Abstract
Strategic emphasis is a critical decision reflecting a firm's relative proclivity toward value creation versus value appropriation. Despite the increasing role of the board in setting the ...strategic priorities of firms, there is a dearth of research examining board‐level influences on strategic emphasis. Drawing on the cognitive perspective of corporate governance, we posit that exposure to external information via board interlocks provides competing incentives to pursue value creation and value appropriation strategies. We hypothesize that political ideological diversity among directors facilitates the utilization of external information for novel purposes, thus increasing firms' value creation focus. Combining data on directors' political ideologies with network analysis, we test these hypotheses in 584 large U.S. firms between 2000 and 2018. We find that political ideological diversity influences strategic emphasis both directly and in interaction with board interlock network centrality: politically ideological diverse boards exhibit a greater focus on value creation, and this effect is strengthened when the board is well connected to others. These results have implications for the director selection process, and for executives advocating for value creation strategies and the requisite R&D investments under differing conditions of board composition and information exposure.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
As firms work tod engage customers better, researchers have attempted to understand customer engagement (CE) empirically. CE goes beyond purchase and is the level of the customer's (or potential ...customer's) interactions and connections with the brand or firm's offerings or activities, often involving others in the social network created around the brand/offering/activity. Engaged individuals include current as well as prospective customers. Following the expanded relationship metaphor and service-dominant logic, the researchers conceptualize a three-dimensional view of CE, including conscious attention, enthused participation, and social connection. The final 10-item scale is thoroughly developed and subsequently validated in several contexts. In addition, its nomological validity is assessed.
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Research issue
A consistent feature of social networks is homophily: the tendency for people to interact with similar others. Psychological and sociological research suggests that homophily is most ...pronounced along ideological lines, with conflicting evidence as to whether this tendency is higher among individuals who hold liberal or conservative beliefs. Based on this literature, we conduct the first study of ideological homophily in two key organizational networks: the intrafirm connections among directors on the board and the interfirm connections created by board interlocks.
Research insights
In a panel of 408 U.S. firms between 2000 and 2020, we find that liberalism increases homophily both within and between boards. Furthermore, we find that homophily has decreased over time but that this has been driven by conservative boards while the effect of liberalism has strengthened in recent years. These findings provide the first evidence for an ideological component in the composition of intra‐ and interorganizational networks.
Academic implications
Most research on director selection and interlock formation has focused on situational or demographic antecedents. Our findings contribute to the development of a broader theoretical framework that accounts for individual dispositional factors in these processes.
Practitioner implications
Our findings bring attention to the issue of ideological homogeneity in firms. Given the growth of homophilic tendencies among liberal directors in recent years, we suggest that it may be increasingly important for directors to become aware, and mitigate the effects, of their ideological biases in order to maintain cognitive diversity in information networks and decision making.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
Physicians routinely encounter diagnostic uncertainty in practice. Despite its impact on health care utilization, costs and error, measurement of diagnostic uncertainty is poorly ...understood. We conducted a systematic review to describe how diagnostic uncertainty is defined and measured in medical practice.
Methods
We searched OVID Medline and PsycINFO databases from inception until May 2017 using a combination of keywords and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Additional search strategies included manual review of references identified in the primary search, use of a topic-specific database (AHRQ-PSNet) and expert input. We specifically focused on articles that (1) defined diagnostic uncertainty; (2) conceptualized diagnostic uncertainty in terms of its sources, complexity of its attributes or strategies for managing it; or (3) attempted to measure diagnostic uncertainty.
Key Results
We identified 123 articles for full review, none of which defined diagnostic uncertainty. Three attributes of diagnostic uncertainty were relevant for measurement: (1) it is a subjective perception experienced by the clinician; (2) it has the potential to impact diagnostic evaluation—for example, when inappropriately managed, it can lead to diagnostic delays; and (3) it is dynamic in nature, changing with time. Current methods for measuring diagnostic uncertainty in medical practice include: (1) asking clinicians about their perception of uncertainty (surveys and qualitative interviews), (2) evaluating the patient–clinician encounter (such as by reviews of medical records, transcripts of patient–clinician communication and observation), and (3) experimental techniques (patient vignette studies).
Conclusions
The term “diagnostic uncertainty” lacks a clear definition, and there is no comprehensive framework for its measurement in medical practice. Based on review findings, we propose that diagnostic uncertainty be defined as a “subjective perception of an inability to provide an accurate explanation of the patient’s health problem.” Methodological advancements in measuring diagnostic uncertainty can improve our understanding of diagnostic decision-making and inform interventions to reduce diagnostic errors and overuse of health care resources.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Using qualitative studies involving executives and customers, this study explores the nature and scope of customer engagement (CE), which is a vital component of relationship marketing. We define CE ...as the intensity of an individual's participation in and connection with an organization's offerings and/or organizational activities, which either the customer or the organization initiate. We argue that it is composed of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social elements. Finally, we offer a model of CE, in which the participation and involvement of current or potential customers serve as antecedents of CE, while value, trust, affective commitment, word of mouth, loyalty, and brand community involvement are potential consequences.
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Innovation ambidexterity is especially complex for young technology-based firms because they are resource-challenged and knowledge deficient in strategic terms; but they possess considerable scope ...for entrepreneurship. Strategic entrepreneurship may provide a solution. Incubators emerged as a policy solution precisely due to this dilemma. We conceptualise that strategic entrepreneurship, as a synthesis of opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking behaviours of young technology-based firms, can affect both explorative and exploitative innovation activities in these firms and expect that subsequent innovation ambidexterity affects profitability. Our empirical analyses reveal complex and competing interrelationships that both ease and exacerbate the tensions associated with innovation ambidexterity. We contribute to theory by testing strategic entrepreneurship as it applies to innovation ambidexterity and evidence behaviours that contribute to its foundations. To entrepreneurs and managers, we offer a set of prescriptions for innovation ambidexterity in young firms that accounts for the complementarities between complex and theoretically opposing constructs.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We report on two studies (a single and a multi-industry) that empirically investigate a nomological network of relationships between strategic business unit product-market strategy (differentiation, ...cost-focus, and product-market scope), marketing capabilities (architectural and specialized capabilities, as well as their integration), and business unit performance (market effectiveness and subsequent one-year objective cash flow), along with a series of controls. Addressing important lacunae in the resource-based view our main research objective is to augment understanding of how critical firm-level marketing capabilities enable the realization of strategy, thus, further advancing both the resource-based view and more recent capabilities theorizing. Specifically, we test seven hypotheses and find strong evidence that both architectural and specialized marketing capabilities, and their integration, positively mediate the product-market strategy and derived business unit performance relationship. In contrast to many extant studies, both survey and objectively measured data are combined, and because the secondary data collected contains both resource-level (input) data and subsequent one-year financial data, a higher level of confidence may be attributable to our findings.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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