Browsing by Author "Bowen, Frances"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Acquisitions: evidence of behavioral decision making from the North American oil and gas industry
    (2006) Rostami, Mahdi; Bowen, Frances
    This dissertation aims to empirically investigate the behavioral determinants of corporate acquisitions in the North American upstream oil and gas acquiring companies. The core question underlying the study is: Do key concepts within the behavioral theory of the firm predict corporate acquisitions? This dissertation consists of three inter-related studies. The first study examined the impact of the survival and aspiration reference points on corporate acquisitions from the shifting focus perspective. The results showed that organizational acquisition strategy can be explained by organizational antecedents such as performance feedback and organizational slack. Underperforming companies decreased acquisitions as they approached the survival level, while medium and high performing organizations decreased acquisitions when their performance increased. The second study tested the effects of the interactions between organizational performance and slack on firm acquisition strategy. Overall, I found firm relative performance to the survival level is a strong predictor of organizational acquisition strategy. While lower performing companies increased acquisitions as their performance improved, higher performing companies with high slack resources decreased acquisition strategy as their performance increased. The findings clarified the high performance- high slack paradox. The results showed that companies with high performance and high slack resources decreased their acquisitions. Moreover, the results indicate that organizations with higher potential slack and prior acquisition experience are less likely to choose the acquisition strategy. Finally, the third study examined why and how managers decide between related and unrelated acquisitions. Specifically, I focused on the time horizon of firm performance and showed that long- term performance might better explain a firm's acquisition strategy. Overall, there was a positive relationship between poor long-term performance and future related acquisition. The results showed that, due to the risky nature of acquisition strategy, managers in long-term high performing companies are less likely to choose acquisition because this strategy may negatively affect firm performance. The results also showed that while potential slack positively impacted related acquisition, recoverable slack negatively affected acquisition. Firm's acquisition experience is also an important predictor of related acquisition.
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    From institutions to boundaries: work and carriers in Canada's oil sands
    (2012) Dillabough, Jessica Jasmin; Bowen, Frances; Grøgaard, Birgitte
    In this dissertation I explore environmental practices and environmental regulations in Alberta, Canada's in situ oil sands industry. The in situ oil sands industty provides an interesting context for studying these two phenomena because it was undergoing a period of high growth and subject to immense public scrutiny, particularly in regards to environmental issues. I begin by asking the question: Who does what institutional work on environmental regulations and practices in Canada's oil sands? I explore this broad research question using analytic induction, a qualitative research method that allows the researcher to explore phenomena from a pre­determined theoretical lens. In my case, this lens is institutional work. I include many different types of organizations in my san1ple of 67 semi-structured interviews. As I progress through my analysis I discover that much of the work done on practices and regulations involves boundaries. Boundary work emerges as an important aspect of institutional change, as does the type of actor doing the work and the boundary being worked on. I develop propositions based on the strength of boundaries, the position of actors in the field of in situ oil sands, and the boundary the work is done on.
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    Storm Clouds and Silver Linings: Responding to Disruptive Innovations Through Cognitive Resilience
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) Dewald, Jim; Bowen, Frances
    Incumbent firms facing disruptive business model innovations must decide whether to respond through inaction, resistance, adoption, or resilience. We focus on resilient responses to simultaneous perceived threat and opportunity by managers of small incumbent firms. Using cognitive framing arguments, we argue that risk experience moderates perceptions of opportunity, whereas perceived urgency moderates situation threat. We test our framework in the real estate brokerage context, where small incumbents face considerable challenges from disruptive business model innovations, such as discount brokers. Analysis of data from 126 real estate brokers broadly confirms our fraframework. We conclude with implications of our research for small business incumbents.
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    A Strategic Framework for Managing Failure in JIT Supply Chains
    (IGI Global Publishing, 2008) Balakrishnan, Jaydeep; Bowen, Frances; Eckstein, Astrid L. H.