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Encouraging emergence of cross-business strategic initiatives

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  • Canales, J. Ignacio
  • Caldart, Adrián

Abstract

We explore how strategic initiatives emerge at the business unit level in the context of multi-business firms. Findings show that such initiatives create cross-business synergies in the absence of any direct intervention from the headquarters. Four factors appeared to foster the development of autonomous cross-business collaboration: a sense of urgency at the level of the firm, the existence of a few broad but strong corporate strategic guidelines, the existence of a set of cross-business integration mechanisms, and an organizational culture promoting collaboration. Our findings suggest that, in addition to developing and enforcing top-down cross-business initiatives, headquarters would benefit from acknowledging the importance of business units' local knowledge by creating an organizational environment characterized by the four conditions identified in this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Canales, J. Ignacio & Caldart, Adrián, 2017. "Encouraging emergence of cross-business strategic initiatives," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 300-313.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:35:y:2017:i:3:p:300-313
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2016.10.003
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