Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
  • Publication
    Resolving the paradox of interdependency and strategic renewal in activity systems
    We examine an intriguing paradox regarding whether interdependencies in an organization's activity system enable or hinder strategic renewal, i.e., the incremental process through which an organization continuously adapts to the environment and explores opportunities to invoke change in its activity choices and outputs. One research stream, the "inertial view", argues that the pervasiveness of interdependencies among activities increases inertia, which inhibits strategic renewal. Another research stream, the "adaptive view", argues that the pervasiveness of interdependencies among activities allows for a rich flow of resources and information, which enables strategic renewal. In this paper, we argue that both views provide important insights but arrive at conflicting conclusions because they focus on different dimensions of interdependency. To resolve this paradox, we distinguish between an activity system's interdependency patterns and interdependency rules. We propose that the dimensions of the interdependency pattern set the context in which the dimensions of the interdependency rules guide the exchange of resources and information among interdependent activities. Integrating these two components of an activity system's interdependency design leads to a "dual understanding" of interdependency as both pattern and rule and helps explain how the inertial forces of interdependency patterns may be overcome by putting appropriate interdependency rules in place.
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    Scopus© Citations 72
  • Publication
    Legitimating Institutional Entrepreneurs : How Incumbent Response Endorses Technological Discontinuities
    (SMS Strategic Management Society, 2011-11-08)
    Institutional entrepreneurs that introduce a technological discontinuity to a highly institutionalized field often struggle and strive for legitimacy. While it is known that these institutional entrepreneurs need support from multiple external actors in order to succeed, it is the incumbents' response behavior to the technological discontinuity that has been neglected as an important factor of the legitimation process. In this article I describe how three different response types namely adopting, defending, and ignoring, determine the course of the legitimation. I argue that incumbent response is able not only to hinder but also to enhance the legitimation process of the institutional entrepreneur and its technological discontinuity.
  • Publication
    Interdependencies of Activity Systems and Strategic Renewal
    (SMS Strategic Management Society, 2011-11-07) ; ;
    There are two opposing perspectives on the relationship between interdependency in activity systems and the likelihood of radical strategic renewal. Some scholars argue that interdependency increases inertia and thus inhibits radical deviation from the current state. Other scholars argue that rich levels of interdependency are necessary to undergo radical strategic renewal at all. In this paper, we claim that both strands of research have looked at different sub-dimensions of interdependency and therefore derive at different conclusions. Hence, by introducing multiple dimensions of interdependency, we show that the likelihood of radical strategic renewal is influenced by the value of three structural and two rule-based dimensions of interdependency.
  • Publication
    Strategic Renewal of Activity Systems : A Model for Interdependence Characteristics
    (SMS Strategic Management Society, 2010-09-15) ; ;
    In recent years, the phenomenon of activity systems has come to the forefront of strategy research. Previous scholars have identified interdependencies between activities as crucial to understand the strategic renewal of such complex systems. However, extant literature provides surprisingly few distinct dimensions of interdependence that characterize activity systems and influence strategic renewal success. Hence, drawing on strategic renewal literature and complexity science, we propose distinct interdependence dimensions to describe activity systems more holistically and derive a theoretical model on their role in times of strategic renewal.
  • Publication
    Strategic Renewal of Activity Systems : An Interdependency Perspective
    (Difo-Druck Bamberg, 2013)
    A growing literature stream conceptualizes organizations, their strategy, and business models as complex systems of interdependent activity choices. Accordingly, firms have to make decisions about which activities to engage in and to what extent. Choices made are interdependent with one another and thereby influence whether the system as a whole is internally consistent and fits its environment. The interdependencies among activity choices are found to be central to understanding sources of competitive advantage and the system's ability to undergo continuous strategic renewal. Despite the prominent role of interdependency in activity systems, little is known about the sources of interdependency in activity systems. Moreover, the literature does not agree on the role of interdependency on strategic renewal. While some studies suggest that interdependencies among activities lead to inertia, other studies suggest that they create variety and conflict, which can lead to strategic renewal. In three essays, I revisit the extant literature on activity systems and strategic renewal with a particular focus on interdependency to address these gaps. In the first essay, I explore the constituting elements of an activity system and identify the influence they have on the overall interdependency design. In the second essay, a theoretical framework that distinguishes between interdependency structure and rules is proposed to reconcile paradox findings of the relationship between interdependency and strategic renewal. In the third essay, I analyze different types of interdependency modularity and concentration in activity systems on the likelihood of activity domain recombination. Hypotheses are tested and supported in a longitudinal sample of the European banking industry between the years 2000 and 2011. Overall, the central claim of this thesis is that interdependencies can enable and inhibit strategic renewal and that this is dependent upon the distribution of interdependencies and the set of rules they follow. Download: http://www1.unisg.ch/www/edis.nsf/SysLkpByIdentifier/4133?OpenDocument&lang=en
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  • Publication
    Private Banking in Switzerland - Quo Vadis? : Joint Publication of KPMG and University of St. Gallen
    (HSG & KPMG, 2009) ; ; ; ;
    Oh, Lyndon
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    Hempel, Glenn
    A study carried out by the University of St.Gallen and KPMG shows that private banking in Switzerland faces fundamental change. However, in the view of 30 leading private banks, the sector has really only just begun to analyze the situation and not yet launched the process of making adjustments to their business strategy. Growth will occur primarily abroad and there is a question if enough Swiss banks in their current form are well positioned to take best advantage of this trend.