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Dissertation Information for Bruce T. Lamont

NAME:
- Bruce T. Lamont
- (Alias) Bruce Thomas Lamont

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Management

SCHOOL:
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA) (1989)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: The environmental context effects of corporate strategic change

Abstract: "The dissertation investigates the heretofore much discussed and debated, but rarely empirically examined, environmental context effects of corporate strategic change. Three central issues of debate among organizational and strategy theorists are identified and examined: (1) the positive, negative, or random nature of the average environmental context effects of business portfolio change, (2) the extent to which improvements are realized on certain dimensions at a cost of deteriorations on others, and (3) the relative efficacy of related and unrelated diversification. Sets of contradictory hypotheses are developed and presented for investigation, reflecting the scope of these disagreements.

A descriptive, longitudinal study of fifty randomly selected Fortune 500 firms was conducted. In the aggregate, it was found that corporate strategic change did not produce unilateral improvements nor deteriorations on the three environmental context dimensions studied: growth, profitability, and stability. Rather, the magnitude of business mix change was associated with both positive and negative effects on each environmental dimension. Also, the relationship between the growth and profitability effects was found to be positive and linear, while the growth and stability effects were observed to be negatively and linearly related. Further, the environmental growth and stability effects were found to be complexly a function of the initial relatedness of a firm's business portfolio, changes in related and unrelated diversity, and the magnitude of all types of business mix change. No universally superior strategy was evident.

The findings provide information on issues of discussion and debate among organization and strategy theorists interested in corporate strategic behavior. The study documents systematic relationships between business portfolio change, environmental consequences, and strategy content. The observations, however, are not entirely consistent with the tenets of any one of the theories or theoretical perspectives that have been used to explain corporate strategic behavior to date, drawing attention to possible limitations of existing theory. Further study and theoretical clarification of environmental context/business mix linkages seems warranted."

MPACT Scores for Bruce T. Lamont

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:05:28

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