CERES :: Browsing by Author "Bowman, Cliff"

Browsing by Author "Bowman, Cliff"

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Open Access
Accounting for competitive advantage: The resource-based view of the firm and the labour theory of value
(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z) Bowman, Cliff; Toms, S
This article uses accounting concepts to assist the field of strategic management in its search for a theory of value, competitive advantage and superior profitability. Specifically, it argues that the resource-based view of the firm requires a labour theory of value creation. Using the circuit of capital as an organizing framework this article integrates RBV and Marx's value theory, by introducing the notion of value as socially necessary labour time, into the analysis of resource-based advantage. This enables us to identify the impact of particular sources of competitive advantage as they become diffused through an industry. Some resource-based advantages, when eventually imitated lead to an overall reduction in industry profitability, and other advantages lead to increases in industry average profitability.
Open Access
Charting competitive strategy
(1991) Bowman, Cliff
Open Access
Congruent, Divergent and Incoherent Corporate Level Strategies
(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2002-12-01T00:00:00Z) Bowman, Cliff; Ward, Keith; Kakabadse, Andrew P.
This paper draws together four related strands of theory to address the processes of corporate value creation. Specifically, contributions from resource-based theory, dynamic capabilities, corporate strategy and Mintzberg’s structure theory have been combined to derive four congruent resource-creating strategies: financial control, scale, leverage, and creativity. Mintzberg’s configurations approach is used to explore the organisational structures and processes associated with each strategy. It argues that choices with respect to corporate resource creation must be made as these four strategies require distinct, congruent organisational arrangements. When congruent strategies deliver diminishing returns, divergent strategies may be pursued. However, there is a risk of incoherence where a divergent strategy is poorly implemen
Open Access
Cross-border integration in the multinational corporation: The subsidiary management perspective
(Cranfield University, 2007-07) Birnik, Andreas; Bowman, Cliff
A substantial amount of prior research has focused on the conflicting demands put on managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) as a result of simultaneous pressures for local responsiveness and global integration. However, despite this research we do not really understand how managers in subsidiaries balance pressures for integration and responsiveness. To address this issue, the research focused on how subsidiary managers interpret and respond to cross-border integration efforts originating from the corporate headquarters when also confronted with substantial pressures for local responsiveness. In relation to extant research, which tends to focus on integration from a macro perspective, this research makes a contribution to knowledge about integration from a micro-strategy and micro-politics perspective by going inside the multinational subsidiary. The empirical material consists of five case studies of mobile operators in China (1), Denmark (2), Romania (1) and Sweden (1). The research uses a constructivist grounded theory approach to understand the causes of local-global tensions at the subsidiary level and how managers respond to integration efforts. Identified causes of tension were perceptions of misfit, lack of procedural justice, weak execution, loss of personal control and cultural misunderstanding. Following from this, the research uncovered factors that led to subsidiary managers following either a rules-based logic of complying with headquarters, or shifting to a task-based logic of practical action to negotiate/challenge, manipulate or ignore headquarters‟ integration efforts. The core thesis in this research is that subsidiary managers‟ perceptions and responses are central to the outcome of corporate integration efforts. Given this, managers at headquarters have critical roles to play as sensegivers and change deployers in order to influence the sensemaking and actions of subsidiary managers.
Open Access
Decision making in unfamiliar problem domains: evidence from the investment banking industry
(Cranfield University, 2004-02) McGrath, Michael Peter; Jenkins, Mark; Partington, David; Bowman, Cliff; Goffin, Keith
This research explores the determinants of risk behaviour when an organisation operates outside its normal operational domain. Organisations are being forced outside their normal operational domains with ever-increasing frequency. Through studying a banking acquisition, an area which has not been studied before, the research identifies the risks faced by the organisation, the apparent irrational management of the risks, and the reasons for this behaviour. The research applies multiple research methods, which include the review of company documentation, interviews with key managers and external experts, a modified Delphi technique, case studies and statistical analysis. Through these methods, the risks faced by the organisation are identified and evaluated in terms of probability, impact, and degree of mitigation. Four risks are investigated in detail, and based on these, six propositions are put forward, four of which are support by statistical tests. The research shows that where the organisation had a successful outcome history in managing a given risk, or could manage the risk using normal management controls, the risk tended to be managed disproportionately well compared to its significance. Where those conditions do not apply the management of the risk tends to be proportionately lacking. There is also evidence to suggest that the existence of industry-specific regulation in relation to a risk results in the risk being better mitigated. Organisations wishing to improve their risk response in unfamiliar operational domains should therefore consider day-to-day controls as one route to improvement. Also, where possible, they should try to create a history of successful outcomes in dealing with the risk types they are likely to face in unfamiliar problem domains. Regulatory bodies need to consider the impact that their regulations will have in order to help organisations exhibit better behaviours in unfamiliar problem domains.
Open Access
a design research study of customised management development.
(2017-11) Shepherd, Wendy; Kwiatkowski, Richard; Bowman, Cliff
This Design Research study of customised management development (CMD) develops an explanatory model of how CMD generates organisational level impact. The model makes a contribution to the management development literature by providing a plausible explanation of the connectivity between CMD as an input and performance as an organisational level outcome. The model is consistent with a realist perspective and suggests that CMD does not cause change, but changes the course of change that is already in process within the organisation through, inter alia social interactions and practice based learning. In contrast to prevailing more linear perspectives of the CMD process, the notion of the participant leaving their organisational context to be developed has been replaced with a representation of CMD where the organisation’s context is ever present within the development process. The practical validity of the model and its artefacts has been field tested at Cranfield School of Management. This has resulted in the implementation of a ‘Design for Impact’ process. The process utilises knowledge artefacts in the form of diagrams and design propositions that recommend what to do and what to avoid when designing interventions within specific organisational contexts. The model and knowledge artefacts that form the output of this research have been developed using a Design Research method. The method combines knowledge drawn from a systematic review of the literature with practitioner interviews. The application of the approach to the management development literature progresses the discussion from ‘How do we prove the organisational level impact of management development?’ to ‘How can we improve the organisational level impact of management development?’.
Open Access
Differential labour and competitive advantage : embedding resource-based theory within Marx's labour theory of value
(2003) Bowman, Cliff
Open Access
The dimensions, development, and deployment of strategic leader capability
(Cranfield University, 2007-06) Laljani, Narendra; Bowman, Cliff
This research – which was motivated by a perceived gap between the reality of the world of the strategic leader and leadership development practice - offers an integrated perspective on the dimensions, development, and deployment of strategic leader capability. In the first of three thematically linked projects, a conceptual framework was developed based on four key dimensions of capability: judgement, the strategic conversation, contextual mastery, and behavioural complexity. In the second project, empirical findings from in-depth qualitative interviews with individuals in strategic leadership roles corroborated and enriched the framework; highlighted the importance of informal learning; and emphasised the role of mentors and stretch assignments as formative development processes. In addition, critical reflection, through either informal or formal processes, played an important “sense-making” and developmental role. In the third project, action research involving two formal leader development interventions was undertaken with the objective of developing strategic leader capability while deliberately managing the influential development processes identified. The results indicated that while strategic leader capability can be learned, and that key development processes can be simulated with varying degrees of success, positive performance outcomes also require high self-efficacy. Based on these findings, a model is presented which links together strategic leadership capability, major development processes, self-efficacy, context, and performance outcomes. The research raises numerous interesting questions with significant implications for strategic leader performance and development, as well as the leader development industry.
Open Access
Distributed propulsion and future aerospace technologies
(Cranfield University, 2007) Ameyugo, Gregorio; Singh, Riti; Bowman, Cliff; Taylor, Mark
This thesis describes an Engineering Doctorate project in Distributed Propulsion carried out from 2004 to 2007 at Cranfield University. Distributed propulsion is a propulsion system arrangement that consists in spreading the engine thrust along the aircraft span. This can be accomplished by distributing a series of driven fans or the engines themselves. The aim of this project is to determine the feasibility of distributed propulsion for civil aviation in the medium term (with small gas turbines) and long term (with driven fans) from a technical and economic perspective. The effect of distributed propulsion was assessed by creating a long-range subsonic airliner baseline with conventional technology for the small gas turbines study, and an equivalent blended wing body baseline for the driven fans study. Different distributed propulsion effects were modelled and integrated together to produce optimised baselines with different technological parameters. The feasibility of small gas turbine distributed propulsion was found to be limited by the excessive fuel consumption associated with small gas turbines. Although advanced heat exchanger technology could improve their performance, the resulting cost advantage might not be large enough to justify the development costs. The feasibility of distributed driven fans depends on the availability of superconductive elements, as electrical power transmission seems to be the only promising transmission method in the long run. If superconductive elements are applied, distributed driven fans could afford fuel burn reductions of more than 50% relative to current technology. As both distributed propulsion concepts rely on small propulsive units, their enabling technologies coincide with those required to develop future unmanned aerial vehicles. UAVs therefore represent the most appropriate technological avenue to develop technologies with the potential to become distributed propulsion enablers. Future work should therefore concentrate on improving engine performance and cost for unmanned aerial vehicles.
Open Access
Dynamic capabilities: An exploration of how firms renew their resource base
(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2009-03-30T00:00:00Z) Ambrosini, Veronique; Bowman, Cliff; Collier, Nardine
The aim of this paper is to extend the concept of dynamic capabilities. Building on prior research, we suggest that there are three levels of dynamic capabilities which are related to managers‟ perceptions of environmental dynamism. At the first level we find incremental dynamic capabilities: those capabilities concerned with the continuous improvement of the firm‟s resource base. At the second level are renewing dynamic capabilities, those that refresh, adapt and augment the resource base. These two levels are usually conceived as one and represent what the literature refers to as dynamic capabilities. At the third level are regenerative dynamic capabilities, which impact, not on the firm‟s resource base, but on its current set of dynamic capabilities i.e. these change the way the firm changes its resource base. We explore the three levels using illustrative examples and conclude that regenerative dynamic capabilities may either come from inside the firm or enter the firm from outside, via changes in leadership or the intervention of external change a
Open Access
How management consultants influence processes of stratetic change within organisations : An enactment perspective
(Cranfield University, 2000-03) Pellegrinelli, Sergio; Bowman, Cliff
The view that individuals and organisations create or enact their social worlds through shared frames of reference, on-going interlocking routines and patterns of action is increasingly underpinning academic research and offering practitioners new insights. At the same time, now commonplace strategy consultancy services are rooted in the rhetoric, if not the practice, of rational, technical analysis. This research explores the influence of management consultants in helping managers to create as well as discover the environment they experience and to develop and realise a strategic direction for their organisations. Grounded in four diverse case studies, the research offers a richer, inextricably contextual and essentially social conception of consultants’ strategy interventions. Consultants’ work is conceived as simultaneously embedded or set within, yet seeking to achieve a separation from, existing organisational frames of reference, commitments and routines. By creating and maintaining some degree of separation, consultants facilitate a distinct enactment or experience of the world, and so influence the strategic thinking and subsequent actions of managers. Efforts to achieve separation are met by pressures to conform, and the ideas generated merge into the wider organisational enactment. The research points to complex processes of reciprocal influence, positioning and resistance between consultants and members of the organisation which shape the nature and course of an intervention. It also sheds light on the ripple effect interventions have through an organisation, on how new strategies are diffused and fused within existing patterns of thought and action, and the process of strategic change and transformation. The theoretical framework developed, comprising the concept of embedded enactment and two overarching dimensions of separation and absorption, provides a new way of understanding and explaining consultants’ strategy interventions. The case studies themselves describe some subtleties and nuances of interventions and offer opportunities for consultants and managers to reflect on personal experiences.
Embargo
How strategic intent shapes the beliefs and behaviours of senior managers: evidence from a medical technology company.
(Cranfield University, 2021-12) Nelson, Wayne Brooke; Pavlov, Andrey; Bowman, Cliff
This study employed the critical incident technique to examine how strategic intent shaped the behaviours and beliefs of senior managers in a medical technology company undergoing change. Using this evidence, I contribute a model of the organizational effects of strategic intent, which shows how strategic intent is realized in organizations. In doing so, I also contribute a foundational definition of strategic intent, grounded in the literature employing the concept, but also informed by Action Philosophy. Together, these elements form a common basic theory of strategic intent that brings clarity and coherence to the disparate but related conversations about strategic intent in the literature. Finally, I revisit and add nuance to the resource allocation process and strategic renewal literatures.
Open Access
The Impact of Causal Ambiguity on Competitive Advantage and Rent Appropriation
(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z) Ambrosini, Veronique; Bowman, Cliff
We seek to develop the conceptual and practical understanding of causal ambiguity. Specifically we extend current thinking by setting out three types of causal ambiguity, based on whether firm resources are perceived to display linkage and/or characteristic ambiguity, and by examining for each type the impact of causal ambiguity on the sustainability of competitive advantage and on rent appropriation. We highlight the difficulties decision-makers face when they perceive ambiguity and finally we explore some implications of ambiguity with respect to resource-creation processes.
Open Access
The management of firm specific resources as a source of competitive advantage
(Cranfield University, 2004-01) Burton-Taylor, Sarah; Bowman, Cliff; Tranfield, David; Turnbull James, Kim
This study is about helping managers identify and enhance the idiosyncratic firm resources required for delivering superior perceived use value to customers. Specifically, the research has focused on the organisational knowledge required for routinised service delivery, and has operationalised this organisational knowledge as activities. Project 1 was a comparative study involving observation and interviews in two similar but differentially performing financial services organisations in order to identify the activities involved in service delivery and the differences between the two operations. Project 2 identified customers’ perceptions of value through customer interviews, and then mapped the links between these and the service delivery activities identified in Project 1. Project 3 involved a clinical inquiry intervention aiming to encourage and leverage the firm specific resource of inter-team coordination to enhance the delivery of customer value. The research has confirmed the role of firm specific resources as a source of competitive advantage, and has demonstrated a link with customers’ dimensions of perceived use value. In this study, effective inter-team coordination is identified as the firm specific strategic resource that appears to enable effective service delivery as perceived by customers, through the sharing of knowledge and interpretations, and the development of service process innovation. Many of these coordination activities are discretionary rather than prescribed, with implications for management practice. From this research, a framework has been developed for considering and managing firm specific sources of advantage at the detailed operational level. This is a micro level approach that makes specific links between the customer experience and internal activities, through identifying internal and external competitiveness factors, mapping the ‘inside-outside’ connections, and achieving alignment between internal activities and customer perceptions of value.
Open Access
Managerial perceptions of Porter's generic strategies
(1991) Bowman, Cliff
Open Access
Perceptions of competitive strategy : realised strategy, consensus and performance
(Cranfield University, 1991-06) Bowman, Cliff; Johnson, Gerry
This is a study of managers' perceptions of the strategic priorities in their strategic business unit (SBU). The perceptions managers have of the current competitive strategy of their SBU are used to explore four main research themes. Managers' perceptions are accessed through a brief, standardised questionnaire which contains statements about current strategic priorities. Firstly, the perceptions of managers from the same SBU are used to make inferences about the realised strategy of that business. SBUs in the sample (38) are classified into i3ur realised st:a:egy categories. These are derived from Porter's (1 980) generic strategies. A number of hypotheses concerning the performance implications of these realised strategy categories are developed and tested. Additionally, hypotheses about relationships between consensus (the extent to which managers from the same SBU share the same perceptions of strategic priorities), realised strategy, performance and organizational change are developed and tested. Secondly, the perceptions of managers from rnany different SBUs are used to derive a "mznagerial theory" of competitive strategy. This is developed in the context of a critique zf F'o;:erls generic strategies. Thirdly, the research addresses the sources of influence on managers' perceptions of strategic priorities. Specifically, the influence of the function the manager belongs to, and the industry the SBU conlpetes in are explored. Evidence of functicrnal and industry influence on perceptions is presented. Fourthly, the surfacing of managers' perceptions of current strategic priorities has been used to facilitate strategy debates with managenxnt teams. Examples of the issues raised, and the contributions to management discussion are presented. Finally, the thesis suggests ways in which the approaches taken in the study could be developed to address other issues in the field of strategic management.
Open Access
Pushing on a string : uncertain outcomes from intended competitive strategies
(1993-01-01T00:00:00Z) Bowman, Cliff
Open Access
The role of dependence relationships in the value capture process
(Academy of Management, 2022-07-06) Bowman, Cliff
We view the firm as a complex system and deploy Emerson’s power dependence theory to explain who captures value in deals between the firm and its suppliers and customers. The value realised in a deal is the difference between the buyer and seller reservation prices and dependence is a function of need strength and the availability of alternative deals. We argue that prices are the outcome of perceived dependence relationships between buyer and seller. Dependence on the focal deal is based on the buyer or seller’s subjective judgements concerning the use value being traded, the other party’s dependence and the availability of alternative deals. We develop eight value levers which firms can deploy to improve their dependence relationships. We then use this value capture perspective to address three questions: 1) should firms pursue generic strategies? 2) what is a valuable resource? 3) how should firms approach strategic change? We conclude that any change or resource which enhances the firm’s dependence relationships improves firm performance.
Open Access
The role of obstructing and facilitating process of change
(Cranfield University, 1998) Balogun, Julia; Johnson, Gerry; Bowman, Cliff
There are a growing number of rich, qualitative studies investigating patterns in the development of strategic change. These reveal that it is not possible to understand the incremental and emergent nature of strategic change in organisations without recognising the impact of micro organisational political and social processes. However, few studies set out to explore in depth the implementation of a particular strategic change initiative to examine how these micro processes affect the way the implementation develops through time. This thesis uses a longitudinal real-time case study of a planned strategic change implementation to do this. It examines how facilitating and obstructing processes developed during the implementation, and how these interacting processes affected the way the implementation progressed, from the perspective of middle managers as change recipients. r The findings show that during intended change implementation, the planned interventions put in place by senior managers as they intentionally try to carry out change also lead to the development of emergent facilitating and obstructing processes. A sensemaking perspective is adopted to show how these emergent change elements arise from recipient interpretations of the planned change interventions. A theory of mediation is proposed to account for the findings. However, the contribution of the research is not to do with the identification of the centrality of sensemaking processes during change. It is an empirical study which draws on existing theories on sensemaking to show how recipient sensemaking contributes to both intended and unintended change outcomes, thereby providing fresh insights into how and why change implementation becomes an emergent and incremental process. The thesis has four main parts to it. The first part deals with the research background and methodology; the second part the research site context and, the ethnographic stories of change; the third part the findings and theory development; and the last chapter the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings.
Open Access
Scanning business environments: an investigation into managerial scanning behaviour
(2003) Raspin, P.; Bowman, Cliff
This research sought to obtain a detailed understanding of the scanning behaviour of senior managers. Prior literature that substantially informed this research was drawn from three areas: environmental scanning, competitive strategy, and to a lesser extent, managerial cognition. The purpose of this research was to 1) provide an updated indepth understanding of the phenomenon of scanning behaviour, 2) to attempt to identify what influences scanning behaviour at an individual level, 3) to assess the collective state of management researchers’ knowledge of scanning through contrasting the findings of this research with all major prior scanning studies, and 4) to consider the implications for organisations on how to more effectively scan both the task and remote environments. The research approach included conducting in depth qualitative pilot studies and analysing data from an extensive survey completed by 394 senior managers. The major findings were that scanning behaviour appears to be an embedded routine that is not obviously strongly related to job specific, individual experiential, or organisational contextual variables; that significant components of scanning behaviour such as formality of approach, degree of use of personal resources, and breadth of scanning coverage were identified that help to discern differences in individual scanning behaviour; and that the inconclusive results of prior scanning studies indicate that a change in research direction is needed to focus on a different set of influencing variables. Major managerial implications included the need to understand biases in managerial scanning behaviour; to work with and not against managerial scanning behavioural biases; to support a mix of scanning behaviours in an organisation; to deliberately allocate scanning resources to cover environmental sectors; to selectively use managers external to the organisation; to utilise a variety of different sources; and to align scanning activities with organisational strategy processes. Limitations of this research are mostly methodological concerning survey bias skewed to UK managers and the extent that espoused responses differ from actual behaviour. Future research opportunities include testing an alternative set of influencing variables such as personality characteristics and learning styles; analysing the interaction of the scanning components identified to strategy processes; and researching scanning from an organisational perspective.

Browsing by Author "Bowman, Cliff"

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