Department of Management

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Browsing Department of Management by Author "Acur, N."

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    Assessment of strategy formulation: how to ensure quality in process and outcome
    (Emerald Publishing, 2006) Acur, N.; Englyst, L.
    Purpose - Today, industrial firms need to cope with competitive challenges related to innovation, dynamic responses, knowledge sharing, etc. by means of effective and dynamic strategy formulation. In light of these challenges, the purpose of the paper is to present and evaluate an assessment tool for strategy formulation processes that ensures high quality in process and outcome. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review was conducted to identify success criteria for strategy formulation processes. Then, a simple questionnaire and assessment tool was developed and used to test the validity of the success criteria through face-to-face interviews with 46 managers, workshops involving 40 managers, and two in-depth case studies. The success criteria have been slightly modified due to the empirical results, to yield the assessment tool. Findings - The resulting assessment tool integrates three generic approaches to strategy assessment, namely the goal-centred, comparative and improvement approaches, as found in the literature. Furthermore, it encompasses three phases of strategy formulation processes: strategic thinking, strategic planning and embedding of strategy. The tool reflects that the different approaches to assessment are relevant in all phases of strategy formulation, but weighted differently. Managerial perceptions expressed in particular that learning from experience should be accommodated in strategic thinking. The strategic planning stage is mainly assessed based on the goal-centred approach, but cases and managerial perceptions indicate that the need for accurate and detailed plans might be overrated in the literature, as implementation relies heavily on continuous improvement and empowerment. Concerning embedding, key aspects relate both to the goal-centred and improvement approaches, while the comparative approach appears to play a more modest role, related to monitoring external changes and enabling the organization to respond adaptively. Research limitations/implications - The proposed assessment tool is general in the sense that it does not take into account relationships between the strategic context and the assessment of strategy formulation processes. The investigated cases indicate that contingencies matter, and call for further investigation of particular applications. The present research maintained a focus on formal and relatively top-down-oriented strategy formulation processes. Practical implications - The integration of three different strategy assessment approaches has been made to obtain a holistic, multi-perspective reflection on strategy formulation. Such reflection is assumed to enable managers to proactively evaluate the potential outcome and performance of their chosen strategy. Originality/value - The originality of the paper lies in the combination and compilation of multiple approaches to strategy assessment, which draws on a wide range of literature, and in the proactive perspective on strategy assessment. Furthermore, the validity of the proposed assessment tool or checklist is based on multiple sources of empirical evidence.
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    Examining proactive strategic decision-making flexibility in new product development
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2012) Kandemir, D.; Acur, N.
    While strategic flexibility is widely accepted as a prerequisite for a firm's success, its application in strategic decision making to a firm's new product development (NPD) activities is limited to only a few studies. Furthermore, many organizations still have difficulties creating proactive strategic flexibility in their decision-making processes. Past research studies have largely ignored the relationship between strategic decision-making flexibility and firms' resources and/or capabilities and success in the context of NPD. This study advances strategic flexibility by adopting the proactive approach of NPD decision-making flexibility and by examining its role in translating organizational resources and capabilities into NPD success. This study draws upon the resources, capabilities (i.e., flexibility), and performance framework to show how proactive strategic decision-making flexibility plays a crucial role in developing new products that can create new opportunities and comply with market needs. Therefore, this research aims to (1) develop an operational definition of strategic decision-making flexibility and (2) propose a framework to understand the drivers and the subsequent new product performance outcomes of strategic decision-making flexibility. This study adopts the proactive perspective of strategic decision-making flexibility and defines it as a capability that enables firms to develop NPD strategies to respond to future changes in the environment. The analysis, based on data collected from 103 European firms, shows that that the effects of long-term orientation, strategic planning, internal commitment, and innovative climate on proactive strategic decision-making flexibility are significant. The findings indicate specifically the roles of both champions and gatekeepers, who infuse a firm's knowledge with a clear understanding of its resources, constraints, and market needs, thereby enhancing decision makers' motivation to behave proactively to precipitate transformation. The results also reveal a positive association between proactive strategic decision-making flexibility and NPD performance outcomes. As such, strategic flexibility provides firms with an ability to adapt to changing environments and to create new market opportunities, product, and technological arenas, and to deliver successful new products. When firms open new market, technological, and product arenas, they can easily foresee their new demands and changes and successfully deliver new products, meeting customer needs/demands, and offering benefits such as quality, cost, and timeliness. This study therefore provides a valuable reference point for future research in strategic decision-making flexibility in NPD.
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    Exploring the impact of technological competence development on speed and NPD program performance
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010) Acur, N.; Kandemir, D.; De Weerd‐Nederhof, P. C.; Song, M.
    With growing levels of competition across industries, technological competence is increasingly viewed as crucial for businesses to maintain their long‐term competitive advantage. Although there are many theoretical arguments about how firms' competences can yield competitive advantage and performance improvement, we have a limited understanding of where the capabilities originate in the context of NPD or what kind of product portfolios, internal climate, and strategic alignment are required to build them. Moreover, empirical evidence for technological competence development is limited and comes primarily from case studies, anecdotal evidence, and management impressions. Accordingly, this research addresses these gaps by presenting and testing a conceptual model of technological competence development in NPD. This study makes advances in applying a dynamic capability approach to technological competence development in NPD, and investigates the impact of innovative climate, technological alignment, and project portfolio management on technological competence development as well as NPD speed. Moreover, the factors that might influence NPD program performance are also investigated. The analysis, based on data collected from 111 firms, shows that a firm's innovative climate, technological alignment, and portfolio management are positively associated with technological competence development. While technological alignment was found to be negatively related to NPD speed, portfolio management, and technological competence development were found to have positive effects on speed. However, innovative climate had no significant impact on speed. Moreover, technological competence development and portfolio management were found to be positively related to NPD program performance. Finally, no support was found for the relationship between speed and NPD program performance.
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    Fit Among Business Strategy, Strategy Formality, and Dynamic Capability Development in New Product Development
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016) Gumusluoglu, L.; Acur, N.
    Taking new product development (NPD) as the unit of analysis, this study, based on strategic fit approach, investigates the effects of NPD strategy formality and dynamic capabilities (sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring) on NPD performance for different business strategy types (prospectors, analyzers, defenders). The sample of the study includes 203 companies from nine countries: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. The study finds that a formal NPD strategy is an important driver of NPD performance for all companies regardless of the strategy pursued. Of the dynamic capabilities, sensing capabilities have significant performance effects for all strategy types. Seizing capabilities have stronger effect on NPD performance for prospectors and analyzers, than for defenders while reconfiguring capabilities is a driver of performance only for defenders. Furthermore, dynamic capabilities explain NPD performance above and beyond strategizing, irrespective of the strategy pursued.
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    Strategic alignment and new product development: drivers and performance effects
    (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2012) Acur, N.; Kandemir, D.; Boer H.
    Strategic alignment is widely accepted as a prerequisite for a firm's success, but insight into the role of alignment in, and its impact on, the new product development (NPD) process and its performance is less well developed. Most publications on this topic either focus on one form of alignment or on one or a limited set of NPD performance indicators. Furthermore, different and occasionally contradictory findings have been reported. NPD scholars have long argued for the importance of fit between context and NPD activities. However, this body of literature suffers from the same weakness: most publications have a limited scope and the findings are not always consistent with results reported previously. This study addresses these deficiencies by examining (1) the effects of various internal and external factors on different forms of alignment, and (2) the effects of these forms of alignment on a set of NPD performance indicators. Strategic planning and innovativeness appear to affect technological, market, and NPD-marketing alignment positively. Environmental munificence is negatively associated with NPD-marketing alignment, but has no effect on the two other forms of alignment. Technological change has a positive effect on technological alignment, a negative effect on NPD-marketing alignment, but no effect on market alignment. These findings suggest that internal capabilities are more likely to be associated with the development of strategic alignment than environmental factors are. Furthermore, technological and NPD-marketing alignment affect NPD performance positively, while market alignment does not have any significant performance effects.