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A study of power in anthropology to determine strategies used by corporations in dealing with critics is presented. The three main phases of corporate response to critique are acknowledgement and token accommodation, denial, and strategic engagement. How the responses protect the tobacco and mining industries from possible delegitimization is also discussed.

This article discusses the need for senior managers to take leadership in making six key information technology decisions. They should decide how much to spend on IT, which business processes should receive IT funds and which IT capabilities need to be companywide.. They must also decide how good IT services need to be, which privacy and security risks are acceptable and whom to blame if an IT initiative fails.

The value in real options comes from the firm's ability to wait until conditions are optimal before moving forward with a project. There may be a loss of this optimal value if decison-makers anticipate preemptive entry by a competitor. Pioneers that enter markets early might ignore or spoil the real option value from delay. Although market pioneers may gain first-mover advantages, followers have important advantages as well. In this paper we discuss these follower advantages, providing examples of successful delay in the context of a real option on innovation., INTRODUCTION The value in real options comes from the firm's ability to wait until conditions are optimal before moving forward with a project. Engineers are concerned about the loss of [...]

An analysis is presented of data from a study comparing Planning School and Learning School practices in business strategic planning. Topics include methods used to gather data and conclusions on the finding that environmental factors do not affect the preference for one style over the other.

The similarities and differences between American and Japanese managers with respect to strategic action generation were investigated. The study examined the emphases and patterns that the two groups of executives attribute on several generic competitive techniques, including product quality, price, new product development, operating efficiency, customer service capabilities and a broad product range. Data for the study were obtained from a survey of 177 US executives and 125 Japanese managers. Findings revealed that the organizing principle behind the strategic planning of American managers is the desire to set the company apart from the competition. In contrast, the organizing principle driving Japanese strategic planning is the desire to establish a strong market position.

What distinguishes visionary companies? How can they be created? Contrary to much conventional wisdom, visionary companies do not require a high-profile, charismatic leader. Nor are they dependent on a great idea or fabulous initial product. Rather a visionary company is best understood as a particular kind of organization - one which builds in a unique and distinctive vision that is capable of enduring changes in leadership as well as market conditions. In short, building a visionary company is like building a clock, rather than simply telling time. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

A model of global strategy that incorporates the constructs of industry globalization potential, the use of global strategy, the role of organization and management, and the performance impact of a global strategy is developed. This model proposes possible reasons why American and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) have different perceptions of industry globalization potential, desired global strategy response, organizationally derived ability to introduce global strategy and resulting performance. To test the model, senior executives at 36 global businesses that are part of the largest MNCs of Japan and US were interviewed. Results provide evidence that the Japanese companies boast of more globalized strategies than do their American counterparts. This advantage is found to help their performance.

Companies are joining together in groups or networks for a common purpose, thereby creating an environment in which the competition often is a matter of group versus group, rather than company versus company. These groups have come about primarily as a result of the global economy and because of the increasing complexity of services and products. The groups provide these and other advantages, but other factors such as dependence and strategic gridlock may be less appealing. Group structure and governance are examined.

Decision making practices in developed countries, specifically in the US and Japan, are compared with those in the developing countries of Iraq and Nigeria. Factors related to managerial decision-making practices across these countries, including organizational structure, employee participation, involvement of the private sector, manager-subordinate interaction, participant motivation and temporal factors, were analyzed. Differences were noted in decison-making practices in the four countries. For instance, decision-making in Iraq and Nigeria is often centralized while it is diffused in the US and Japan. However, worldwide managerial practices appear to have more similarities than differences. This suggests that management skills and efficiency may be transferable to any culture, but each country's cultural norms should be considered.

This study refined and extended some findings of previous research on decision-making speed. Decision speed was associated with simultaneous consideration of many alternatives, regardless of context. In contrast, the relationship between board experience and decision speed was context-specific. Similarly, decision speed was associated with higher performance only in high-velocity environments. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This study investigates the relationship among four design parameters of planning systems and five different firm and environmental characteristics. The impact of this multivariate relationship on organizational effectiveness is then examined using a sample of 115 large manufacturing firms. The findings show general support for the proposition that, in order to be effective, a strategic planning system should be designed in such a way that the specific situational setting of the firm is reflected in the design. The analysis also indicates that firms adopt a more flexible planning system - captured here by two key variables, planning horizon, and frequency of plan reviews - as the level of environmental complexity increases. Implications for future research are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)