The Flexible Firm

Capability Management in Network Organizations
Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-0-19-924855-1
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 383 g

The pace of change in the business world is becoming faster. This book provides a detailed account of the network-like organizational forms that some firms are adopting to make themselves more flexible and responsive to changing technologies and customer demands. As these organizations become more pervasive, the winners will be those firms that develop the specific capabilities that are needed to thrive in a networked world. Paradoxically, such capabilities are developed not only at the firm level, but also in the relationships the firm has with its external network and in the operating units within the firm. This perspective has implications for the 'resource-based view of the firm' in the field of strategic management, suggesting that the development of capabilities is a more complex and multi-level process than was traditionally thought.

This book brings together eleven chapters, each focusing on a particular aspect of capability development in the networked firm. It is based on research in five big Swedish firms (Ericsson, Volvo, Skandia, Pharmacia & Upjohn, SE Banken) as well as a number of other well-known firms such as HP and ABB. The book will be essential reading for advanced students in strategy and international business wanting to keep abreast of current thinking and company practices.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Birkinshaw, Julian

Hagström, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensführung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Außenhandel
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Literatur für Manager
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Internationales Management
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensorganisation & Entwicklungsstrategien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction

- 1.: Julian Birkinshaw: Network Relationships Inside and Outside the Firm, and the Development of Capabilities

- Part I: Managing Relationships in the External Network

- 2.: Maurizio Sobrero and Omar Toulan: Task Partitioning, Communication Activities, and the Performance of Supplier Relations in Product Development

- 3.: Julian Birkinshaw, Omar Toulan, and David Arnold: Global Account Management: Linking External Demands with Internal Abilities

- Part II: Innovation in the External Network

- 4.: Henrik Bresman: The Experience-Curve of Capability Management

- 5.: Patrick Regnér: Strategy in the Periphery: The Role of External Linkages in Strategy Creation

- 6.: Stefan Jonsson: Innovation in the Networked Firm: The Need to Develop New Types of Interface Competence

- 7.: Robin Teigland: Communities of Practice in a High-Technology Firm

- Part III: Managing the Internal Network

- 8.: Julian Birkinshaw and Carl F. Fey: Building an Internal Market System: Insights from Five RandD Organizations

- 9.: Niklas Arvidsson: Knowledge Management in the Multinational Enterprise

- 10.: Peter Hagström: New Wine in Old Bottles: Information Technology Evolution in Firm Strategy and Structure

- 11.: Peter Hagström: Relaxing the Boundaries of the Firm

Über Autor(innen)

Julian Birkinshaw is Assistant Professor of Strategy and International Management at the London Business School. His research focuses on strategy and organization in large multinational firms, and on such issues as entrepreneurship, network organization, and knowledge management. He is the author of Entrepreneurship in the Global Firm (Sage, 2000) and co-editor of Multinational Corporate Evolution and Subsidiary Development (with Neil Hood, Macmillan, 1998). He was previously Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Business, Stockholm School of Economics.

Peter Hagström is Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Business, Stockholm School of Economics. His research focuses on the use of information systems as an enabler of change in large firms. He is the author of The Wired MNC (Institute of International Business, 1991), and co-editor of The Dynamic Firm (with Alfred Chandler and Örjan Sölvell, Oxford, 1997). Previous positions include Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School.