International Journal of Management and Decision Making (6 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• A pattern for performance assessment by balanced scorecard method: a case study  
  by Toraj Mojibi, Yaghoub Khojasteh-Ghamari 
  Abstract: In today's era, amazing developments in knowledge management have necessitated the presence of assessment discipline in an inevitable manner. Measuring and assessing the operations are important due to their relationship with decisions concerning several various human characteristics. In this paper, by using the balanced scorecard (BSC), we identify significance of organizational improvement activities from different aspects such as financial, growth and learning, customers and internal processes. The BSC has a conceptual framework that transforms organizational strategic goals to measurable indices and creates a balanced distribution among the vital domains of an organization. We first adjust and internalize the BSC model in order to make it compatible for an Iranian large company, Mazandaran Wood and Paper Industries (MWPI), and then identify the suitable indices to do assessment of the companys operations. The indices are specified by the aid of some questionnaires, which were distributed among the mid-level/senior managers, and are interpreted by using statistical methods. Finally, after identifying and introducing the assessment of the pattern for MWPI operations, some useful suggestions are presented to improve the pattern and to achieve the companys successive goals.
  Keywords: Performance assessment, balanced scorecard, BSC, performance measurement, Mazandaran Wood and Paper Industries, MWPI
   
• ASSESSING THE STRATEGIC RELEVANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES: EVIDENCE FROM TURKISH HOTELS  
  by Mehmet Ali Koseoglu, John Parnell, Cafer Topaloglu 
  Abstract: This study aims to identify capabilities with strategic links to strategic behavior and performance in Turkish hotels. Overall, 111 hotels were represented, including a total of 214 respondents. Executives in Turkish hotels attached greater importance to market and market-linking capabilities than other capabilities. The generic strategy employed per the Miles and Snow typology was associated with differences in all the capabilities, with the greatest differences seen among defenders. Although hotels tend to adopt the cost-leadership approach, differentiation was also associated with capability development, particularly in marketing, technology, management and market-linking. A significant and positive relationship was found between environmental uncertainties and capabilities, and between capabilities and both financial and non-financial performance. Competitive uncertainty exhibited the highest score of all the capabilities. Results demonstrated no differences between each of strategic capabilities and hotel characteristics such as star rating, hotel scale, work time, global alliances, and ownership. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.
  Keywords: capabilities, strategy, performance, Turkey, hotels, hospitality, strategy, generic strategy.
   
• Career Impact: The Missing Link Influencing Strategic Decision Making Processes?  
  by Vassilis Papadakis, MARIA-NIKI LYRIOTAKI 
  Abstract: This paper aims to extend the strategic decision making theory by considering the potential influence of perceived career impact on the process of making strategic decisions. To achieve its objectives the paper incorporates a number of career impact variables (rewards and/or punishment) and examines the extent to which they explain the characteristics of the process of making strategic decisions, over and above the explanatory power of: a) external, b) internal/organizational, c) managerial and d) decision-specific variables. Overall, the results suggest that multiple contextual factors, from all five layers, shape the decision-making process. In particular, both expected rewards and punishment seem to influence the choice of decision-makers as to what process to follow. These results point toward the existence of unexplored factors shaping the decision-making process. The paper concludes with implications for the decision-making theory and recommendations for future research.
  Keywords: Strategic Decision Making, Career Impact, Strategy Process, Contingency Theory.
   
• The assessment of the intellectual capital impact on the value creation process: a decision support framework for top management  
  by Michele Grimaldi, Livio Cricelli, Marco Greco 
  Abstract: This article proposes a framework designed to support the top management in the tactical and strategic planning of the investments on critical ICAs. The framework consists of a sequence of steps, which aim at assessing the organizational intellectual capital by taking into consideration their impact on the value creation process and at comparing the importance of the components and their interdependencies through the Analytic Network Process. The implementation of the proposed framework provides managers with strategic considerations, which can be drawn from the results and compared through a synoptic analysis and through a cost/benefit analysis.
  Keywords: Assessment; Decision making; Decision support; Value creation; Intellectual capital; IC; Intangible assets; Intellectual Capital Assets; Analytic Network Process; ANP; Conceptual Map.
   
• Fast and Frugal Heuristics for New Product Screening - is managerial judgment good enough?  
  by Fatima Albar, Antonie . Jetter 
  Abstract: Purpose - The paper models three commonly discussed Fast and frugal (F&F) heuristics for project screening (Take-the-Best, Tallying, and Elimination-by-Aspect) and explores their performance as a means to clear the front-end of product development of unwanted ideas. rnDesign/methodology/approach - An illustrative dataset of 52 new product development projects is used to compare the performance of F&F heuristics against that of regression models, which reflect compensatory judgment behaviour.rnFindings - The performance of simple heuristics may be better than commonly assumed: Two out of the three F&F heuristics reach accuracies of over 80% for project selection and 70% for project rejection and the best F&F model, Tallying, performs similarly to the best regression model. rnPractical implications Managerial judgment may be less problematic for high quality decision-making than commonly assumed and potentially provides a quick and low-cost decision gate that is good enough for early front-end decisions. rnOriginality/value - This research provides the first project-screening specific models of F&F heuristics and uncovers a "less is more" effect that justifies the use of simple heuristics as a means to cope with high levels of ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty in early stage product screening.rn
  Keywords: fast and frugal heuristics; heuristics; project selection; project screening; fuzzy front-end; new product development;
   
• A Decision-making perspective on Business Integration and Inter-Firms Agreements in biotechnology industry  
  by Alessandro Basile 
  Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss the issue of corporate structure and business models for managing new modular and complementary biotechnology innovations according to a decision-making perspective. Corporate structure and business models of Large Diversified Firms (LDFs) and Dedicated Biotechnology Firms (DBFs), in fact, are at the heart of the scientific research and of the practice in the management field. We focus our attention on the trade off between vertical integration and inter-firms agreements aimed to control biotech innovation. A trade off which is related to collaborations content, business planning, investment constraints and intellectual capital. DBFs specific features will be presented along with the strategic options developed by operators. The contributions of the Transaction Cost Theory and of the Resource Based View will be underlined and, as a consequence, we will elaborate on the fundamental variables for decision making purposes . Data on the US and European integrative strategies trends in the biotech industry will be presented in the conclusive section.
  Keywords: Business Integration, Biotechnology Firms, Inter-firms cooperation, decision making process