The Competitive Strategy Interest Group from the SMS organizes three exciting and interesting sessions on Sunday, September 12, the first day of the SMS conference in Rome. The aim of these three sessions is to have a debate among the panelists and the other participants about topics that are currently relevant in our daily practice of research and teaching of Competitive Strategy.
The first session (at 10:15 hr in room Bramante 3) will analyze the complexities of competition between organizations with completely different backgrounds: for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. We will debate among other things if and how these different kinds of organizations apply different modes of competition. The aim of the second session (at 12:45 hr) will be to discuss the potential advantages and drawbacks of the use of formal approaches (such as economic modeling) to advance management theory. In the third session (at 14:30 hr), we will organize a debate about the usefulness and value of the concept of business models in competitive strategy research.
I encourage all of you to kick off your participation at the SMS in Rome on Sunday with our Competitive Strategy panel discussions and join the discussions around these fascinating topics!
With best regards,
Govert Vroom
Session 1: "Competition between for-profit and not-for-profit organizations" (10:15-11:30)
In many industries, such as health care, waste management, and education, for-profit firms compete head-to-head with not-for-profit firms. The differences between these types of firms are stark in terms of their ultimate objectives, their access to resources, their corporate culture, and many other dimensions. This begs the question whether traditional competitive strategy models could and should be applied in this particular context. In this session, scholars and practitioners are invited to share their own experience and to engage in a discussion with the audience about the consequences of competition among organizations with heterogeneous objectives.
Panelists: Trish Clifford (Columbia University and Clifford Strategic Services), Andrew King (Dartmouth College), Brandon Lee (LBS), John Prescott (University of Pittsburgh), Annetta Hewko (Global Strategy and Business Development Consultant).
Session 2: "The use of formal approaches to management theory" (12:45-14:00)
The use of formal methods – mathematical models, simulation, and formal logic – for the development of management theory has been praised and criticized at the same time. In this Competitive Strategy workshop, we will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of formal approaches to management theory. Among the panelists, we have a mixed set of management scholars who have and who have not themselves made use of formal theory.
Panelists: Rajshree Agarwal (University of Maryland), Jackson Nickerson (Washington University), Russ Coff (University of Wisconsin), Steven Postrel (University of California, Irvine).
Session 3: "Business models" (14:30-15:45)
The concept of business models is used frequently by entrepreneurs, top managers, and in class room settings to describe the competitive strategy a firm has chosen. A definition of business models used in the literature is "the logic of the firm, the way it operates, and how it creates value for its stakeholders". However, there are still widespread differences in interpretation and ambiguity in the use of this term. In this panel discussion, we want to address, among others, the following questions: How is the concept of business models different from other concepts such as revenue models or generic/competitive strategies? How could competitive strategy research incorporate the ideas and findings from research in business models in their own research? We invite scholars who have written on this topic and competitive strategy scholars who did not do research on this specific topic to have a lively debate about these questions.
Panelists: Joan Enric Ricart (IESE Business School), Jay Barney (Ohio State University), Phil Bromiley (University of California, Irvine), David Teece (University of California, Berkeley), Chris Zott (IESE Business School).
Govert Vroom
Assistant Professor of Strategic Management
IESE Business School, Barcelona
Phone: +34.93.602.41.03
Email: vroom@purdue.edu">vroom@iese.edu
Web: webprofesores.iese.edu/gvroom