Markus Kreutzer

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.

In contrast to the contingency approach advanced by most prior work, we suggest a complementary perspective on organizational control and its relationship with performance. We argue that the simultaneous use of behavior and outcome control capitalizes on their respective advantages, and is therefore more effective than a sole reliance on either control type. Moreover, with organizational control seeking alignment between individual and organizational goals, the benefits of such a complementary approach may be more pronounced in a context characterized by high levels of organizational politics, or the pursuit of individual at the expense of organizational goals. Our analysis of strategic initiatives pursued by 184 European corporations provides support for both a complementary approach to organizational control and a contingency effect of organizational politics.

Current reforms of solvency regulation in Europe include the Swiss Solvency Test, already in force in Switzerland since 2011, and the planned move by the European Union from the Solvency I to the Solvency II framework over the coming years. These changes bring with them more stringent requirements in many areas and thus have a broad impact on the European insurance industry. The scope of this paper is to analyze, on the basis of an industry survey, the perceived magnitude of the impact, the effects, and the uncertainty accompanying these reforms. These results are then reflected with the companies' strategic adaption to the new frameworks with particular regard to decision making, political activity, management of uncertainty, and the internal and external adaptation. The study highlights significant differences in perception by country, size of business and dominant business line. Furthermore, selected perceived effects of new solvency regulation are shown to have a significant impact on (planned) sites and scope of business model adaptation.

Realising corporate growth remains a challenging task for most firms. In this paper, we examine how multi-unit corporations can effectively coordinate the evolution of their growth initiatives. Based upon research on coordination, we identify four ideal modes that corporations can adopt as a means to dealing with their growth ambitions. We label these four: agenda-setting, context-setting, directing and self-organising. We show how these coordination modes represent different options for corporate management and have different implications for the role split between top managers and managers on subsequent levels. We illustrate them by using primary and secondary data from 51 corporations based in Europe, North America and Asia. Each mode is connected with particular managerial challenges and is most effective in combination with specific context factors. Practitioners can use these insights to deliberately apply an appropriate coordination mode for their growth initiatives.