This article's purpose is to record an interview with Professor Michael Roberto.
Abstract
Purpose
This article's purpose is to record an interview with Professor Michael Roberto.
Design/methodology/approach
The article focuses on the importance of stimulating debate and the need to work towards cultivating constructive conflict. Describes the idea behind this approach and explores the challenges involved. Lists the steps to be taken in introducing the process, ensuring maximum participation and avoiding an impasse or the build‐up of potentially damaging bad feeling between participants with opposing viewpoints. Discusses problems of hierarchy and status. Urges leaders to interact closely with front‐line staff to ensure leaders are not fed biased or distorted information or shielded from bad news. Reports that while many companies still avoid conflict, others are recognising its potential benefits when constructively channelled.
Findings
Professor Michael Roberto provides his view of the importance of stimulating debate and the need to work towards cultivating constructive conflict.
Originality/value
This article provides an interview with Professor Michael Roberto focusing on the importance of stimulating debate and the need to work towards cultivating constructive conflict while simultaneously building consensus to optimise the decision‐making process.
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Keywords
Michael Roberto, Grace Chun Guo and Crystal X. Jiang
International business
Abstract
Subject area
International business
Study level/applicability
Undergraduate/graduate/executive education.
Case overview
China has become the world's largest producer of automobiles, surpassing the USA and Japan. The Chinese auto industry differs quite significantly from those countries though. While the industry exhibits a substantial degree of concentration in the USA and Japan in early 2011, it remained highly fragmented in China. The Chinese Central Government had announced a desire for consolidation, yet it remained unclear whether a significant shakeout would occur in the near term.
Like many Chinese automakers, Chang'an partnered with well-known global auto makers to develop, produce, and distribute its products. In the coming years, Chang'an hoped to develop more independence from its foreign partners, including the production and distribution of self-branded cars. However, the company grappled with how it could strive for independence while managing its existing joint ventures. Executives worried too about how to compete with foreign automakers who had achieved global economies of scale.
The case provides a rich description of the evolution of the Chinese auto industry, and it documents how the Chinese industry differs from other global markets. Readers can analyze the extent to which they believe scale economies provide foreign firms an advantage over smaller Chinese rivals, and they can evaluate the conventional wisdom regarding the industry's minimum efficient scale. The case also provides a detailed account of Chang'an's rise to prominence. The case concludes by offering an in-depth description of the firm's key rivals, and it presents the key questions being considered by Chang'an executives in 2011.
Expected learning outcomes
Enables students to examine how and why an industry's structure can differ substantially across geographic markets.
Enables students to examine whether the need to achieve economies of scale may cause substantial consolidation in the Chinese auto industry.
Provides an opportunity to evaluate the pros and cons of the joint venture strategies employed in China.
Provides an opportunity to examine how a relatively small firm can position itself against large multinationals in a high-growth emerging market.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes.
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Brian D. Waddell, Michael A. Roberto and Sukki Yoon
Research shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely…
Abstract
Purpose
Research shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely possesses a critical clue needed to uncover the superior solution. Failure to share and adequately evaluate this information will result in poor decision quality. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the devil's advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to mitigate this team decision‐making bias, the present study utilizes experimental research to examine the impact of the devil's advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams.
Findings
Results show that devil's advocacy groups achieved higher decision quality than groups under free discussion. However, devil's advocacy teams also had higher levels of affective conflict. As a result, while they selected the best solution, devil's advocacy introduced conditions that may hinder the solution's implementation
Research limitations/implications
Similar experiments with advocacy techniques suggest that the positive effect on decision quality found here may be reduced in the presence of stronger hidden profiles.
Practical implications
While the devil's advocacy technique has the potential to uncover hidden profiles and improve group decision making, the paper recommends that managers use this technique only in teams with strong critical thinking norms that foster constructive conflict.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, no study has examined the impact of devil's advocacy in groups where information is not shared equally prior to deliberations.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer, who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
As cyclones, hurricanes, floods and fires wreak havoc with communities round the world, the warnings that global warming might make the weather even worse and less predictable are at last being recognized by even the most stubborn of “head‐in‐the‐sand” optimists. So how do you stay in business if you are flooded out, burned down or blown away? Surely you have a plan?
Practical implications
The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.
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This study explores how top management teams make strategic decisions. The findings indicate that the top management team performs a variety of monitoring and control functions…
Abstract
This study explores how top management teams make strategic decisions. The findings indicate that the top management team performs a variety of monitoring and control functions within most firms, but that a single team with stable composition does not make strategic choices in most organizations. Instead, different groups, with members from multiple organizational levels, form to make various strategic decisions. A stable subset of the top team forms the core of each of these multiple decision‐making bodies. The findings offer a possible explanation for inconsistent findings in the top management team literature, and suggest several new directions for future senior team research.
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Niels Ketelhöhn, Roberto Artavia, Ronald Arce and Victor Umaña
This paper is a historical account of the process by which Michael Porter and INCAE Business School put together a regional competitiveness strategy for Central America that was…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is a historical account of the process by which Michael Porter and INCAE Business School put together a regional competitiveness strategy for Central America that was officially adopted by the governments of five participating countries, and implemented through a series of Presidential Summits that occurred between 1995 and 1999. The paper provides a unique case study on the adoption of the concepts put forth by Porter in his book “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” (1990) at the highest level of government. The study arrives at a series of practical implications for policy makers that are particularly relevant for the implementation of supra-national regional strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct an extensive literature review of 190 policy papers produced by INCAE Business School, that are used to recreate the historical evolution of the regional competitiveness strategy. The effect of Porter’s intervention is also assessed by comparing the main economic indicators of each participating country with those of 2005-2010. One of the authors was the main protagonist in the successful implementation of the strategy, and the paper relies partially on his accounts of events.
Findings
This study describes how economic policy in Central America was profoundly influenced by Michael Porter’s thinking in the second half of the 1990s. These policy changes promoted international competition of Central American clusters and firms, and opened the region for international investment and tourism. The region experienced important increases in its economic integration, its international trade, foreign direct investment and tourist arrivals. Gross domestic product growth was accelerated in Honduras and Nicaragua.
Research limitations/implications
Like all case studies, this study has limits related to the generalizability of its conclusions. Additionally, it is not possible to determine the precise nature of the relation between the implementation of the regional economic strategy, and the impact on economic growth, integration, FDI attraction and exports.
Practical implications
The paper has several practical implications that relate to the design of regional economic strategies. First, it identifies policy areas that are more effective as part of regional strategies, and distinguishes them from those that should be resolved at the national level. Second, it suggests a process that can facilitate execution. Finally, it provides an example of the coordinating role that can be assumed by an academic institution such as INCAE.
Originality/value
The Central American Competitiveness Initiative provides a unique setting to study the implementation of competitiveness policy for several reasons. First, in all countries in Central America, Michael Porter’s diamond framework (1990) and cluster theory were officially adopted at the highest level of government. Second, in addition to their individual competitiveness strategies, all countries adopted a regional strategy for cooperation and economic integration. Finally, the Central American Competitiveness Initiative was founded on one of the first competitiveness think tanks of the world.
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Joe Garcia, Russell Shannon, Aaron Jacobson, William Mosca, Michael Burger and Roberto Maldonado
This paper aims to describe an effort to provide for a robust and secure software development paradigm intended to support DevSecOps in a naval aviation enterprise (NAE) software…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe an effort to provide for a robust and secure software development paradigm intended to support DevSecOps in a naval aviation enterprise (NAE) software support activity (SSA), with said paradigm supporting strong traceability and provability concerning the SSA’s output product, known as an operational flight program (OFP). Through a secure development environment (SDE), each critical software development function performed on said OFP during its development has a corresponding record represented on a blockchain.
Design/methodology/approach
An SDE is implemented as a virtual machine or container incorporating software development tools that are modified to support blockchain transactions. Each critical software development function, e.g. editing, compiling, linking, generates a blockchain transaction message with associated information embedded in the output of a said function that, together, can be used to prove integrity and support traceability. An attestation process is used to provide proof that the toolchain containing SDE is not subject to unauthorized modification at the time said critical function is performed.
Findings
Blockchain methods are shown to be a viable approach for supporting exhaustive traceability and strong provability of development system integrity for mission-critical software produced by an NAE SSA for NAE embedded systems software.
Practical implications
A blockchain-based authentication approach that could be implemented at the OFP point-of-load would provide for fine-grain authentication of all OFP software components, with each component or module having its own proof-of-integrity (including the integrity of the used development tools) over its entire development history.
Originality/value
Many SSAs have established control procedures for development such as check-out/check-in. This does not prove the SSA output software is secure. For one thing, a build system does not necessarily enforce procedures in a way that is determinable from the output. Furthermore, the SSA toolchain itself could be attacked. The approach described in this paper enforces security policy and embeds information into the output of every development function that can be cross-referenced to blockchain transaction records for provability and traceability that only trusted tools, free from unauthorized modifications, are used in software development. A key original concept of this approach is that it treats assigned developer time as a transferable digital currency.
Details
Keywords
- Software development
- Blockchain
- Cybersecurity
- Operational flight program
- Secure development environment
- Secure virtual machine
- Zero trust
- Embedded systems
- Mission-critical systems
- OFP
- DevOps
- DevSecOps
- Software support activity
- SSA
- SDE
- Permissioned blockchain
- Cryptocurrency
- Time-limited authorization for developer action
- TADA
- Code signing
- Trusted software guard
- SGX
- Trusted eXecution technology
- TXT
- Trusted platform module
- Self-hosting
- Controlled access blockchain
- CABlock
- Role-based access control
- RBAC
Pericles Ramón Mejía-Vásquez, Roberto Sánchez-Gómez, Sheila Serafim da Silva and Luis Vázquez-Suárez
This research seeks to discover how the organisational form (franchising vs vertical integration) of 384 fashion stores belonging to a Spanish franchise chain influences…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to discover how the organisational form (franchising vs vertical integration) of 384 fashion stores belonging to a Spanish franchise chain influences unit-level performance measured through three key indicators commonly used in the retail literature: sales per square metre, sales per employee and service quality scores.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have analysed this research question using bivariate and multivariate analyses, with a panel dataset that includes quarterly establishment-level data covering the period from January 2018 to December 2019.
Findings
The aggregated data initially reveal weaker outcomes among franchised establishments. However, after controlling for other variables related to the fashion stores and their local markets, the authors have found that franchised establishments record higher sales both per square metre and per employee than vertically integrated stores. The findings also reveal that franchised establishments record lower service quality scores than their company-owned counterparts.
Originality/value
Nothing has been published on the differences between franchising and company ownership in terms of establishment-level performance in fashion retailing.
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Roberto Mora Cortez and Wesley J. Johnston
This paper aims to explore the possible scenarios after a failed reverse auction to continue a current buyer–seller relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the possible scenarios after a failed reverse auction to continue a current buyer–seller relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed a further understanding of reverse auctions through the examination of a longitudinal case study in the mining industry based on grounded theory.
Findings
The study indicates that losing a reverse auction is not a death sentence for the current supplier. Four factors influence the potential scenarios: buyer factors, supplier factors, buyer–seller factors and contextual factors. If the overall evaluation favors the current buyer–seller relationship, the supplier can continue the business interaction by full renegotiation or discrete step-by-step reconsideration. Conversely, the buyer–seller relationship would reach a state of dissolution.
Originality/value
This manuscript contributes to the understanding of reverse auction, an under-researched theme in organizational buying behavior theory. This paper is the first attempt to link buyer–seller relationship dissolution and reverse auctions. The authors suggest that more academic endeavors are needed to study online reverse auctions.