This paper proposes a stock and flow model of reputational risk-taking to show that producers with higher reputation are more likely to take the risk of launching non-conforming products into their product line compared to producers with lower reputation. We also argue that product line differentiation relative to that of competitors will moderate potential reputational losses. We test these dynamics using unique panel data of the launch of single malt Scotch whiskies-With-Age-Statement (WAS) and No-Age-Statement (NAS) in the entire Scotch whisky industry from 2007 to 2015, a period that saw a rapid rise in the launch of NAS whiskies. Our study contributes to research that examines links between firm reputation and the launching of non-conforming products at the market category level. Our study also contributes to recent research that argues that category research should shift from emphasis on category stability, to the dynamics of category change. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Mark Twain

Intangibles assets have long been an important component of the global economic systems. Although there are a number of policies to support the build-up and use of different components of intangible assets, policies for intangibles as a whole are often missing. On the one hand, intangible assets often play a central role in gaining competitive advantage. On the other hand, from a systemic point of view, individual ownership of intangible assets can limit the sharing and exchange of intangibles that is indispensable for what we call in this paper 'intangibles commons'. Policy makers must balance the tensions between supporting firm-specific intangibles and ensuring growing 'intangibles commons'. This paper conceptualizes the 'intangible commons' and subsequently explores the tensions arising, examines the gaps in our knowledge needed for effective policy making and presents a set of recommendations as to more appropriate policy making for intangibles.

Research Summary Drawing on signaling theory and the international business literature that addresses the role of institutions, we argue that multinational enterprises (MNEs) that use multimarket contact (MMC)-that is, meet the same competitors in multiple countries-to reduce rivalry in a given country, will have their actions and performance influenced by the institutional quality of that country. More specifically, we contend that action observability is the mechanism that explains why institutional quality facilitates an MNE's use of MMC with competitors in a host country. We also contend that an MNE's ability to successfully reduce rivalry with host country competitors via MMC is contingent on the institutional quality distance between the MNE's home and host country. We test our hypotheses with data from the mobile phone industry. Managerial Summary MNEs often meet the same rivals simultaneously in multiple countries, a phenomenon known as market overlap or MMC. Prior studies have found that MMC deters rivals from attacking each other in the countries they have in common. However, these studies have not taken into account the heterogeneity of the institutional environments of the countries in which multimarket rivals compete. We contend that the quality of countries' institutions and the institutional quality distance between home and host countries affect the extent to which MNEs can observe each other's actions, which in turn helps rival MNEs to avoid mutually damaging moves for their sales performance in the countries they have in common.

In this introductory article to the Special Issue we make a case for the study of 'field-configuring events' (FCEs). We begin with a discussion of the nature and character of FCEs. We next situate the study of FCEs in the context of ongoing research addressing the growth and evolution of institutional, organizational, and professional fields. We follow this with an overview of the relationship between FCEs and the evolution of fields, paying particular attention to how FCEs link field evolution at the macro level with individual action at the micro level. We then examine the unique methodological advantages that the study of FCEs offers to researchers who are interested in studying dynamic field processes. We conclude with a summary of the five papers that make up this Special Issue.

The question facing managers when confronted with irreversible investment decisions is what framework they should choose to assess risks? Research suggests that managers may forgo the cognitive effort of building predictive models in favour of doing what their industry peers do. There is extensive empirical support for this so-called “peer effect”. However, the peers in peer-effect studies are usually identified by the researchers before testing the effect. In this paper, we do not identify peers but focus on alternative criteria that firms in the same industry may use to select peers. We argue that the literature points to three possible peer selection mechanisms: Regional cluster identity, similar resource size, and product market rivalry. We test these mechanisms using data on capacity expansion decisions by 117 distilleries from the Scotch Whisky industry from 1950-2010. We find that regional cluster identity and resource size are used to identify peers, but not product market competition.

Extant research theorizes that market leaders often use product proliferation to saturate product space thereby deterring rivals from introducing close substitutes. This study argues that this overlooks the diversity of market leaders. Market leaders run the gamut from firms with temporary leadership to firms that dominate their industry for decades. Consequently, the impact of product proliferation as an imitation barrier may not always be the same. In this paper we focus on product proliferation by dominant market leaders. Using competitive dynamics perspective, we argue that in competitive action-reaction context market followers will not desist from imitation, but instead imitate the market leaders in order to avoid falling behind in an evolving market. We test our predictions using data drawn from Indian automobile industry (2009-2019) which is consistently dominated by a dominant market leader: Suzuki Motors. We show that product proliferation by dominant firm in a given product submarket will result in imitative product proliferation response from rival firms. We also find that the imitative product proliferation by the rivals, as a response to the dominant firm’s product proliferation in a given product submarket, will result in performance gains for the imitating firms. Conversely, we do not find that when the dominant firm’s product proliferation occurs in a more complex product submarket then the likelihood of imitative product proliferation from the rival firms in this submarket will decrease, and similarly, we do not find that rivals’ imitative product proliferation in a complex product submarket will result in greater imitating firm performance.

Building on the tenets of the combination of institutional and resource-based views, this study aims to shed light on how a firm could benefit from implementing a strategic stance toward exploiting green-related opportunities. Our model integrates ‘too-much-of-a-good-thing’ (TMGT) and ‘too-little-of-a-good-thing’ (TLGT) effects to formulate green business strategy and how this, in turn, influences substantive performance. The association is empirically manifested in a horizontal S-curve, which at first shows that firm performance declines with initially going green, follows by a positive relationship between increasing green business strategy and firm performance, then declines at very high levels of green pursuit. Additionally, the S-curve relationship between green business strategy and firm performance is positively moderated by internal absorptive capacity and external public environmental concern. These findings offer relevant information for a finer-grained interpretation of how and when it pays to be green.

Online streaming services are challenging long-standing decision-making processes in the traditional motion picture industry, thus placing Hollywood major studios at a crossroads. We use the institutional logics perspective to examine how both traditional studios and online streaming services make strategic decisions on which films to produce and how these films are to be distributed. We then apply scenario analysis to explore how their interaction will likely evolve. We argue that the key criteria that studio executives use to make production and distribution decisions are shaped by what we define as a commitment institutional logic: decision-making heuristics that focus their attention on theatrical release and box-office intakes. In contrast, online streaming services follow a convenience institutional logic, the product of advanced data analytics to increase subscriptions. In the convenience institutional logic, the need to drive online traffic by providing users with an extensive catalogue of movies guides film production and distribution decisions. Whereas the commitment logic aims for mass-market hits in cinemas, the convenience logic seeks to reach a wide range of subscribers at home with micro-segmented offerings. We compare the two logics, develop four scenarios of how the interaction between them may shape the film industry, and offer recommendations.

We argue that multinational enterprises (MNEs) that use multimarket contact (MMC) to coordinate strategy with rivals in host countries must contend with the institutional quality of host countries. Drawing on signaling theory and institution-based view, we propose that institutional quality can influence the observability of actions by an MNE’s rivals in a host country, thereby affecting the MNE’s ability to use MMC to establish mutual forbearance with host country rivals. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 85 mobile phone vendors in 46 countries.

Temporary organisations are time-limited organisations that are created with a deliberate termination point. Temporary organisations can increase flexibility, allow for innovative and transformative activities with less resource commitment, and reflect a 'Zeitgeist' of acceleration and time limitation in society. They also give rise to tensions and paradoxes that require new adaptive and coordinative practices. Research on temporary organisations has moved from primarily exploring the distinction between temporary and permanent organisations to using temporary organisations to study a range of phenomena such as temporality, acceleration, identity, and attachment–detachment dilemmas. This volume reflects this new orientation. We map empirical phenomena along the lines of events, projects and networks, and explore three conceptual themes that run through the nine chapters that comprise this volume: (1) temporality in temporary organisations; (2) the interaction between temporary and permanent organisations; and (3) the strategies and practices that temporary organisation develop in response to tensions and paradoxes.

This virtual special issue (VSI) collects together 19 papers published in Organization Science that explore how organizations learn from crises. The objective is to discuss insights that can help us understand the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, implications that existing research carries for organizations' abilities to keep hard-earned lessons after the storm passes, and opportunities that the current phenomenon offers for future inquiry in this domain. Organizations, large and small, in scores of countries, have suspended normal operations. To survive, many organizations have adapted by shifting almost all human-to-human interactions online while facing an ethical dilemma and a tense tradeoff between public health and economic well-being. We take stock of the research on organizational learning from crises, summarize useful knowledge for managing the current crisis, and provide directions for future research.

New and radically different forms of temporary organisations often have to attract audiences in organisational fields that are dominated by temporary organisations that conform to ‘taken-for-granted’ organising template. The authors argue that adopters of new temporary organisations must contend with the tensions that arise when audiences compare the new temporary organisational form to the temporary organisations that conform to the institutionalised organising template. The authors therefore argue that as new temporary organisations are introduced into new contexts, organisers often use legitimacy claims based on novelty in the context where the new temporary organisation emerged to counter the threat of illegitimacy. However, because the strength of legitimacy claims based on novelty declines in contexts that are further removed, organisers will modify the template of a new temporary organisation in these contexts. The authors examine this using the case of the so called ‘unconferences’: an alternative conference form that emerged within the software development community at the start of the millennium in conjunction with the Web 2.0 movement. The authors’ data comprise 228 distinct unconferences between 2004 – when the unconference was first launched, and 2015. The authors examine the influence of sector distance of unconferences from the original sector where it was first held, on the extent to which the pure unconference format is retained. The authors show that as adopters of the new form move away from the original sector, they are more likely to modify the unconference template. The authors conclude by identifying promising areas of research in new forms of temporary organising.

Achieving tangible benefits from digitalization often requires changes in processes, culture and reward systems. This need is especially acute in research and development, yet the attitudes and skills of R&D staff may impede their use of automation. We examine the ongoing digitalization of R&D activities at Unilever. Using thematic analysis, we analyze in-depth interviews to uncover attitudes towards, and experiences with, digitalization of R&D using robots. We build on these findings and conduct sequence analysis to extract a number of within-interview sequential associations between themes. These associations have been mapped onto patterns aligned with four established models of digitalization and IT adoption: the Technology Acceptance Model, Resistance to Change, Task Technology Fit and Process Virtualization.

Porter and van der Linde (1995), in what is known as the ‘Porter Hypothesis’, argued that strict environmental regulations may appear to constrain the growth of the national industry, but in the long run they improve competitiveness. While the Porter Hypotheses has received substantial support, other studies have argued that environmental regulations have a negative impact on the innovation capabilities. This paper argues that the mixed results may be due to researchers not taking into account two key factors that shape how firms respond to regulations: a) stringency’ of the environmental regulations; and b) ‘clockspeed’: the rate of introduction of generations of new products in the market place. This paper examines how firms respond to environmental regulations by analysing the implementation of different emission control norms (from BS-I to the soon to be implemented BS-VI standards) in Indian automobile industry during the period 1999-2018.

Research suggests that effective R&D requires the right combination ofinward-looking and outward-looking absorptive capacity routines. However, we do not have an adequate understanding of how these routines influence innovative output in R&D units with different mandates.In this paper, we argue that adopting an absorptive capacity routine would positively or negatively influence the R&D subsidiary’s innovative output, depending on whether the routine is aligned or misaligned with the subsidiary’s innovation mandate to ‘exploit’ existing knowledge or ‘explore’ new knowledge. We test this using data collected from a global packaged-software firm with 14 international R&D subsidiaries that implemented six major absorptive capacity routines in the period 2000-2010. Our research provides new insights for both scholars and practitioners in R&D management, by showing that balancing of absorptive capacity routines should be considered in light of innovation mandates of subsidiaries as well as the firm.Our analysis also provides insights on why decision-makers may still adopt misaligned routines.