09.05.2016New publication by Dr. Kuusela and Prof. Keil in SMJ

The article “Driven by aspirations, but in what direction? Performance shortfalls, slack resources and resource-consuming vs. resource-freeing organizational change” co-authored by Dr. Kuusela and Professor Keil together with Professor Markku Maula (Aalto University) has been accepted for publication in Strategic Management Journal (SMJ). The paper contributes to behavioral theory and understanding the direction of organizational change. By studying the acquisitions and divestment behavior of 530 ICT companies, the authors show that firms are more likely to respond with resource-consuming acquisitions to close the performance gap when their performance is near the aspired level, whereas the resource-freeing divestments are preferred the further the performance is from the aspired level. These effects are moderated by organizational slack showing that resource constraints influence the strategic response firms take to address a performance shortfall.