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Organizational Structure and Firm Innovation in a Retail Chain

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  • Myong-Hun Chang

    (Cleveland State University)

  • Joseph E. Harrington

    (The Johns Hopkins University)

Abstract

Two organizational structures for a retail chain are examined fortheir effect on the rate of firm innovation. A centralized organization isdefined as one in which store practices are mandated from corporateheadquarters (HQ) and this results in HQ being the sole source of new ideas.A decentralized organization gives freedom to store managers to adopt theirown ideas and disseminates innovations made by store managers. Thedifference in average profit between the centralized and decentralizedorganizations is found to be a non-monotonic function of innovativeopportunities. The centralized organization is preferred when innovativeopportunities are moderate while the decentralized organization is preferredwhen such opportunities are rich. Centralization also tends to fare betterin environments in which ideas are relatively complex.

Suggested Citation

  • Myong-Hun Chang & Joseph E. Harrington, 1998. "Organizational Structure and Firm Innovation in a Retail Chain," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 267-288, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:comaot:v:3:y:1998:i:4:d:10.1023_a:1009657511505
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1009657511505
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Friederike Wall, 2023. "Modeling managerial search behavior based on Simon’s concept of satisficing," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 265-299, June.
    2. Myong-Hun Chang & Joseph E. Harrington, 2000. "Centralization vs. Decentralization in a Multi-Unit Organization: A Computational Model of a Retail Chain as a Multi-Agent Adaptive System," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(11), pages 1427-1440, November.
    3. Friederike Wall, 2021. "Modeling Managerial Search Behavior based on Simon's Concept of Satisficing," Papers 2104.14002, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    4. Dong, Ciwei & Chen, Chenyi & Shi, Xiutian & Ng, Chi To, 2021. "Operations strategy for supply chain finance with asset-backed securitization: Centralization and blockchain adoption," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    5. Jisung Kim & Richard M. Burton, 2002. "The Effect of Task Uncertainty and Decentralization on Project Team Performance," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 365-384, December.
    6. Konur, Dinçer & Geunes, Joseph, 2016. "Supplier wholesale pricing for a retail chain: Implications of centralized vs. decentralized retailing and procurement under quantity competition," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 98-110.

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