Employee Social Network Strategies: Implications for Firm Strategies and Performance in Future Organizations

Employee social network strategies play a key role in firm strategies and organizational performance. Currently, scholars underestimate the contributions of employee social strategies in firm strategies. Little is known how informal employee social networks, group entitativity and competition could shape and direct firm strategies and organizational performance. The article examines social network theory and strategic management’s content, process and open schools of thought to propose a new interpretation for managing firm strategies. More specifically, the author examines alternate causal paths, underlying processes and structures as mechanisms in employee social network strategies within a theoretical framework. The article proposes 4 theoretically driven propositions and makes two contributions. First, the article contributes to organizational behavior literature by focusing on the literature gap in network dynamics and competitive actions through employee social networks. Second, although there is immense literature on positive and negative employee competition in business, the article makes a contribution to the strategic management literature by moving beyond formalized structures and roles within an organization to focus on the multilevel informal workplace social interactions and processes that impact strategizing activities. Overall, the article extends strategy research in relation to how employee social networks operate through competition and group entitativity in firm strategies.

Competitive Rationales: Beneath the Surface of Competitive Behavior

Competitive dynamics research has focused on studying whether rivals are able and likely to carry out competitive actions, typically by examining indirect reasons such as characteristics of the actions themselves, the firms involved, or the competitive context. We explore why rivals initiate a specific competitive action at a particular time and situation. Drawing from the philosophy of action literature, we introduce the concept of competitive rationales to examine the primary reasons that cause tactical actions. Given the rapid exchanges characterizing tactical competitive dynamics, we conducted an inductive, multicase study to explore the reasons behind over 800 discrete tactical decisions carried out by 9 professional basketball coaches during 15 basketball games. To garner insight, we develop a conceptual framework revealing their types and scope. Even during intense head-to-head rivalry, most rationales were not rivalrous but were instead organizational—to optimize resource use, strategic consistency, and reputation—or social—to manage relationships. Moreover, the three main types of rationales varied in scope, extending beyond immediate competitive situations and rivals to address longer term, strategic outcomes, and assorted stakeholders. Thus, our analysis reveals these rationales to be complex and potentially difficult for rivals to decipher. It also recasts each component of the dominant awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) model of rivalry, suggesting that awareness is challenged by subtle rationales, motivation drives not only action but also forbearance, and capability is both a requirement and product of action.

An Analysis of the Competitive Actions of Boeing and Airbus in the Aerospace Industry Based on the Competitive Dynamics Model

Focusing on competitive dynamics, this study examines the strategic issues Boeing has faced in seeking to maintain its leading position in the airline industry. Boeing’s status as a first mover in the aerospace industry has made it a world-leading company; however, the external environment and various pressures have allowed Airbus to emerge as a strong competitor. By conducting a descriptive case analysis, this paper identifies the competitive issues between these two giants, analyzing continuous action and reaction processes throughout the whole history of the airline industry. Finally, by examining Boeing’s main strengths, business diversification options, and risk-taking culture, this paper suggests ways Boeing can retake its place as the industry leader.

Competitive Dynamics in Strategic Management

Competitive dynamics inquiry originates from a sequence of attacks and counterattacks among firms in an industry. Firms attack and respond to attacks of rivals in order to strengthen or defend their competitive position within their competitive space. Competitive dynamics research is thus centered on the analysis of how the firm’s actions affect rivals’ reactions and performance. Actually, the nature of competitive dynamics research is the open recognition that firm strategies are “dynamic”: Strategic actions initiated by one firm may trigger a series of actions among rival firms. The new competitive environment in many industries has generated the inception of furious competition, emphasizing flexibility, speed, and innovation in response to fast-changing technological and institutional conditions and temporary competitive advantages. The key constructs and the intellectual roots of competitive dynamics (i.e., Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction and industrial organization economics and related oligopoly theories) offer some practical examples of industry and firm cases where competitive dynamics have found their main applications. The relevant underpinnings of the awareness–motivation–capability (AMC) framework provide an integrative model of the key behavioral drivers that shape a competitive actions and responses framework (i.e., the factors influencing the firm’s awareness of the context; the factors inducing or impeding the motivation of firms to respond to competitors’ action; and the capability-based factors affecting the firm’s ability to undertake actions), the three key attributes (i.e., the specific actions of firms in the industry, the firm’s competitive interdependence, and the antecedents and performance implications of firms’ competitive actions and reactions), and the three main levels of analysis used in competitive dynamics literature (i.e., action-level studies, business-level studies, and corporate-level studies). Some insights regarding the relationship between dynamic competition and the sources of temporary competitive advantage, coopetition dynamics, as well as the kind of accelerated competition epitomizing early 21st-century digital dynamics settings update the traditional competitive dynamics flavor, as they are connected with firms’ strategic interaction and the pursuit of temporary advantages.

Antimonopoly Compliance in the Energy Sector

The purpose of the article is to identify and clarify the main features of the functioning and implementation of the antimonopoly compliance system at electric power enterprises. The main idea of the article is to use various methods (analysis, induction, etc.) to conduct a study of changes in domestic legislation that relate to the legislative consolidation of the antimonopoly compliance system. Based on statistical data and data from scientific sources, we can identify the main areas of activity of energy companies, where violations of antitrust legislation are most common, which will be identified and prevented by the antitrust compliance system. The scientific novelty of this article is confirmed by the almost absent publications of other authors, which study the effectiveness of the antimonopoly compliance system in the field of electric power industry. The author comes to the conclusion that the antitrust compliance system is an effective mechanism that allows identifying antitrust risks both inside the company and outside it. An increase in the number of companies that have antitrust compliance services will reduce the number of illegal violations by unscrupulous market participants, while these circumstances affect not only the electric power industry, but also other areas of the Russian economy. According to the author, the implementation of antitrust compliance will help to: l) reduce the number of offences committed by companies; 2) to prevent the actions of employees, which may in its work, to violate the antitrust laws; 3) to reduce the number of anti-competitive actions. Availability of antitrust compliance within the company promotes as corporate ethics, and the adoption by the staff of the values of the organization.

Tactical Competition Model Application in Restaurant Services Industry at Different Lifecycle Stages of Organization

In this article, for the first time, the distribution of well-known strategies and tactics of competitive actions by stages of the lifecycle according to the model of D. Miller and P. Friesen is carried out, which allows to provide a more accurate description of the competitive activity of an organization at different stages of its development. Tactics and strategy are closely related, and there is a need for their gradation in the context of the characteristics of the stages of the organization’s life cycle. This study is especially relevant in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, where tactical models of competition play a special role in accordance with the selected strategies in the field of restaurant services. During the analysis of the activities of restaurant service establishments at different stages of the life cycle, certain patterns in the competitive actions of the organization were identified, which can be compared with the strategies and tactics of competition. The criteria for determining the stage of development of the organization, which determine the conduct of competitive processes, are given. Each stage of the organization’s life cycle is characterized: birth, development, maturity, flourishing, decline on the example of the restaurant services sector. It shows how organizations apply different strategies and tactics of competitive actions within each stage of the life cycle, as well as during the transition from one stage to another. The use of this article can help restaurant businesses by applying the developed matrix of tactical models of competition at various stages of the organization’s life cycle within the framework of a competitive strategy in the practical activities of the organization. Thus, the result of successful implementation of the strategy and tactical models is an increase in the number of potential guests, including permanent ones, and an increase in investment, production, sales and other opportunities.

Too much of a good thing? An assessment of the effects of competitive and cooperative action repertoires on firm performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to integrate research on competitive and cooperative repertoires and to simultaneously assess the direct, indirect and curvilinear effects of competitive and cooperative action repertoires in relation to firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThe analyses are conducted using a longitudinal dual-industry sample of publicly traded firms, including over 6,500 competitive actions and 750 cooperative actions. The authors use fixed effects (FE) regression models to test the diminishing returns of action volume on firm performance as well as the moderating effects of action diversity.FindingsThe results suggest that increasing competitive and cooperative actions yields diminishing returns in relation to firm performance. Furthermore, in the context of competitive action repertoire diversity, increased diversity magnifies the diminishing returns of competitive action volume on firm performance.Originality/valueThe study provides a firm-level conceptualization of overall competitive and cooperative repertoires to extend the literature on competition and cooperation beyond dyadic interactions or structural determinants of competitive and cooperative actions.

Debunking the holy trinity: competition, individualism, and meritocracy

This chapter draws on conceptual resources from debates on collective intentionality and responsibility to call into question the close links between competition, ontological atomism, and individual responsibility implied by meritocracy. Against this ‘holy trinity’, we argue that competition is not reducible to an ontology of atomized agents and individual notions of responsibility, which supposedly justify meritocratic justifications of unequal outcomes in competition. By offering a non-individualist concept of competition, we argue that competitive actions are collective and relational. As a result, responsibility in competition is much more shared between competitors and within competitive teams than is commonly thought. This argument implies that the collective foundations of competition should be more appreciated and that the redistribution of recognition among winners and losers in competition should be reconsidered.

Program for improving the Technical and Tactical training of veteran athletes who specialize in Martial Arts (on the example of SAMBO wrestlers)

Today, there is an increasing interest of the world community in the movement of veteran athletes, including wrestlers who specialize in Sambo (sports). Given the above, the leading and important role is played by scientific and methodological support of key components of the professional activities of veteran athletes who specialize in Sambo. The choice of the optimal technical and tactical arsenal of wrestlers of the studied category, considering their individual and typological features, allows to achieve the main goal – maintaining optimal sports form and winning competitions of various ranks in the selected Martial Arts. As a result of theoretical research, members of the research group developed a Program to improve the Technical and Tactical training of veteran Sambo wrestlers in the System of their annual training cycle. We expect that the introduction into the System of long-term training of veteran Martial Arts who specialize in Sambo wrestling programs to improve their Technical and Tactical training will increase the activity and effectiveness of competitive actions, which will ensure their successful performance in competitions of various ranks. Prospects for further research in the chosen direction of scientific research include testing the Program to improve the Technical and Tactical training of veteran Sambo wrestlers in the System of their annual training cycle, taking into account their individual typological and physiological characteristics.