Browsing by Author "Lawton, Thomas"
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Item Open Access The antecedents of political capabilities: A study of ownership, cross-border activity and organization at legacy airlines in a deregulatory context(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2013-02-01T00:00:00Z) Lawton, Thomas; Rajwani, Tazeeb; Doh, JonathanGovernments and ownership structures can both facilitate and constrain organizational value creation. Firm-level political strategy is a frequent response to protect or promote organizational interests. When effectively configured and implemented, these political strategies can become capabilities. This inductive study examines the antecedents of political capabilities in European airlines within the context of cross-border market deregulation. Our central contribution is an understanding of how management teams from non-state and state airlines organize and develop divergent corporate political capabilities in this context. While managers' actions in response to specific public policy processes can create political capabilities, the outcome is moderated by the nature of corporate ownership and the relative influence of public and private stakeholders on capability formation. Our theoretical contribution is to extend the study of organizational capabilities into the non-market context through analyzing how European flag carrier airlines organized their political capabilities in anticipation of a changing transnational policy context.Item Open Access Corporate political activity: a literature review and research agenda(Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z) Lawton, Thomas; McGuire, Steven; Rajwani, TazeebThis paper reviews the diverse literature on Corporate Political Activity (CPA) in firms and develops a framework that integrates and details the existing research in this growing field. We conduct a systematic analysis of extant CPA literatures to order them into three domains that have implications for organizational performance. The paper is structured into three domains within the CPA research community that require more investigation: resources and capabilities focus, institutional focus and political environment focus and discusses the contributions of each to our understanding of CPA in pursuit or defense of competitive advantage. We suggest that the internationalization of business, including the more recent emergence of developing country economies, presents scholars with the challenge of understanding CPA in more varied institutional settings. The paper contributes by creating more clarity in the CPA field and concludes with a discussion of future research agendas.Item Open Access Designing lobbying capabilities: Managerial choices in unpredictable environments(Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2011-04-01T00:00:00Z) Lawton, Thomas; Rajwani, TazeebPurpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how, in unpredictable policy environments, specific managerial choices play a vital role in designing lobbying capabilities through the choice of levels of investment in human capital, network relationships and structural modification. Methodology/approach - Using an inductive case study approach, data was collected through 42 in- depth, semi-structured interviews and documented archival data. Cross-case pattern sequencing was used to construct an interpretive model of lobbying capability design. Data was framed by the dynamic resource-based theory of the firm. Findings - Heterogeneous lobbying capabilities are adapted differently in private and state-owned airlines as a result of diverse ownership structures and time compositions that interplay with organizational processes. The result is a divergence between private and state-owned airlines in how they engage with governmental actors and policies. Research implications/limitations - We contribute to ongoing discourse in and between the dynamic capabilities and corporate political activity literatures, particularly on how state/non-state owned airlines design their political lobbying capabilities. The research is limited in so far as it only studies the European airline industry. Originality/ value - The paper illustrates how a specific and far-reaching unanticipated external policy stimulus (the 9/11 terrorist attacks) impacted on management choices for lobbying design in the European airline industry.Item Open Access Developing adaptive political capabilities for high political uncertainty contexts :a study of strategic responses in the international operations of food firms in Latin America(Cranfield University, 2014-02) de Villa, Maria Andrea; Rajwani, Tazeeb; Lawton, ThomasThe corporate political activity field has focused on the study of political capabilities that allow firms to influence governments and regulators. Building on previous studies, this thesis examines a set of capabilities that allow host firms to adapt to rather than influence political environments. Specifically, this set of adaptive political capabilities can be used by firms to confront host country political contexts in emerging economies that share two characteristics: authoritarian regimes and weak institutions. The findings of this thesis show that host firms can develop and use adaptive political capabilities rather than political capabilities to start and sustain their operations in this type of political contexts. This entails attuning firm processes, structures, and practices to local norms and political behaviors, rather than attempting to shape the host country political environment in its own likeness. Our results suggest host firms can develop adaptive political capabilities to enhance their strategic repertoire when starting or sustaining operations in emerging economies with such characteristics. Our contribution is that by using mixed methods, we provide and test several exploratory propositions that support the conceptualization of a framework to guide the development of adaptive political capabilities by host firms and we make explicit a taxonomy of corporate adaptive political strategies that can enable firms to envision how they can adapt to host political contexts.Item Open Access Do You Have A Survival Instinct? Leveraging genetic codes to achieve fit in hostile business environments(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z) Lawton, Thomas; Rajwani, Tazeeb; Reinmoeller, PatrickIt is too easy to blame market turbulence or unexpected events for a company's poor performance. Yet this is frequently the response of managers to circumstances and activities beyond their immediate control. As a consequence, managers and owners often fail to develop strategies for coping with challenge or crisis the next time it occurs. The result is that many organizations are doomed to repeat the same or similar mistakes over and over again in a form of corporate déjà vu. To gain insights into how companies can better manage in hostile environments, we consider the solutions that have evolved in nature over billions of years. We trace nature's codes for adapting to hostile environments and explore the underlying characteristics of four genetic code types that can help business organizations to offset the negative implications of hostility through ensuring strategic fit. We link the four genetic codes most frequently found in nature with organizational capabilities. When correctly identified and leveraged, these capabilities can enable a company to focus attention and resource on how to manage successfully in hostile environment.Item Open Access Strategic reorientation and business turnaround: The case of global legacy airlines(Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z) Lawton, Thomas; Rajwani, Tazeeb; O’Kane, ConorAbstract Purpose - We illustrate how legacy airlines can reorientate to achieve sharp recoveries in performance following prolonged periods of stagnation, decline and eroding competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach - The authors use a qualitative analysis of five longitudinal case studies of legacy airlines that embarked on strategic change between 1997 and 2006. Data collection spanned ten years and included archival data, public documents, news clippings, accounts in specialist books and internal company documentation. Findings - The paper identifies two distinct approaches for reorientation in the legacy airline industry. Companies that have fallen behind and are in risk of failure focus on regaining customer trust and loyalty, and restructuring route networks, business processes and costs in an ‘improvement and innovation' reorienting approach. Underperforming airlines, for whom growth has declined in traditional markets and who note that opportunities exist elsewhere, focus on product and service development and geographical growth in an ‘extension and expansion' reorienting approach. Practical Implications - The paper develops a framework for successful reorientation in the legacy airline industry. This framework encourages executives to focus on and leverage profit maximization, quality, leadership, alliance networks, regional consolidation and staff development during periods of strategy formulation and reorientation. Originality/value - This research addresses the dearth of understanding and attention afforded to the concept of reorientation in the literature on strategic turnaround. The research also serves to emphasize the presence and importance of reorientation as a strategy of change within the legacy airline industry. Furthermore, in demonstrating how this strategy can be implemented in a sharpbending or performance improvement context, this study illustrates how reorientation is intertwined with the broader turnaround process.