Browsing Departments by Author "Foss, Nicolai J."

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Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity

How To Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field

Volberda, Henk W.; Foss, Nicolai J.; Lyles, Marjorie A. (Frederiksberg, 2009)

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The purpose of this Perspective Paper is to advance understanding of absorptive capacity, its underlying dimensions, its multi-level antecedents, its impact on firm performance and the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity. Nineteen years after the Cohen and Levinthal 1990 paper, the field is characterized by a wide array of theoretical perspectives and a wealth of empirical evidence. In this paper, we first review these underlying theories and empirical studies of absorptive capacity. Given the size and diversity of the absorptive capacity literature, we subsequently map the existing terrain of research through a bibliometric analysis. The resulting bibliometric cartography shows the major discrepancies in the organization field, namely that (1) most attention so far has been focused on the tangible outcomes of absorptive capacity; (2) organizational design and individual level antecedents have been relatively neglected in the absorptive capacity literature; and (3) the emergence of absorptive capacity from the actions and interactions of individual, organizational and inter-organizational antecedents remains unclear. Building on the bibliometric analysis, we develop an integrative model that identifies the multi-level antecedents, process dimensions, and outcomes of absorptive capacity as well as the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity. We argue that realizing the potential of the absorptive capacity concept requires more research that shows how “micro antecedents” and “macroantecedents” influence future outcomes such as competitive advantage, innovation, and firm performance. In particular, we identify conceptual gaps that may guide future research to fully exploit the absorptive capacity concept in the organization field and to explore future fruitful extensions of the concept.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7955

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CBS_Forskningsindberetning_SMG_238[2].pdf (313.7Kb)

Agency Theory

Linder, Stefan; Foss, Nicolai J. (Frederiksberg, 2013)

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Agency theory studies the problems and solutions linked to delegation of tasks from principals to agents in the context of conflicting interests between the parties. Beginning from clear assumptions about rationality, contracting and informational conditions, the theory addresses problems of ex ante (“hidden characteristics”) as well as ex post information asymmetry (“hidden action”), and examines conditions under which various kinds of incentive instruments and monitoring arrangements can be deployed to minimize the welfare loss. Its clear predictions and broad applicability have allowed agency theory to enjoy considerable scientific impact on social science; however, it has also attracted considerable criticism. [99 words]

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8693

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Linder_Foss_SMGWP2013_7.pdf (759.4Kb)

Alertness, Judgment, and the Antecedents of Entrepreneurship

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (Frederiksberg, 2010)

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This paper offers a critical perspective on Israel Kirzner’s basic analytical framework. Specifically, we characterize Kirzner’s emphasis on processes of equilibration as a departure from the causal-realist price theory developed by Menger and his nineteenth- and twentieth-century followers. In this context, we contrast Kirzner’s interpretation of entrepreneurship as discovery with a more realistic, and operationally meaningful, idea of entrepreneurship as action. Finally, we discuss an inconsistency in Kirzner’s treatment of the antecedents of entrepreneurial behavior.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8029

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CBS_Forskningsindberetning_SMG_247.pdf (249.8Kb)

Alternative Research Strategies in the Knowledge Movement: From Macro Bias to Micro-Foundations and Multi-Level Explanation

Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2009)

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The emergence over the last two decades or so of "knowledge” as an important part of the explanatory structure of management research is an intellectual breakthrough that is comparable in terms of its transforming impact to the behavioral revolution of the 1960s. A veritable "knowledge movement” has emerged that spans several fields in management. I take stock on alternative research strategies with that movement, distinguishing between "capabilities first”, "networks first” and "individuals first” strategies. Reasons are given why more research attention need to be allocated to the latter strategy if the knowledge movement is to continue making progress, but that the aim should ultimately be to reach towards multi-level research that combines aggregate constructs with top-down processes and bottom-up processes.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7449

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smg wp 2009-01.pdf (238.2Kb)

Corporate Communication in the Network Economy

Providing Common Knowledge

Foss, Nicolai J.; Kristensen, Tore; Wilke, Ricky (København, 2003)

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This paper draws on ideas in economics and game theory to develop a new theory of marketing and corporate communication in the emerging network economy. We argue that in a network economy, firms and consumers will confront "coordination problems." With the emerging network economy all this become urgent because the availability and cost of information decreases. Also, timing issues becomes crucial as millions of people get access to the same information simultaneously. That explain why events where masses of viewers simultaneously participate in the same events become so important. We introduce a simple game theoretic model to explain this, and discuss marketing applications and possible strategies. Key words Coordination problems, common knowledge, corporate communication

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6401

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foss20kristensen20wilke1.pdf (175.7Kb)

Customer satisfaction and competencies

An econometric study of an Italian bank

Gritti, Paola; Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2007)

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We empirically address how customer satisfaction and loyalty in the banking industry may affect profitability. This helps to identify the strategy and competencies necessary to benefit from customer relationships which are important sources for improved performance in the banking. We do this by analyzing data collected on 2,105 customers of 118 branches of one of the biggest banks of an Italian banking group. We find that customer satisfaction impacts loyalty, which in turn has a direct effect on financial and non-financial customer value/total customer value/complex customer value. Moreover, loyalty is a mediator between financial and not-financial customer value and two sources of customer satisfaction, namely relationships with the front office and the branch, on the one hand, and the products offered, on the other.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7484

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cbs forskningsindberetning smg 113.pdf (217.2Kb)

Do economic freedom and entrepreneurship impact total factor productivity?

Bjørnskov, Christian; Foss, Nicolai J. (Frederiksberg, 2010)

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The economics of growth has shown that countries not only grow by deploying higher levels of inputs to production, but also by better allocating whatever resources are at their disposal and by introducing productivity-enhancing innovations. We proffer arguments as to why and how entrepreneurship as well institutions of liberty (i.e., economic freedom, including the rule of law, easy regulations, low taxes and limited government interference in the economy) positively impact total factor productivity (TFP): These institutions allow entrepreneurial experimentation with the combination of factors to take place at low transaction costs. We test these ideas on a unique panel data set derived from Compendia, World Bank data and the Fraser Institute’s economic freedom data. We find that while entrepreneurship positively impacts TFP, the marginal contribution of entrepreneurship to TFP is strongest in economies with substantial government activity.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8174

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CBS Forskningsindberetning SMG 263.pdf (373.1Kb)

Economic Freedom and Entrepreneurial Activity

Some Cross-Country Evidence

Bjørnskov, Christian; Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2006)

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While much attention has been devoted to analyzing how the institutional framework and entrepreneurship impact growth, how economic policy and institutional design affect entrepreneurship appears to be much less analyzed. We try to explain cross-country differences in the level of entrepreneurship by differences in economic policy and institutional design. Specifically, we use the measures of economic freedom to ask which elements of economic policy making and the institutional framework that are responsible for the supply of entrepreneurship (our data on entrepreneurship are derived from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). The combination of these two datasets is unique in the literature. We find that the size of government is negatively correlated with entrepreneurial activity but that sound money is positively correlated with entrepreneurial activity. Other measures of economic freedom are not significantly correlated with entrepreneurship. JEL CODE: M13, O31, O50 KEYWORDS: Economic freedom, entrepreneurship, cross-country variation.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7475

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smg wp 2006_15 - registrering.pdf (355.8Kb)

The Emergence of the Modern Theory of the Firm

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2006)

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We discuss the emergence of the theory of the firm (in the Coasian sense); survey and discuss the main currents of the theo~y of the firm, and discuss what has determined the emergence of the theory of the firm. We argue that advances in the theory of the firm have been strongly influenced by conceptual innovations in (mainstream) economics in general and by the ongoing division of labour in economics in tandem with a recognition of the importance of a number of empirical anomalies The substantive borrowing from neighbouring disciplines, such as business history, law, psychology, organizational sociology and business administration has been relatively limited and ad hoc (although some scholars, notably Williamson, have made more substantive use of these disciplines than othe~s) The fact that the theory of the firm has stayed relatively close in to the (changing) economic mainstream and that its substantive borrowing from neighbouring disciplines has been relatively limited unde~lie and explain much of the "external" critique of the theory (i.e., the critiques of sociologists, heterodox economists and management scholars).

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7444

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cbs forskningsindberetning smg 38.pdf (6.112Mb)

The Emerging Strategic Entrepreneurship Field

Origins, Key Tenets and Research Gaps

Foss, Nicolai J.; Lyngsie, Jacob (Frederiksberg, 2011)

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The field of strategic entrepreneurship is a fairly recent one. Its central idea is that opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking—the former the central subject of the entrepreneurship field, the latter the central subject of the strategic management field— are processes that need to be considered jointly. The purpose of this brief chapter is to explain the emergence of SE theory field in terms of a response to research gaps in the neighboring fields of entrepreneurship and strategic management; describe the main tenets of SE theory; discuss its relations to neighboring fields; and finally describe some research gaps in extant theory, mainly focusing on the need to provide clear microfoundations for SE theory and link it to organizational design theory.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8249

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SMG WP 7_2011.pdf (278.0Kb)

Employee Sensing

A New Approach to Strategic Control

Hallin, Carina Antonia; Andersen, Torben J.; Foss, Nicolai J.; Tveterås, Sigbjørn (Frederiksberg, 2012)

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Recent advances within the dynamic capabilities view emphasize the “sensing” of employees as an important part of the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities: By putting in place organizational processes that mobilize and exploit information gathered by individual employees from their operating environment, firms can update insights about performance outcomes and improve strategic decision-making. We test empirically the extent to which firms can ascertain performance outcomes by drawing on employee knowledge. Our empirical setting is the Scandinavian hospitality sector with respondents among frontline service employees. Using a time series approach, we show that employee respondents (collectively) assess medium-term organizational performance better than management and the financial models available to them.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8506

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Hallin.pdf (217.2Kb)

Entrepreneurial Alertness and Opportunity Discovery

Origins, Attributes, Critique

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (, 2009)

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Israel Kirzner’s concept of entrepreneurship as alertness to profit opportunities is one of the most influential modern interpretations of the entrepreneurial function. Shane and Venkataraman’s (2000: 218) influential assessment defines entrepreneurship research as “the scholarly examination of how, by whom, and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered, evaluated, and exploited.” As such, “the field involves the study of sources of opportunities; the processes of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities; and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them.” Shane’s General Theory of Entrepreneurship (2003) cites Kirzner and “Kirznerian opportunities” more than any writer other than Joseph Schumpeter. More generally, the entrepreneurial opportunity, rather than the individual entrepreneur, the startup company, or the new product, has become the centerpiece of the academic study of entrepreneurship.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7755

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SMG WP 2009-02.pdf (317.2Kb)

Entrepreneurship

From opportunity discovery to judgment

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2008)

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Entrepreneurship has become a fast-growing subfield in management research, and is increasingly appearing in economics, finance, and even law. We survey a number of approaches to entrepreneurship in the economics and management literatures, and argue that modern research in this area need to be focused around ideas from Austrian economics and Frank Knight on entrepreneurial judgment. We critically discuss the recent opportunity discovery literature in management, and argue that it has partially misunderstood the Austrian origins of the theory, and fails to ade-quately distinguish between opportunity identification and opportunity exploitation.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7485

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smg wp 2008-05.pdf (347.1Kb)

Entrepreneurship and heterogeneous capital

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2008)

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Entrepreneurship is ultimately about the arrangement of resources into productive activi-ties. Much of the entrepreneurship literature, however, has focused on the demand side of the market. While resource heterogeneity is a feature of many theories of the firm, such theories are not built on a systematic theory of capital. We show how the approach to capital developed by the Austrian school of economics provides a natural bridge between theory of entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm. We refine Austrian capital theory by defining capital heterogeneity in terms of subjectively perceived attributes, the func-tions, characteristics, and uses of capital assets. Such attributes are not given, but have to be created or discovered by means of entrepreneurial action.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7443

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smg wp 2008-03.pdf (348.5Kb)

Entrepreneurship and the Economics of the Firm

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Bylund, Per L. (Frederiksberg, 2011)

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The study of entrepreneurship and the study of economic organizing lack contact. In fact, the modern theory of the firm virtually ignores entrepreneurship, while the literature on entrepreneurship often sees little value in the economic theory of the firm. In contrast, we argue in this chapter that entrepreneurship theory and the theory of the firm can be usefully integrated, and that doing so would improve both bodies of theory. Adding the entrepreneur to the theory of the firm provides a dynamic view that the overly static analysis of firm organizing cannot support. Moreover, adding the firm to the study of the entrepreneur provides important clues to how we can understand entrepreneurship.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8250

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SMG WP 6_2011.pdf (160.0Kb)

Entrepreneurship and the Economic Theory of the Firm

Any Gains from Trade

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2004)

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Although they have developed very much in isolation from each other, we argue the theory of entrepreneurship and the economic theory of the firm are closely related, and each has much to learn from the other. In particular, the notion of entrepreneurship as judgment associated with Frank Knight and some Austrian school economists aligns naturally with the theory of the firm. In this perspective, the entrepreneur needs a firm, that is, a set of alienable assets he controls, to carry out his function. We further show how this notion of judgment adds to the key themes in the modern theory of the firm (i.e., the existence, boundaries, and internal organization). In our approach, resource uses are not data, but are created as entrepreneurs envision new ways of using assets to produce goods. The entrepreneur’s decision problem is aggravated by the fact that capital assets are heterogeneous. Asset ownership facilitates experimenting entrepreneurship: Acquiring a bundle of property rights is a low cost means of carrying out commercial experimentation. In this approach, the existence of the firm may be understood in terms of limits to the market for judgment relating to novel uses of heterogeneous assets; and the boundaries of the firm, as well as aspects of internal organization, may be understood as being responsive to entrepreneurial processes of experimentation. Key words: Entrepreneurship, heterogeneous assets, judgment, ownership, firm boundaries, internal organization. JEL Codes: B53, D23, L2

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6429

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04-12.pdf (343.6Kb)

Entrepreneurship in the Context of the Resource-based View of the Firm

Foss, Nicolai J. (Frederiksberg, 2011)

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This chapter discusses entrepreneurship in the context of the RBV. What does the RBV have to say that the study of entrepreneurship may usefully draw on? And, conversely, how can entrepreneurship research further the RBV? I begin by sketching the RBV. I then discuss the relation between the RBV and entrepreneurship research, before I characterize a new research stream that has emerged over the last decade or so in the intersection of the RBV and entrepreneurship research, namely “strategic entrepreneurship.”

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8251

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SMG WP 8_2011.pdf (234.9Kb)

Entrepreneurship, Subjectivism, and the Resource-Based View

Towards a new Synthesis

Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Kor, Yasemin Y.; Mahoney, Joseph T. (København, 2006)

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This paper maintains that the consistent application of subjectivism helps to reconcile contemporary entrepreneurship theory with strategic management research in general, and the resource−based view in particular. The paper synthesizes theoretical insights from Austrian economics and Penrose’s (1959) resources approach, arguing that entrepreneurship is inherently subjective and firm specific. This new synthesis describes how entrepreneurship is manifested in teams, and is driven by both heterogeneity of managerial mental models and shared team experiences.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7463

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cbs forskningsindberetning smg 67.pdf (455.7Kb)

Exploring Knowledge Governance

Foss, Nicolai J.; Mahoney, Joseph T. (Frederiksberg, 2010)

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Knowledge governance is characterized as a distinctive research subject, the understanding of which cuts across diverse fields in management. In particular, it represents an intersection of knowledge management, strategic management, and theories of the firm. Knowledge governance considers how deployment of governance mechanisms influences knowledge processes: sharing, retaining, and creating knowledge. We survey the papers in this volume of the special issue, and discuss the remaining research challenges.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8030

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CBS_Forskningsindberetning_SMG_250.pdf (138.6Kb)

Governing Knowledge

The Strategic Human Resource Management Dimension

Foss, Nicolai J.; Minbaeva, Dana B. (, 2009)

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SHRM increasingly emphasizes HRM practices as means to build strategic knowledge resources such as superior capabilities. While the knowledge-based view increasingly pays attention to micro-foundations, the SHRM field neglects these and emphasizes collective constructs such as “human capital pools,” “HRM architectures”, etc. As a result, causal links between HRM practices, knowledge and organizational performance are black-boxed. We propose a program for research and identify some of the key issues that future research must deal with.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7756

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SMG WP 2009-03.pdf (348.1Kb)

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