Implementing strategic initiatives: a framework of leading practices

Decision Intelligence: Creating a Fit between Intelligence Requirements and Intelligence Processing Capacities

Dynamic business environments throw up many challenges for senior executives. To make strategic decisions in such environments, it is crucial for them to find the right fit between the intelligence required for decisions, and how their companies gather and process intelligence. This paper conceptualizes a ‘ Decision Intelligence’ framework for achieving such a fit. The four major elements constituting the framework place the emphasis explicitly on senior executives adopting the right decision context, tailoring appropriate decision-making frameworks, innovating the access to diverse sources of intelligence and implementing the decisions proficiently. These elements are illustrated and elucidated by drawing on multiple firm experiences from automotive, agritech, pharma, banking and farming sectors. The paper concludes with a discussion on the major implications on intelligence processing capacity challenges of companies, and what this implies for management education and strategy research.

Impact of a Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System Tool to Improve Sustainable Development: Measuring the Mediation of Organizational Performance through PLS-Smart

The study was carried out to investigate the empirical effect of a strategic management system on sustainable development by using a balanced scorecard (BSC), as a theoretical lens, and organizational performance, as an intervening variable. The study incorporated a positivism research paradigm in order to address the objective nature of research. As the current study has an empirical and impartial nature, a quantitative method was considered the best method for achieving the research objectives of the study. The study used questionnaires as a data collection instrument. In total, three hundred questionnaires were disturbed among Chinese power companies based in Pakistan. A stratified-random sampling approach was adopted to reach relevant respondents. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used for statistical analysis. BSC indicated a positive influence on sustainable development. Additionally, organizational performance depicted partial mediation between the strategic management system and sustainable development. The study underpins the theoretical foundation of a resource-based view (RBV) and a balanced scorecard view of the strategic management system. The findings suggest that non-financial measures have better consequences for employees’ performance, making them ecologically responsive, unlike the financial performance measures used previously. The study suggests taking measures related to wastage and usage of inimitable resources that focus on in-addition rather traditional measures, which can allow sustainable development.

Implementing sustainability on a corporate and a functional level

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify contingencies that are inherently linked to sustainability and that influence its implementation in companies. Further, to identify which coordination mechanisms (organic or mechanistic) are most effective for the implementation on the corporate and on the functional level.

Design/methodology/approach

– Inductive case-study based upon a cross-industry sample of five cases that applies a contingency approach. The case companies differ with respect to the degree of sustainability implementation, the underlying internal coordination and structural factors like ownership, size, and industry.

Findings

– The data revealed six contingency factors inherent to the implementation of sustainability that influence the effectiveness of organic or mechanistic coordination mechanisms according to the specific implementation context. Further, the implementation of corporate sustainability requires more internal coordination than implementing sustainability on the functional level.

Research limitations/implications

– The identified contingencies relevant for the internal coordination to implement sustainability and insights into the relevance of such coordination provide a sound basis for future research. Further, various research avenues are identified to advance the discipline's understanding of this so far under-researched field.

Practical implications

– This paper shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to sustainability implementation is not effective. Rather, companies need to consider specific contingencies and adapt their internal coordination efforts accordingly.

Originality/value

– This paper is the first to address internal coordination for implementing sustainability on the corporate and functional level. By providing insights on the context-specific effectiveness of different types of internal coordination for the implementation of corporate sustainability, sustainable sourcing, and sustainable marketing it provides a contribution to both academia and industry practice.