Section Three - Case Studies

Strategic Change Valuation

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of strategic change on organizational growth at Beta Healthcare International Limited in Kenya. Methodology: The study was anchored on Agency Theory, Stewardship Theory, and Stakeholder theory to explain leadership accountability, managerial behavior, and stakeholder engagement during strategic transformation. An exploratory research design using a qualitative approach was adopted. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with seven purposively selected employees drawn from different functional areas of Beta Healthcare International Limited. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis with the support of NVivo software to identify patterns and themes related to digitization, organizational restructuring, communication processes, and training initiatives. Findings: The findings revealed that strategic change initiatives, particularly digitization and organizational restructuring, positively influenced operational efficiency, decision-making processes, and overall strategic alignment within the organization. However, the implementation of these initiatives faced several challenges, including inadequate internal communication, employee resistance to change, and unequal access to training opportunities. The results further demonstrated that effective training and capacity building initiatives significantly enhance employee adaptability and successful implementation of strategic change. Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study contributes to theory by demonstrating the continued relevance of Agency, Stewardship and Stakeholder perspectives in understanding the dynamics of strategic change implementation. Practically, the findings highlight the need for organizations to integrate digital transformation, structural alignment and human capital development to achieve sustainable growth. The study recommends strengthening internal communication systems, implementing inclusive and continuous employee training programs and adopting structured change management practices to enhance employee participation and reduce resistance to change. These measures are critical for improving organizational agility, competitiveness and long-term performance in healthcare sector.

Purpose – The vision should ignite and facilitate strategic change as well as help a company to transform and reinvent itself in the face of competition. Too often executives use vision as a mere slogan without real relevance. The purpose of this study is to show how the vision guides strategic change. Design/methodology/approach – A case study from a successful multi-format, multi-industry service business is used to illustrate the role of vision in strategic change management. Findings – The article illustrates how the vision was used in practice in guiding the strategic transformation process of the case organization. The study presents four focal tasks of the vision and concludes with five practical guidelines for executives. Originality/value – The article highlights the role of vision as an important tool for managing strategic change.

Categorization is known to play an important role in organizations because categories ‘frame’ situations in particular ways, informing managerial sensemaking and enabling managerial intervention. In this article, we advance existing work by examining the role of categorization practices in discursive leadership during periods of strategic change. Drawing on data from an ethnographic action research study of a strategic change initiative in a multi-national corporation, we use membership categorization analysis to develop a framework for studying ‘category predicates’ − defined as the stock of organizational knowledge and associated reasoning procedures concerning the kinds of activities, attributes, rights, responsibilities, expectations, and so on, that are ‘tied’ or ‘bound’ to organizational categories. Our analysis shows that discursive leadership enabled a radical shift in sensemaking about organizational structure categories through a process of ‘frame-breaking’ and ‘re-framing’. In so doing, the leader co-constructed a ‘definition of the situation’ that built a compelling vision and concrete plan for strategic change. We go on to trace the organizational consequences and material outcomes of this shift in sensemaking for the company in question. We conclude by arguing that ‘category predication work’ comprises a key leadership competence and plays an important role in organizational and strategic change processes.

ABSTRACTThis study describes the strategic change efforts of a university in the United Kingdom which changed its form and resource deployments to focus on the production of interdisciplinary research. A problem-oriented case study method was used to chronicle and analyse the leadership strategies and tactics employed and their consequences. We found that the reliance on a vertical leadership (controlling) strategy led to external legitimization but not internal legitimacy. We also found instances these strategies created unintended consequences which inhibited the strategic change initiative. In particular, horizontal leadership (enabling) strategies that spoke to the academic heartland were muted. We concluded that in universities undertaking major strategic change efforts controlling influence actions may be necessary but they are insufficient to levers of strategic change. The study is particularly important because it contributes to an understanding of strategic change in universities at a time when most such efforts fail to meet their objectives and there is a limited empirical literature to draw upon.

The purpose of this study is to explore whether the leadership change consequently imposes further changes in knowledge management (KM) practices, as well as to reveal which KM practices are affected by this strategic change. Namely, a theorized ten-fold conceptualization of KM practices has been tested on a sample of 101 Serbian companies employing more than 100 employees each. The main findings demonstrate that leadership changes affect some elements of KM leadership, HRM practices in recruitment, training and development, and compensation. Furthermore, findings depict that leadership changes have a profound influence on knowledge-friendly organizational culture and knowledge sharing between mid-level management and employees. Finally, the results show that the leadership change in Serbian companies affects sales growth rate. The companies that experienced this change had negative sales growth rate contrary to the companies without this strategic change.

Managerial choices for change implementation methods have a direct impact on strategic change outcomes. In a three-year longitudinal case study of the Norwegian airport management and air navigation services provider – Avinor – a fundamental mismatch between organizational culture type and change implementation method contributed to the premature collapse of a deliberate strategic change initiative. The major contribution of this article is to expand our knowledge about identifying and avoiding potential pitfalls resulting from a fundamental mismatch between organizational culture in place and change implementation methods during deliberate organizational change. The findings from this case study will show how managerial choices and actions, such as: consensus building, communication and use of participation during deliberate change processes, can positively influence attitudes towards change. However, it will also show that a sudden reversal from a participatory process to purely top-down implementation can lead to a breakdown in consensus and trust, leading to internal and external resistance, and the premature collapse of a change process.

In dynamic and uncertain business environments, marketing organizations need to be constantly ready to enact strategic changes. However, a robust measure for capturing the organizational capabilities and underlying marketing activities required to achieve effective marketing-related strategic changes is lacking. This study addresses this gap by developing a measurement tool for strategic change capability (SCC). Drawing on interviews with marketing consultants and senior marketing managers, the authors conceptualize SCC as a multidimensional dynamic marketing capability that comprises five dimensions: establishing the business case for change, preparing employees for change, setting up the organization for implementing change, institutionalizing change, and assessing and adjusting implementation. Following rigorous scale development procedures—including (1) item generation, (2) expert evaluation, (3) scale purification, (4) scale validity, (5) nomological and predictive validity, and (6) scale generalizability studies—a psychometrically sound and reliable measure of SCC is developed. The SCC scale facilitates different types of strategic marketing change and predicts performance outcomes better than established constructs (i.e., strategic flexibility, agility, adaptiveness, and responsiveness). This study contributes to the dynamic capabilities theory and provides empirically substantiated guidance for marketing organizations on how to prepare for and effectively enact strategic changes in dynamic business environments.

The theme of the research is to look into the relatedness among IT lead-in, “knowledge management”, “marketing orientation” and “job performance” in T Company in mobile communication industry. From 2005, mobile communication industry starts the tendency of internationalization and diversification. Meanwhile, the enterprise faces the pressure of accelerated innovation.Therefore, most enterprises lead in “knowledge management” concept and use IT (Information Technology) infrastructure, deal with the changes of international products through organization learning. Accordingly, the target of this research is to study how the telecommunication operators learn from cross-unit (IT Role) base on the acknowledgement of “knowledge management” and”marketing orientation” , and get job performance in result. The case study instrument is pretested with T Company which goes public and is one of the top three telecommunication companies. To construct related materials of “knowledge management”,”marketing orientation”and ”job performance” which are suitable to employees of T Company through data collection. Process the PLS analysis model base on 80 emplyees of 5 major departments to validate the causal relation among the variables of “IT role”,”knowledge management”,”marketing orientation” and “job performance”. Findings are that “knowledge management” is the important effect parameter of IT system and “marketing orientation”, and “marketing orientation” is also the significant effect of firm performance. The case study connects “IT role”and “knowledge management”in theoretical foundation, and links IT and “marketing orientation”via “knowledge management”to make positive effects. Moreover, the case study extends more effects of “marketing orientation”theory to firm performance. Key words: “IT Role”,”Knowledge Management”,”Marketing Orientation”,”Job Performance”.

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of knowledge management (KM) infrastructure and KM processes on the performance of KM practices.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on personal interviews, data were collected from 83 managers from a single case study of a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operator in Turkey.FindingsThe paper finds that hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Test of hypotheses revealed that both KM processes and KM infrastructure positively and significantly influenced the performance of KM practices. These findings tend to corroborate our conceptual model and are also in line with the existing literature. KM infrastructure was found to be more significantly affecting KM performance than KM processes, indicating that the context and background of KM is more important than the application aspects of KM.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings in this paper cannot be generalized due to the case study approach. It may not be claimed that both KM processes and KM infrastructure solely determine the performance of KM practices. Instead, there are many other factors that may influence KM performance, which are somewhat beyond the scope of this research.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that the evaluation of KM performance is expected to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and adaptability of KM efforts so as to add more value to the overall performance of the organization.Originality/valueIn this paper there is little or no empirical evidence investigating the influence of KM infrastructure and KM processes on KM performance. This paper rectifies this imbalance by clarifying the link between KM infrastructure, processes and performance.

PurposeThis study aims to identify and analyze the different roles corporate social responsibility (CSR) can play in corporate strategy. By acknowledging that one of the biggest challenges for companies in committing to sustainability is the strategy work, the authors outline specific strategic initiatives to achieve these roles and the strategic outcomes that will follow such initiatives.Design/methodology/approachFour illustrative case examples show how companies are recasting the role of CSR. The new CSR roles are characterized through two strategic dimensions: an inside-out (firm-oriented) vs outside-in (market-oriented) orientation and an emphasis on leveraging vs an emphasis on prospecting activities.FindingsThe findings show that to realize the opportunities of CSR for business, the environment and society at large, the role of CSR in the boardroom must be reconfigured. By recasting its role, CSR can become a driver for the strategy process and a transformative force generating strategic changes.Practical implicationsThis paper aims to encourage top executives to take a proactive stance toward responsibility, recognize the new roles and potential impact that CSR can have in corporate strategy and assist strategic decision-making regarding CSR.Originality/valueThe paper aims to move beyond integrating sustainability into existing strategies and business models by demonstrating how sustainability can also inspire strategic changes a priori when the role of CSR is recast in companies. By viewing CSR as a driver of corporate strategy and strategic initiatives, the authors suggest that besides helping the environment, the community and society, CSR can take care of corporate strategy.

Convex optimization has recently been suggested for solving the optimal energy management problem of hybrid electric vehicles. Compared to dynamic programming, this approach can significantly reduce the computational time, but the price to pay are additional model approximations and heuristics for discrete decision variables such as engine on/off control. In this paper, the globally optimal engine on/off conditions are derived analytically. It is demonstrated that the optimal engine on/off strategy is to switch the engine on if and only if the requested power exceeds a certain non-constant threshold. By iteratively computing the threshold and the power split using convex optimization, the optimal solution to the energy management problem is found. The effectiveness of the presented approach is demonstrated in two sizing case studies. The first case study deals with high energy capacity batteries, while the second case study deals with supercapacitors that have much lower energy capacity. In both cases, the proposed algorithm yields optimal results much faster than the dynamic programming algorithm.

Strategic business advice is perceived as the way to meet challenges related to business development and strategic change, with direct impact on business growth and productivity. Small innovative firms can benefit from it, as they are constantly seeking for new solutions in order to provide better market offers and are willing to achieve higher rents than industry average. Thus, they need to transform their strategic business approaches, including implementation of new products and increasing business model efficiency. In the paper, the process of business advice is explored, and critical stages of this process are distinguished and explained. The model of strategic business advice process is built based on case studies analysis, in which a process of pivoting business strategies has been especially explored. Therefore, two case studies illustrating pivoting (A) strategic idea of the product and (B) strategic business model approach are presented. It is concluded that strategic business advice is a powerful tool when pivot in company’s strategic orientation is necessary, but several conditions have to be met for the change to happen.

Facilitating and inhibiting factors behind strategic change: Evidence in the Spanish private banking industry, 1983–1997

Knowledge has become increasingly important to support intelligent process automation and collaborative problem solving in large-scale science over the Internet. This paper addresses distributed knowledge management, its approach and methodology, in the context of grid application. We start by analyzing the nature of grid computing and its requirements for knowledge support; then, we discuss knowledge characteristics and the challenges for knowledge management on the grid. A semantic Web-based approach is proposed to tackle the six challenges of the knowledge lifecycle - namely, those of acquiring, modeling, retrieving, reusing, publishing, and maintaining knowledge. To facilitate the application of the approach, a systematic methodology is conceived and designed to provide a general implementation guideline. We use a real-world Grid application, the GEODISE project, as a case study in which the core semantic Web technologies such as ontologies, semantic enrichment, and semantic reasoning are used for knowledge engineering and management. The case study has been fully implemented and deployed through which the evaluation and validation for the approach and methodology have been performed