Abstract: The article deals with the question of capabilities’ cognition in situations of “organizational forgetting”. It proposes to cross the fields of research about capabilities’ cognition and organizational forgetting around the following question: how can cognition about lost capabilities be facilitated or prevented? The article explores the case of an organization involved in complex engineering projects and identifies three main loci of contradictions that translate the difficulty for actors to make sense of a situation of forgetting: perceptions about the performance, about the needed capabilities and about the past capabilities of the organization. Organizational forgetting thus have a double effect: the erosion of capabilities as much as the ability to know the latter. In such situations, the advantages of causal ambiguity are more likely to turn against the organization and the importance of capabilities’ cognition is reinforced.

Abstract: In rapidly shifting industrial landscapes, strategic decision makers must consistently review and recalibrate strategies and tactics, often in response to changing rules of the game. For this reason, adaptive decision making receives increasing attention, as firms must compete in a dynamic and complex world. This implies the need for deeper research into the metacognitive aspects of strategic reasoning, metacognition being the process whereby individuals select which cognitive strategies to employ in problem resolution and decision making. Moreover, this research project is inherently microfoundational, given its focus on cognitive psychological processes within strategy selection. The following research question thus arises: what are the principles of metacognitive reasoning in relation to the selection and adaptation of strategic logics? My conceptual paper addresses this question.

Abstract: Mindfulness has been an increasingly present topic in the management literature. However, different origins and interpretations create difficulty in full appreciation of the concept and use of its potential benefits in managerial work. The purpose of this paper is to clarify different perspectives and to introduce research from psychology and management. We propose several implications of mindfulness training and mindfulness as a state in strategic decisions making which are (1) improvements in detection of external and internal cues (2) finding most relevant cues for new established situation, (3) improvement of decisions that require analytical thinking and (4) decreasing cognitive inertia in dynamic environments.

Abstract: Scholars investigating the ‘innovator’s dilemma’ have accumulated evidence showing that incumbent firms’ resource allocation processes usually direct investments to sustaining innovations in the existing core business, which leaves lower-tier, less profitable customers to new entrants’ and enables new, disruptive innovations to grow. We contribute to this line of research by investigating the microfoundations of incumbent managers’ innovation investment decisions when faced with a new, potentially disruptive growth option. In a laboratory experiment, we draw on research investigating aspiration levels and goal setting, and examine the effects of stretch compared with moderate financial goals on innovation investment decisions in sustaining the core business and in a new growth option. Our results show that stretch financial goals lead to lower investments in the disruptive innovation.

Abstract: Firms face the dilemma to conform to industry logics and to differentiate to gain competitive advantage. We suggest that this tension is both due to and resolved through differing levels of identity, which affect and are affected by firm’s strategic actions such as decisions about vertical integration, horizontal scope, and distribution. Organizational level identity, firm-specific and unique, drives differentiation and unique firm positioning. Industry level identity provides the “recipe” for how firms handle value chain activities and competition, thus driving conformity. Group-level identities reside between these levels and reflect similar business models and choice of competitors. We thus link the three levels of identity to strategic actions and discuss how the levels of identity interrelate.

Abstract: Academics engaged in the process of spinoff formation do not fully embrace their entrepreneurial role identity and experience role conflict. This is a nontrivial problem because it affects strategic decision-making and a number of important spinoff processes and outcomes. However, the antecedents of this problem are not well understood. We examine the influence of academic entrepreneurs’ social identity as founders on their adoption of an entrepreneurial role identity, the degree of experienced role conflict, and strategic decisions made in the context of the spinoff formation process. We are conducting an in-depth exploratory analysis of 51 active academic entrepreneurs involved in the formation of 45 spinoffs associated with 21 universities. Using an inductive methodological approach we analyze data collected through semi-structured interviews, surveys and secondary sources.