Clay Dibrell

The impact of firm natural environmental policy on the market orientation to innovation relationship in SMEs (Interactive paper)

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:43 PDT

As the natural environment emerges as a strategic issue, conceptual linkages are leading to empirical investigations that examine the antecedents and effects of incorporating the natural environment into firm processes such as market orientation and entrepreneurial behaviors. This project is part of an ongoing research agenda that examines the role of the natural environment in new and growing ventures. Specifically, in this paper, the research questions investigated are: How do small-to-medium sized firms (SMEs) incorporate natural environment issues in relation to the way they present themselves to, and receive information from, their customers and competitors (i.e., market orientation)?; and, How do SMEs natural environment policies influence entrepreneurial behaviors (i.e., innovation-related activities)?

Leveraging family-based brand identity to enhance firm competitiveness and performance in family businesses

Justin B. Craig et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:42 PDT

Abstract

Drawing on the family embeddedness perspective on entrepreneurship and the resource-based-view (RBV) of the firm, we investigate how the promotion of family-based brand identity influences competitive orientation (customer versus product) and firm performance in family businesses. Applying structural equation modeling to survey data collected from leaders of 218 family businesses, we demonstrate that developing a family-based brand identity positively contributes to firm performance (growth and profitability) indirectly, via a customer-centric orientation. In contrast, attempts to leverage family-based brand identity via a product-centric orientation do not impact firm performance. Our results suggest that family-based brand identity enhances the family business’ ability to persuade customers to make purchasing decisions based on the perceived attributes of the seller. As a result, we contribute to the discussions centered on how to optimize the intricate synergy between family and business.

Development of an integrated supply chain model

Toru Sakaguchi et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:42 PDT

With increased global competitive pressures, companies operating in these competitive environments are not only looking to their distribution division to save money, but also to generate competitive advantages. One technique is the integrated supply chain. However, this process has not met with success for all companies, leading some managers to consider the appropriateness of an integrated supply chain. This dearth of success could be attributed to the lack of scholarship to guide managers in their efforts to formulate and then implement their integrated supply chain strategies. In an effort to fill this gap, our paper draws on resource dependency theory and the realities of ever-increasing information technology sophistication as enablers of successful supply chain integration resulting in the creation of our model to guide managers throughout this process.

Legitimizing the natural environment in SMES: A Strategic issue interpretation perspective (Summary)

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:41 PDT

How do businesses legitimize their natural environmental strategic initiatives? In this research, we are concerned with how managerial interpretations of natural environmental issues predict natural environmental strategic action related to firm innovativeness in SMEs. Results from this study will provide managers with a greater understanding of the benefits from a natural environmental initiative. The research questions that are addressed include: (1) Does the legitimization of the natural environment in an SME positively affect firm innovativeness? (2) What benefits are associated with socially embedding natural environmental policies? and (3) How do the strategic issue and social embeddedness theories predict how a SME will benefit from an increased focus on the natural environment?

We draw from strategic issue interpretation perspective, which suggests the processes that determine what managers heed and ignore in their decision making processes. As responses to societal expectations are ambiguous and require interpretative categorization by managers, we also frame our conversation in the social embeddedness literature. Our overarching argument focuses on the notion that there are measurable payoffs from legitimizing the natural environment inside the firm, and this process of legitimization has increased benefits if it is more thoroughly embedded in the firm. Specifically, the more discretion that manager’s are given in the implementation of natural environmental policies, the greater will be the positive outcomes of innovativeness.

Factors critical in overcoming the liability of newness: Highlighting the role of family

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:40 PDT

With a focus on the role of family, we explore factors critical in enabling start-up ventures to attain legitimacy and overcome the liability of newness. Drawing from multiple interviews with leaders of seven start-up ventures, we investigate the function of a variety of factors [e.g., family, distributors, financial supporters, etc.] deemed critical in attaining venture legitimacy. To validate our findings, we conducted additional interviews with three established family ventures. Our discussion highlights the role of family as a legitimizing strategy and provides an increased awareness of how internal and external resources are leveraged by the start-up to gain legitimacy.

Accession tournaments: The application of a game theory derivative to the multi-dimensional family business accession process (Interactive paper)

Justin Craig et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:39 PDT

We argue that the recent governance and professionalization focus in family business research conversations, while helpful in understanding succession, and family businesses in general, needs to be complemented with a theoretical discussion of the multi-dimensional accession process. We contend that this process is multi-dimensional as, unlike in a corporate setting where the incumbent is succeeded by a suitable successor, multi-generational family businesses are more complex and there is potentially a plethora of positions of influence for which actors can compete. We use tournament theory to propose how family actors will act in accession tournaments and propose that the absence of a ‘final’ tournament further distinguishes family from non-family businesses.

Founding family leadership and industry profitability

Trond Randoy et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:39 PDT

In this article, we argue that firms in high-margin industries can benefit from founding family influence. Specifically, in more profitable markets, the influence of the founding family provides an additional corporate governance-monitoring function. The sample consists of 294 firm-year observations from 98 publicly traded companies headquartered in Sweden, representing approximately half of all nonfinancial traded firms. Our support that the effect of family leadership in publicly held firms should be assessed in relation to the intensity of industry competition.

Culture of family commitment and strategic flexibility: The moderating effect of stewardship

Shaker A. Zahra et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:38 PDT

The ability of family firms to identify and respond to changes in their external environments can be a key source of competitive advantage leading to success and survival. Some research, however, has suggested family firms are conservative and often lack the ability to adapt to their changing competitive environments. Using data from 248 family firms, we found a family firm's culture of commitment to the business is positively associated with its strategic flexibility—the ability to pursue new opportunities and respond to threats in the competitive environment. Further, we found stewardship-oriented organizational culture positively moderated the family commitment-strategic flexibility relationship.

The performance implications of temporal orientation and information technology in organization-environment synergy

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:37 PDT

Purpose: This paper aims to provide new evidence regarding the firm performance implications of using temporal orientation (time pacing) and information technology (IT) to align an organization with its task environment.

Design/methodology/approach: Using questionnaire data provided by top management team members, the results indicate that time-based strategies (i.e. time pacing) and IT mediate the effects of environmental disruptions on performance. To validate the scales and to test the hypothesized model of relationships, the study employs structural equation modeling through LISREL 8.52, as it is able to examine both the measurement and structural model simultaneously while including individual errors for the respective parameters.

Findings: The results suggest that time pacing should be used in association with IT, as time pacing had a much stronger relationship to environmental disruptions than did IT. This finding supports that a time pacing orientation is effective at helping managers react to disruptions in their task environment. In relation to firm performance, IT was directly linked to firm performance; whereas time pacing was only indirectly associated with firm performance.

Practical implications: The findings suggest that the application of time pacing strategies enables managers to increase firm performance via IT. The results therefore suggest that managers should not assess their use of temporally-based mechanisms (e.g. time pacing, IT temporality) and IT in isolation, but rather consider them in conjunction. This recommendation is consistent with findings elsewhere that components of strategy may need to be cohesive and integrative and require a supportive firm structure if they are to have their greatest effects on firm performance.

Originality/value: The study extends the research on temporal strategies and IT as mechanisms for offsetting environmental pressures and improving firm performance. It alerts managers to the notion that time pacing will enable them to generate improved firm performance and competitive advantage, through the synchronistic use of IT.

Fueling innovation through information technology in SMEs

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:37 PDT

This paper describes a study that investigates the mediating effects of information technology (IT) on the relationships among product and process innovations and firm performance (measured in multiple profitability and growth rate metrics). Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 397 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we find evidence that (1) increases on the strategic emphasis placed on innovation, both product and process, positively impact the prominence managers place on IT; (2) the impact of innovation (both product and process) on performance (both profitability and growth) is primarily indirect, felt via the mechanism of the importance managers place on IT; and (3) an increased emphasis on IT abets managers’ perception of their firms’ performance, as compared with that observed among peer firms (other SMEs).

The road to legitimacy: A study of startups and their established competitors in the Australian wine industry (Summary)

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:36 PDT

A barrier to startup success is the liability of newness. One strategy to overcome this obstacle is through gaining venture legitimacy. Legitimacy is defined as acceptance, suitability, and appeal of the startup as judged by external and internal stakeholders such as the marketplace, industry competitors, and employees. Through attainment of legitimacy, a startup now has increased opportunities to access resources required for survival and growth. Drawing from institutional theory, a startup should heed external institutional forces and adapt to isomorphic pressures to gain legitimacy in an industry. Alternatively, a resource-based view perspective suggests that internal coordination and marshaling of resources will lead a startup to not only survive, but to a competitive advantage. Hence, the following research questions are proposed: 1) What external strategies (e.g., mimetic behaviors) and internal strategies (e.g., innovation) can startups employ to gain legitimacy? and 2) What roles do external stakeholders (e.g., government) and internal stakeholders (e.g., human capital) play in enabling or constraining startups to obtain and to maintain legitimacy?

Natural environment, market orientation, and firm innovativeness: A life cycle perspective

Clay Dibrell et al. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:36:35 PDT

We investigate the moderating effects of the natural environment on the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship in growth versus mature firms. 237 owners or chief executive officer respondents allowed us to establish evidence of (1) positive linkage between market orientation and firm innovativeness and (2) natural environmental policy moderates the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship in growth ventures and not in their more mature peers. Our findings suggest ventures characterized as being in the growth stage are more likely to employ a more positive policy toward the natural environment to gain a long-term competitive advantage through firm innovativeness.