We investigate the empirical usefulness of a new measure of the degree of competition in a market, proposed by Boone (2000). This measure is based on the reduction in profits that firms experience as a result of cost inefficiencies. We compare this with measures commonly used by policy makers...

As strategy research has been exploring the dynamic, social and situated nature of the strategy process, so has the role of learning increasingly been recognised as a central feature of strategizing practice. This paper contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of strategizing practice by...

This paper discusses the theory and evidence behind the logic of business process outsourcing, with a specific focus on human resource outsourcing (HRO). Market analysts project rapid growth in the global market for HRO, from around $30 billion in 2005 to just over $40 billion in 2008. The paper...

When do firms expand abroad? Theory to date suggests that global expansion happens when firm-specific competitive advantages outweigh country-specific difficulties in operating abroad. Differences in culture, in legislation, in administrative practices, and in the overall institutional...

Recent attention has focused on the UK's productivity gap in the retail sector. A recent paper by Reynolds et al (2005) emphasises that a more thorough understanding of what drives productivity in the retail sector requires a better understanding of the 'complex mix of urban characteristics,...

This paper considers the impact that information and communication technology (ICT) has on firms' choices over organisational form. In particular, the decision over whether to produce in-house or outsource services, and the decision over the location of activity. ICT reduces the transaction and...

The role of human resource management practices in promoting the performance of firms is widely debated. Yet much of the debate has reached an impasse, with uncertain results as to which practices in fact work and why. It has, moreover, rarely gone beyond the context of large firms. This paper...

If organizational renewal (becoming) is key to organizational survival why is it so difficult to come about and how might it be supported? This is the central question this paper will seek to explore by problematizing the current conceptualizations of organizational renewal, which are often...

We approached the considerable body of literature on learning in collaborative situations in order to explore the possibility of pulling the separate strands into a broad conceptual framework which might offer new insights. The literature focus in the framework was deliberately upon the...

Despite the widespread popularity of scenario planning techniques as a basis for intervening in the strategic management process, there have been surprisingly few attempts to rigorously evaluate the extent to which, under what circumstances and for what reasons, these procedures yield useful...