SBANC
Newsletter
April
11, 2006
Issue 416-2006
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QUOTE
"Statistics
suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers
ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents
a huge opportunity for more business."
-- Zig Ziglar
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FEATURE
PAPER
Corporate
Control And
New Corporate Venture Manager Power
The
following paper was presented at the 2006 USASBE/SBI Joint Conference
Proceedings held in Tucson, Arizona. It was written by R. Greg
Bell of University of Texas at Arlington.
Abstract
Strategy
research has centered on the importance of top management to
organizational success.
However to date, little has been written of the role of new corporate
venture managerial power.
We first outline the controls that corporations place on new ventures
and discuss how they can
diminish the opportunity seeking behavior and innovative activities
of new corporate ventures.
Finally, we discuss how new venture managerial power will moderate
the effect of corporate
controls.
Introduction
Today,
the general business environment is more competitive and technology
is changing rapidly
(Hitt & Reed, 2000). Changing social and demographic trends,
as well as sudden changes within
the business environment, can quickly threaten a firm’s competitive
position. In order to pursue
entrepreneurial activities, corporations often turn to a number
of different organizational forms
ranging from corporate equity acquisitions, to joint ventures (Crockett,
2004). Among these the
different forms of corporate entrepreneurship, corporate venturing
has been found to be the most
effective (Burgelman, 1983).
Read
the Entire Paper...
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CONFERENCES
AEO
|
| Who: |
Association
for Enterprise Opportunity
|
| What: |
Microenterprise
Development: From Dreams to Reality
|
| Where: |
Atlanta,
Georgia, USA |
| When: |
May
16-19, 2006
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U.S.
Dept. of Commerce
|
| Who: |
U.S.
Department of Commerce
|
| What: |
China
Business Conference
|
| Where: |
Washington,
DC, USA |
| When: |
May17-19,
2006 |
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IBFR
|
| Who: |
Institute
for Business and Finance Research
|
| What: |
The
2006 Global Conference on Business and Finance (GCBF)
|
| Where: |
Hotel
Herradura: Golf Resort and Conference Center in San
Jose, Costa Rica |
| When: |
May
31-June 3, 2006 |
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|
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IPSI
|
| Who: |
Internet,
Processing, Systems, and Interdisciplinary (Research)
|
| What: |
IPSI
2006 - Montreal
|
| Where: |
Montreal,
Canada |
| When: |
June
30-July 3, 2006 |
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AACSB
|
| Who: |
The
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
|
| What: |
Ethics
and Governance Conference
|
| Where: |
The
George Washington University, Washington DC, USA |
| When: |
July
19 - 20, 2006 |
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CALLS FOR PAPERS
ISBE
|
| Who: |
Institute
for Small Business & Entrepreneursip
|
| What: |
29th
Annual Conference
|
| Where: |
University
of Glamorgan in Wales, UK |
| When: |
October
31-November 2, 2006 |
Submission
Deadline:
May 31, 2006
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ASC
|
| Who: |
American
Society for Competitiveness
|
| What: |
17th
Annual Conference
|
| Where: |
Washington,
D.C., USA |
| When: |
November
9-11, 2006 |
Submission
Deadline:
June 5, 2006
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AGB
|
| Who: |
Association
for Global Business
|
| What: |
18th
International Conference
|
| Where: |
Hyatt
Regency, Newport Beach, California, USA |
| When: |
November
16 - 19, 2006 |
Submission
Deadline:
June 30, 2006
|
|
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ABEAI
|
| Who: |
Applied
Business and Entrepreneurship Association International |
| What: |
Annual
Meeting
|
| Where: |
Marriott
Waikoloa Beach Resort, Kona, Hawaii, USA |
| When: |
November
16-20, 2006 |
Submission
Deadline:
August 15, 2006
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|
|
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ASBE
|
| Who: |
Association
for Small Business and Entrpreneurship |
| What: |
Fall
Conference
|
| Where: |
Best
Western in Corpus Christi, Texas |
| When: |
November
1-3, 2006 |
Submission
Deadline:
August 1, 2006
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TIP
OF THE WEEK
Getting Good
People
It all begins here. Someone once asked Sam Walton what special
training programs he instituted to have such upbeat, customer-focused
associates. Sam reportedly thought for a moment with a quizzical
look on his face and then asked, "Why not hire friendly
upbeat people?" Much of our personnel energy and resources
are, in fact, devoted to fixing or improving the initial
hiring decision. We invest significantly in improving and upgrading
technical skill or in improving or correcting workplace behaviors.
A great example at Wal-Mart is addressing the classic retail
challenge of employee turnover.
As we analyzed
our situation, we noted that our turnover had increased steadily
from a baseline
in 1994 (the year I joined Wal-Mart and
began measuring) to 1999 when we established stronger retention
strategies. During this time, our internal and external environment
had begun to change. Internally we were expanding from a purely
general merchandise business of small hometown store of 40,000
square feet to 180,000 square-foot "supercenters" that
offer groceries as well as general merchandise. Many of these new
operations were also 24/7; that is open 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. What a significant shock to a store's operating system!
Additionally,
in 1994, there were still many states with "blue
laws." That is, their retail operations were not open on Sundays.
As this has changed state by state, the dynamics of running a nonstop
operation accelerated us to another level.
A final consideration
was the "war for talent." The
economy had gotten a second wind and unemployment dropped from
6.6 percent to 4.3 percent from 1994 to 1999. Employment appeared
to be plentiful, and many job holders opted for frequent job changes.
At Wal-Mart,
we embarked on a strategy to reduce our rising turnover. Part
One of the strategy was Get. As we looked at our recruiting
strategies, we realized that the starting point for turnover is
when we hire and who we hire. Many of us do a great job of hiring
our own turnover, and examples abound.
An associate
leaves within the first 90 days because of a conflict in schedule
or
a preference to work in another area. Were these
things discussed before the job offer was made? Or there appears
to be attendance or punctuality problems that cause us to focus
more on corrective discipline than training job skills and customer-related
skills. Then we ask, "Was there something in the person's
background that I should have known?" What did I miss?
Very early
in my career, after having done college recruiting for some time,
I took a
class in selection and testing as a part
of my graduate school curriculum. As the professor was orienting
us on the first day of class, he stated, "Remember that the
face-to-face interview is probably the most invalid selection process
that exists!" Of course, I was stunned by this obviously erroneous
statement because I felt that my ability to "size up" a
candidate across the table was foolproof. I learned later that
there is much to know about hiring decisions and how to ensure
that your selections are adding to the strength of the team. The
good professor's point was that there were (and are) many behavioral
instruments and validation processes that can help
up maximize
the focus and training around picking good people, which encompassed
everything from selection training classes to computer-based
training on interviewing techniques. These efforts contributed
significantly
to our part in the energy applied in the two remaining key
areas--Keeping and Growing good people.
| Coleman
Peterson. Mike Losey, Sue Meisinger, Dave Urlich. The
Future of Human Resource Management. Hoboken,
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. 39-40. |
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Building Better Rural Places
SBANC has
added the USDA as a new research archive. The 2004 Building
Better Rural Places is now available. It is a publication
of U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies
working together for sustainable rural development
in collaboration with
The Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
and The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT).
To view the publication please click here.
Other
Notes
The
past few weeks the link to the ASBE Calls for Papers has not
been
working
properly with some e-mail accounts.
If the link to the ASBE website does not work properly please
click here and use the link on this page instead. We are sorry
for the inconvinience.
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The
SBANC Newsletter is provided as a service to the members of our
affiliates: Academy of Collegiate Marketing Educators (ACME), Association
for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (ASBE), Federation of
Business Disciplines (FBD), International Council for Small Business
(ICSB), Institute for Supply Management (ISM), The International
Small Business Congress (ISBC), Marketing Management Association
(MMA), Small Business Administration (SBA), Service Corps of Retired
Executives (SCORE), Small Business Institute (SBI), Society for
Marketing Advances (SMA), United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship
(USASBE), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).. If you are
interested in membership or would like further information on one
of our affiliates, please see our web site at http://www.sbaer.uca.edu
SBANC STAFF
Main Office Phone: (501) 450-5300
Dr.
Don B. Bradley III, Executive Director of SBANC & Professor
of Marketing;
Direct Phone: (501) 450-5345
Brandon
Tabor, Development Intern
Tyler
Farrar, Development Intern
Garion
McCoy, Development Intern
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the
SBANC Newsletter, please E-mail SBANC at sbanc@uca.edu
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