| 201. |
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| 202. |
- Styhre, Alexander, 1971
(author)
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The influence of neoliberalism and its absence in management research
- 2014
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In: International Journal of Organizational Analysis. - 1934-8835. ; 22:3, s. 278-300
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose – The paper aims to address the recent debate over the “relevance lost” of business school research and points to the establishment of neoliberal economic policy during the past three decades as an example of social change that has not been thoroughly theorized in business school research. Design/methodology/approach – The literature on neoliberalism is reviewed and, more specifically, its implications for the financialization of industry and the widespread use of financial theory in corporate governance. The paper outlines some of the consequences of neoliberalism, pointing out the connections between the growth of the finance industry and the 2008 financial crisis. Findings – The paper demonstrates that the financialization of industry and the institutionalization of finance theory, as the guiding corporate governance model used in the new millennium, have led to a concentration of capital in the finance industry. As a consequence, other productive investments have been postponed. Despite such shifts in corporate governance and economic policy more broadly, neoliberalism is a relatively marginal topic of discussion in business school research. Social implications – The study stresses the need for broadening the scope of business school research and addressing more long-term institutional changes in economic policy and corporate governance. Originality/value – The paper emphasizes the need, not only for promoting practitioner relevance in business school research, but also for enacting an ambitious research agenda of broader social relevance.
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| 203. |
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| 204. |
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| 205. |
- Styhre, Alexander, 1971, et al.
(author)
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The institutional work of life science innovation leadership: The case of a bio venture hub
- 2016
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In: Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management. - 1746-5648 .- 1746-5656. ; 11:4, s. 253-275
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Life science innovation is a complex domain of professional work including scientific know-how, regulatory expertise, and commercialization and marketing skills. While the investment in basic life science research has soared over the last decades, resulting in a substantial growth in scientific know-how, the life science industry (and most notably pharmaceutical companies) unfortunately reports a meagre innovative output. In order to counteract waning innovation productivity, new organizational initiatives seek to better bridge and bond existing life science resources. The purpose of this paper is to report a case study of bio venture hub initiative located in a major multinational pharmaceutical company. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on institutional work literature, an empirical study based on case study methodology demonstrates that new life science collaborations demand both external and internal institutional work to challenge conventional wisdom, making the legal protection of intellectual properties a key factor in the field and that in turn complicates much firm collaborations. Such institutional work questions existing practices and opens up new pathways in life science innovation work. Findings: The bio hub initiative, which in considerable ways breaks with the traditional in-house and new drug development activities located in enclosed R&D departments and in collaboration with clinical research organizations, demands extensive institutional work and political savoir-faire to create legitimacy and operational stability. Not only are there practical, legal, and regulatory issues to handle, but the long-term legitimacy and financial stability of the bio hub initiative demands support from both internal and external significant actors and stakeholders. The external institutional work in turn demands a set of skills in the bio venture hub’s management team, including detailed scientific and regulatory expertise, communicative skills, and the charisma and story-telling capacities to convince and win over sceptics. The internal institutional work, in turn, demands an understanding of extant legal frameworks and fiscal policies, the ability to handle a series of practical and administrative routines (i.e. how to procure the chemicals used in the laboratory work or how to make substance libraries available), and to serve as a “match-maker” between the bio venture hub companies and the experts located at the hosting company. Originality/value: The case study provides first-hand empirical data from an unique initiative in the pharmaceutical industry to create novel collaborative spaces where small-sized life science companies can take advantage of the mature firm’s expertise and stock of know-how, also benefitting the hosting company as new collaborations unfold and providing a detailed understanding of ongoing life science innovation projects. In this view, all agencies embedded in institutional field (i.e. what has been addressed as “institutional work” – the active work to create, maintain, or disrupt institutions) both to some extent destabilize existing practise and create new practices better aligned with new conditions and relations between relevant and mutually dependent organizations. The empirical study supports the need for incorporating the concept of agency in institutional theory and thus contributes to the literature on institutional work by showing how one of the industries, the pharmaceutical industry, being strongly fortified by intellectual property rights (i.e. a variety of patents), inhibiting the free sharing of scientific and regulatory know-how and expertise, is in fact now being in the process of rethinking the “closed-doors” tradition of the industry. That is, the institutional work conducted in the bio venture hub is indicative of new ideas entering Big Pharma.
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| 206. |
- Styhre, Alexander, 1971
(author)
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The invention of the shopping mall: Victor Gruen and production of the high-liquidity, capitalist space
- 2019
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In: Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology. - 1726-0531. ; 17:2, s. 283-299
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose – The economic system of competitive capitalism strives toward liquid markets wherein the cost for transacting is minimized. Liquidity is mostly addressed in association with abstract markets (e.g. the securities market), but also consumer markets are determined by liquidity concerns. The purpose of this paper is to examine the shopping mall concept, developed by the architect and social reformer Victor Gruen during the early 1950s, as a form of production of capitalist space, intended to reduce transaction costs. As an auxiliary benefit, Gruen envisioned the shopping mall as a cultural and civic center in the midst of the satellite town of suburbia, the new site of urban expansion during the post-war boom decades. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews secondary literature on the historical development of the shopping mall as a consumer space. In addition, relevant economic and social science literature is referenced. Findings – The architecture, design, ornamentation and day-to-day management of the shopping mall were premised on a consumerist way of life, ultimately serving as an all-too-visual index of the triumph of competitive capitalism in the cold war era. However, Gruen’s accomplishments were gradually compromised by the interest of money-minded developers and construction industry actors, and the shopping mall arguably never fulfilled the social and cultural function that Gruen anticipated. Regardless of such outcomes, the production of capitalist space as scripted by Gruen is still determining everyday life in consumer society, making Gruen a key figure, albeit only limitedly recognized, in the history of late modern society and in the capitalist economy. Originality/value – The paper emphasizes the role of Victor Gruen in the post-Second World War period, being one of the most influential practitioners and social reformers in the era. Furthermore, the paper stresses how market liquidity is a key concern in Gruen’s project to create a communal space for the American suburban population in the era of the expanding welfare state.
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| 207. |
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| 208. |
- Styhre, Alexander, 1971
(author)
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The Making of the Shareholder Primacy Governance Model: Price Theory, the Law and Economics School, and Corporate Law Retrenchment Advocacy
- 2018
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In: Accounting Economics and Law-a Convivium. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 2194-6051 .- 2152-2820. ; 8:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Shareholder welfare (also addressed as shareholder primacy and shareholder value in the corporate governance and economics theory literature, and here used interchangeably with the more generic term shareholder welfare) has been fortified in the present regime of investor capitalism and is today widely normalized and taken for granted. However, when examining the theoretical tenets, operative methodologies, and stated preferences regarding the virtues of efficiency as a primary economic objective, and wider assumptions regarding alleged costs generated in the corporate system on the basis of managerial discretion and extant corporate legislation and court rulings, the advocacy of the benefits of shareholder welfare is compromised considerably; i.e., it is based on unjustified preferences and far from irrefutable propositions. Tracing the roots of agency theory and its forceful defence of shareholder welfare back to Chicago economics price theory and its application in law and economics scholarship, instituted in the early 1960s, theoretical inconsistencies in the predominant corporate governance model are demonstrated, accompanied by empirical materials that discredit the claim that the market for corporate control can replace, at low cost, the management discretion governance model. The study thus contributes to the critique of the role of shareholder welfare advocacy in investor capitalism.
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| 209. |
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| 210. |
- Styhre, Alexander, 1971, et al.
(author)
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The mundanity of cost cutting: The value of small wins in affordable housing production
- 2023
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0956-5221. ; 39:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Regardless of the best intentions to address the issue among policy makers, affordable housing remains one of the most underprovided assets in advanced economies, otherwise characterized by an ample supply of product offerings. The paper addressed the question of how affordable housing can be provided on basis of new housing production. The study is premised on the theoretical proposition that excellence is not primarily a matter of working "harder" or "smarter" than competitors do, but is rather an effect of small, yet discernable qualitative changes (being the basis for the management of the "mundanity of excellence") that generate benefits and returns in excess of what may be originally expected. The value of such "small wins" are of general relevance for any organized activity or managerial pursuit. Drawing on a study of two low-cost producers operating in the Swedish market and (in one of the cases) abroad, it is shown that to make newly produced homes affordable (defined in local terms on basis of documented housing sales and their buying price), the planning, production, and sales cost need to be minimized throughout the whole process. Affordable housing is thus provided on basis of a full organizational and wider institutional commitment to serve households with limited budget headroom, and this work demands a long-term commitment to stated business objectives and enacted housing policies.
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