Though alliances and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are both extensively used by companies se... more Though alliances and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are both extensively used by companies seeking to achieve the benefits of greater size and scale, strategy research has rarely examined these two moves as alternative courses of action. Indeed, the size-performance relationship has long been a major research topic both in industrial organization and in strategy. In the late 1960s, it has given rise to such famous strategy concepts as the so-called “experience curve”, but has since generated only limited interest. More recently, much research has been devoted to examining mergers and acquisitions on the one hand, and inter-firm alliances on the other hand. Both these moves significantly affect a firm's scale and are thus likely to have an impact on performance. However, the work on M&A or on alliances very rarely compares these different modes of growth to one another in their ability to deliver scale benefits. Our research specifically aims at analyzing the relative scale effects achieved when growing through either M&A or alliance, using organic growth as a baseline scenario. In this chapter we develop arguments on the relative impact of these two alternative modes of growth in terms of economies of scale, bargaining power, and overall performance effects. Our empirical analysis of the global retailing industry (through a sample of 82 firms observed between 1984 and early 2000s) reveals that M&A enhance bargaining power, while alliances fail to deliver the expected benefits.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and organic growth are two common strategies to achieve horizontal... more Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and organic growth are two common strategies to achieve horizontal growth. In this study, we disentangle two distinct sources of firm performance corresponding to different theoretical perspectives on firm size: firms' bargaining power with respect to suppliers and customers, and operating efficiency arising from scale economies. We conceptually argue and empirically show that relatively, M&A enhance bargaining power in the short term while organic growth enhances operating efficiency over the long term. In order to disaggregate these effects, we use accounting rather than financial or managerial data and test our predictions in the global retail industry over a 20-year period. We examine implications of these results for sustainability of size-based competitive advantages.
Since Chesbrough’s seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constantly ... more Since Chesbrough’s seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constantly by many managers and academics. Beyond the pros and cons of being open to innovate, we address the questions of how to open up inbound innovation processes and how to manage the partnership portfolio through time. To do so, we base ourselves on the OI and strategic alliance literature. We then conduct a qualitative survey in 18 global companies famous for their OI practices. We thus show that OI approaches are not always based on extensive openness of external partnerships, and that companies can choose among three OI strategies: topicoriented OI, partner-oriented OI or fully open approaches, which are not mutually exclusive. We also emphasize that they face a trade-off between breadth and depth of partnerships, which evolves over time.
Since Chesbrough's seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constan... more Since Chesbrough's seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constantly by many managers and academics. Beyond the pros and cons of being open to innovate, we address the questions of how to open up inbound innovation processes and how to manage the partnership portfolio through time. To do so, we base ourselves on the OI and strategic alliance literature. We then conduct a qualitative survey in 18 global companies famous for their OI practices. We thus show that OI approaches are not always based on extensive openness of external partnerships, and that companies can choose among three OI strategies: topicoriented OI, partner-oriented OI or fully open approaches, which are not mutually exclusive. We also emphasize that they face a trade-off between breadth and depth of partnerships, which evolves over time.
In spite of the media coverage about reshoring and the growing political pressure to encourage it... more In spite of the media coverage about reshoring and the growing political pressure to encourage it, there are persistent uncertainties about the viability of profoundly rethinking complex global value chains that have been established for decades. Furthermore, decisions on whether to reshore are rarely based on concerns about a truly virtuous economy, and the benefit of reshoring on social and environmental footprints is not as clear as it may appear. Based on existing research and our knowledge of the subject, we show that large-scale reshoring will not take place and that any improvement in the social and environmental impact of global value chains will stem from three phenomena: better reshoring, better footprint of offshoring, and transforming value chains and industrial organization.
La relation taille – performance a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux en economie et en strategie, ... more La relation taille – performance a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux en economie et en strategie, notamment sous les deux angles majeurs des economies d’echelle d’une part, et du pouvoir de marche d’autre part. Or, la croissance de la firme peut etre obtenue par le biais de trois manœuvres strategiques principales : la croissance organique, les fusions-acquisitions horizontales ou les alliances de capacite. Peu d’auteurs se sont neanmoins interesses a l’efficience comparee de chacune de ces strategies sur la croissance.
La relation taille-performance a, depuis la fin des annees 70, genere peu d'interet. Malgre l... more La relation taille-performance a, depuis la fin des annees 70, genere peu d'interet. Malgre les nombreux travaux consacres aux fusions-acquisitions et aux alliances strategiques qui induisent des effets de taille, peu d'auteurs se sont interesses a l'efficacite comparee de ces strategies sur les effets de taille. Cette recherche constitue une premiere contribution en ce sens. Les tests des hypotheses formulees confirment le lien taille-performance, la superiorite globale de la croissance interne par rapport aux fusions-acquisitions, ainsi que la capacite des alliances a accroitre le pouvoir de marche. Contrairement a nos attentes, les fusions-acquisitions ameliorent les economies d'echelle
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent dynamic capabilities (DCs) dev... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent dynamic capabilities (DCs) developed in the field of green supply chain management can foster social supply chain performance. In addition, the role of both human and stakeholder capital in enhancing this relationship is investigated. Design/methodology/approach Relying on the theoretical framework of the resource-based view, complemented with the DCs perspective, the authors hypothesize about the benefits of a firm’s environmental management capability for its social supply chain performance, as well as the moderating role of both human and stakeholder capital. Our contentions are tested through a multi-year database of socially responsible investments covering 1,177 multinational corporations. Findings The findings show that companies can sustain positive and superior social performance in their supply chain by leveraging DCs developed in the environmental field. This impact is further shown to be elevated in the p...
ABSTRACT Interest in lean, the managerial system exemplified by the Toyota Production System, has... more ABSTRACT Interest in lean, the managerial system exemplified by the Toyota Production System, has gradually spread throughout different industries since the 1980s. Compared to mass production systems, lean systems ultimately transform the way employees act within their work environment. Despite significant improvements in operations management, the human dimension of lean has received surprisingly limited attention from the academic realm, until recently. This study serves primarily as a literature review of articles at the crossroads between the technical part of lean and its human-related issues. We reviewed 95 articles and our analysis provides a clearer view of the evolution of lean literature with regard to its human elements. The different levels of analysis can be summarised as follows: lean’s impact on working conditions and employee outcomes, HR practices as facilitators of lean adoption, and employee development as a moderator of lean adoption. We conclude with a framework that serves as a potential guide to include the human dimension of lean in research.
Within the context of intensified international trade, global supply chains and geographically sp... more Within the context of intensified international trade, global supply chains and geographically spread operations,the comprehension of cultural and national idiosyncrasies may offer managers a powerful tool in the effective conduction of businesses. Moreover, with the economic emergence of countries like China, Russia and Brazil, local practices are gaining increased importance as they seem to directly influence management in these places and beyond. The present study concentrates then on one of those cultural particularities: the Brazilian jeitinho. Through the conduction of 28 semi-structured interviews with Brazilian managers,we analyze the contexts on which the practice is perceived either as positive or negative around its ethics. More specifically,we propose five distinct dimensions (harm to third parties, gravity of the issue, formality of relationships, personal benefit and assessed pertinence of rules and laws) to the assessment of Brazilian jeitinho as a form of creativity,...
While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is recognized as taking on various national meanings ... more While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is recognized as taking on various national meanings and practices, research has not sufficiently investigated how multinational companies (MNC) simultaneously achieve global CSR integration and local CSR adaptation. Building on a qualitative case study carried out at ASICS, an MNC headquartered in Japan, we show how this organizational dilemma may be solved through hybridization work, a form of institutional work performed by CSR managers in subsidiaries to combine and adapt different institutional approaches to CSR. By developing the notion of hybridization work, we contribute by (1) revealing a set of practices that contribute to institutional change within organizations and (2) enriching the study of CSR organizational change and international business by showing how hybridization Work leads to a greater organizational integration between core and periphery, and by identifying the triggering factors for subsidiary initiative in CSR.
Innovation is no longer the sole preserve of the R&D department. These days, companies draw pract... more Innovation is no longer the sole preserve of the R&D department. These days, companies draw practical inspiration and profitable ideas from far and wide from suppliers, academia, competitors, customers, and through crowdsourcing. So who is now responsible for driving so-called “open innovation?” And how can businesses ensure that the necessary relationships are effective? Recent research sheds some light on those questions.
Though alliances and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are both extensively used by companies se... more Though alliances and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are both extensively used by companies seeking to achieve the benefits of greater size and scale, strategy research has rarely examined these two moves as alternative courses of action. Indeed, the size-performance relationship has long been a major research topic both in industrial organization and in strategy. In the late 1960s, it has given rise to such famous strategy concepts as the so-called “experience curve”, but has since generated only limited interest. More recently, much research has been devoted to examining mergers and acquisitions on the one hand, and inter-firm alliances on the other hand. Both these moves significantly affect a firm's scale and are thus likely to have an impact on performance. However, the work on M&A or on alliances very rarely compares these different modes of growth to one another in their ability to deliver scale benefits. Our research specifically aims at analyzing the relative scale effects achieved when growing through either M&A or alliance, using organic growth as a baseline scenario. In this chapter we develop arguments on the relative impact of these two alternative modes of growth in terms of economies of scale, bargaining power, and overall performance effects. Our empirical analysis of the global retailing industry (through a sample of 82 firms observed between 1984 and early 2000s) reveals that M&A enhance bargaining power, while alliances fail to deliver the expected benefits.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and organic growth are two common strategies to achieve horizontal... more Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and organic growth are two common strategies to achieve horizontal growth. In this study, we disentangle two distinct sources of firm performance corresponding to different theoretical perspectives on firm size: firms' bargaining power with respect to suppliers and customers, and operating efficiency arising from scale economies. We conceptually argue and empirically show that relatively, M&A enhance bargaining power in the short term while organic growth enhances operating efficiency over the long term. In order to disaggregate these effects, we use accounting rather than financial or managerial data and test our predictions in the global retail industry over a 20-year period. We examine implications of these results for sustainability of size-based competitive advantages.
Since Chesbrough’s seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constantly ... more Since Chesbrough’s seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constantly by many managers and academics. Beyond the pros and cons of being open to innovate, we address the questions of how to open up inbound innovation processes and how to manage the partnership portfolio through time. To do so, we base ourselves on the OI and strategic alliance literature. We then conduct a qualitative survey in 18 global companies famous for their OI practices. We thus show that OI approaches are not always based on extensive openness of external partnerships, and that companies can choose among three OI strategies: topicoriented OI, partner-oriented OI or fully open approaches, which are not mutually exclusive. We also emphasize that they face a trade-off between breadth and depth of partnerships, which evolves over time.
Since Chesbrough's seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constan... more Since Chesbrough's seminal work, open innovation (OI) has been a buzzword referred to constantly by many managers and academics. Beyond the pros and cons of being open to innovate, we address the questions of how to open up inbound innovation processes and how to manage the partnership portfolio through time. To do so, we base ourselves on the OI and strategic alliance literature. We then conduct a qualitative survey in 18 global companies famous for their OI practices. We thus show that OI approaches are not always based on extensive openness of external partnerships, and that companies can choose among three OI strategies: topicoriented OI, partner-oriented OI or fully open approaches, which are not mutually exclusive. We also emphasize that they face a trade-off between breadth and depth of partnerships, which evolves over time.
In spite of the media coverage about reshoring and the growing political pressure to encourage it... more In spite of the media coverage about reshoring and the growing political pressure to encourage it, there are persistent uncertainties about the viability of profoundly rethinking complex global value chains that have been established for decades. Furthermore, decisions on whether to reshore are rarely based on concerns about a truly virtuous economy, and the benefit of reshoring on social and environmental footprints is not as clear as it may appear. Based on existing research and our knowledge of the subject, we show that large-scale reshoring will not take place and that any improvement in the social and environmental impact of global value chains will stem from three phenomena: better reshoring, better footprint of offshoring, and transforming value chains and industrial organization.
La relation taille – performance a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux en economie et en strategie, ... more La relation taille – performance a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux en economie et en strategie, notamment sous les deux angles majeurs des economies d’echelle d’une part, et du pouvoir de marche d’autre part. Or, la croissance de la firme peut etre obtenue par le biais de trois manœuvres strategiques principales : la croissance organique, les fusions-acquisitions horizontales ou les alliances de capacite. Peu d’auteurs se sont neanmoins interesses a l’efficience comparee de chacune de ces strategies sur la croissance.
La relation taille-performance a, depuis la fin des annees 70, genere peu d'interet. Malgre l... more La relation taille-performance a, depuis la fin des annees 70, genere peu d'interet. Malgre les nombreux travaux consacres aux fusions-acquisitions et aux alliances strategiques qui induisent des effets de taille, peu d'auteurs se sont interesses a l'efficacite comparee de ces strategies sur les effets de taille. Cette recherche constitue une premiere contribution en ce sens. Les tests des hypotheses formulees confirment le lien taille-performance, la superiorite globale de la croissance interne par rapport aux fusions-acquisitions, ainsi que la capacite des alliances a accroitre le pouvoir de marche. Contrairement a nos attentes, les fusions-acquisitions ameliorent les economies d'echelle
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent dynamic capabilities (DCs) dev... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent dynamic capabilities (DCs) developed in the field of green supply chain management can foster social supply chain performance. In addition, the role of both human and stakeholder capital in enhancing this relationship is investigated. Design/methodology/approach Relying on the theoretical framework of the resource-based view, complemented with the DCs perspective, the authors hypothesize about the benefits of a firm’s environmental management capability for its social supply chain performance, as well as the moderating role of both human and stakeholder capital. Our contentions are tested through a multi-year database of socially responsible investments covering 1,177 multinational corporations. Findings The findings show that companies can sustain positive and superior social performance in their supply chain by leveraging DCs developed in the environmental field. This impact is further shown to be elevated in the p...
ABSTRACT Interest in lean, the managerial system exemplified by the Toyota Production System, has... more ABSTRACT Interest in lean, the managerial system exemplified by the Toyota Production System, has gradually spread throughout different industries since the 1980s. Compared to mass production systems, lean systems ultimately transform the way employees act within their work environment. Despite significant improvements in operations management, the human dimension of lean has received surprisingly limited attention from the academic realm, until recently. This study serves primarily as a literature review of articles at the crossroads between the technical part of lean and its human-related issues. We reviewed 95 articles and our analysis provides a clearer view of the evolution of lean literature with regard to its human elements. The different levels of analysis can be summarised as follows: lean’s impact on working conditions and employee outcomes, HR practices as facilitators of lean adoption, and employee development as a moderator of lean adoption. We conclude with a framework that serves as a potential guide to include the human dimension of lean in research.
Within the context of intensified international trade, global supply chains and geographically sp... more Within the context of intensified international trade, global supply chains and geographically spread operations,the comprehension of cultural and national idiosyncrasies may offer managers a powerful tool in the effective conduction of businesses. Moreover, with the economic emergence of countries like China, Russia and Brazil, local practices are gaining increased importance as they seem to directly influence management in these places and beyond. The present study concentrates then on one of those cultural particularities: the Brazilian jeitinho. Through the conduction of 28 semi-structured interviews with Brazilian managers,we analyze the contexts on which the practice is perceived either as positive or negative around its ethics. More specifically,we propose five distinct dimensions (harm to third parties, gravity of the issue, formality of relationships, personal benefit and assessed pertinence of rules and laws) to the assessment of Brazilian jeitinho as a form of creativity,...
While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is recognized as taking on various national meanings ... more While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is recognized as taking on various national meanings and practices, research has not sufficiently investigated how multinational companies (MNC) simultaneously achieve global CSR integration and local CSR adaptation. Building on a qualitative case study carried out at ASICS, an MNC headquartered in Japan, we show how this organizational dilemma may be solved through hybridization work, a form of institutional work performed by CSR managers in subsidiaries to combine and adapt different institutional approaches to CSR. By developing the notion of hybridization work, we contribute by (1) revealing a set of practices that contribute to institutional change within organizations and (2) enriching the study of CSR organizational change and international business by showing how hybridization Work leads to a greater organizational integration between core and periphery, and by identifying the triggering factors for subsidiary initiative in CSR.
Innovation is no longer the sole preserve of the R&D department. These days, companies draw pract... more Innovation is no longer the sole preserve of the R&D department. These days, companies draw practical inspiration and profitable ideas from far and wide from suppliers, academia, competitors, customers, and through crowdsourcing. So who is now responsible for driving so-called “open innovation?” And how can businesses ensure that the necessary relationships are effective? Recent research sheds some light on those questions.
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Papers by Valérie Moatti