Table Of ContentImages of Competitive Space
Other Books by the Author:
The Competent Organization: A Psychological Analysis of the Strategic
Management Process
(with P. R. Sparrow)
Images of Competitive Space
A Study of Managerial and Organizational
Strategic Cognition
Gerard P. Hodgkinson
© Gerard P. Hodgkinson 2005
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-0296-2
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First published 2005 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hodgkinson, Gerard P., 1961–
Images of competitive space: a study of managerial and
organizational strategic cognition/ Gerard P. Hodgkinson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-50840-2
1. Industrial management–Psychological aspects. 2. Competition
(Psychology) 3. Strategic planning–Psychological aspects.
4. Cognition–Mathematical models. 5. Organizational
behavior–Mathematical models. 6. Real estate business–Great
Britain–Case studies. I. Title: Managerial and organizational strategic
cognition. II. Title: Strategic cognition. III. Title.
HF5548.8.H554 2005
158.7–dc22 2004059170
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
To Peter Hodgkinson, Michael Huck, Nigel Nicholson and Michael
Spratt, my dear brother and friends, whose immense generosity,
loving support and wise counsel, over many years, have enabled
me to bring this work (and so much more) to completion
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Contents
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xii
Foreword xvii
Preface xix
Publisher Acknowledgements xxv
1. Introduction 1
Research agenda and key themes 2
The study 5
Methodological approach 5
Structure of the book 7
2. The Cognitive Analysis of Competition in Industries
and Markets 8
Background to the development of cognitive approaches for
the analysis of competitive structures 9
Theoretical developments in the cognitive analysis of
competitive structures 11
Competitor categorization processes 11
The social construction of competitive groups 16
The situated learning perspective 20
Empirical studies of competitive enactment and related
conceptions: A review and critique 21
The limitations of small-scale exploratory and larger-scale
cross-sectional studies 23
The limitations of extant longitudinal studies 24
The limitations of single informant, multiple organization
designs 27
The case for studying individual and subgroup similarities
and differences in mental models of competitor definition 29
Studies of the nature and extent of individual and subgroup
variations and homogeneity in mental models of
competitor definition 31
Towards fusion: Exploring the relative impact of task and
institutional influences on actors’ mental models of
competitive industry structures 34
vii
viii Contents
Methodological Issues in the analysis of competitor cognition 35
The elicitation of maps 36
The comparison of maps 39
The validation of maps 40
Implications 42
Towards a constructive alternative 42
Research agenda 43
3. The Research Context 45
The UK residential estate agency industry 46
Major developments in the industry 49
The entrance of national financial institutions 49
Estate agency co-operatives 53
Changes in the housing market 54
Operating practices 57
Other developments 58
Relevance of the industry to the research objectives 59
Conclusion 62
4. Research Methods and Design 63
The Research Instruments: Background and development 63
The competitor analysis questionnaire (CAQ) 63
The strategic locus of control scale 67
Strategy making behaviour, organizational structure and
environment 69
Organizational size 70
Market buoyancy 71
Organizational performance 71
Environmental scanning 72
Biographical data and career history 73
Sampling and data collection procedures 73
Reliability analysis and data reduction 76
Reliability analysis 76
Data reduction 76
Construct validity of the scales 80
Individual-level analyses 80
Organizational-level analyses 80
Comparison of returners and non-returners 87
Summary and conclusions 91
5. Mental Models of Competitive Space and their Correlates 92
Assessing actors’ mental models of competitive space 92
Three-way scaling for the assessment of mental models 93
Basic analytical strategy 96
Multidimensional scaling analysis 97
Contents ix
Results and discussion 98
The industry-level mental model 98
Validation of the CAQ 102
A note on the meaning and significance of participant
source weights 103
Correlational analysis of the participant weights at T1 107
Correlational analysis of the participant weights at T2 109
Cross-lagged analysis 111
Summary and conclusions 112
6. Homogeneity and Diversity 114
Inter-organizational subgroup comparisons 116
Comparison of the dimension weights 117
North East Midlands Estates: An exception to the norm? 118
Comparison of the group space configurations 121
The PINDIS model 122
PINDIS analysis of the organizational subgroup configurations 125
Functional subgroup comparisons 128
Summary and conclusions 130
7. Longitudinal Stability 132
Longitudinal comparison of market conditions and strategic
behaviours 133
Longitudinal analyses of mental models of competitive space 137
Longitudinal comparison of the participant source weight ratios 137
Comparison of the group space configurations 138
Summary and conclusions 141
8. Conclusions and Implications 143
Implications for theory 145
Competitive enactment and related conceptions 146
Industry recipes and cognitive inertia 148
Mental models of competitive space, strategy and performance 149
Wider theoretical implications 150
Methodological implications 152
Research design and analysis 152
Contextual embeddedness 153
Sampling characteristics 155
Size 155
Scope 155
Advances in cognitive modelling 156
Advances in knowledge elicitation 157
Advances in data analysis 158
