Strategic Scholars Research Articles

How optimal distinctiveness in business model affects SMEs performance? A contingency perspective

In recent years, the question about how business models contribute to competitive advantage and improve firm performance, has been fully discussed by strategic scholars. However, there coexist two controversial forces for SMEs in business model design: legitimacy and competitive pressure. How SMEs balance the tension between legitimacy and competitive pressures in business model design is an important issue which is less appreciated in prior work. In this article, we apply the concept of optimal distinctiveness to test how distinctiveness in business model affects SMEs performance. We apply the topic model methodology to the texts of business model sections in 2943 annual reports of SMEs listing on National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) market in China, to measure the distinctiveness in each SME’s business model relative to industry average. Results show an inverted U-shape between distinctiveness in business model and SMEs performance. Further, this U-shaped effect is attenuated by firm age, whereas category heterogeneity (as well as nascent market) and subcategory distinctiveness strengthen the relevance of optimal distinctiveness in business model. These findings inject fresh insights into both business model literatures and the optimal distinctiveness perspective.

Peacebuilding and statebuilding in post-2011 Côte d'Ivoire: A victor's peace?

In 2011, Cote d’Ivoire emerged from a protracted politico-military crisis not through peace negotiations, but thanks to the military defeat of former president Laurent Gbagbo and his associates. Relatively little has been written about the restoration of peace after a decisive military victory and about experiences of post-conflict reconstructions where the international community does not play a leading role. Quantitative scholarship has contended that victory makes restoring peace relatively uncomplicated. In contrast, strategic scholarship has insisted that winning the war does not automatically mean ‘winning the peace’. Victors, especially former insurgents, have to maintain cohesion within the winning coalition and to co-opt or repress residual resistance from the vanquished if they want to consolidate their rule. Moreover, former insurgents often struggle to implement their vision of post-conflict governance. In Cote d’Ivoire, the winning coalition showed risks of implosion after 2011, but has been up to now able to contain them. The Ouattara administration has been able to develop its own vision of post conflict reconstruction, drawing from Ivorian political tradition and the president’s distinctive personality. However, this political project faces future obstacles, particularly in view of Ouattara’s probable retirement from politics in 2020.

An Analysis the Relationship between IT-Business Strategic Alignment and Intangible IT Resources on the Competitive Advantages Sustainability Moderating Effect of IT Personnel Capability

Understanding the relationship between IT Business Strategic Alignment (ITBSA), IT Personnel Capabilities (ITPC), and Intangible IT Resources (IITR) is utmost important. Strategic scholars and professionals looks to these three strategic resources as the main driver of generating distinctive competencies which in turn become the main source of creating sustainable competitive advantages (SCA). The aim of this study is to establish and understand a new path between three strategic inputs on the SCA which overlooked in the literature and thereby there is a need to cover this critical gap. The main objective of this paper is to determine whether IT personnel capability will influence directly and/or indirectly (moderating role) on the relationship between IT business strategic alignment and intangible IT resources towards creating SCA. Hence, this paper question to what extent capability of IT personnel is able to strengthen the relationship between ITBSA and ITPC on the SCA. Applying, Resources-based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capability View (DCV), this paper intended to investigate the role of IT personnel capability on enabling firm’s strategic resources such as ITBSA and IITR on SCA achievement. Therefore, in order to achieve the proposed objectives and answering the questions of this study, the author will apply cross sectional survey for collecting appropriate data from IT managers among Algerian high-tech industry. Implications and suggestions will be discussed.

Politics in Public Media Policies of the Thai Public Broadcasting Service

*This research was supported by grant from under the program Strategic Scholarship for Frontier Research Network for Ph.D. Program Thai Doctoral degree from the Office of the Higher Education Commission. This study is aimed to investigate the politics in the public service broadcasting policy process since free television to public television and the role of the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) in 2008-2009. The literature on the political communication in media society proposed by Jurgen Habermas was used as a framework for the investigation. This study is a qualitative research by analysis of the official policy documents, searching for information from thorough interviews of the policy stakeholders, the audiences council of TPBS, the performers of TPBS ,the performers of media and intellectuals. The result of this study finds that the public service broadcasting issue is pushed by the intellectuals and interest groups to set the agenda. The case of TPBS was directly a การเมองในนโยบายสอสาธารณะ... | นธตา สรพงศ ทกษณ และนฤมล ทบจมพล

Network Linkage and Financial Leverage

Strategic scholars have proposed that network linkages could enhance the competitive advantage or the total value of a firm (e .g., Porter, 1980; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990), and in turn induce the evolution of capital structure; this is an interesting issue. This study adopts a new perspective, which employs network linkage based on a resource-based view to explore financial leverage. This work uses panel data analysis from 1997 to 2001, and the results show that both linear and non- linear financial network link ages indicate that the information technology (IT) industry has more lever age than the non-information technology (NIT) industry. With greater firm size, profitability, and financial network linkage, there is less financial leverage. Also, I find that financial network linkage along with debt ratio presents a ＂U＂ shape effect, which means that there is an optimal scale between network linkage and financial leverage.