The entrepreneurial M-form, strategic integration in global media firms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Eisenmann, TR; Bower, JL
• 署名单位: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.11.3.348.12501
• 发表日期: 2000
• 页码: 348-355
• 关键词: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT; M-form corporations; related diversification; media and entertainment industries

摘要

Many researchers believe that bounded rationality prevents CEOs in large, complex, multidivisional (M-form'') corporations from personally formulating division-level strategies. Instead, CEOs are seen as guiding a bottom-up process whereby division managers propose strategies for review and approval by the corporate office. Contrary to this view, we argue that CEOs in global media firms frequently drive strategy in a top-down manner, especially when their firms seek to expand by integrating the activities of two or more existing divisions. We refer to such firms as Entrepreneurial M-forms. and maintain that their reliance on an activist CEO offers benefits: (1) in turbulent environments, when the use of slow, bottom-up planning processes risks forfeiting first-mover advantages; and (2) when expansion entails major capital commitments, and division managers may be reluctant to accept the career risks associated with sponsorship of bet-the-company'' projects.