Blog

Category: Management Theory

  • Leadership In Politics

    Real-world examples often provide concepts that apply in business. I worked in politics for many years and I think that there are lessons for educational and commercial leadership. Good political leaders try and seize temporary opportunities. Their dramatic actions make for exciting highs when successful and dramatic lows when not. So what can we learn…

  • Evolutionary Thinking in Business

    Evolutionary thinking in business can be a fascinating topic. A key thing to bear in mind is that business evolution is a little different from biological evolution. Market competition is not the same as competition in nature. This is, not least, because business has much more rapid timeframes. Business changes regularly. On the other hand,…

  • The Science Of Spotting BS

    The authors clearly had a lot of fun writing their paper on the reception and detection of BS. They use the term “bullshit” more in the first few paragraphs than most people use their core term in the whole of any paper. That said, why not? It is an interesting and important topic. Do people…

  • The Impact Of Conformity And The Need For Uniqueness

    Analytical models are fascinating ways to look at what happens in markets. They can look a bit odd from the outside. These models tend to have a ton of strong assumptions which might lead to questions about their value. They can, however, help us think through some commonly observed phenomenon in markets. What then can…

  • Transformative Innovations, An Important Part of the Puzzle

    I value grand intellectual sweeps. if you are a tenured professor it seems wrong not to try and give the world your grand vision. So what can we say about transformative innovations? Transformative Innovations Tellis and Rosenzweig take a grand sweep in examining the role of transformative innovations in world history. The book moves from…

  • Is Sustainable Competitive Advantage A Useful Goal

    I must confess to being a bit dubious about the idea of sustainable competitive advantage. It seems designed to allow people to pontificate with a pronouncement that sounds meaningful. Yet, speaking about sustainable competitive advantage often requires little actual evidence given the underlying idea is a bit vague. Sustainable Competitive Advantage A competitive advantage isn’t…

  • Problems In Academic Research

    Writing in the Journal of International Business Studies Klaus Meyer and his colleagues outline some problems in academic research. The authors tell us how they suggest dealing with the problem. Familiar Problems In Academic Research The problems they outline will be quite familiar to anyone following recent controversies in academia. The file drawer problem is…

  • Marketing Response To Stock Market Pressure

    What is the marketing response to stock market pressure? Myopic Management Myopic management/marketing is the tendency to focus on short-term gains at the expense of long-term profits. It can occur for a number of reasons. Yet, at its heart, pressure from Wall Street appears to drive myopia for public companies. Certainly, many scholars subscribe to…

  • Valuing Free Customers

    Two sided markets are an important concept in economics and business. They have some exciting characteristics and present some great problems in deciding on corporate strategy. One issue is: how much should a company pay to acquire a customer who isn’t paying anything? How to go about valuing free customers? The Value Of Customers Who…

  • Understanding Intuition

    How can we go about understanding intuition and does it matter? Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking Fast and Slow, has undoubtedly had a significant impact on managerial thinking. In a recent piece for the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Tony Grundy, an academic and consultant, discusses the perils of cognitive bias.…

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