| From Resource Allocation to Strategy | 
 enlarge | Creators: Joseph L. Bower, Clark G. Gilbert
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 483258
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 488
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0199277451
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4012
EAN: 9780199277452
ASIN: 0199277451
Publication Date: September 6, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
How to understand the resource allocation process and how to manage its direction April 26, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My initial reaction to the title was to question which should come first: resource allocation or strategy? Then as I began to read this brilliant book, I understood what Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert's objectives were as co-editors and contributors. As they reveal in the book's Preface, "Our intention in writing this book is threefold: First, we hope to communicate the unique character of the resource allocation process and its link to strategy through the development of a formal model. Second, we hope to show how this model has evolved over 30 years of research development. Finally, we hope to better connect the research on resource allocation to the field of strategy as a whole." Bower and Gilbert brilliantly achieve all three objectives.
The material is carefully organized within six Parts:
I Introduction to the Resource Allocation Process
Overview: how to link resource allocation to strategy; how to model the resource allocation process; what the proper role of strategy making is during organization evolution; and "anomaly-seeking research" which examines 30 years of theory development in resource allocation theory
II When the Bottom-up Process Fails
Overview: when and why the bottom-up resource allocation process fails; the causes and effects of customer power, strategic investment, and the failures of leading firms; the failure of bottom-up strategic processes and the role of top-down disinvestment; and comparing established firms and entrepreneurial start-ups in terms of the process of international expansion
III Restoring the Bottom-up Process
Overview: how to restore the bottom-up process of re4source allocation; strategy making as viewed an iterative process of resource allocation; and beyond resource allocation, how definition and impetus interact to shape strategic outcomes
IV The Need for Top-down Intervention
Overview: when and why corporate intervention in resource allocation is necessary; which corporate-level options to consider when responding to uncertainty in the pursuit of strategic integration; and what the core issues to considering adoption of complex structures and entering into "webs of alliances"
V Outside Commentaries on the RAP Perspective
Overview: John Roberts' thoughts about resource allocation, strategy, and organization; Daniel A. Levinthal's comments on the resource allocation process; Margaret A. Peteraf's views on "research complementarities; and Joel A. Podolny's response to "CEO as Change Agent?"
VI Conclusion
Overview: Bower and Gilbert offer a "revised model of the resource allocation process.
Hopefully the brief comments I presume to provide will enable those who read this review to gain a sense of the scope of coverage by co-editors Bower and Gilbert and other contributors. I agree with them that there has been a need for more and better business research that explains the interaction between organizational and economic forces. The results of recent studies offered in this volume make a significant contribution to filling that need. They give us a much clearer "picture" of how large organizations manage their resources.
As Bower and Gilbert note, "Without exception, these activities are distributed more widely across the organization than is usually imagined. More challenging for both descriptive and normative theories of decision making, activities whose consequences are interdependent will typically proceed independently and simultaneously, posing huge problems where coherence is a central requisite for efficiency and effectiveness."
Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out Jeanne Ross's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Henry Chesbrough's Open Business Models, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and Wayne Eckerson's Performance Dashboards.
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