Big Tent, Little Ideas and the New, New Directions of Behavioral Theory of the Firm Research

Sponsors: OMT & BPS

Date: Saturday, August 8, 2015, 10:45AM - 12:45PM at Vancouver Convention Centre in Room 212

Participants:

• Organizer: Vibha Gaba, INSEAD
• Organizer: John Joseph, University of California, Irvine
• Panelist: J.P. Eggers, New York University
• Panelist: Tom Moliterno, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Panelist: Hart Posen, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Discussant: Pino Audia, Dartmouth University
• Discussant: Philip Bromiley, University of California, Irvine
• Discussant: Henrich Greve, INSEAD

This PDW will explore the most promising theoretical and empirical agendas for the Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTOF) and their implications for organization and management theory. In particular, our distinguished group of discussants and panelists will be charged with: 1) exploring lesser known pillars of BTOF; 2) how we might integrate the mechanisms of BTOF with those from other disciplines; 3) and augment the well-established ideas with new settings, methods, and voices.

• Posen will offer a new look at problemistic search. His research offers a more comprehensive conceptualization of the problemistic search process and explore conditions under which problemistic search may generate value from procreative output in the form of ancillary knowledge (insights, ideas, routines, solutions) that would not have been generated in the absence of the triggering issue, yet do not primarily serve to solve it.
• Moliterno will examine the attentional and behavioral implications of social performance feedback. Specifically, he will integrate insights from the behavioral theory of the firm and human capital theory to propose that managerial decisions to change the composition of the firm’s resource base, and how it is deployed, are motivated by managerial assessments of social performance comparisons.
• Joseph will revisit the relationship between aspirations, attention and organizational structure. Since BTOF’s publication, much of the research has ignored the role of structure in shaping attention and response to feedback. Joseph and Gaba address this oversight and argue the organizational structure, by segmenting and prioritizing divisional attention, and shaping momentum significantly impacts firm responsiveness to performance feedback in the form of organizational change.
• Eggers will offer a more holistic model of organizational behavior connecting the key elements of the BTOF lens: cognition, performance feedback, politics, attention, learning, and adaptation. He will do so by focusing on the process of strategic decision making for resource allocation that includes five steps. (1) The process begins with a mental model of opportunities and resources built by the manager, (2) involves a matching process between resources and opportunities, (3) includes the political and structural organizational context, (4) results in a strategic action that generates feedback on the efficacy of the action, and (5) the feedback is interpreted through a cognitive behavioral lens to update the manager’s mental models, beginning the cycle again.