Diseño mecánico de los dedos

Studies have also been conducted which evaluate other criteria that contribute to the performance of a firm. As part of this topical review, 31 peer-reviewed journal articles on this specific topic were analyzed with the intent of uncovering trends that might further contribute and enhance the MBNQA model. A Pareto graph which visually demonstrates the overall themes is provided in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Contributing Factors to Performance within Literature

The first main contributor to performance excellence is leadership. One such study by Pannirselvam and Ferguson (2001) indicates that leadership significantly directly or indirectly affects all of the systems constructs within the model. A similar finding resulted from the

research of Wilson and Collier (2000), when they determined through an empirical investigation that leadership is the most important driver of system performance.

Another study examined the performance of healthcare organizations determined that leadership drives the direction of the organization, which affects the system from which results are derived (Kim & Oh, Causality Analysis on Health Care Evaluation Criteria for State-Operated Mental Hospitals in Korea Using Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Model, 2012).

Typically, organizational factors are the subject of study among firms with performance differences. However, variation amongst individuals, and especially mid-level managers, has proven to have greater significance on firm performance (Mollick, 2012). The topic of leader

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performance specifically is the subject of many studies, particularly the causes of effective leadership. In 2009, Van Iddekinge, Ferris, and Heffner found that the knowledge, skills, abilities, and contiousness of leaders were directly correlated to firm performance. Leaders emerge from those employees which exhibit the greatest amount of intitiating structure behavior (Taggar & Seijts, 2003), which means that they are task-oriented in order to help the team accomplish its goals.

This observation is further augmented by the information processing theory, which proposes that employees work towards achieving organizational goals because they want to succeed, but this focus may also result in lowered attentiveness towards recognizing the efforts of others (Powell, Lovallo, & Caringal, Causal Ambiguity, Management Perception, and Firm Performance, 2006). The CEO is the company’s foremorst leader, and that role is therefore of great importance. As determined by a 2010 study, a one-point increase in strategic flexbility (the ability to adapt to varying environmental circumstances) results in a 4.21 percent increase in ROA, a 5.01 increase in ROS, and a 3.85 percent increase in ROI (Nadkarno & Herrmann).

To foster this strategic flexbility in order to contribute to leadership performance, CEOs must adopt extraversion traits as well as receptivity toward new experiences, and avoid

comprehensiveness (being too-detail oriented) and the status quo in decision-making (Nadkarno

& Herrmann, 2010). Businesses which select successor CEOs who are external to the company have been shown to foster a greater degree of firm internationalization during complex industrial environments (Lin & Liu, 2012). Additionally, top management teams which have functional

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background diversity realize increasing positive effects as environmental uncertainty increases (Cannella, Park, & Lee, 2008).

Another main contributor to performance excellence is employee performance. Employee performance has been a widely studied subject, although it is possible that budget constraints may reduce investments in performance measurement systems in the future (Sanger, 2012).

Curiousity and learning were determined to strongly relate to successful employee socialization and the best possible job performance (Reio & Callahan, 2004). The work environment and even procedures and instructions can have an effect on system performance as well (Elshennawy, Lee,

& Hines, 1989).

The cognitive style of employees has also been the subject of study by McIntyre,

Claxton, Anselmi, and Wheatley (2000) to correlate higher performance with the ability to adapt to situational constructs. Using the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) framework, they concluded that employees who use think abstractly (Intuition) from a detached standpoint (Thinking) are more likely to exhibit adaptive behavior than those who look at conceret information (Sensing) and are highly empathetic (Feeling).

Within a team setting, the most successful employees attribute group success to the sense of responsibility that they place on themselves, each group member, and the team as a whole versus on group constraints and situational distractions (Forsyth & Schlenker, 1976). High self-esteem has been found to make people more willing to speak up in groups and also more willing

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to challenge the group’s approach (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003), leading to constructive brainstorming sessions and enhanced productivity.

Another contributor to performance excellence is business characteristics. Specific business characteristerics have also been the subject of study in determining the link to

performance. One study determined that firm effects (difficult-to-copy attributes) are are more important than industry effects (such as the technology life-cycle) on firm performance (Mauri &

Michaels, 1998). In addition, a 2012 study by Delcea, Scarlat and Maracine determined six contributing factors to a firm’s current situation. These contributing factors include

competitiveness, learning, marketing, management, planning, and resources. In an analysis of 120 independent samples, another study found that a multinational company has intrinsic value that supercedes the intantible assets that firms possess (Kirca, et al., 2011). Extra-national (offshore) technology units have also been proven to reduce resource-based power (Medcof, 2001).

Intangible resources such as intellectual capital and customer captial are another

contributor that positively influence firm performance (Cater & Cater, 2009). Research in 2008 (Ariyachandra & Frolick) surveyed the literature for critical success factors contributing to performance, and a trend analysis revealed that having a champion, management support, sufficient resources, team skills, user support, effective communication, clear links to business strategy, data management infrastructure, a development methodology and managing resistance all help guide evolution.

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Even corporate philanthropy efforts have been shown to positively contribute to the financial performance of a firm, mostly due to the effect it has on stakeholder responses which lead to political gains (Wang & Qian, 2011). In a somewhat related study, socially responsible activities (such as volunteerism and a concern for the environment) were determined to help maximize the overall market value of the firm (Mackey, Mackey, & Barney, 2007).

Variations in firm profitability contribute to variations in corporate-level strategies and business-level strategies (Beard & Dess, 1981). The degree to which a company organizes the relatedness of its products, markets and technologies within its diversification strategy helps to increase firm performance (Varadarajan & Ramanujam, 1987). Surprisingly, strategic planning alone does not provide a sustainable strategic advantage in and of itself, because although it does provide value, it is easily imitated and can be substituted (Powell, Research Notes and

Communications Strategic Planning as Competitive Advantage, 1992). Even if strategic planning is completed at the business-unit level, this distributed approach can hinder innovation (Grant, 2003).

According to a study which focused solely on TQM (Total Quality Management) and firm performance, the strongest predictors of firm performance included leadership, management of people, and customer focus (Samson & Terziovski, 1999). These authors also made a

surprising discovery that behavioral factors such as executive commitment, employee

empowerment and an open culture can produce competitive advantage more strongly than the

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TQM tools and techniques of process improvement, benchmarking, and information and analysis.

Knowledge assets also contribute to performance excellence. Data from focus groups was collected in another study (Andreou, Green, & Stankosky, 2007) to determine knowledge assets leading to enhanced performance. The authors created a taxonomy of value drivers for these intangible assets, and these resulted in the categories of customer, competitor, employee,

information, partner, process, product/service, and technology. Studies within the education field also help uncover potentially-related factors contributing to performance. One such study

identified that leaders are responsible for creating a customer focus, setting values through actions, and for developing future leaders (Belohlav, Cook, & Heiser, 2004).

The literature reviewed within this section provides a unique perspective in gaining an understanding and appreciation for factors which have been proven to contribute to performance, but may not necessarily be completely reflected within the scope of the MBCPE model. A synthesis of these findings are provided in Table 3.

Table 3: Summary of Factors Contributing to Performance

Year Author Findings & Results That Are Related to Performance

1975 Forsyth & Schlenker Strong sense of personal ability and responsibility versus internal constraints, situational distractions, and task difficulty.

1981 Beard & Dess Corporate-level and business-level strategies.

1983 Lubatkin Acquired firms achieve performance improvements as a result of technical, pecuniary, and diversification synergies.

1986 Chakravarthy The quality of firm transformational efforts and satisfaction of all firm stakeholders are important discriminators of strategic importance.

1987 Varadarajan &

Ramanujam

Diversification based on relatedness of products, markets, and technologies.

1989 Elshennawy, Lee, Hines Machines and work environments arranged to reduce error.

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Year Author Findings & Results That Are Related to Performance

1992 Powell Strategic planning does not provide a sustainable competitive advantage in and of itself, as it is easily imitated and may be substitutable.

1995 Hart Pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development contribute to development of a sustained competitive advantage.

1996 Peng & Heath The growth of a firm is constrained by the ability of the management team to effectively articulate organization information to employees and its ability to overcome transaction costs associated with growth.

1998 Mauri & Michaels Firm effects are more important than industry effects.

1999 Zahra The dynamic interplay between technology, strategy, organization, and regions determine the identity, skills, and contributions of the firm.

2000 McIntyre, Claxton, Anselmi, Wheatley

Preferences for information intake by intuiting (rather than sensing) and information processing/decision-making by thinking (rather than feeling).

2001 Medcof When important technical (R&D) resources are located offshore for strategic and efficiency reasons, resource-based power goes with them.

2003 Grant Strategic planning systems aimed at coordinating decentralized strategy formulation foster adaptation and responsiveness, but these may limit innovation as well as analytical sophistication.

2003 Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, Vohs

Praise boosts self-esteem as a reward for socially desirable behavior and leads to self-improvement.

2003 Taggar & Seijts Emergence of strong leadership behaviors, emergence of strong staff role behaviors.

2004 Reio & Callahan Emotions, curiosity, learning.

2006 Powell, Lovallo, Caringal

Causal ambiguity (availability of strategic resources) has no net effect on firm performance.

2007 Andreou, Green, Stankosky

Competitive intelligence, enterprise intelligence, social intelligence, leveraging competencies, leveraging technology, capitalizing on processes, customer intimacy.

2007 Mackey, Mackey, Barney

Socially responsible investment opportunities do not maximize future cash flows, yet maximize the market value of the firm.

2008 Cannella, Park, Lee The effects of intrapersonal functional diversity become more positive as environmental uncertainty increases.

2009 Cater & Cater Financial Resources, Customer Capital.

2010 Nadkarni & Herrmann Facets of personality either enhance or inhibit strategic flexibility.

2011 Wang & Qian Corporate philanthropy, which elicits positive stakeholder responses and gains in political access.

Multi-nationality provides an efficient organizational form that enables firms to transfer their firm-specific assets to generate higher returns in international markets.

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Year Author Findings & Results That Are Related to Performance 2011 Mitchell, Shepherd,

Sharfman

Hostile work environments increase erratic strategic decision-making, dynamic work environments reduce erratic decision-making.

2011 He & Huang Clarification of hierarchies to coordinate interaction.

2012 Delcea, Scarlat, Maracine

Gaining an understanding to the underlying causes of failure will help improve a firm's situation and lengthen its life.

2012 Sanger No evidence of performance measurement systems being used to help government manage for performance.

2012 Mollick Variation among middle managers has a particularly large impact on firm performance, much larger than that of those individuals who are assigned innovative roles.

2012 Lin & Liu Leadership successors which are external to the company foster a greater degree of change in the level of firm internationalization when the industrial

environment is munificent or complex.