Purpose

This paper aims to integrate insights from the behavioral theory of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective to explain how the historical and social attainment discrepancies motivate firms to change. Specifically, this paper proposes that a negative historical attainment discrepancy encourages the firm to engage in strategic change to solve its performance problems. In contrast, this paper advanced that a positive social attainment discrepancy motivates strategic change as a mechanism to bolster the firm’s position within the industry. Further, this paper integrated the moderating effects of industry dynamism and industry munificence.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper tests hypotheses using panel data on 2,435 US public firms over the years from 1996 to 2018. This paper uses a fixed-effects regression model to empirically test these hypotheses.

Findings

This paper finds empirical support for the effects of both the negative historical attainment discrepancy and the positive social attainment discrepancy on the firm’s tendency to engage in strategic change. As for the hypothesized moderating effects, this paper finds that industry munificence accentuated the effects of both attainment discrepancies on the firm’s tendency to engage in strategic change. However, the results do not support the hypothesized moderating effect of industry dynamism on either of these attainment discrepancies.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the research on the separate effects of historical and social comparisons within the context of strategic change. Further, the paper bolsters our understanding of how performance feedback increases the firm’s tendency to change. Finally, the paper integrates theoretical views from the behavioral theory of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective on how socially high-performing firms may build and sustain their competitive advantage through organizational change.

中文翻译：

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揭示绩效反馈对战略变革的影响：行业状况的调节作用

目的

本文旨在整合企业行为理论和动态能力视角的见解，解释历史和社会成就的差异如何激励企业变革。具体来说，本文提出，负的历史成就差异会鼓励公司进行战略变革以解决其绩效问题。相比之下，本文提出，积极的社会成就差异会激发战略变革，作为巩固公司在行业内地位的机制。进一步，本文综合了产业活力和产业慷慨度的调节作用。

设计/方法论/途径

本文使用 1996 年至 2018 年 2,435 家美国上市公司的面板数据来检验假设。本文使用固定效应回归模型来实证检验这些假设。

发现

本文找到了实证支持，证明负的历史成就差异和正的社会成就差异对企业参与战略变革的倾向的影响。至于假设的调节效应，本文发现，行业的慷慨加剧了两种成就差异对公司参与战略变革的倾向的影响。然而，结果并不支持假设的行业活力对这些成就差异的调节作用。

原创性/价值

本文有助于研究战略变革背景下历史比较和社会比较的单独影响。此外，本文增强了我们对绩效反馈如何增加公司变革倾向的理解。最后，本文整合了企业行为理论和动态能力视角的理论观点，探讨社会高绩效企业如何通过组织变革建立和维持其竞争优势。