Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
This paper explores the relationship between a firm's organizational form and its strategic risk taking behavior, measured as its propensity to expand horizontally in the face of increasing levels of environmental turbulence. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of 1986-1995 data for 201 U.S. cable television companies indicates that after controlling for factors such as company scale, two dimensions of organizational form -- a firm's level of diversification, and its CEO's status as an agent versus owner-manager -- predict a company's propensity to either expand horizontally through acquisition or to exit the cable industry (which is interpreted as risk avoidance behavior). The relationship between management equity ownership and risk taking behavior is positive and unambiguous: as turbulence increases, compared to agent-led companies, owner-managed firms exhibit a greater propensity to expand horizontally and a reduced propensity to exit the cable industry. The relationship between diversification and risk taking behavior is more complex: as turbulence increases, compared to firms focused exclusively on the cable business, firms engaged in unrelated diversification outside of cable exhibit both a greater propensity to expand horizontally and a greater propensity to exit the cable industry. In other words, compared to focused firms, in the face of increasing turbulence, diversified companies are likely to take strategicaction of some sort; they are less likely to idle. Drawing on agency theory, hypotheses are advanced that may explain this somewhat counterintuitive finding.

Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
This paper explores the relationship between a firm's organizational form and its strategic risk taking behavior, measured as its propensity to expand horizontally in the face of increasing levels of environmental turbulence. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of 1986-1995 data for 201 U.S. cable television companies indicates that after controlling for factors such as company scale, two dimensions of organizational form -- a firm's level of diversification, and its CEO's status as an agent versus owner-manager -- predict a company's propensity to either expand horizontally through acquisition or to exit the cable industry (which is interpreted as risk avoidance behavior). The relationship between management equity ownership and risk taking behavior is positive and unambiguous: as turbulence increases, compared to agent-led companies, owner-managed firms exhibit a greater propensity to expand horizontally and a reduced propensity to exit the cable industry. The relationship between diversification and risk taking behavior is more complex: as turbulence increases, compared to firms focused exclusively on the cable business, firms engaged in unrelated diversification outside of cable exhibit both a greater propensity to expand horizontally and a greater propensity to exit the cable industry. In other words, compared to focused firms, in the face of increasing turbulence, diversified companies are likely to take strategicaction of some sort; they are less likely to idle. Drawing on agency theory, hypotheses are advanced that may explain this somewhat counterintuitive finding.

Governance and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Governance and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
The relationship between governance structure and strategic risk taking behavior, measured as horizontal expansion in a turbulent environment, is explored through interviews with senior executives in eighteen cable television companies. The interviews reveal several mechanisms through which CEO equity ownership encourages risk taking behavior. First, while a failed expansion strategy may have serious personal consequences for both owner-managers (whose wealth is largely undiversified) and agent CEOs (who have reputations and hence human capital at stake), a successful strategy offers a substantially greater personal payoff for owner-managers. Second, secure in their positions by virtue of influence over their boards, owner-managers feel less obliged to justify risky expansion strategies to board members and other senior managers, and thus may gamble on intuition. By contrast, agent CEOs, who are held publicly accountable for their decisions, must marshal a persuasive case when sponsoring risky expansion strategies. Since doing so is difficult in a turbulent environment, agent CEOs may avoid such strategies. Third, owner-managers' strong emotional attachment to their companies often implies that proposals to sell their firms never receive serious consideration. Finally, outside investors2 risk preferences encourage aggressive expansion by owner-managed limited partnerships, and conservative behavior in agent-led firms owned by family trusts.

Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
The relationship between diversification and strategic risk taking behavior, measured as horizontal expansion in a turbulent environment, is explored through interviews with senior executives in eighteen cable television companies. The interviews reveal three mechanisms through which diversification discouraged risk taking behavior. First, due to information processing constraints, corporate executives in companies engaged in unrelated diversification had lessknowledge of cable industry dynamics than their counterparts in focused firms, and consequently perceived a greater level of competitive risk. Second, consistent with a hypothesis that performance evaluation and reward systems in diversified companies encourage conservative behavior by risk averse division managers, cable division managers almost never championed aggressive expansion programs; when diversified companies undertook such programs, they invariably were initiated by the corporate office. Third, institutional survival was viewed as a paramount priority in most of the sample companies, but this had different implications for risk taking in focused and diversified firms. In focused firms, a desire to perpetuate the institution reduced the likelihood that the company would be sold. In diversified companies, only older segments in the portfolio were considered to be part of the

United States Cable Television Industry

United States Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Satish Kumar Moorthy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
The United States cable television industry is experiencing fierce competition from telephone companies and content providers, as well as new and possibly unknown entrants. As organizations in the industry are currently dealing with competitor firms' ability to enter the domains of media, entertainment, and communications bundled services, areas that were traditionally controlled by the cable companies. The commoditization of voice, video, and data networks has led cable companies to rethink how they are going organize to be able to compete, service customer needs, and keep competitors from entering their domains, while maintaining best-in-breed product differentiation. In order for the cable companies to maintain their dominant position, I argue in this thesis that the firms must change from being a single service cable company, to being multi-service operators (MSO). This change in operations requires a new organization structure.

Determinants of Cable System Product Diversification

Determinants of Cable System Product Diversification PDF Author: Fang Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cable television
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


Strategic Uses of Organizational Form

Strategic Uses of Organizational Form PDF Author: Tasneem Chipty
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cable television
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description


From Resource Allocation to Strategy

From Resource Allocation to Strategy PDF Author: Joseph L. Bower
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019151540X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert have collected together some of the leading experts on strategy to examine how strategy is actually made by company managers across the several levels of an organization. Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of smaller decisions, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? Often it is by examining how options for using resources are developed and selected, that we can see how a company's competitive position gets shaped. On the basis of this understanding, we can see better how these processes can be managed. The book's five sections examine how the resource allocation process works, how the way it works can lead a company into serious problems, how top management can intervene to fix these problem, and where the most recent thinking on these problems is headed. A fifth section contains assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The implications for those who study firms are considerable. Activity that is normally thought about in terms of substantive outcomes such as market share and revenue growth, or present value and internal rate of return, is seen to be inextricably related to organizational and administrative questions. The findings presented here should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioral scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative. The processes described are complex, but clear enough so that the way toward effective management is apparent. The models developed provide a basis for building the systems and organization necessary for today's competitive world.

Public Policy Toward Cable Television

Public Policy Toward Cable Television PDF Author: Thomas W. Hazlett
Publisher: American Enterprise Institute
ISBN: 9780844740690
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book analyzes the effectiveness of the federal government's vacillating regulatory policy toward the cable television industry.

Competitive Problems in the Cable Television Industry

Competitive Problems in the Cable Television Industry PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Antitrust law
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Cable Television Industry

Cable Television Industry PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Small Business. Subcommittee on SBA and SBIC Authority, Minority Enterprise, and General Small Business Problems
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cable television
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description