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.

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 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 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 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 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.

Aidan P 9/1/12 Aidan P 9/1/12

STRUCTURAL KNOWLEDGE: HOW EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE WITH STRUCTURAL COMPOSITION AFFECTS INTRAFIRM MOBILITY AND UNIT RECONFIGURATION (2012)

We explore how knowledge embodied in executives is tied to the organizational context in which it develops. We predict that executives will move between units with similar ‘structural composition’—a characteristic representing unit origin (as acquired or internally developed) and how the unit was reconfigured — and be conduits of organizational change. We predict that units receiving more transferred executives, executives with recombination experience, and executives from core internal units will have a greater likelihood of being recombined, while units receiving executives from previously acquired units will tend to remain unchanged. The study examines a 20-year panel of 48 multidivisional firms from the U.S. medical sector.

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

A framework of organisations as dynamic structures (2011)

We integrate advances in organizational structure research into a broader framework of ‘structural action’ that depicts organizations as dynamic structures. We highlight the main contributions from various theories and perspectives that have all informed our understanding of the impact of organizational structure on strategic change. To better understand how organizations are re-designed, the framework recommends particular structural actions depending on the turbulence (both internal and external) and performance (both actual and aspired) aspects of the organization.

Aidan P 12/1/09 Aidan P 12/1/09

Business Unit Reorganization and Innovation in New Product Markets (2009)

We examine how business unit reconfiguration (as the creation, deletion, or recombination of business units) affects innovation. Innovation involves product market entry by a firm into
markets in which it was not previously active. We find that reconfiguration and innovation have a U-shape relationship, supporting learning arguments that stress the importance of experiencing a cohort of multiple events. Further, only reconfiguration experiences within a current period affect future innovation; past experiences do not impact future innovation, implying that firms may face constraints in organizational memory. The study concludes by exploring the structural origin (i.e., from internal, acquired, or recombined units) of innovative activity within firms.

Shah Karim 10/1/06 Shah Karim 10/1/06

MODULARITY IN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:THE RECONFIGURATION OF INTERNALLY DEVELOPED AND ACQUIRED BUSINESS UNITS (2006)

Unit reconfiguration is the addition of units to, deletion of units from, and recombination of units within the firm. This study compares the reconfiguration of internally developed vs. acquired units, explores what forms of unit recombination are common, and observes whether firms pursue recombination before divestiture. We find that acquired and internally developed units serve different roles in the process of change, and that firms perceive reconfiguration to be beneficial.

Shah Karim 11/1/04 Shah Karim 11/1/04

Innovating through Acquisition and Internal Development (2004)

We track the evolution of product lines and business units in Johnson & Johnson’s medical sector from 1975 to 1997. We found that J&J acquired most of its product lines and units during the
period, and actively reconfigured most acquired units in attempts to create new value, rather than simply leaving them to operate within their original boundaries. In addition, unit reconfiguration commonly preceded product line movement across unit boundaries, providing evidence of the embedded nature of resources within structure. At the same time, however, internally developed resources and units were more likely to be retained:
indeed, stable internally created units were the most common sources of innovations. The underlying message of these evolutionary patterns is that innovation stems from maintaining a deep understanding of organizationally-embedded routines, while undertaking careful ongoing redefinition of
unit boundaries.

Aidan P 10/5/04 Aidan P 10/5/04

Hierarchy expansion in young firms: Impact of internal versus external hiring on performance (Forthcoming)

Aidan P 10/3/04 Aidan P 10/3/04

Core or periphery: Examining where to allocate exploring innovators and the impact on breakthrough innovation (Forthcoming)

Aidan P 10/2/04 Aidan P 10/2/04

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

Aidan P 10/1/04 Aidan P 10/1/04

Managing bottlenecks to improve company performance (Forthcoming)

Publications