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Weatherhead Doctor of Management Programs
Show moreDynamic capabilities and associated shifts in learning make firm’s capabilities hard to imitate, and are critical in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Consequently, strategic management literature has recognized that the presence of causal ambiguity plays a pivotal role in generating inter-firm differences in obtained rents. At the same time, causal ambiguity may hamper internal diffusion of capabilities within the firm negatively affecting its performance (Szulanki, 1996). Overall, the relationship between dynamic capabilities, causal ambiguity and firm performance has remained poorly understood. In this study, we seek to address this gap by developing a causal model that depicts how management perceptions of causal ambiguity mediate the effects of the firm’s competencies on firm performance. Using data from collected from 401 Chilean managers we analyze the managers’ perceptions of causal ambiguity on firms’ performance by controlling for market turbulence and the company size. Our findings confirm the critical role of manager’s perceptions of causal ambiguity as a mediator between organizational competencies and performance. Surprisingly, we found a weak influence of perception’s of causal ambiguity among rivals as a mechanism to protect inter-firm imitation.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreOver the past 30 years, microfinance (MF) has grown to a $30 billion industry involving over 3,000 organizations. Half of these microfinance institutions, however, have nothing more than anecdotal stories about the impact of MF on poverty. The connection between MF and poverty eradication is far from resolved. This paper addresses an ongoing debate by drawing upon two bodies of literature: poverty eradication and microfinance measurement. It articulates a causal model of the effects of MF on poverty that is unique in three regards. First, it measures the effect on socioeconomic status (SES) using for the first time a reflective multi-dimensional construct in contrast to deploying a financial surrogate for SES such as purchasing power parity (PPP). Second, it applies variables in measuring SES that are viewed as reflections of their origin- the level of poverty. This draws upon factor analytic techniques in contrast to earlier stepwise approaches. Third, on the cause side, in contrast to positing a direct effect the model evaluates MF for its moderating effects on the causal positive association between income and SES. The empirical setting for validating the proposed model is Malawi, a country of extreme poverty in central Africa. We transform an existing World Bank data set on household income and poverty in Malawi into a causal model using structural equation modeling (SEM). Our analysis shows that MF has a significant interaction with income in its impact on SES, thus demonstrating its instrumental value in reducing poverty. Contrary to earlier studies we find no differences across gender or income levels for the impacts of MF. Also contrary to previous literature, the effect is different between urban and rural households. The proposed approach offers a handy protocol to evaluate rigorously the impacts of MF or other poverty reducing efforts in other countries and contexts enabling cumulative empirical findings. On a practical level the study offers some guidelines how to target future microfinance operations.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreWhen tough issues, defined as those issues that remain uncomfortably unspoken, are “championed” in the executive suite, who does it and with what results? More than 400 senior corporate executives ? roughly half of them women? were surveyed to shed light on this phenomenon- where one person in a group is prepared to break the silence on a compelling- albeit uncomfortable- issue to engage their peers who would prefer to avoid both them and the issue. Our work builds on- but is distinguished from- limited and narrowly scoped previous studies on championing. We studied the effects of six key dimensions of propensity to champion and four championing tactics. Results suggest women are more likely than men to champion tough issues and to use strikingly different tactics when doing so. Payoffs from championing for both genders included a strengthened senior management team, better management decisions and heightened status for the champion under certain conditions.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreMuch of the research in IT innovation diffusion has been in the study of the diffusion of common technological innovations that intersect human activity in business processes (e.g. web-based e-commerce). There has been less research into the diffusion of specialized technologies in high risk environments where the potentially highly negative but low probability consequences of adopting the technology can affect the adoption decision. Such technologies are employed by highly trained individuals whose work is enhanced and transformed by the IT use. Computer assisted surgery (CAS) exemplifies this technology diffusion arena: surgeons must exhibit a high level of trust in such technology while the risks associated with the use of the technology may be perceived as high. We surveyed individual orthopedic surgeons that have made adoption decisions about CAS using technology trust, predictability, and functionality, as predictors, and the perceived level of risk as a moderator. Our inquiry offers three contributions. First we attempted to show that risk moderates the diffusion decision in the presence of high technology acceptance and trust. Second our study links the diffusion decision of the system to the perceived assigned usefulness of the characteristics of the artifacts that make up the system. Third, we extend prior research on technology diffusion to a class of technologies in which trust and risk may play a pivotal part in the final adoption decision.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreUsing a global sample of public companies, we explored the relationships among transformational and transactional leadership, exploration and exploitation and performance. First, balanced leadership styles drive more innovative learning outcomes than either single style. Second, elements of an expanded framework of innovative learning, including “where” ideas are sourced and “how” they are shared, fully mediate the relationship between leadership and performance. Specifically, “how” drives earnings growth and “where” drives revenue growth. We propose a nuanced ambidexterity, whereby leaders balance not only exploration and exploitation, but also idea sourcing and idea sharing to unleash their organization’s collective wisdom and drive performance.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreDriven in part by recent corporate failures, consumers are increasingly distrustful of motivations and behaviors of corporate leaders, firms, and entire sectors of the economy. How do firms win consumer loyalty in distrust-dominated environments? We use two competing theoretical lenses to investigate the most salient strategic path to firm loyalty in trust- and distrust-dominated environments, from the consumer perspective. We find that consumer distrust in a firm is a grave threat to loyalty across industries. Additionally, we show that distrust-dominated environments present unique opportunity for some firms with high consumer trust to gain loyalty, while trust-dominated environments present fewer opportunities.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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