Organizational identity ambiguity occurs when external constituents fail to develop a good sense and clear understanding of who organizations are and what they do. Previous research claims that identity ambiguity is disadvantageous... more
Organizational identity ambiguity occurs when external constituents fail to develop a good sense and clear understanding of who organizations are and what they do. Previous research claims that identity ambiguity is disadvantageous because it indicates organizations’ misfit with well-established categories, causes external constituents’ misunderstanding of organizational identity. This study presents an alternative view of identity ambiguity–it enables new firms to avert attention from rivals and reduce competitive pressures from them by creating competitive asymmetry, a situation wherein the perception of rivalry between two firms is nonreciprocal. This analysis predicts that competitive asymmetry is more likely to occur between a new firm in emerging market segments and an incumbent when the new firm’s identity is equivocal and ambiguous from the perspectives of the incumbent–namely, when the new firm is dissimilar from the incumbent, belongs to multiple product categories, and identifies itself as a me...
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Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms with multimarket contacts in both product and geographic markets make foreign direct investments (FDI) location choices and to advance the understanding about how managers with... more
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms with multimarket contacts in both product and geographic markets make foreign direct investments (FDI) location choices and to advance the understanding about how managers with cognitive limits cope with opportunities to take the advantage of mutual forbearance in two types of markets.Design/methodology/approach– Drawing upon the literatures on multimarket contact and decision making, the authors develop original hypotheses on how multimarket contacts in two types of markets influence firms’ choice of destination for foreign investments. The authors test the hypotheses using longitudinal archival data on foreign market entries of Japanese auto parts makers.Findings– The authors find that when choosing FDI locations, firms reduce the cognitive burdens of coping with multimarket contacts in the two types of markets by focussing exclusively on what is perceived as relevant to the decision at hand. The authors also find that thi...
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Introduction: Early restoration of blood flow in stroke patients can be achieved by reducing the door-to-computed tomography (DTC) time. Previous research has proposed several methods to reduce the DTC time, but the implementation costs... more
Introduction: Early restoration of blood flow in stroke patients can be achieved by reducing the door-to-computed tomography (DTC) time. Previous research has proposed several methods to reduce the DTC time, but the implementation costs limit its transferability. This study aimed to propose a novel, simple, and low-cost method for reducing the DTC time by providing feedback on each patient’s DTC time to a small group of medical workers and physicians. Methods: A field experiment was conducted for 233 days, and the DTC time of 249 patients with stroke symptoms who were transported via ambulance to a medium-sized university hospital in Japan within 24 h after stroke onset was obtained. The first and second feedback reports on the 59th day and 154th day, respectively, were provided at the beginning of the field experiment. Using the data collected during the first 58 days as baseline data, the baseline data were compared with the post-intervention data. As part of the intervention, fee...
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Abstract We examine the causes of non-mutual rival recognition—a situation in which new firms in emerging market segments recognize incumbents in pre-existing and potentially related market segments as rivals, but the incumbents do not... more
Abstract We examine the causes of non-mutual rival recognition—a situation in which new firms in emerging market segments recognize incumbents in pre-existing and potentially related market segments as rivals, but the incumbents do not recognize the new firms as rivals. Drawing upon the prototype theory, which makes use of cognitive representations or images in recognition processes, we argue that managers use rival prototypes in making sense of competitive environments. Specifically, we argue that non-mutual rival recognition occurs when new firms are not proximate to the incumbents' prototype of rivals because their organizational attributes, such as size and age, are highly distinct. It also occurs when it is difficult for incumbents, owing to their diversification into multiple product markets, or their strong identity as players in emerging market segments, to clearly assess new firms’ proximity to the prototype. Using the context of U.S. online retailers that went public between 1995 and 2001, we find support for our arguments.
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Previous studies have shown that multimarket contact plays an important role in the location strategy of firms, but we still lack understanding of how the complexity of competing both in product an...
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Previous studies have suggested that (1) a type of organizational capabilities—namely, political capabilities—are required for multinational corporations (MNCs) to grow in global markets, (2) political capabilities are important for... more
Previous studies have suggested that (1) a type of organizational capabilities—namely, political capabilities—are required for multinational corporations (MNCs) to grow in global markets, (2) political capabilities are important for building productive relations with governments in politically risky host countries, and (3) MNCs can develop political capabilities by accumulating foreign experiences. However, empirical studies have found both positive and negative effects of such experiences on global market expansions. This study attributes such mixed findings to our lack of understanding about MNCs’ procurement processes of political capabilities and proposes types of experiences critical for such procurements by focusing on their reactions to political changes in host countries. Using data on the global mining industry and political changes in host countries, we find that MNCs develop political capabilities and thus make entries into politically risky host countries when they accumulate the experience of partially divesting some of their assets after political changes in host countries. We also find that MNCs are less likely to enter such countries if they have more experiences of exiting from host countries following political change.
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Previous research has examined the effects of state-level dyadic social capital on firm behavior. The present study theorizes the effects of state-level network on firm asset procurement behavior and offers a comprehensive view of... more
Previous research has examined the effects of state-level dyadic social capital on firm behavior. The present study theorizes the effects of state-level network on firm asset procurement behavior and offers a comprehensive view of contingencies, proposing that the value of state-level networks differs depending on organizational attention to the external environment and foreign experience, as well as the political institutions of different states. Analysis of the global mining industry supports these hypotheses. This study theorizes that firm behavior is embedded not only in a firm's network structure but also in the broader social structure. By applying the trade network as a state-level network variable, this paper provides an interface that bridges the literature on political science and organizational management.
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The questions of how shifts occur between inertia and change and why only some organizations make strategic changes have received significant attention from scholars in strategy and organization theory. Here the horizontal and vertical... more
The questions of how shifts occur between inertia and change and why only some organizations make strategic changes have received significant attention from scholars in strategy and organization theory. Here the horizontal and vertical dimensions of organizational power structures’ influence on the dynamics of corporate strategy are examined.The horizontal dimension of institutionalization of subunit power causes inertia, while the vertical dimension of power differences in the top management team causes strategic change. These effects hold for the simple magnitude of strategic changes, changes that break organizational momentum and changes following performance decline. Analysis of changes in the diversification of Japanese shipbuilding and robotics firms supports the theory.
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We examine firms' choice of organizational governance form. Using longitudinal data on a sample of business format franchisors operating in North America, we show that the cross‐sectional evidence commonly used to demonstrate support... more
We examine firms' choice of organizational governance form. Using longitudinal data on a sample of business format franchisors operating in North America, we show that the cross‐sectional evidence commonly used to demonstrate support for efficient contracting explanations for organizational governance form is not robust to the year of investigation, firm effects, or selection effects. We theorize that this outcome may result from dynamic processes through which a firm's organizational governance form evolves. We develop and test two hypotheses for the effects of organizational momentum on organizational governance form, and find that organizational momentum is a robust predictor. Our results suggest that researchers consider the dynamics of momentum in explaining the form of firm governance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Strategic change is one of the most critical decisions that organizations make. We focus on the role of groups at the upper echelon of hierarchies and propose that concentrated power either in the CEO or the top management team is prone... more
Strategic change is one of the most critical decisions that organizations make. We focus on the role of groups at the upper echelon of hierarchies and propose that concentrated power either in the CEO or the top management team is prone to be exercised, leading to a high rate of strategic change. We derive hypotheses on how formal and informal power concentration in top management teams have an effect on changes in corporate diversification. The findings suggest that power concentration strongly affects decision making.
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In this paper, we study the transition from planned venture to operational start-up in the emergent independent power sector. Planned ventures face tremendous obstacles in assembling the resources necessary to begin operations; we... more
In this paper, we study the transition from planned venture to operational start-up in the emergent independent power sector. Planned ventures face tremendous obstacles in assembling the resources necessary to begin operations; we hypothesize and show that formal certification from authorized actors increases the likelihood of making this transition. Moreover, we find that the effects of certification are contingent on the legitimacy of the sector as a whole: Certifications have a stronger effect on start-ups when sector legitimacy is low than when it is high. This research helps us understand a rarely studied organizational transition—from entrepreneurial intention to actual operations—within nascent sectors. It directs attention to the legitimating effects of formal certification, highlights the importance of a multilevel approach to legitimacy, and contributes to the growing rapprochement between entrepreneurial studies and institutional theory.
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Departing from prior work that demonstrates the stickiness and stability of alliance networks resulting from embeddedness, we extend matching theory to study firms' withdrawal from alliances. Viewing alliance withdrawal as a result of... more
Departing from prior work that demonstrates the stickiness and stability of alliance networks resulting from embeddedness, we extend matching theory to study firms' withdrawal from alliances. Viewing alliance withdrawal as a result of firms' pursuit of more promising alternative partners (outside options) rather than failures in collaboration, we predict that a firm is more likely to withdraw from an alliance when there is a higher density of outside options that have better match quality than the current partners. We also propose that, because matching is two-sided, outside options have a greater impact on a firm's withdrawal when they are more likely to initiate new alliances. Using data on alliances in the global liner shipping industry, we show that, controlling for internal tensions in the alliance, outside options predict alliance withdrawals. Thus, despite the alliance stickiness and stability, firms alter their alliances in response to the availability of promisi...
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ABSTRACT Firms have variable risk preferences in decision-making processes, but previous studies in the field of international management tend to view firms as inherently risk averse, and risky location choice as rare and exceptional.... more
ABSTRACT Firms have variable risk preferences in decision-making processes, but previous studies in the field of international management tend to view firms as inherently risk averse, and risky location choice as rare and exceptional. Drawing upon the arguments of problemistic search and slack search, we investigate the conditions under which firms make risky choices of location for foreign direct investments. Using longitudinal international expansion data on firms in the Japanese auto parts industry, we find that although firms generally avoid risk in choosing foreign direct investment destinations, they take risks when facing intense home-country competition and a lack of business group affiliation. Nonetheless, we find that small firms with business group affiliation are more likely to enter host countries with high political instability than are large firms with such affiliation.