主题: We’re One of a Kind: Inflated Asset Specificity Perceptions and the Emergence of Core Rigidities
演讲嘉宾: Russell Coff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
主持人: 贺伟, 南京大学
时间: 北京时间2025年8月27日上午9:00-10:15
语言: 英文
讲座平台: Zoom
报名链接：https://www.xcdsystem.com/iacmr/forms/index.cfm?ID=iLP9ywf

嘉宾简介

Russell Coff is the Thomas J. Falk Distinguished Chair in Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also the Department Chair for Management and Human Resources and the Academic Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration. His research explores the role of human assets in innovation, creativity, and, ultimately in competitive advantage. For example, he studies management dilemmas associated with human capital including: 1) the management of strategic investments in knowledge-based assets under great uncertainty 2) capturing value from competitive advantages, 3) creativity & innovation, and 4) how buyers cope in mergers and acquisitions that involve human assets. Coff received his Ph.D. from UCLA and has previously been a faculty member at Emory and Washington Universities.

Russ has served the research community through his participation on a variety of editorial boards including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Organization (where he was a Co-Editor), and Strategy Science (where he is currently a Senior Editor). He also chaired the Business Policy and Strategic Division of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Human Capital Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society. Finally, he is a Past President of the Strategic Management Society.

摘要

We identify specificity perception bias as a key driver of core rigidities. Strategy theory typically assumes asset specificity is easily observed and drives decisions to vertically integrate capabilities as well as the nature of relationships with external suppliers. However, boundedly rational managers may exhibit systematically biased specificity perceptions and struggle with an innate uniqueness bias as they strive to build novel capabilities. Inflated specificity perception biases create a perceived need for excessive customization. We argue that this upward bias may lead to unduly specialized investments over time. This pattern occurs both when capabilities are internalized and when created through cooperative agreements. Surprisingly, we also posit that when private AI is used to assist with capability development decisions, this upward bias is exacerbated rather than mitigated. Finally, we predict that managers’ enduring uniqueness bias can lead them to create an ecosystem of inefficient excessively specialized assts and routines – in essence, a core rigidity. Thus, increasing innovation (the prescription from the extant literature), which spurs investments in specialized assets, will likely increase rather than alleviate this problem. Instead, we suggest core rigidities can only be addressed by costly readjustment of highly specific assets to adapt more generic assets to meet the firm’s needs.