We extend the M&A and alliances literature to include a temporal perspective focusing on when and under what conditions firms should accelerate or slow down their M&A and alliance initiatives. Using a social entrainment model, we explore the relationship between the temporal properties of variability, synchronization and firm performance. We test our model in the context of the U.S specialty pharmaceutical industry. We find a curvilinear relationship between the overall variability of strategic actions and performance. Establishing internal synchronization increases performance while external synchronization of variability with competitors reveals a more complex picture. Our study further opens the window for understanding the creation of competitive advantage by managing rhythm-type strategic actions against time.

Both theoretical and empirical evidence suggest that, in markets with standards competition, strong network effects can make the strong grow stronger and even "tip" the market towards a single, winner-take-all standard. We theorize that the presence of conversion technologies will reduce the tendency towards market dominance in markets for digital goods. We develop three essays to explore this phenomenon within both an analytic and empirical framework. In essay 1 the results from a duopoly model confirm that the existence of a converter can mediate the network effects of a pre-existing installed base. A "winners-take-some" outcome that sustains competition after the entrant enters the market is more likely to arise with lower conversion costs. Surprisingly, higher quality conversion technology does not necessarily enhance the likelihood of the "winners-take-some" outcome. In essay 2 we endogenize the decision to provide a converter and incorporate explicit negotiations between firms concerning the extent of conversion. We find that the Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium involves firms' agreeing on providing converters at a sufficiently low price to all consumers. At this equilibrium, not only the entrant, but also the incumbent are better off since the provision of converters alleviates price competition and leads to both higher product revenues and higher proceeds from the sale of converters. Moreover, under some circumstances the provision of converters is welfare enhancing. In essay 3 we empirically test our hypotheses in the context of the flash memory market where both network effects and high quality digital converters are present. Our results show that the availability of digital converters reduces the price premium of the leading flash card formats more than that of the minority formats. In addition, market concentration decreases as converters become more widely available. Our findings imply that producers of non-dominant standards are better off with the provision of conversion technology, as this technology tends to neutralize the impact of network effects. These findings have important implications for research and practice in IT standards competition and technology adoption as the introduction of conversion technologies provides an alternative mechanism to reduce the social costs of standardization without compromising the benefits of network effects.

Although team composition as an antecedent to team performance has been studied extensively, team composition as a dependent variable has been relatively neglected. Recent studies on team member selection assume that a group or an organization is conducting the process and propose elaborate models that include numerous factors along two dimensions: taskwork and teamwork. However, when individual decision makers are forming teams, they adopt a simpler heuristic approach that is based on their relational ties to potential team members. The extent of this relational bias, i.e., the proportion of the team to which they have prior relational ties, is explored in this dissertation. In cases where the decision maker was the team leader, the relational bias was 50% for top-flight professional soccer players choosing their ideal teammates, and 34% for National Football League (NFL) head coaches choosing their coaching staff members. Even in cases where the decision maker was only the selector and not the team leader, the relational bias in the soccer player dataset was 31%. Whether the decision maker was a leader or only a selector was a statistically significant predictor of relational bias. These findings not only support the traditional leadership theories that the leader-member relationship is a central dimension of leadership, but also suggest that relational ties might be important even at the team formation stage. The NFL head coaches dataset provides evidence that team leaders role interdependence is a statistically significant predictor of relational bias not only to the team as a whole, but also to the part of the team structure on which the leaders are more dependent (termed backing-up subunit). Content analysis of soccer players reports of their selections indicates that taskwork-related rationales were primary (58.2% of the total), followed by tie-related rationales (23%) and teamwork-related rationales (18.8%). Further, team spirit, a subcategory of teamwork-related rationales, comprised only 4.1% of the total rationales provided. The results suggest that when individual decision makers are forming teams, they utilize a three-dimensional (rather than two-dimensional) approach that includes consideration of factors related to taskwork, teamwork, and the decision makers ties to potential team members.

Family firms are an important part of the U.S. economy. Using a comprehensive sample of publicly traded family firms in the U.S. this dissertation looks into various aspects of their corporate structure. Specifically, this dissertation studies the industry distribution, capital structure choices, and performance and survival after Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 of family firms. The chapter on industry distribution presents evidence that family firms are less likely to exist in industries where the optimal firm size is larger and more likely to exist in industries with greater amenity potential. Moreover, they are more likely to exist in more mature industries, less likely to exist in industries with more growth opportunities, and less likely to exist in industries with more volatile earnings. The evidence suggests that families choose to set up their companies in industries that require less wealth for control and in industries with less risk, which is consistent with families higher risk aversion compared to atomistic shareholders. The chapter on capital structure choices presents evidence that family firms carry more debt on average than non-family firms. This is consistent with the agency argument that large shareholders are able to better monitor the company and reduce the agency costs of free cash flow; and therefore, increase the capacity for debt financing. There is also evidence that family firms borrow significantly less of highest and lowest priority debt and significantly more of debt with intermediate priorities than non-family firms. This is consistent with higher risk aversion of families compared to atomistic shareholders. Furthermore, family firms carry significantly less short-term debt and significantly more long-term debt. Moreover, they hold significantly less cash and short-term securities while they pay out significantly more of their earnings as dividends. The chapter on performance and survival presents evidence that family firms significantly outperformed non-family firms during the 2.5 years before Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and this outperformance disappeared during the 1.5 years after the Act. There is also evidence that family firms were less likely to delist from exchanges after the Act irrespective of whether the delisting was via acquisition or via other reasons.

My dissertation consists of two essays that examine employee turnover as an independent and a dependent variable. In my first essay I examine the relationship between job-related attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and employee turnover behavior. In a sample of over 6,000 teachers in 200 public elementary schools, I found significant variability across employee and organizational characteristics in the strength of the relationship between job attitude ratings and turnover. I attribute this variability to two sources: (a) systematic differences in attitude thresholds, i.e. the minimum acceptable level of a job attitude necessary to remain with the organization; and (b) systematic response biases in attitude ratings. I develop a model to determine which characteristics relate to significant differences in attitude thresholds and/or response biasing factors and found that both individual and organizational attributes are distinguishing factors. In my second essay I present findings from three inter-related studies investigating human and social capital as mechanisms that may determine whether and why employee retention is associated with organizational performance. In a sample of public schools I found a linear relationship between employee retention and organizational performance. Further, this positive association is fully mediated by human capital and partially mediated by social capital. In addition, I examined human and social capital at the individual level of employees who remain with the organization versus those who leave. I found that organizational performance suffers most when the employees who leave have high levels of both human and social capital. Finally, I distinguished human and social capital losses based on their specificity: organization-specific versus task-specific. As predicted, the losses of task-specific human and social capital were more deleterious to organizational performance than the losses of organization-specific forms of capital.

My dissertation seeks to address ambiguities in the common usage of real options as the counterpart of financial options in management, focusing on a specific management context: sequential acquisitions of equity stock. Despite its popularity, the metaphoric use of real options on sequential acquisitions brings up critical ambiguities, which might not be congruent with assumptions in the finance options literature. I seek to examine such ambiguities and align them with the theory and practice of strategic management. The dissertation is structured as follows: In Essay 1, I first identify key ambiguities in the metaphoric use of real options as a reflection of finance options in several management contexts, and then focus on addressing two key ambiguities in equity partnerships. Further, I provide the baseline framework to address the ambiguities, leading to the view of dual latent options - dual partner roles. Finally, I propose three future research questions worth examining. In Essay 2, I address one of the three questions suggested in Essay 1: what conditions enable a particular equity partner in an international equity partnership, to exercise its call by acquisition (exercise its put option by divestment) upon favorable (unfavorable) market shock? Suggesting that the organizational capability to perceive external environments serves as an important contingency, I argue that the partner who can more significantly reduce its perceptual uncertainty will exercise an option aligned with the direction of the market shock. By extending this logic to international equity partnerships, I hypothesize about how a foreign partners equity purchase (which coincides with local partners equity divestment) is influenced by environment shocks. I conduct a regression analysis with a longitudinal dataset of international equity partnerships in the automotive component industry, and obtain results supportive of the hypotheses. In conclusion, my dissertation contributes to nudging the real options view from its current form, which is the largely metaphoric use of finance options, toward a management theory that is more consistent with the realities of strategic management.

This dissertation examines two research questions that contribute to our understanding of the role of accounting information in supply chain relationships. The first research question examines whether nonfinancial performance measures are leading indicators of supply chain financial performance and whether the information contained in these measures have a role in the performance evaluation and rewards processes between firms. Chapter 2 analyzes proprietary performance measurement data from a leading international manufacturer regarding its contractual arrangements with 156 independent distributors. Consistent with predictions, I find that measures of process alignment and, to a lesser extent, measures of detailed information exchange are nonfinancial performance measures that are leading indicators of supply chain sales growth, productivity and profitability. In addition, I find that nonfinancial measures are associated with the manufacturers decision to renew supply chain contracts. Supplemental analysis examines whether the role of nonfinancial measures in performance evaluations is associated with the evaluations apparent economic importance or the exclusivity of the supply chain relationship. The second research question investigates whether buyer bargaining power influences supplier performance. Chapter 3 uses the suppliers FAS 131 disclosure to proxy for the presence of a relatively more powerful buyer (strong buyer) and analyzes the financial and operational performance of apparel suppliers. Consistent with prior literature, I find that strong buyers adversely affect supplier gross margins. However, I find that strong buyers are also associated with efficiency gains for suppliers through lower SG&A expenses and enhanced inventory management. These efficiencies yield higher supplier financial and operational performance despite lower gross margins. Interestingly, I find that suppliers to multiple strong buyers are unable to offset lower gross margins through SG&A expense or inventory management efficiencies. One interpretation of these results is that such suppliers are unable to manage effectively the demands of multiple strong buyers because these demands are not synchronized. Collectively, this dissertation provides important evidence of the apparent productivity and efficiency gains that are available to supply chain partners from engaging in process alignment and exchanging detailed customer demand and inventory information, and how these gains appear to enhance the performance of each firm.

In this study I investigate how a firm's corporate strategic action portfolios, defined as bundles of key corporate strategic actions, relate to deregulatory and technological changes, and to firm performance. I hypothesize that frequency and variety of a firm's corporate strategic action portfolios increase when environmental changes take place in the marketplace. I also hypothesize that the nature of a firm's corporate strategic action portfolios will be different depending on whether the changes are due to deregulation or technology. After establishing the relationship between environmental changes and a firm's corporate strategic action portfolios, this study measures the relationship between a firm's corporate strategic action portfolios and firm performance. All else being equal, it is hypothesized that a firm with higher levels of frequency and variety on corporate strategic action portfolios will perform better. The US telecommunications service industry provides the empirical background for testing these hypotheses.

My dissertation examines the effect of several changes occurring in the retail environment. In the first essay, I study competition among retail formats. I examine the phenomenon retailers call channel blurring: consumers moving their purchases from channels traditionally associated with that category to alternative channels. At one time, different retail formats served different purposes, but they are slowly becoming indistinguishable. For example, mass merchandisers are now carrying sizeable assortments of groceries and pharmaceuticals, while drug chains such are stocking their shelves with toys and household items. I examine how consumers are responding to these changes. My results show that consumers view retail formats as substitutable, that households who are more brand loyal are also more retail format loyal, and that households who purchase private labels are also format loyal. In the second essay, I examine retail chain choice behavior at the basket level. I develop a model of retail chain choice behavior to understand what factors underlie this decision. The results show that the retailers food price image has a bigger impact than non-food price image, and that different retailers have customers who use assortment differently. Implications of this are discussed with respect to marketing mix decisions. In the third essay, I examine retail competition from a legal perspective by performing an empirical analysis of the case history of the Robinson-Patman Act. While the stated goal of the Act is to prevent price discrimination and level the playing field for small buyers, in reality the marketplace may not be not aligned with this goal. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Wal-Mart and others obtain better prices for the same goods when compared with small competitors. I find evidence that the Brooke Group Supreme Court ruling significantly decreased the probability of a plaintiff winning a Robinson-Patman case. The finding is particularly evident in primary-line cases and cases where the issue of competitive harm is addressed. Additionally, I find the importance of plaintiff resources changes after the Brooke Group ruling such that small plaintiffs are significantly more successful than large plaintiffs before Brooke Group but are significantly less successful after the ruling.

One of the important challenges for leadership in project teams is the ability to manage the knowledge, communication and coordination related activities of team. In cross-team collaboration, different boundaries contribute to the situated nature of knowledge and hamper the flow of knowledge and prevent shared understanding with those on the other side of the boundary. While existing research on the issue has focused on 'what' is needed to overcome these boundaries, there is very little research on 'how' leaders can be equipped to deal with the challenges of cross-boundary work. We propose a new construct: 'dual socialization' of the project leader, as an important means of surmounting challenges of knowledge sharing and collaboration across boundaries. We argue that dual socialization enables a leader to gain a deep contextual understanding of collaborating teams in a manner that is not easily available through other means of learning. This understanding then is invaluable for the knowledge transfer process as well as for achieving project goals. A model of dual socialization, knowledge transfer and project team outcomes (team performance & inter-team coordination) is proposed and tested using data from project teams in a leading global IT consulting firm. We focus on the inter-organizational boundary encountered by the consultants when dealing with the client. The thesis is based on the consulting team's point of view. The data is collected from client-consultant dyads in an engaged in an outsourcing relationship. The results support the importance of dual socialization as a construct for understanding and enhancing leadership capabilities needed in inter-organizational project teams. An important finding of this dissertation is that socialization to home and socialization to client don't always influence outcomes in a similar manner. They act in competing or complementary ways depending on the dependent variable and moderators under consideration. Also socialization to home/client may enhance or detract team performance based on project contingencies. Additionally, we found that prior knowledge of the team enhances the acquisition of knowledge, but detracts from the performance capability of the team. This finding has important implications for issues of team composition and design, as well as utilization of expertise.