Browsing by Author "Reinmoeller, Patrick"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
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    Development of capabilities in Western professional services firms internationalising in fast-growing economies
    (Cranfield University, 2013-04) Villeneuve-Moore, Amelie; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    This research was inspired by both a practical and a theoretical challenge: how Western professional services firms (PSFs) internationalise into fast-growing economies. The research contributes to theory by proposing a model comprising groups of capabilities, within which different combinations of capabilities, labelled types, develop or change depending on the context and service offering. Eight capabilities and two types have been identified as important to firms internationalising into fast-growing economies. PSFs that deliver standardised offerings appear to perform well when they have Type A properties of the eight capabilities. PSFs that offer idiosyncratic and context-specific services appear to perform well when they have Type B properties of the eight capabilities. Some evidence supporting the concept of dynamic capabilities which renew, regenerate or refresh capabilities has been found. The research addresses a gap in three overlapping theoretical areas: internationalisation, capabilities and the context of professional services firms. This context continues to be important to practitioners as GDP growth in Western countries remains low, relative to the fast-growing economies, thereby presenting the need for firms to grow into these economies in order to survive. Much of the capabilities literature analyses the effects of a given capability, but has focused less on groups of capabilities. Finally the professional services industry is reported to be a leading growth industry, with an important impact on other industries; however it remains relatively under-researched. I have researched nine firms, using a case study approach to derive a theoretical model comprising groups of capabilities identified through the first two projects, which was then refined and examined over different time periods in the final project.
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    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, Patrick
    It 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.
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    Dynamic capabilities - what do we 'actually' know? : a systematic assessment of the field and a research agenda
    (Cranfield University, 2009-08-28) Giudici, Alessandro; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    How organizations deal and manage strategic change is a fundamental problem in management studies. An important way increasingly chosen to implement strategies is through programmes. Programme Management is an emerging discipline that aims to research how programmes could be more effective in delivering their expected strategic benefits. In order to obtain this, it is recognised that successful programmes require a continuous development of capabilities at different levels and on a context-dependent basis. My research project aims to use the theoretical lens of dynamic capabilities to explore how different capabilities could be integrated, built, and reconfigured in a context of Programme Management. In order to establish robust bases for the PhD, this thesis presents a systematic literature review (and its formal protocol) of the dynamic capabilities view of the firm. In doing so, in this MRes thesis I test for the level of reification of the concept of dynamic capabilities and highlight some major theoretical challenges. I observe that the field is currently affected by a conversational misalignment that is hindering the potential for further research. In particular, the argument is that empirical and conceptual developments have grown from the same foundations but with low mutual influence. In addition, I utilize content and thematic analysis to explore areas where future efforts may be fruitfully directed. Overall, findings show how dynamic capabilities are an emerging field where several research gaps may be identified. However, they also highlight how it is fundamental to clarify on which theoretical foundations any research builds. Finally, I introduce some interesting findings that may be of help for an operationalization in a Programme Management context. In particular, I suggest that a high-potential and unexplored theme is how dynamic capabilities are created and sustained in the inter-organizational relationship between business service providers and their client firms.
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    Epistemic objects in collective decision-making: a practice perspective on the use of causal maps as situated material artifacts
    (Cranfield University, 2015-10) Arevuo, Mikko; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    Recent practice-based approaches to strategic decision-making research have emphasized the importance of gaining a deeper understanding how managers think, act, and interpret strategic decisions in practice. This focus on the micro aspects of strategic decision-making has emerged from the critique that much of the ‘traditional’ decision- making theory may not be actionable in practice. Research should therefore concentrate on what managers do when they engage in strategic activities. This practice-based perspective considers decision-making as a situated, context specific activity, and research into the enactment of decisions constitutes an important part of understanding decision-making. Such micro focus may reveal insights to the similarities and differences between organizations and teams in the ways in which their members approach decision-making tasks. Studies on decision-making as a situated activity provide valuable insight into managerial practice. However, few studies focus on the role of epistemic objects in decision-making. This thesis makes a contribution by investigating the role of epistemic objects as situated material artifacts in the collective decision-making context. Drawing on extensive review of the literature on epistemic objects, sociomateriality, causal maps, group decision-making, and managerial attribution biases, the thesis identifies an under-researched area in our understanding how epistemic objects interact with human activity in strategy making. As an inductive research undertaking, the thesis makes a theoretical contribution to knowledge by developing a conceptual framework how causal maps as epistemic objects are enacted, interpreted, and used as a sociomaterial decision-making ‘tool-in-use’ by actors. The research reveals how the enactment of causal maps as a ‘safety net’ in collective decision-making increases cognitive conflict in decision-making groups that results in the consideration of multiple decision outcomes and the development of innovative solutions to decision problems. The research also shows how the enactment of causal maps increases decision acceptance among the decision- makers by making their individual knowledge claims visible to other group members, and by motivating them to work collectively towards a shared goal. Furthermore, the research reveals how causal maps act as a ‘shock absorber’ by deflecting the decision- makers’ frustration and anger away from personal confrontation among group members thereby preventing the emergence of affective conflict. Finally, the research results indicate that the enactment of causal maps mitigates managerial biases such as groupthink and the escalation of commitment bias. In terms of managerial contribution the thesis offers a deeper insight to the affordances of causal maps, and how managers can use causal mapping as a practical decision-making ‘tool-in-use’ to improve the quality of decision-making processes by structuring conversations and debate, developing a shared understanding of decision problems, and achieving closure and decision acceptance of the decision outcomes. The thesis concludes by making recommendations for future research and the testing of the conceptual framework that may provide useful guidance for the future development of strategy practice and managerial ‘tools-in-use’ for effective strategy work.
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    Navigating non-family CEO succession in family businesses.
    (Cranfield University, 2023-10) Singh, Manish; Hussels, Stephanie; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    Succession in family businesses poses unique challenges due to the overlap of ownership and leadership roles. The complexity of such challenges is heightened when considering a non-family member as a successor for leading the business. This thesis explores why family businesses hire non-family CEOs. The investigation unfolds across three papers, a systematic literature review and two empirical papers, each contributing to a comprehensive understanding of non- family leadership succession. The literature review paper presents that existing research primarily examines the outcomes of leadership successions and largely ignores the decisions behind these. The paper lays the foundation with a conceptual framework derived from a systematic review of 53 articles, which reveals a knowledge gap on non-family CEO succession decisions through a non-family CEO succession framework. This framework guides the subsequent empirical inquiry. The two empirical papers address this gap by adopting an interpretivist approach. The second and third papers draw on qualitative data from 29 interviews with UK-based family business owners. The second paper provides an in-depth examination of the factors influencing the non-family CEO succession decision and presents that it is not one but two decisions: (1) a decision to consider non-family candidates and (2) a decision to select a non- family CEO amongst the candidate pool. The third paper identifies and focuses on the influences of four distinct roles family owners play in making the decision to consider non-family CEO candidates for the CEO position. The conceptual and empirically grounded models developed in this thesis open the black box of non- family CEO succession and allow family businesses to explore non-family CEO succession opportunities.
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    Neoliberal and postfeminist disclosures: constituting and constraining subjectivities within a bank and a network marketing organisation.
    (Cranfield University, 2019-02) Carr, Melissa; Kelan, Elizabeth; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    This thesis contributes towards an understanding of how neoliberalism and postfeminism have become entrenched within organisations as a gendered form of governance. The study contributes to current debates by adopting a poststructuralist approach to explore how discourses of neoliberalism constitute and constrain feminine subjectivities. It is argued that these discourses act as forms of governance to obscure inequalities by: calling on women to ‘work within’ and psychologise; individualising strategies, which divide women and negate collective action, and finally; obscuring inequalities through normalising discourses. The study draws on material collected in two different organisations. First, twenty qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with women managers in a multinational bank with its headquarters in the UK. Second, using an ethnographical-inspired approach, observations and interviews were conducted with sixteen women distributors in a beauty based networking marketing organisation. The analysis of the interviews and field notes is organised into chapters presented in the format of peer-reviewed journal articles. First, I offer poststructuralist reflexivity as a way to consider research practice, research subjectivity, power and regimes of truth. The second article uses the psychic and affective life of neoliberalism to consider how neoliberal spirituality has been co- opted within the network marketing company as a gendered form of governance. Next, I turn to the bank to consider what happens when women collectively mobilise, a solution often offered in the literature to the individualising effects of postfeminism. The final article considers how discourses of competition differ across the two organisations, albeit framed in neoliberal terms which bind women in unique ways. Through examining two different organisations, the thesis extends our understanding of the ways in which fluid and adaptable neoliberal discourses are enacted within organisations. Overall, the thesis seeks to make a contribution to debates about neoliberalism and postfeminism as forms of governance which silence critique and normalise women’s experiences in organisations.
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    On adaptation in the adoption process of management innovations within organisations.
    (2019-02) Mehta, Mohit; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    Adopting management innovations is complex. A high percentage of management innovations fail to deliver, but not enough literature explains why this is the case. This dissertation aims to extend the understanding around the adaptation of management innovations within the adoption process. This is a paper-based dissertation, where all papers contribute at some level towards the same underlying purpose, to advance what we know about adaptation of management innovations during the introduction into an organisational context, the challenges this entails, and guidance that can help practitioners when selecting or, implementing such an innovation in their organisation. In a relatively new area, this dissertation first reviews the extant literature on management innovations with a focus on adoption and adaptation. Synthesising from the literature, the dissertation establishes clear classification criteria for management innovations. This is followed by an empirical study, which draws upon template analysis to structure qualitative data gathered with seven groups in total 90 senior industry practitioners, who shared their experience with management innovations, and their views on main challenges and key success factors of the adoption of management innovation in organisations. The analysis and step-wise synthesis of the responses highlighted the enhanced role of being connected with the purpose, managing a synchronised effort towards goals, and careful handling of new localised learning which is generated when a new management innovation is being adopted. The last paper presents a model for adaptation and implementation of new management innovation practice in an organisation. The model utilises the foundations of organisational routines literature to introduce a team-level construct in “team responsiveness” and links it with an organisation’s ability to accept or reject an incoming management innovation. The simulation model leads to multiple propositions on how team responsiveness is linked to a successful adoption of a management innovation. The study contributes by extending theory and preparing it for further empirical testing. Overall this dissertation contributes to the literature by organising extant research and identifying lacunae in what is known about the adaptation of management innovations. This thesis also extends theory by developing a grounded conceptual model to explain main enablers and challenges with adaptation of management innovations. Finally, this thesis contributes to the literature by constructing a simulation model to unveil the important role of team responsiveness and to derive propositions on its impact on adoption.
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    Open-system orchestration as a relational source of sensing capabilities: evidence from a venture association
    (Academy of Management, 2017-08-16) Giudici, Alessandro; Reinmoeller, Patrick; Ravasi, Davide
    Research on innovation networks has highlighted the pivotal role that actors with more prominence and power, such as hub firms, may play in orchestrating the activities of other network members along a collective innovation effort. Our study examined the under-theorized, but no less important, type of orchestration that characterizes other organizations, such as business incubators and venture associations, who seek to support the dispersed entrepreneurial efforts of network members. We refer to this type as 'open-system' orchestration, as opposed to the commonly studied 'closed-system' type performed by hub firms. Our findings reveal how the processes of open-system orchestration differ markedly from those of closed-system orchestration, and detail how these processes influence the micro-foundations of network members' sensing capabilities. By doing so, we also offer empirical substantiation and theoretical elaboration to the idea that dynamic capabilities might not reside exclusively inside firms, but could be co-created relationally with other parties in the business ecosystem.
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    Peer effects and intentional entrepreneurial behaviour: a systematic literature review and research agenda
    (Wiley, 2022-12-08) Portyanko, Sergey; Reinmoeller, Patrick; Hussels, Stephanie; Turner, Neil
    What role peers play in individuals’ decisions to become entrepreneurs and to what extent peer effects play a role in influencing behaviours at the various stages of business venturing are important questions for scholars and policymakers. This systematic review takes stock of the recent additions to the literature around the phenomenon of peer influence in entrepreneurship. The review identified 2894 documents which were then narrowed down through three consecutive filtering stages. We thematically analysed the final sample of 27 empirical studies that shed light on how individual peers influence the process and outcomes of these individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions and behaviour, allowing for critical analysis. We propose a conceptual schema of social influence that occurs in interactions among entrepreneurial individuals within business venturing and across the three stages of pre-formation, formation and growth. Our framework reconciles the conceptual classification around discovering, evaluating and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities with the mechanisms of social influence affecting entrepreneurial behaviours. Grounded in the findings of the literature review, this framework synthesizes peer influence in entrepreneurship with the tripartite distinction of the behavioural motives recognized in contemporary theories of social influence. We suggest promising directions for further research on how interactions with peers might affect individuals’ entrepreneurial behaviours.
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    Sensing together : an exploration of the support of network intermediaries to firms' and entrepreneurs' search for new opportunities
    (Cranfield University, 2013-03) Giudici, Alessandro; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    This PhD thesis uses the lens of dynamic capability theory to explore how network intermediaries can support firms and entrepreneurs in their search for new opportunities, in the context of networking initiatives. Drawing on an extensive assessment of the literature and on rich evidence from multiple sources, it presents two interconnected empirical studies which offer several contributions to knowledge. The literature review systematically assesses dynamic capability research and contributes to it by demonstrating that, despite the challenges arising from a process of conceptual reification signaled in the literature, the dynamic capability construct is consolidating and needs more focused empirical investigation. It also identifies promising research gaps and offers suggestions to advance dynamic capability theory. Study 1 contributes to dynamic capability research by developing an outward-looking relational perspective which details how firms can deploy and further develop sensing dynamic capabilities in collaboration with network intermediaries. The study also confirms the importance of organizational self-awareness, brings managerial intentionality back to consideration, and sheds empirical light on the role of affective processes in dynamic capability research. Study 2 discusses how entrepreneurs participating in networking initiatives sensed for new opportunities by strategically using a richer repertoire of networking behaviors than prior research suggested. The study also contributes to entrepreneurship research by demonstrating that the networking behavior of all actors – not just the orchestrator/broker hosting the initiative – may be based on a combination of gaudens and iungens approaches. In addition, it discusses how two activity-based mechanisms, i.e. preparation and participation, may be influenced by hosts when designing networking initiatives to facilitate the emergence of new interorganizational relationships. Finally, the study argues that the combination of structured preparation and participation activities may support participants’ ambidextrous efforts to explore and exploit opportunities in networking events.
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    The integration of exploration and exploitation in the context of innovation teams: fostering and leveraging paradoxical tensions
    (Cranfield University, 2018-09) Delley Frederic; Reinmoeller, Patrick
    This doctoral research was conducted in the context of Cranfield’s Executive DBA program. The central theme running through each of the three papers that constitute the core of this thesis is the integration of exploration and exploitation in the context of innovation teams. The first paper is a systematic literature review of the mechanisms used to integrate exploration and exploitation at multiple levels of the organization. Based on the findings from this review, the concept of “integrative capacity” is introduced and related propositions are developed. The second and third papers are empirical studies that examine different parts of Smith and Lewis’s (2011) dynamic equilibrium model of tension management. The first is a quantitative study of 42 innovation teams. Its primary objective is to develop and validate hypotheses about optimal team configurations. Specifically, the study looks at the distribution of paradox mindsets within teams and its impact on the innovativeness of project outputs. The second is an exploratory, qualitative study of 16 senior innovation leaders working in large multinational organizations across different industries. It identifies the types of tensions that surface in the process of developing new products or services, describes the resolution strategies used to deal with these tensions, and infers causal relationships between the use of particular resolution strategies and their propensity to embed tensions in the context of new product development projects. Together, these papers contribute primarily to paradox theory and, more specifically, to our understanding of how exploration and exploitation can be brought together in valuable ways in the context of innovation teams. Importantly, despite their unique perspectives and different methodologies, all three papers suggest that the synergistic integration of exploration and exploitation rests on two distinct and complementary sets of factors: those that foster and those that leverage paradoxical tensions