Publications by Michael Hilb
Directorship, 2019
The board has a key role in ensuring that management fully captures and safeguards the future val... more The board has a key role in ensuring that management fully captures and safeguards the future value stemming from data-driven business.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2018
Die Wellen der Digitalisierung gehen auch an der «alten» Industrie nicht vorbei. «Datafizierung» ... more Die Wellen der Digitalisierung gehen auch an der «alten» Industrie nicht vorbei. «Datafizierung» und «Plattformisierung» heissen die Schlüsselentwicklungen. Sie werden zunehmend zum zentralen Wertetreiber – gerade auch für KMU.
Governance of digitalization is top on the agenda for many corporate decision makers. The inheren... more Governance of digitalization is top on the agenda for many corporate decision makers. The inherent high level of uncertainty and the dynamic nature of digitalization call for a comprehensive framework that will help both boards of directors and top management teams to navigate the fascinating space of digital opportunities and challenges. The GEAR framework introduced in this article offers such guidance by spelling out the key dimensions of digitalization, that is, governing, enabling, amplifying and realizing digital value creation, andproviding option spaces for corporate decision makers along each of these dimensions, allowing them to develop realistic expectations about the impact of
digitalization on existing or new businesses.
Digitalization is a truly global phenomenon with the co-evolvement of different digital ecosystem... more Digitalization is a truly global phenomenon with the co-evolvement of different digital ecosystems. This article introduces a multi-layer framework for analyzing digital ecosystems by understanding their individual, institutional, and intra-cultural backbones. It then applies the framework to examine the four dominant digital ecosystems—the US, Chinese, European, and Japanese—providing explanations for their successes and failures. The article concludes with an analysis of the co-evolutionary nature of the dynamics of digital ecosystems and a prediction of future success.
Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 2016
This paper explores the concept of the living-dead trap (LDT), a pervasive state of entrepreneurs... more This paper explores the concept of the living-dead trap (LDT), a pervasive state of entrepreneurship resulting from the decision to persevere in the operation of a venture in the face of sustained financial underperformance and personal psychological disutility. Financially underperforming firms can survive for long periods, usually with injections of sweat equity and debt, often decimating in the process the capital of their founders and investors as well as the obligations incurred to employees and other creditors. More specifically, this paper suggests a personal composite of specific cognitive and affective processes that leads entrepreneurs to commit to “failing but not failed” projects. That is, to fall into a trap known as the living-dead trap. We posit the living-dead phenomenon as a most pervasive state in firm founding drawing on cognitive and affective perspectives to model the attendant decision-making processes.
Advances in International Management, 2015
This paper introduces a conceptual framework to assess the foreign market entry behavior of emerg... more This paper introduces a conceptual framework to assess the foreign market entry behavior of emerging market multinationals (EMMs). By introducing strategic cognition as the underlying theoretical perspective, this paper postulates that different levels of institutional voids in home markets shape the strategic cognition of EMMs, influencing their market entry behavior due to the prevalence of organizational imprinting in the early stages of internationalization. The paper aims to contribute to the strategic cognition literature by introducing emerging markets as a relevant context in which to apply and extend current thinking. Additionally, it aims to contribute to the institutional voids literature by providing a cognitive framework of behavioral patterns that is rationalized by institutional voids. Finally, the paper contributes to the entry mode literature by proposing strategic cognition as a relevant moderator for foreign entry mode choices, particularly those of EMMs.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2015
The obvious relevance of entrepreneurship in value creation has set off an intense debate in acad... more The obvious relevance of entrepreneurship in value creation has set off an intense debate in academia over how strategic management and entrepreneurship relate to each other culminating in the concept of ‘strategic entrepreneurship’. As a result, the term ‘strategic entrepreneurship’, albeit widely used and defined, remains a theoretical concept indicating little more than a potential relationship between the two fields. Such debate, therefore, although fruitful for and typical of dynamic research fields in the process of transformation, may not be as useful for theoretical advancement as practice-informed approaches to theoretical model construction. We thus adopt such an approach by choosing as a starting point a setting in which strategic and entrepreneurial forces meet: the management of private equity funded firms. At the heart of our contribution lies the development of a new theoretical construct, entrepreneurial strategising, which is embedded in the relevant streams of both the strategy and entrepreneurship literature and, to a lesser extent, of behaviorist economics and the statistical notion of uncertainty. Specifically, entrepreneurial strategising refers to the dynamic capability of an organisation to employ discrete strategic and entrepreneurial mindsets; that is, mental models used by decision-takers situationally and, in some instances, simultaneously.
Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 2014
Venture capital (VC) is a form of institutionalized investment in start-up companies that cannot ... more Venture capital (VC) is a form of institutionalized investment in start-up companies that cannot tap into traditional capital markets owing to their risk profile. The modern VC industry has grown into a global capital class that invested $41.5 billion in 2012. In common with most other modern capital market concepts, VC was shaped in the United States and subsequently adopted globally. In line with overall economic trends, the VC markets in the emerging nations have outgrown many of the more developed markets in recent years, with China expected to become the second largest VC market, following the United States.
Wolfsberg Script, 2014
Es besteht kein Zweifel: Asien gehört die Zukunft, und europäische KMU können von den Entwicklung... more Es besteht kein Zweifel: Asien gehört die Zukunft, und europäische KMU können von den Entwicklungen, insbesondere vom zunehmenden innerasiatischen Handel, profitieren, wenn sie sich den Herausforderungen stellen.
International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 2013
This theoretical article introduces a framework for analyzing corporate social innovation initiat... more This theoretical article introduces a framework for analyzing corporate social innovation initiatives by acknowledging the relevance of institutional and evolutionary theories alike to fully understand the underlying dynamics. The article suggests the discourse metaphor to blend the two perspectives and, hereby, overcoming the challenges of combining perspectives with partially conflicting axioms. As such, the article aims at contributing to the emerging literature on social innovation by analyzing the social innovation process at the initiative level.
Asset Management, 2012
The tension between financial markets and management is evident for all executives. The recent fi... more The tension between financial markets and management is evident for all executives. The recent financial crisis has highlighted the limitations of over-reliance on the purely financial perspective. More than ever, finding the right balance is crucial for any manager and, in particular, in times of crisis when severe restructuring may be necessary. Private equity as a specific form of governance may offer relevant insights. It constitutes a particular approach in combining financial and managerial perspectives. True value creation in private equity stems from superior strategic foresight, coupled with an entrepreneurial approach to execution – a lesson from which public companies can learn. Based on this conclusion, the paper proposes the virtual buyout, a transformation process in which a publicly listed firm embraces the successful, and for the particular case, relevant approaches of private equity to maximize its value creation, while leveraging its inherent advantages. In doing so, the virtual buyout aims at combining the advantages of both the private and public company ownership models.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2012
Ein Beteiligungsfonds, der in erfolgreiche Firmen im Ausland investiert, könnte Schweizer Unterne... more Ein Beteiligungsfonds, der in erfolgreiche Firmen im Ausland investiert, könnte Schweizer Unternehmen nachhaltig stärken und böte interessierten Parteien eine Möglichkeit, Kapitalreserven zukunftsträchtig und zu attraktiven Bedingungen anzulegen.
ISO Focus, 2010
Standardizers are generally quite certain that our work generates considerable benefits for organ... more Standardizers are generally quite certain that our work generates considerable benefits for organizations, markets and society. But substantiating and quantifying the real-world value of consensus-based standards is no small challenge. Few organizations have systematically analyzed the issue. Data is scarce and difficult to capture.
Strategic Entrepreneurship, 2010
The academic dialogue between the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship has been st... more The academic dialogue between the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship has been stalled due to the intense discussion on how the two might relate to each other. Whereas such debates are fruitful and typical for dynamic research fields in transformation, practice informing approaches to theoretical model construction may advance theory even more.
Strategic Entrepreneurship, 2010
Alpha, 2010
Neben der Identifikation und Entwicklung strategischer Innovationen besteht die Herausforderung i... more Neben der Identifikation und Entwicklung strategischer Innovationen besteht die Herausforderung in deren Verankerung in der Organisation. Unternehmen folgen dabei häufig uniformen Ansätzen. Eine Untersuchung bei einem grossen Finanzdienstleistungsunternehmen zeigt, dass dieser Ansatz nicht immer der Effektivste ist.
Finanz und Wirtschaft, 2009
Hilft nach dem Scheitern des finanziellen Kapitalismus der unternehmerische aus der Krise? – Antw... more Hilft nach dem Scheitern des finanziellen Kapitalismus der unternehmerische aus der Krise? – Antwort aus Sicht der Strategielehre
Corporate Governance, 2008
Förderung des Verantwortungsbewusstseins wird oft als Maßstab guter Corporate Governance verstand... more Förderung des Verantwortungsbewusstseins wird oft als Maßstab guter Corporate Governance verstanden. Der Beitrag plädiert dafür, den Verantwortungsdiskurs auf Corporate Citizenship auszudehnen und Sozialinitiativen als Innovationsprozesse zu verstehen. Dabei kommt dem Verwaltungsrat eine zentrale Rolle zu, sowohl in der Interpretation des gesellschaftlichen Wandels wie auch im Schaffen der Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Umsetzung.
English translation from IO Management article (see below), 2008
Strategy development is a core process of corporate development. A structured approach can help i... more Strategy development is a core process of corporate development. A structured approach can help in efficiently configuring the process and also in making it value-adding in the long term. No other aspect of corporate management receives so much attention, yet is also so firmly defined by the individual business experience, as strategy development. Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of this constellation, strategy development remains one of the major challenges. The strategy compass, a structured approach, can assist in tackling the strategy development challenge, while optimally taking into account one’s own experience.
IO Management, 2008
Kein anderes Thema in der Unternehmensführung erfährt soviel Aufmerksamkeit und ist zugleich so s... more Kein anderes Thema in der Unternehmensführung erfährt soviel Aufmerksamkeit und ist zugleich so stark von der individuellen unternehmerischen Erfahrung geprägt wie die Strategieentwicklung. Trotzdem – oder vielleicht gerade deswegen – bleibt sie eine der grossen Herausforderungen. Der Strategiekompass, ein strukturierter Ansatz, hilft, die Strategieentwicklung gezielt anzugehen und dabei die eigenen Erfahrungen optimal zu berücksichtigen.
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Publications by Michael Hilb
digitalization on existing or new businesses.
digitalization on existing or new businesses.
supervisory and executive level to fully understand digital trends, identify the implications on the strategies and business models, derive the adequate strategies and implement them swiftly. This calls for a multi-disciplinary approach to integrating insights from corporate governance, strategy, innovation, risk management and information technology.
1) What kind of value should companies aim for?
2) How can companies capture value by transforming organizations, starting new ventures and growing their existing businesses?
3) How can companies sustain value by executing strategies, creating incentives and interacting into networks?
Upon completion of the course, the participants should be prepared to act on this understanding and support organizations in developing and implementing value-driven strategies.