Conflict inside and outside: Social comparisons and attention shifts in multidivisional firms
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Final Accepted Manuscript
Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Eller Coll Management, Dept Management & OrgIssue Date
2017-07Keywords
adaptive aspirationssocial comparison
political coalition
attention allocation
multidivisional firms
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WILEYCitation
Conflict inside and outside: Social comparisons and attention shifts in multidivisional firms 2017, 38 (7):1435 Strategic Management JournalJournal
Strategic Management JournalRights
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Research summary: Behavioral Theory highlights the crucial role of social comparisons in attention allocation in adaptive aspirations. Yet, both the specification of social reference points and the dynamics of attention allocation have received little scholarly examination. We address performance feedback from two social reference points relative to divisions in multidivisional firms: economic reference point and political reference point. Comparing divisional performance with the two reference points can give consistent or inconsistent feedback, which has important consequences for the dynamics of attention allocation in adaptive aspirations. We find consistent feedback leads to more attention to own experience, while inconsistent feedback results in more attention to the social reference point the focal division underperforms. Results reveal that political reference point plays an important role in determining managerial attention allocation.Managerial summary: This article is based on how goal-based performance of divisions relative to both their relevant external market rivals and sister divisions in multidivisional firms influences corporate resource allocation. As a result, various combinations of performance against the two groups of peers drive the reallocation of divisional management attention. We show that specific attention shifts occur on average as a function of the focal division's performance relative to the marketplace performance and that of sister divisions. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Note
24 month embargo; Accepted manuscript online: 13 July 2016ISSN
01432095DOI
10.1002/smj.2556Version
Final accepted manuscriptAdditional Links
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/smj.2556ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/smj.2556