Strategic Activity as Bundled Affordances

Sammanfattning

This study addresses the question of how strategy actors instil strategic behaviour in everyday strategic activity despite their physical absence. To do this, I draw on ecological psychology and introduce the concept of bundled affordances, multiple spatiotemporally distinct yet co-performing action possibilities offered to strategists in single strategic events. Through an in-depth qualitative study of three affiliated banks, I illustrate that affordances can be usefully bundled when familiar features of material objects are placed in the everyday perceptual field of strategists. The study further suggests that when corporate interests and individual goals are effectively entangled into affordance bundles, they not only motivate individuals to behave strategically but also make those actions intuitive rather than open-ended action possibilities, instructive rather than interpretive, and readily identifiable in events rather than in information about the properties of material objects.

Related content: Working Paper No. 243

Multidexterity: Combining competing business models in transforming economies

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Demir, R. & Angwin, D.

Publiceringsår

2021

Publicerat i

Management and Organization Review

Sammanfattning

Transforming economies pose significant challenges to multinational corporations’ (MNCs) business models (e.g., Chan et al., 2016; Sánchez & Ricart, 2010). This is because they are characterized by uncertain, highly volatile, and changing institutional frameworks (Peng, Wang, & Jiang, 2008). For instance, China is distinguished by weaker regulatory regimes and industry standards (Tan, 2009; Tsai & Child, 1997). So, whilst business models contribute to rapid internationalization (Dunford, Palmer, & Benveniste, 2010) and local competition in transforming economies (Tallman, Luo, & Buckley, 2018), entering those economies incurs institutional and market challenges. These fundamentally threaten MNCs’ business model viability (Birkinshaw, Zimmermann, & Raisch, 2016b).

The openness of open innovation in ecosystems

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Öberg, C., & Alexander, A.

Publiceringsår

2019

Publicerat i

Journal of Innovation & Knowledge

Sammanfattning

Open innovation has rendered increased interest both in practice and research, and has expanded from dyadic transfers of ideas, to ecosystem levels. Knowledge is at the heart of open innovation, and this paper describes and discusses knowledge-transfer linkages for open innovation. It does so based on a literature review. The paper links together open innovation research with general management research to categorise and discuss linkages among parties in terms of their openness and how they relate to knowledge management. Conclusions indicate that openness needs to be considered in different dimensions that also links to different knowledge management outcomes. The paper’s contribution consists of how it connects open innovation research to the general management literature, and how it builds a practical understanding of how linkages between firms can be categorised to aid firms to consider which mechanisms they may choose and why.

A revised perspective on innovation policy for renewal of mature economies – Historical evidence from finance and telecommunications in Sweden 1980–1990

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Eriksson, K., Ernkvist, M., Laurell, C., Moodysson, J., Nykvist, R. & Sandström, C.

Publiceringsår

2019

Publicerat i

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Sammanfattning

What is the role of innovation policy for accomplishing renewal of mature industries in Western economies? Drawing upon an unusually rich dataset spanning 9752 digitized archival documents, we categorize and code decisions taken by policymakers on several levels while also mapping and quantifying the strategic activities of both entrant firms and incumbent monopolists over a decade. Our data concerns two empirical cases from Sweden during the time period 1980–1990: the financial sector and the telecommunications sector. In both industries, a combination of technological and institutional upheaval came into motion during this time period which in turn fueled the revitalization of the Swedish economy in the subsequent decades. Our findings show that Swedish policymakers in both cases consistently acted in order to promote the emergence of more competition and de novo entrant firms at the expense of established monopolies. The paper quantifies and documents this process while also highlighting several enabling conditions. In conclusion, the results indicate that successful innovation policy in mature economies is largely a matter of strategically dealing with resourceful vested interest groups, alignment of expectations, and removing resistance to industrial renewal.

Sammanfattning

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