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Show moreOrganizations increasingly face competitive and security threats that require better intelligence to guide action. National policy makers face an especially pressing need for intelligence, and rely on complex, diverse information from many sources in monitoring their environment. The primary formal information system for conveying knowledge to government leaders is the system of national intelligence briefings, which collects data from a global network of analysts that is presented by a briefer to individual government leaders, in a short daily session. The quantity of information created by intelligence analysts far exceeds the capacity of a policy maker to assimilate, and the briefer has severe time restrictions for assembling and communicating the daily briefing. In this important, yet highly constrained setting, our exploratory research question is: ?How does the briefer experience communication with policy makers, and how does the briefer act to ensure that the information produced by intelligence analysts is useful to and understood by policy makers?? We conducted a qualitative study of boundary spanning dyad chains reaching from field analysts to policy makers at high levels in the United States federal government, and found: (1) a low degree of shared context between significantly different social and professional worlds; (2) a four-phase communication pattern crossing multiple boundaries, multiple times; and (3) a common 3-step embedded structure within the communication pattern in which the briefer tried to create shared meaning. Despite the extreme setting, we propose that the 3-step embedded structure our subjects enacted can be applied to improving communication for any manager across a wide range of thick boundaries in profit, non-profit and government boundary spanning contexts.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreWe examined the nexus of entrepreneurial illegality and firm performance in an emerging market by investigating the extent to which antecedent conditions such as economic constraints, bureaucratic demands, institutional pressures and entrepreneurial agency increase the supply of illegal opportunities exploited by entrepreneurs for private gains. Using 2009 World Bank Enterprise Survey data of 2599 small and medium-sized entrepreneurial enterprises (SMEEs) in Nigeria, we demonstrate that illegal entrepreneurial behaviors in developing markets ? specifically bribery and tax evasion - affect firm performance measured by sales and employment growth. Results show that illegal opportunities significantly increase with bureaucratic and regulatory intervention in entrepreneurial activities, suggesting current policies in developing countries that seek to deter bribery and tax evasion through enlargement of government oversight may exacerbate illegal entrepreneurial behavior. Our findings also suggest that in Nigeria, where probability of detection and severity of punishment are low, the benefits of illegal business behavior outweigh potential costs and, in fact, accrue cost-free to the entrepreneur, thus normalizing illegality as an entrepreneurial ?best practice.?
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis study addresses Puerto Rico?s unexplained stagnant entrepreneurial environment despite average or above average entrepreneurial potential, capabilities, and intentions when compared to other high-income countries (2007 GEM report; Bosma, Jones, Autio, & Levie, 2008). In our previous qualitative research, we argue that a pervasive lack of support for entrepreneurs from entrepreneurial advocates and the failure of entrepreneurs to develop networks could be partly responsible for the slow-moving entrepreneurial environment (De Hoyos, Romaguera, Carlsson, & Perelli, 2011). Building on that qualitative research, a quantitative study using PLS was conducted to determine the following: How and to what extent do systemic and individual factors as well as firm and entrepreneur characteristics impact the likelihood of entrepreneurial success mediated by inter-organizational and individual social networking activities? Findings reveal that systemic factors as a whole are not working as suitable sources for the complementary relationships needed to create an environment conducive to successful entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are not using networks efficiently to overcome the inadequate institutional structure. Therefore, to nurture a successful entrepreneurial environment, policy makers must design a better interconnected entrepreneurial system that will work in harmony with entrepreneurs; while entrepreneurs in turn must be taught to use effectively their individual social networks.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThe integration of an entrepreneur into another organization is considered by many to be a difficult or even impossible task. At the same time entrepreneurs are potentially valuable resources for any organization seeking to gain competitive advantage, enter new markets, or to find effective means to resolve standing managerial issues. One method of successful integration demands smooth meshing of the entrepreneur?s company and its employees into the new organization. We examine conditions for such smooth transition. Two significant findings emerge. First specific entrepreneurial skills and capabilities, which allow entrepreneurs to be successful in their new role, are similar to those that apply to any successful manager. Second the acquisition process and selected governance structure impacts the success of the post entrepreneurs in the new organization. The research suggests that by taking a few important steps a new organization may be able to integrate the entrepreneurs and their organizations into a new acquiring firm.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreAlthough home to 8% of the world?s population (Guarda 2002), only 1.7% of the scholarly knowledge about Latin America is produced domestically (UNESCO 2010). The limited voice of Latin American scholars in Latin American studies constitutes a loss of a valuable and unique cultural perspective which is aggravated by the fact that the research object is Latin America itself. The failure of Latin American intellectuals to claim a prominent place on the international academic stage has not been explained and cannot be attributed simply to lack of academic knowledge exposure (Alperin, Fischman et al. 2008). To address this gap in the literature, we interviewed Latin American studies scholars residing in Latin America as well those residing in the US and UK to reveal how and to what extent these scholars participate in the international academic community. Our findings show that the groups differ markedly in terms of personal vision, motivation, research agenda, scholarship focus and preferred outlets for their knowledge production. In particular, Latin American scholars identify as agents of change, motivated by a desire to solve problems and fulfill social needs in the region while scholars residing in the US and UK see themselves as experts in the field, driven by a desire to impact the knowledge about the region. Our results should be of interest to governments, universities and professional associations, hoping to facilitate the production, and dissemination of knowledge about the Latin American region.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreLeading during in extremis situations when lives are in peril remains one of the least addressed areas of leadership research. In particular, although lives may depend on it, little is known about how leaders in in extremis situations make sense of their situation and communicate that sense to others. Because most of the literature on sensemaking and sensegiving in in extremis situations is theoretical, we sought empirical evidence of how it proceeds in actual practice. To address this gap in the literature, a qualitative study was conducted based on semi-structured interviews with thirty U.S. Army leaders at West Point who had recently led teams in in extremis situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our data suggest simultaneity rather than sequentially of sense making and giving during in extremis situations and demonstrate the process proceeds best when leaders are in a heightened state of awareness. Training facilitates leader sensemaking by freeing up cognitive capacity, but sensegiving can originate from subordinates in certain circumstances. Our findings have implications for both theory and practice.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreSocial responsibility (SR) is a topic of considerable interest to large and multinational companies ? but less is known about the extent to which it is embraced by smaller organizations which constitute 99% of US firms. Most of the scant research on social responsibility and SMEs derives from Europe and demonstrates that SMEs understand and enact social responsibility differently than large companies. To address a gap in the literature about US SMEs we conducted interviews with owners/CEOs of private manufacturing firms in four regions of the US to determine how they understand and to what extent they embrace social responsibility as a core component of firm identity. Results show that SME owners/CEO social responsibility orientation is influenced by heritage, locus of control and self-efficacy and is sometimes triggered by disruptive events.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThis study examines the factors influencing business schools? decision to materially change their full-time MBA curriculum. Our qualitative study is based on 29 interviews with faculty and administrators at 14 business schools and one industry expert. We identify four domains ? Constituents, Context, Constraints and Genuine Identity ? which business schools consider when exploring a potential curricular change. We present a Model of Successful Curricular Change that recognizes attention to these inputs, in terms of both focus and capacity, affects the type of change the organization pursues. This model also takes into account the mediating effect of faculty tolerance for the discomfort on curricular change. Finally, we surface an Attentional Theory of Change that posits change is a function of the choices an organization makes regarding which inputs they attend to. This theory states that in order to achieve significant and meaningful change, organizations must attend to aligning the most important and relevant inputs. The findings contribute to our understanding of change processes in business schools and higher education, and, potentially, to change processes in organizations.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreHospitals are increasingly challenged to improve healthcare quality while reducing costs but key actors in healthcare, specifically physicians (as leaders or clinicians) and administrators, are not always aligned in how to do it. What emerged in this qualitative analysis were three fundamental areas embedded in systems experience ? people, structure, and perception, of which perception is the key driver. Additionally, processes are how people describe systems experiences and moral dilemmas are sources of system tensions. What causes a system to become a living entity ? or to function with fluidity versus turbulence ? is embedded in people. The centeredness of human interaction and experiences is critical to systems continuously evolving and developing through the dynamic nature of structural influences, human interactions, and responses.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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