Aidan P 12/31/24 Aidan P 12/31/24

Improve workflows by managing bottlenecks (2024)

This is a practitioner oriented article summarizing the findings from our more, in-depth, 2023 research article. Eliminating negative bottlenecks can help firms improve performance. Our framework focuses on two types of bottlenecks: task bottlenecks and resource bottlenecks. Firms benefit when task system properties of decentralization and complexity are aligned (as more of both or less of both), and when firms’ resources are both fungible and available; these characteristics also reinforce each other.

Aidan P 7/31/24 Aidan P 7/31/24

Who gets redeployed? Inventor characteristics and resource redeployment decisions (2024)

As executives face businesses that are more or less profitable they often respond by moving resources between businesses. But which specific resources do they move? We study innovation active firms and their decisions to redeploy inventors between business units. Examining the US petrochemical industry, we find that generalist inventors (vs specialists in few domains) are more likely to be redeployed, while brokers (i.e., inventors who connect others) in the collaboration network are less likely to be redeployed. In addition, conditions that alter opportunity costs at the source unit matter. When there are larger proportions of generalists (and brokers), this facilitates redeployment of that type of inventor, and knowledge interdependencies in the source unit mitigate redeployment to a target unit.

Aidan P 5/31/24 Aidan P 5/31/24

Acqui-hires: Redeployment and retention of human capital post-acquisition (2024)

Acqui-hires (or talent acquisitions) are acquisitions of small firms solely for the employees(and their knowledge and skills). This paper studies the beginning of the acqui-hire phenomenon in the technology sector. We find that the disruptiveness of the acquired technology leads more likely to the acqui-hired team being preserved within a business unit (versus dispersed)at the new parent firm, and the founder being given a high status position. We find that a mismatch can lead to negative implications such as the premature departure of the founder(s).

Shah Karim 11/1/23 Shah Karim 11/1/23

Task and resource bottlenecks: Holistic examination of task systems through an organization design lens (2023)

Eliminating negative bottlenecks can help firms improve performance. This study focuses on two types of bottlenecks: task bottlenecks and resource bottlenecks. Our results show that firms benefit when task system properties of decentralization and complexity are aligned (as more of both or less of both), and when firms' resources are both fungible and available; these characteristics also reinforce each other.

Shah Karim 6/1/23 Shah Karim 6/1/23

The Power of Modularity Today: 20 Years of Design Rules (2023)

This is the introductory essay by the co-editors of a special issue celebrating the 20thyear anniversary of the book “Design Rules: The Power of Modularity” (by Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark)published in 2000,a book that introduced new ways of understanding and explaining the architecture of complex systems.We review the impact of the book across numerous fields and offer perspectives on key themes that emerge from contributions in the special issue,including the alignment between organizational and technical designs (“mirroring”), the dynamics of industry evolution, and the role that individuals play in shaping and responding to system designs.

Shah Karim 8/1/22 Shah Karim 8/1/22

A Knowledge Recombination Perspective of Innovation: Review and New Research Directions (2022)

This paper is a review of the literature about knowledge recombination.It also provides a framework for a recombination perspective and considers how the innovation literature using are combination approach has progressed over time, including identification of key features of knowledge components, influences on how components are recombined, and the outcomes of recombination. Finally, a number of new directions for research are proposed.

Aidan P 1/1/21 Aidan P 1/1/21

Competing both ways: How combining Porter's low-cost and focus strategies hurts firm performance (2021)

Some firms have effectively used either a low-cost strategy or a focus strategy to improve their performance.Our study demonstrates that although firms pursuing either strategy individually can benefit, pursuing these two generic strategies simultaneously actually hurts firms' profitability.

Aidan P 11/1/18 Aidan P 11/1/18

Managing institutional distance: Examining how firm-specific advantages impact foreign subsidiary CEO staffing (2018)

Access to knowledge can help foreign firms overcome the liabilities of foreignness. We examine whether possession of firm-specific advantages (of multinationality,regional agglomeration, and host-country experience) impacts foreign firms’ likelihood to appoint expatriates (versus local managers) as CEOs. Local managers provide host-market insight, whereas expatriates possess knowledge transfer and coordination capabilities. We find that, as institutional distance increases, these advantages substitute for the host-market insight of local CEOs. Thus, foreign firms with these advantages are more likely to staff the CEO role with expatriates.Our results are particularly relevant to multinational corporations seeking to allocate a limited talent pool across different countries

Aidan P 12/1/17 Aidan P 12/1/17

Restructure or Reconfigure? (2017)

To cope with ever-changing market conditions, companies often have to reorganize. But leaders tend to get conflicting advice about when and howto do so. In this HBR article, we provide a framework for how executives should decide between two different reorganization processes: restructuring and reconfiguration. Restructuring involves changing the structural archetype around which resources and activities are grouped and coordinated(e.g., around function,business line, customer segment, technology platform, geography). Reconfiguration involves adding, splitting,transferring, combining, or dissolving business units and their resources without modifying the company’s underlying structure

Aidan P 8/1/17 Aidan P 8/1/17

Examining Alliance Portfolios Beyond the Dyads: The Relevance of Redundancy and Nonuniformity Across and Between Partners (2017)

We use spectral graph partitioning methodology to analyze the architecture of complex systems that contain directed and weighted component interactions, and in which each component is interdependent (directly or indirectly) on every other component. We illustrate this method in the airline industry and how it allows holistic comparison of different system architectures.

Aidan P 12/23/16 Aidan P 12/23/16

EXAMINING RESOURCE REDEPLOYMENT IN MULTI-BUSINESS FIRMS (2016)

This is the introductory paper by the co-editors of a special volume on resource redeployment and corporate strategy, which is devoted to exploring a relatively new justification for how multi-business firms create value–having flexibility to internally redistribute non-financial resources across their businesses. We clarify how a theory around resource flexibility differs from other theories of how multi-business firms create value. We synthesize the collection of papers in this volume and describe how they contribute to our understanding of resource redeployment.

Aidan P 11/1/16 Aidan P 11/1/16

DELAYING CHANGE: EXAMINING HOW INDUSTRY AND MANAGERIAL TURBULENCE IMPACT STRUCTURAL REALIGNMENT (2016)

We examine how various conditions affect whether and when firms pursue structural realignment by recombining business units. We find that while firms initiate structural recombination during periods of industry (revenue) growth, they reduce their recombination efforts during periods of industry turbulence (i.e., revenue volatility) and managerial turbulence (i.e., growth in top management team size). We also find evidence that firms delay realignment and bide their time for better environmental conditions of declining turbulence and industry growth. We propose that decision makers delay initiating business unit recombination until they can effectively process information and assess how structural changes will help them realign the organization to the environment.

Aidan P 10/1/16 Aidan P 10/1/16

RECONFIGURATION: Adding, Redeploying, Recombining and Divesting Resources and Business Units VSI Introduction (2016)

This introduction to the Special Issue on Reconfiguration discusses how reconfiguration is a dynamic capability encompassing the corporate development activities in which firms engage to align resources with a decision to expand (i.e. do more), contract (i.e. do less) or innovate (i.e. do something new). Internal modes of reconfiguration include internal resource sourcing, redeployment and recombination. External modes include acquisitions and divestitures, while alliances, spin outs and corporate venturing are hybrid modes. We highlight fifteen papers that inform a reconfiguration framework involving reconfiguration antecedents, the reconfiguration process (focused on growth strategies, retrenchment strategies, or international strategies), and reconfiguration outcomes.

Aidan P 6/1/16 Aidan P 6/1/16

GROUPING INTERDEPENDENT TASKS: USING SPECTRAL GRAPH PARTITIONING TO STUDY COMPLEX SYSTEMS (2016)

We describe a method for analyzing the architecture of complex systems that contain directed and weighted component interactions, and in which each component is interdependent on every other component. Using the spectra of a complex
system, the method provides groupings. We illustrate this method using the firm-level production task system of a firm in the U.S. passenger airline sector. The method is useful if the system architecture is hidden, in flux, or both. The method may also permit a holistic comparison of different systems and their architectures.

Aidan P 12/1/15 Aidan P 12/1/15

Structural Recombination and Innovation: Unlocking Intraorganizational Knowledge Synergy Through Structural Change (2015)

Structural recombination can be both a means for firms to unlock the potential for intraorganizational knowledge recombination and a source of disruption to the firm’s existing knowledge resources. We examine the conditions under which structural recombination leads to more innovation. We find that structural recombination will have a positive effect on innovation where there are substantial intraorganizational knowledge synergies, where path dependence is low, and where knowledge resources are of high quality, limiting disruption.

Aidan P 10/1/15 Aidan P 10/1/15

Delegation Within Hierarchies: How Information Processing and Knowledge Characteristics Influence the Allocation of Formal and Real Decision Authority (2015)

We observe a large multinational firm as it decentralizes and study under what conditions managers delegate authority to their subordinates. Our findings show how the specialization of decision-relevant knowledge, the matching of required knowledge and managers’ expertise, and information processing intensity affect (a) the occurrence of delegation and, (b) if delegation occurs, how far down the organizational hierarchy authority is delegated.

Aidan P 12/1/14 Aidan P 12/1/14

UNPACKING FUNCTIONAL ALLIANCE PORTFOLIOS:HOW SIGNALS OF VIABILITY AFFECT YOUNG FIRMS’ OUTCOMES (2014)

This article investigates how alliance portfolio composition affects young firms’ outcomes. We propose how alliance portfolio composition—number, functional domains (R&D, manufacturing, and marketing), and single-purpose or multi-purpose nature of alliances within the portfolio—may affect a young firm’s likelihood of achieving a liquidity event (IPO or acquisition). We study over 8000 VC-backed firms from 10 industry sectors and find that alliance portfolios (to a certain extent) increase a firm’s liquidity event likelihood. Further, firms with heterogeneous alliance portfolios, including portfolios with fewer alliance partners, are more likely to experience an IPO versus acquisition.

Aidan P 10/1/14 Aidan P 10/1/14

Fit Between Organization Design and Organizational routines (2014)

Despite decades of research on both organization design and organizational routines, little research has analyzed the relationship between them. Here we propose a normative theory in which the effectiveness of organization design and redesign depends on the characteristics of routines. The analysis shows which types of organization designs may be useful as well as which design changes may or may not succeed depending on (a) the specificity of routines and (b) the dynamic versus static purposes of organizational routines.

Aidan P 9/1/13 Aidan P 9/1/13

IMPLEMENTING ACQUIRERS’ SYNERGISTIC INTENT:COST REDUCTION, REVENUE ENHANCEMENT AND BILATERAL INTERACTIONS WITH THE TARGET (2013)

Aidan P 11/1/12 Aidan P 11/1/12

Exploring structural embeddedness of product market activities andresources within business units (2012)

Structural embeddedness describes how activities and their underlying resources are embedded within their business units. We argue that if activities and resources are highly embedded in unit structures then unit reconfiguration should have an impact on activity reconfiguration. We find evidence of structural embeddedness by showing that activities within a firm that are moved from one unit into another unit are less likely to be retained than activities that are moved in conjunction with their units (e.g., when units are recombined). Our findings should make managers cautious of pulling activities out of their contextual environment within which activities reside.

Publications