Ken Smith - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Ken Smith
Organization Management Journal, 2016
Competitive dynamics research has established the important impact that the level of firm competi... more Competitive dynamics research has established the important impact that the level of firm competitive activity has on rival response and firm performance. Less understood, however, are inputs that influence firm activity, specifically, the extent to which firms reflexively repeat prior activity versus selectively taking actions. Drawing from the awareness-motivation-capability framework, we develop and test theory that firm decision makers are not only predisposed to behave reflexively, but are also influenced by contextual factors, suggesting cognitive selection. Utilizing a longitudinal sample of marketing activity of 58 firms and 2,164 firm-rival dyads in 11 industries, we find that firms undertake both reflexive and selective competitive processes. Positive effects of prior levels of activity are moderated by the firm's own prior performance, as well as the rivals' similarity and industry standing.
CAHRS Working …, 2001
This study examines the relationship among key HR practices (i.e., effective acquisition, employe... more This study examines the relationship among key HR practices (i.e., effective acquisition, employeedevelopment, commitment-building, and networking practices), three dimensions of knowledge-creation capability (human capital, employee motivation, and information combination and exchange), and firm performance. Results from a sample of 78 high technology firms showed that the three dimensions of knowledge creation interact to positively affect sales growth. Further, the HR practices were found to affect sales growth through their affect on the dimensions of knowledge-creation capability.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 1994
Although some researchers have argued that leaders and top management teams have little impact on... more Although some researchers have argued that leaders and top management teams have little impact on organizational outcomes (Lieberson and O'Connor, 1972; Aldrich, 1979; Astley and Van de Ven, 1983), the emerging view from more recent research suggests otherwise ( ...
Journal of Business Venturing, 1993
... To better understand need profile differences between and within cultures, we use a theory th... more ... To better understand need profile differences between and within cultures, we use a theory that suggests that culture is an important ... Based on these premises, an interaction hypothesis between work role and nationality is suggested because of the importance of both culture ...
We investigate the formal and informal institutional influences on a firm’s decision to voluntari... more We investigate the formal and informal institutional influences on a firm’s decision to voluntarily disclose deviant behavior. With a nine-year sample that includes 170 voluntary restaters, we find that firms are more likely to voluntarily restate their earnings when informal industry pressures increase; that is, when industry leaders, peers, and network members did so previously. In contrast, firms are less likely to come forward after an increase in formal sanctions, or when other industry members were forced to restate. Additionally, the effect of industry peers and network members on the likelihood of restating varies with the status of the restating firm.
Academy of Management Executive, 2001
Article published in the Academy of Management Executive, May 2001. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW An importa... more Article published in the Academy of Management Executive, May 2001. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW An important goal of many second or third place firms in an industry is to dethrone the leader and attain the number one position. Other things being equal, industry leadership, because of scale and scope effects and through the development of customer switching costs, is often associated with greater profitability. Industry leaders also enjoy other reputation and brand identification benefits. This article examines how challengers can successfully overtake industry leaders. The focus is on the specific competitive behaviors or new competitive actions that challenger take to dethrone the leader. The study also examines the competitive actions leaders take to guard against aggressive challengers. Employing Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction, the article describes the dynamic competitive actions and reactions of challengers and industry leaders to one another in what the authors refer to as the battle for "king of the hill." Drawing from a sample of nearly 5000 competitive actions in 41 industries over a seven-year time period, the research highlights the successful new competitive actions of challengers to dethrone industry leaders. The major findings: successful challengers are more aggressive in taking action, carry out a complex repertoire of actions, are unpredictable in the timing and location of attack, and are able to delay the reaction of industry leaders. The reasons why industry leaders fall victim to the actions of challengers are discussed, and strategies are offered that may allow industry leaders to more effectively defend their position as "king of the hill.
Academy of Management Review, 2008
Academy of Management Journal, 1999
Academy of Management Journal, 1995
Academy of Management Journal, 1991
2014 / 3 (45) Теория конкуренции Введение Ключевые слова: конкурентные действия, ценовая конкурен... more 2014 / 3 (45) Теория конкуренции Введение Ключевые слова: конкурентные действия, ценовая конкуренция, неценовая конкуренция, продуктовая дифференциация, конкуренция за каналы сбыта, цепочка ценности, конкурентная разведка, недобросовестные конкурентные действия, агрессивность конкурентных действий.
Academy of Management Journal, 2006
In this study, we developed and tested a theory of how human resource practices affect the organi... more In this study, we developed and tested a theory of how human resource practices affect the organizational social climate conditions that facilitate knowledge exchange and combination and resultant firm performance. A field study of 136 technology companies showed that commitment-based human resource practices were positively related to the organizational social climates of trust, cooperation, and shared codes and language. In turn, these measures of a firm's social climate were related to the firm's capability to exchange and combine knowledge, a relationship that predicted firm revenue from new products and services and firm sales growth. There is a widely held belief that an organization's survival and success are at least partially dependent on the effort, behaviors, and interactions of employees as they carry out the mission and strategy of the firm (Wright & McMahan, 1992). Strategic human resource scholars have argued that companies can effectively influence the interactions, behaviors, and motivation of employees through different human resource (HR) practices (Huselid, 1995; Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). In this regard, two HR practice alternatives have emerged in the literature: transaction-based HR practices, which emphasize individual short-term exchange relationships, and commitment-based HR practices, which focus on mutual, long-term exchange relationships (Arthur, 1992; Tsui, Pearce, Porter, & Hite, 1995). Thus, a central issue that companies must resolve involves choosing and implementing the HR practices that best facilitate organizational success. To that end, a growing body of evidence suggests that commitment-based HR practices are more positively related to firm performance than are practices that are transaction-based. For example, researchers have found a positive relationship between more commitment-based HR practices and firm performance in manufacturing firms (
Strategic Organization, 2011
This article proposes that key CEO demographic factors reflect alternative modes of rationalizing... more This article proposes that key CEO demographic factors reflect alternative modes of rationalizing the choice to engage in and/or facilitate accounting fraud. Specifically the authors theorize that younger, less functionally experienced CEOs and CEOs without business degrees will be more likely to rationalize accounting fraud as an acceptable decision. Based on a sample of 312 fraud-committing and control firms, the study finds support for the authors’ predictions. It also finds that CEO stock options (a form of executive equity incentive) also predict fraud, and that this relationship is not moderated by CEO demographics. The study thus extends upper echelon theory by demonstrating how key demographic variables influence CEO decisions to rationalize accounting fraud.
Academy of Management Journal, 2013
We develop and test an attention-based theory of search by top management teams and the influence... more We develop and test an attention-based theory of search by top management teams and the influence on firm innovativeness. Using an in-depth field study of 61 publicly traded high-technology firms and their top executives, we find that the location selection and intensity of search independently and jointly influence new product introductions. We have three important findings. First, in contrast to the portrait of local managerial search, we find teams that select locations that contain novel, vivid, and salient information introduce more new products. Next, unlike informationgathering approaches that merely "satisfice," persistent search intensity may lead to increases in new product introductions. Finally, level of search intensity must fit the selected location of search to maximize new product introductions.
He has authored, edited, or co-edited 12 books, including Developing Creativity in Organizations ... more He has authored, edited, or co-edited 12 books, including Developing Creativity in Organizations (1997, BPS) and the Handbook of Workgroup Psychology (1996, Wiley). He has also written more than 120 articles for scientific and practitioner publications, and chapters in scholarly books. He is a member of the editorial boards of several international journals, including Applied Psychology: An International Review and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. He is a past editor of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association, the APA Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology and the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce. His areas of research interest are team and organizational innovation and effectiveness, and the well-being of people at work.
3 Great Clarendon Street. Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the Universit... more 3 Great Clarendon Street. Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong ...
The Academy of Management Journal, 2001
J. ROBERT BAUM EDWIN A. LOCKE KEN G. SMITH University of Maryland at College Park ... We drew upo... more J. ROBERT BAUM EDWIN A. LOCKE KEN G. SMITH University of Maryland at College Park ... We drew upon strategic management theory, organizational ... This research explores the causes of venture growth. In past entrepreneurship research, individ- ual differences ...
ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 2000
An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory ... more An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory study revealed that greater past success led to greater strategic persistence after a radical environmental change, and such persistence induced performance declines. The laboratory study also demonstrated that dysfunctional persistence is due to greater satisfaction with past performance, more confidence in the correctness of current strategies, higher goals and self-efficacy, and less seeking of information ixom critics.
The decade of the nineties witnessed a significant increase in business-level strategy research r... more The decade of the nineties witnessed a significant increase in business-level strategy research relating to the competitive actions and reactions carried out among competing firms. Rooted in the Schumpter theory of creative destruction, this work has examined causes and consequences of firm-level action and reaction, such as new product introductions, promotions, pricing, and market signaling. In this chapter, we critically review the competitive dynamics literature in terms of underlying theory, methods and results. Our review reveals that the strongest and most consistent empirical relationships include: the negative relationship between action/reaction timing and firm performance and the positive relationship between action/reaction aggressiveness and performance. This research also reveals that competitive reaction can be predicted based on characteristics of the action. These relationships hold up in a great variety of samples, as competitive dynamics research has been conducte...
Organization Management Journal, 2016
Competitive dynamics research has established the important impact that the level of firm competi... more Competitive dynamics research has established the important impact that the level of firm competitive activity has on rival response and firm performance. Less understood, however, are inputs that influence firm activity, specifically, the extent to which firms reflexively repeat prior activity versus selectively taking actions. Drawing from the awareness-motivation-capability framework, we develop and test theory that firm decision makers are not only predisposed to behave reflexively, but are also influenced by contextual factors, suggesting cognitive selection. Utilizing a longitudinal sample of marketing activity of 58 firms and 2,164 firm-rival dyads in 11 industries, we find that firms undertake both reflexive and selective competitive processes. Positive effects of prior levels of activity are moderated by the firm's own prior performance, as well as the rivals' similarity and industry standing.
CAHRS Working …, 2001
This study examines the relationship among key HR practices (i.e., effective acquisition, employe... more This study examines the relationship among key HR practices (i.e., effective acquisition, employeedevelopment, commitment-building, and networking practices), three dimensions of knowledge-creation capability (human capital, employee motivation, and information combination and exchange), and firm performance. Results from a sample of 78 high technology firms showed that the three dimensions of knowledge creation interact to positively affect sales growth. Further, the HR practices were found to affect sales growth through their affect on the dimensions of knowledge-creation capability.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 1994
Although some researchers have argued that leaders and top management teams have little impact on... more Although some researchers have argued that leaders and top management teams have little impact on organizational outcomes (Lieberson and O'Connor, 1972; Aldrich, 1979; Astley and Van de Ven, 1983), the emerging view from more recent research suggests otherwise ( ...
Journal of Business Venturing, 1993
... To better understand need profile differences between and within cultures, we use a theory th... more ... To better understand need profile differences between and within cultures, we use a theory that suggests that culture is an important ... Based on these premises, an interaction hypothesis between work role and nationality is suggested because of the importance of both culture ...
We investigate the formal and informal institutional influences on a firm’s decision to voluntari... more We investigate the formal and informal institutional influences on a firm’s decision to voluntarily disclose deviant behavior. With a nine-year sample that includes 170 voluntary restaters, we find that firms are more likely to voluntarily restate their earnings when informal industry pressures increase; that is, when industry leaders, peers, and network members did so previously. In contrast, firms are less likely to come forward after an increase in formal sanctions, or when other industry members were forced to restate. Additionally, the effect of industry peers and network members on the likelihood of restating varies with the status of the restating firm.
Academy of Management Executive, 2001
Article published in the Academy of Management Executive, May 2001. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW An importa... more Article published in the Academy of Management Executive, May 2001. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW An important goal of many second or third place firms in an industry is to dethrone the leader and attain the number one position. Other things being equal, industry leadership, because of scale and scope effects and through the development of customer switching costs, is often associated with greater profitability. Industry leaders also enjoy other reputation and brand identification benefits. This article examines how challengers can successfully overtake industry leaders. The focus is on the specific competitive behaviors or new competitive actions that challenger take to dethrone the leader. The study also examines the competitive actions leaders take to guard against aggressive challengers. Employing Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction, the article describes the dynamic competitive actions and reactions of challengers and industry leaders to one another in what the authors refer to as the battle for "king of the hill." Drawing from a sample of nearly 5000 competitive actions in 41 industries over a seven-year time period, the research highlights the successful new competitive actions of challengers to dethrone industry leaders. The major findings: successful challengers are more aggressive in taking action, carry out a complex repertoire of actions, are unpredictable in the timing and location of attack, and are able to delay the reaction of industry leaders. The reasons why industry leaders fall victim to the actions of challengers are discussed, and strategies are offered that may allow industry leaders to more effectively defend their position as "king of the hill.
Academy of Management Review, 2008
Academy of Management Journal, 1999
Academy of Management Journal, 1995
Academy of Management Journal, 1991
2014 / 3 (45) Теория конкуренции Введение Ключевые слова: конкурентные действия, ценовая конкурен... more 2014 / 3 (45) Теория конкуренции Введение Ключевые слова: конкурентные действия, ценовая конкуренция, неценовая конкуренция, продуктовая дифференциация, конкуренция за каналы сбыта, цепочка ценности, конкурентная разведка, недобросовестные конкурентные действия, агрессивность конкурентных действий.
Academy of Management Journal, 2006
In this study, we developed and tested a theory of how human resource practices affect the organi... more In this study, we developed and tested a theory of how human resource practices affect the organizational social climate conditions that facilitate knowledge exchange and combination and resultant firm performance. A field study of 136 technology companies showed that commitment-based human resource practices were positively related to the organizational social climates of trust, cooperation, and shared codes and language. In turn, these measures of a firm's social climate were related to the firm's capability to exchange and combine knowledge, a relationship that predicted firm revenue from new products and services and firm sales growth. There is a widely held belief that an organization's survival and success are at least partially dependent on the effort, behaviors, and interactions of employees as they carry out the mission and strategy of the firm (Wright & McMahan, 1992). Strategic human resource scholars have argued that companies can effectively influence the interactions, behaviors, and motivation of employees through different human resource (HR) practices (Huselid, 1995; Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). In this regard, two HR practice alternatives have emerged in the literature: transaction-based HR practices, which emphasize individual short-term exchange relationships, and commitment-based HR practices, which focus on mutual, long-term exchange relationships (Arthur, 1992; Tsui, Pearce, Porter, & Hite, 1995). Thus, a central issue that companies must resolve involves choosing and implementing the HR practices that best facilitate organizational success. To that end, a growing body of evidence suggests that commitment-based HR practices are more positively related to firm performance than are practices that are transaction-based. For example, researchers have found a positive relationship between more commitment-based HR practices and firm performance in manufacturing firms (
Strategic Organization, 2011
This article proposes that key CEO demographic factors reflect alternative modes of rationalizing... more This article proposes that key CEO demographic factors reflect alternative modes of rationalizing the choice to engage in and/or facilitate accounting fraud. Specifically the authors theorize that younger, less functionally experienced CEOs and CEOs without business degrees will be more likely to rationalize accounting fraud as an acceptable decision. Based on a sample of 312 fraud-committing and control firms, the study finds support for the authors’ predictions. It also finds that CEO stock options (a form of executive equity incentive) also predict fraud, and that this relationship is not moderated by CEO demographics. The study thus extends upper echelon theory by demonstrating how key demographic variables influence CEO decisions to rationalize accounting fraud.
Academy of Management Journal, 2013
We develop and test an attention-based theory of search by top management teams and the influence... more We develop and test an attention-based theory of search by top management teams and the influence on firm innovativeness. Using an in-depth field study of 61 publicly traded high-technology firms and their top executives, we find that the location selection and intensity of search independently and jointly influence new product introductions. We have three important findings. First, in contrast to the portrait of local managerial search, we find teams that select locations that contain novel, vivid, and salient information introduce more new products. Next, unlike informationgathering approaches that merely "satisfice," persistent search intensity may lead to increases in new product introductions. Finally, level of search intensity must fit the selected location of search to maximize new product introductions.
He has authored, edited, or co-edited 12 books, including Developing Creativity in Organizations ... more He has authored, edited, or co-edited 12 books, including Developing Creativity in Organizations (1997, BPS) and the Handbook of Workgroup Psychology (1996, Wiley). He has also written more than 120 articles for scientific and practitioner publications, and chapters in scholarly books. He is a member of the editorial boards of several international journals, including Applied Psychology: An International Review and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. He is a past editor of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association, the APA Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology and the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce. His areas of research interest are team and organizational innovation and effectiveness, and the well-being of people at work.
3 Great Clarendon Street. Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the Universit... more 3 Great Clarendon Street. Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong ...
The Academy of Management Journal, 2001
J. ROBERT BAUM EDWIN A. LOCKE KEN G. SMITH University of Maryland at College Park ... We drew upo... more J. ROBERT BAUM EDWIN A. LOCKE KEN G. SMITH University of Maryland at College Park ... We drew upon strategic management theory, organizational ... This research explores the causes of venture growth. In past entrepreneurship research, individ- ual differences ...
ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 2000
An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory ... more An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory study revealed that greater past success led to greater strategic persistence after a radical environmental change, and such persistence induced performance declines. The laboratory study also demonstrated that dysfunctional persistence is due to greater satisfaction with past performance, more confidence in the correctness of current strategies, higher goals and self-efficacy, and less seeking of information ixom critics.
The decade of the nineties witnessed a significant increase in business-level strategy research r... more The decade of the nineties witnessed a significant increase in business-level strategy research relating to the competitive actions and reactions carried out among competing firms. Rooted in the Schumpter theory of creative destruction, this work has examined causes and consequences of firm-level action and reaction, such as new product introductions, promotions, pricing, and market signaling. In this chapter, we critically review the competitive dynamics literature in terms of underlying theory, methods and results. Our review reveals that the strongest and most consistent empirical relationships include: the negative relationship between action/reaction timing and firm performance and the positive relationship between action/reaction aggressiveness and performance. This research also reveals that competitive reaction can be predicted based on characteristics of the action. These relationships hold up in a great variety of samples, as competitive dynamics research has been conducte...