can assist similar jurisdictions world-wide to address the threats associated with farm dams in catchments.

Coalitions, institutions and big tents: the new strategic reality of armed intervention

Armed interventions of the past decades demonstrate that strategic leadership can give way to lofty campaign plans, conflicting strategic narratives and concern with tactical, as opposed to strategic, issues. The intervention debate rightfully emphasizes the need for both leadership and institution-building to rectify this situation, but then breaks down into discord: some critics argue that stronger leadership by big nations is necessary, others that this type of leadership wrecks the collective institutions that are needed in a new age of multilateralism and interdependence. This article argues instead that strategic leadership grows out of the effort to connect the three distinct political arenas that have come to dominate armed interventions: coalitions, institutions and big tent diplomacy. Strategic leadership is not about choosing between coalitions or institutions; it is about building bridges among these political arenas. The article embeds this argument within the strategic literature and demonstrates how it emerges from an engagement with modern armed interventions. It engages in two in-depth assessments of NATO's experiences in Afghanistan and Libya and then undertakes a more general discussion of the steps that can be taken to encourage strategic leadership.

Strategic Role of CSR in International Expansion of Emerging Market Multinationals

This paper studies the strategic impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the international expansion of firms from emerging markets. The conceptual contribution is to help develop a multidimensional model of organizational legitimacy that focuses on the different dimensions of organizational legitimacy, which prior research has recognized but under- emphasized: this paper distinguishes between home country legitimacy and social legitimacy, and examines their interdependent effect on business activity and performance. The core argument is that the two dimensions of legitimacy can substitute for each other in affecting organizational outcomes. In particular, international expansion by a firm with low home country legitimacy (the perception that the actions of the firm’s home country meet the norms and values of the host country) is more likely to succeed when the firm possesses firm-level social legitimacy (the perception that the actions of the firm in the home country align with the norms and values of the general society in the host country). The study uses a large-scale quantitative analysis of almost 5,000 cross-border M&A deals from 1990 to 2011, where the acquirers come from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The results show that CSR helps overcome home country disadvantages, leading to a greater likelihood of deal completion and to faster deal completion, supporting the multidimensional view of legitimacy and the strategic literature on CSR.

Individual Level Antecedents to Middle Managers’ Strategic Involvement

The strategic role of middle managers has attracted increased research attention. However, research on middle managers’ individual differences as antecedents to their strategic involvement is limited. By filling this literature gap, this paper describes middle managers’ five strategic roles, explains how individual factors affect middle managers’ strategic role enactment, and how the effects of individual antecedents on their strategic roles may differ in entrepreneurial and conservative firms. The contribution of this paper is threefold. It first contributes to the middle managers’ strategic roles literature by adding the lateral interacting role, defined as “the communication and interaction with peers – which facilitates information and recourse exchange, the collaboration on mutual tasks, and the support on social and political matters”, into the classic four-role model. Secondly, fine-grained propositions are developed to explain the effects of individual factors on their strategic roles, in terms of...

Increased Unengaged Monitoring and Shifts in Investment Time Horizons of U.S. High-tech Firms

The strategic governance literature argues that stringent monitoring of firms can reduce information asymmetry, thereby increasing executives’ long-term orientation. However, monitoring that involves limited interaction between monitors and executives, which we refer to as unengaged monitoring, reduces information asymmetry about short-term activities without reducing information asymmetry about uncertain long- term activities. Unengaged monitors’ emphasis on current activities creates earnings pressure that increases employment risk and shifts managers’ preferences away from uncertain long-term investments. This paper assesses how the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act affected U.S. firms operating in high- technology sectors, showing that greater unengaged monitoring often reduced R&D and increased short-term investments. The shift of time horizons was strongest for firms with higher managerial discretion and/or lower technological competition, where monitors face greatest ambiguity about long-term investments.

How to Maintain Sustainable Competitive Advantages-----Case Study on the Evolution of Organizational Strategic Management

The aim of the article is to analyze why the sustainable competitive advantage may disappear for many business organizations, and how to maintain the advantages in order to survive in the market. The paper proposes an evolution path of strategic literature, from the classical Porter’s strategic theory to business inertia, strategic resilience, then Organizational transformation, finally to the Business sustainability. Based on the case studies and literature review, this paper makes a conclusion that competitive advantages of organizations have a life cycle which starts from a planned selection and subsequent resource accumulation, however, enduring success requires sustainable competitive advantages and implies continuous improvement and innovation. This paper is empirically explored in many explorative, historical case studies to research the evolution path of firm’s strategic planning processes. The author aims at helping the firm leaders to solve complicated, uncertain management issues arising from today’s dynamic business areas.

Core strategic Orientations: A Meta-analysis of Their Interplay and Firm Performance Relationship

Entrepreneurial, market, and learning orientation have—on a stand-alone basis—received high theoretical and empirical research attention. Although their interrelated and synergetic impact on firm performance has been suggested in extant literature, research findings on their combined effects yielded incomplete insights. In this study, the interrelated role of entrepreneurial, market, and learning orientation in impacting firm performance is examined. On a theoretical basis, we summarize the strategic orientations literature and the rationale of their synergy potential. Conducting meta-analysis, we build on prior empirical findings and provide a quantitative summary of the bivariate relationships between strategic orientations and firm performance. We extend the knowledge base by taking on multiple theoretical perspectives and examine alternative models of the interrelationships among strategic orientations and firm performance. By means of structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedures, we are ...

The Demand-Side Dynamics of Within-Industry Variation in Entrepreneurial Entry

Our inquiry into the demand-side determinants of within-industry variation in entrepreneurial entry is motivated by a fundamental gap in the strategic entrepreneurship literature concerning demand-...

Beyond Market Choice: Performance Implications of Entering Product or Technology Markets

Extant literature suggests young, technology-based firms cooperate with incumbents in the downstream industry or compete in the industry on their own. The literature does not distinguish between the performance implications of adopting a particular market entry strategy. We find that firms adopting a strategy to compete in the product market achieve lower revenue growth unless they have enough resources to balance their exploitative and explorative activities. Paradoxically, firms operating in the technology market enjoy higher revenue performance as they focus on exploration only. We contribute to the strategic entrepreneurship literature by showing how market entry strategies have an immediate impact on the value creation and capturing process.

Moon Ocean Strategy: A New Approach to Strategic Thinking &amp; Management

This paper presents the idea of moon ocean strategy taking us beyond the existing paradigms of red ocean strategy and blue ocean strategy in Strategic Management (SM). It identifies three eras of Strategic Management ideas and academic literature viz. Red ocean era, Blue ocean era and Moon ocean era (New Age Mantras era) represented by rational-analytic, creative-intuitive and imaginative approaches to strategic thinking and management.

Victory in scholarship on strategy and war

When policy-makers use force to achieve political ends, they use the word ‘victory’, yet its meaning is frequently left unclear. Policy-makers are using force for new purposes (peace operations, preemption, state-building, democracy promotion, counterinsurgencies and counterterrorism), but the language and thinking on victory in these new situations has not kept pace with the times. The essential problem is that the term ‘victory’ is an imprecisely defined concept for guiding decisions about military intervention. Everyone, from scholars to policy-makers, should understand that the failure historically to develop a precise concept of victory weakens the ability of policy-makers to use force effectively and contributes to confusion when societies debate whether to use force. This article seeks to make three fundamental contributions towards reducing the ambiguity that surrounds the term ‘victory’ in the strategic studies literature. First, it establishes the renewed importance of the question: ‘what is precisely the meaning of “victory?”’ Second, it presents a typology for understanding the nature of victory. Third, it uses this typology to reevaluate the contributions of prominent and lesser-known thinkers in strategic studies whose ideas have contributed to the scholarship on what it means to achieve victory in war.

Entrepreneurial orientation, access to financial resources, and product performance in the Greek commercial TV industry

In this research article, the authors draw on the theoretical insights of the strategic entrepreneurship literature and examine the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, access to financial resources, and broadcasted product performance using survey data from Greek television enterprises. Data were based on companies' chief executive officers. Results of Bayesian path analysis indicate that access to financial resources fully mediates the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on product performance. Recommendations for further research are discussed.

Complaints are a firm's best friend

The strategic intelligence literature includes many studies on the use of sales forces and exhibitions; however, customer complaints are generally sidestepped in the strategic intelligence context. This article takes a theoretical approach to the interaction between strategic intelligence and complaint management. From our literature review, we draw an exploratory model of the link between the two processes and emphasize the most important complaint handling initiatives for strategic intelligence, both for its gathering and protection aspects. An analytical presentation of the intelligence that can be collected from complaints is proposed. The research should be helpful to managers who want to understand better or design a complaint management system that is ‘strategic intelligence oriented’.

Strategic performance measurement systems and managers' understanding of the strategy

PurposeThe paper aims to explore how managers change their strategic view so that they come with a better understanding of the strategy. It uses two proxies for such understanding: balance in beliefs (taken from performance measurement system literature) and consensus on strategic priorities (taken from strategic literature).Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal study is conducted in a financial institution during a strategic change communicated through a tailor‐made balanced scorecard (BSC). The changes are measured in the degree of understanding experienced by a set of 45 middle managers in each of the two phases in which the BSC implementation has been divided. The paper tests to what extent as the BSC implementation progresses there is a balancing in users' beliefs, an increase in consensus and alignment of managers' priorities; and finally, whether or not those proxies of managers' understanding are interchangeable.FindingsResults show that the implementation of this BSC brought about a change in managers' beliefs by increasing the importance given to measures located in the lower BSC perspectives (called balancing effect), as well as an increase in the degree of consensus on strategic priorities. However, in the paper more balance in managers' beliefs were not necessarily associated with a higher degree of consensus and alignment. The two proxies are not interchangeable and the balancing effect was found to be ineffective and insufficient in providing an explanation for the consensus formation process.Originality/valueThe paper provides empirical evidence on how middle managers change their mental models and improve their understanding of the strategy. The paper helps in aligning performance measurement systems literature and strategic literature.

Exploring SWOT analysis – where are we now?

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the use of the strategic management tool, Strengths‐Weaknesses‐Opportunities‐Threats or SWOT analysis, and to assess how the methodology has been used as well as changes to the methodology. The findings both for and against SWOT analysis should lead to a balanced view of the technique as well as yield ideas for needed theory building.Design/methodology/approachUsing the ABInform Global® database, academic peer‐reviewed articles were compiled indicating SWOT as one of the article's key index and search words.FindingsThe use of SWOT analysis continues to permeate the academic peer‐reviewed literature. Research supports SWOT analysis as a tool for planning purposes. Over the past decade, SWOT research has focused on analyzing organizations for recommended strategic actions. As a methodology for strategic positioning, SWOT analysis has been extended beyond companies to countries and industries and is used in virtually every published business case positioned for business student analysis. Additional use of SWOT is as teaching tools by consultants, trainers and educators. This paper provides a summary of the research studies and suggests paths for future research.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is limited to analyzing reports found in a selection of academic peer‐reviewed business journals. However, research implications for applying SWOT analysis provides a broad spectrum of industry analysis in North America, Europe, and Asia. Additional limitations are the need to link SWOT analysis to other strategic tools and methodologies for further theory building, since past research continues to lack quantifiable findings on the success of the SWOT analysis.Practical implicationsA fresh view of new directions and implementations for SWOT analysis, as well as other strategic planning tools that can be combined with SWOT, provides guidance for practitioners and policy makers alike.Originality/valueThe article adds value to the existing literature as the first summary of SWOT research indicating its uses and limitations. Support of its usage and place in the strategic literature is validated. The SWOT methodology is pervasive, in large part, due to its simplicity. In addition, the use of SWOT as a proven developmental, results‐oriented strategic planning tool is also extended, although further research leading to theory building is warranted and recommended.

Politics and War: Clausewitz’s Paradoxical Equation

Introduction According to his critics, Carl von Clausewitz believed was governed by reason and controlled by the dictates of policy. Martin van Creveld claims Clausewitz viewed as little more than a instrument for the attainment of rational social ends; (1) and Barbara Ehrenreich states Clausewitz saw war itself as an rational undertaking, unsullied by human emotion. (2) Yet these assertions, viewed outside their proper context, distort Clausewitz's contribution. His ideas are more complex than these crude depictions of strict political rationalism suggest. Indeed, Clausewitz believed that logic often came to a stop in the labyrinth of war. (3) There no simple, pithy explanation of the manner in which the political fits into his theory; no formulaic or linear characterization suffice. This article seeks to reveal the depth of Clausewitz's insight into the relationship between politics and war. Ideas of politics, policy, and reason hold a number of differing implications in terms of their relationship to one another and their influence on war. Indeed, misinterpretations of Clausewitz stem from the complexity of the subject itself, combined with its somewhat limited and confusing presentation in On War. (4) This cause for detailed analysis of the text, the logic of Clausewitz's thought on the subject, and the implications of his ideas. War as an Instrument of Policy That an instrument of has become of a truism, almost to the point of cliche, in Western strategic literature, regardless of how well the complexities of the idea are understood. The ubiquity of the idea can largely bc attributed to Clausewitz; direct reference often made to On War whenever this principle outlined. The idea commonly quoted out of the context Clausewitz intended, deminishing it of much of its meaning. Also, it often mistakenly presented as representing the totality of his theorizing on war. Its most common modern usage as a prescriptive device--one especially suited to modern liberal democracies in which the subordination of the military to civilian control deemed a vital component of a properly constituted state, especially in the nuclear age. (5) The complexities of the concept are often diluted in the interest of doctrinal precision and pedagogical clarity. Given the profusion of critiques in relation to this aspect of Clausewitz's thought, this situation not suffice. A more robust explanation required. Clausewitz wrote that contains an element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to reason alone. (6) This claim may appear cold-blooded and militaristic, but his assertion descriptive, not prescriptive. This confused by the fact that Clausewitz often draws prescriptive conclusions on the basis of this observation, and the two perspectives are often juxtaposed in the text. It perhaps ironic that what appears to bc a morally repugnant statement, because it suggests he viewed resorting to force as an entirely routine extension of unilateral state policy (7)--actually leads Clausewitz to conclude that war, in a practical and moral sense, ought to be subject to policy; otherwise, it becomes something pointless and devoid of sense. (8) Ostensibly, the concept of as an instrument of straightforward. The use of military force a means to a higher end--the political object. War a tool that uses to achieve its objectives and, as such, has a measure of rational utility. So, the purpose for which the use of force intended be the major determinant of the course and character of a war. As Clausewitz explains, is controlled by its political object, which will set its course, prescribe the scale of means and effort which required, and makes its influence felt throughout down to the smallest operational detail. …

Moving up the value chain using alliance-induced learning: a case study

Companies use alliances to learn from partners. This learning can be used as the impetus to move up the value chain by introducing products using proprietary technology. The extant literature points out that there are impediments to both knowledge flow and knowledge use when firms attempt to learn from their alliance partners. Wipro Technologies is a India-based technology firm that saw its domestic competitiveness erode when foreign firms entered India. Wipro attempted to move up the value chain by using alliance-induced learning. Using theory based on strategic alliance literature, the study examines Wipro?s longitudinal experience.