The Economic Modeling of Strategy Process: 'Clean Models' and 'Dirty Hands'

Tarun   Khanna; Ranjay  Gulati; Nitin   Nohria

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Article | Strategic Management Journal

The Economic Modeling of Strategy Process: 'Clean Models' and 'Dirty Hands'

by Tarun Khanna, Ranjay Gulati and Nitin Nohria

Keywords: Economics; Strategy; Finance; Policy;

Format: Print

10 pages

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Citation:

Khanna, Tarun, Ranjay Gulati, and Nitin Nohria. "The Economic Modeling of Strategy Process: 'Clean Models' and 'Dirty Hands'." Strategic Management Journal 21, no. 7 (July 2000): 781–790.

About the Authors

Tarun Khanna

Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor

Strategy

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Ranjay Gulati

Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration

Organizational Behavior

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View Publications »

Nitin Nohria

George F. Baker Professor of Administration
Dean of the Faculty

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View Publications »

More from these Authors

Article | Journal of Law, Economics & Organization | March 2020

Do Managers Matter? A Natural Experiment from 42 R&D Labs in India

Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Christos A. Makridis

We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the staggered entry of new managers into India’s 42 public R&D labs between 1994 and 2006 to study how alignment between the CEO and middle-level managers affect research productivity. We show that the introduction of new lab managers aligned with the national R&D reforms raised patenting and multinational licensing revenues by 58% and 75%, respectively, and scientist research productivity, including a 16%, 10%, 11%, and 22% increase in h-indices, number of coauthors, publications, and citations per scientist, respectively. Using natural language processing (NLP) techniques on the set of research abstracts produced among these scientists, we also find that overall mood and sentiment increased by 8.5% following the first managerial change.

Keywords: incentives; innovation; productivity; Management; Alignment; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; India;

Citation:
Choudhury, Prithwiraj, Tarun Khanna, and Christos A. Makridis. "Do Managers Matter? A Natural Experiment from 42 R&D Labs in India." Journal of Law, Economics & Organization 36, no. 1 (March 2020): 47–83. View Details

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Article | HBR Ascend | December 16, 2019

Why Your Startup Won't Last

Ranjay Gulati and Vasundhara Sawhney

Why do some startups that have crossed the threshold of “product-market fit” and have a viable business model still fail? This article begins by exploring the argument that most startups need more professionalization to thrive. Founders resist putting in place structures and systems as they grow and that eventually leads to organizational chaos and ultimately, failure. But it then departs from this conventional view and explores the idea that while on the one hand too little structure in a high growth venture can lead to chaos, going too far on the other extreme with too much structure can also be equally detrimental and kill the soul of the startup. The article concludes by summarizing some ideas for startup founders on how they can learn the mechanics of scaling up effectively before they reach a point where they tip over too far, in one direction or the other. In an attempt to better understand this problem, the authors conducted a closed-group discussion with professionals, investors, and founders operating in various segments of the Indian startup ecosystem on which this article is based.

Keywords: Business Startups; Organizational Structure; Growth and Development Strategy;

Citation:
Gulati, Ranjay, and Vasundhara Sawhney. "Why Your Startup Won't Last." HBR Ascend (December 16, 2019). View Details

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Working Paper | 2019

The Young Venture Lifecycle Revisited: Stage-Contingent Benefits of Technical, Commercial and Process Activities

Ranjay Gulati and Alicia DeSantola

Keywords: entrepreneurship; organizational growth; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship;

Citation:
Gulati, Ranjay, and Alicia DeSantola. "The Young Venture Lifecycle Revisited: Stage-Contingent Benefits of Technical, Commercial and Process Activities." Working Paper, December 2019. View Details

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The Economic Modeling of Strategy Process: 'Clean Models' and 'Dirty Hands'

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