Editor’s note

Citation

Healy, N. (2010), "Editor’s note", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 31 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs.2010.28831eaa.001

Editor’s note

Article Type: Editor’s note From: Journal of Business Strategy, Volume 31, Issue 5

In this issue of JBS, readers will find articles that have a strong practical bias. We always strive to publish papers that contain actionable ideas or programs, but this issue goes one step beyond with well-written articles that point the way to better strategy execution.

We include two papers on pricing. The first, from Piercy, Cravens and Lane, examines the strategic aspects of pricing in a recessionary environment. When sales are down and the economic environment shows little promise, it is hard to be strategic about pricing since the instinct is to shoot from the hip and do whatever is necessary to increases sales. But it is even more important to treat pricing as a top management priority in these circumstances rather than enact short-term fixes. One of the most interesting examples of value pricing Piercy et al. cites involves a drug company that charges a hospital for its very expensive cancer drug only if the patient outcome is satisfactory. This is a radical departure from drug pricing in the past and raises many questions, but it is a bold move.

Gelb’s paper asks whether people think they get more when they pay more as well as the converse, with some unexpected results.

Whittington and Galpin, in their paper on employee engagement, tackle a most difficult issue. With skepticism about corporate organizations, especially in the USA, on the rise as scandal and fraud continue to rock the framework, employees are anything but committed to their companies. But we have known for a long time that employee satisfaction and loyalty depend primarily on two factors that still have not changed: the immediate supervisor and the work itself. If an employee does not get along with the immediate boss, for whatever reason, or does not like what he is doing all day, not much else matters. That is human nature and no amount of fringe benefits can eradicate or mitigate the sting of an unsympathetic manager or work that is not satisfying.

In an early report on continuing research, Dover and Dierk investigate the ambidextrous organization and how different types of personalities interact at managerial levels.

In another paper on what drives success, four Austrian researchers interviewed managers at more than 700 European companies to find out more about how certain organizations defy the odds and sustain their success over long periods of time. They report that leadership, entrepreneurship culture, market orientation, core competences and leadership influence innovativeness and corporate success.

Next, Sheehan’s paper on risk and strategy execution takes Kaplan and Norton’s work on strategy mapping to the next level by extending it to include risk management.

We hope our readers find this issue as stimulating and original as we believe it is.

Nanci Healy