Reconceptualizing competitive dynamics as language game (EURAM Grant)
Main funder
Funder's project number: Grant ID 19
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 4 875,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/08/2021
Project end date: 30/06/2022
Summary
1. Research idea: Competitive behaviors that have been analyzed in the strategic management literature largely focus on concrete actions. Despite the apparent importance of speech acts – announcements, comments, statements, promises, threats, commands and so on – in competitive dynamics, the notion of a speech act has not been previously addressed systematically. Instead, different speech acts have been treated as an undifferentiated category of “other” or “non-concrete” competitive actions. We posit that speech acts lie on a continuum, which features traditional concrete competitive actions and “cheap talk” as the two extremes, but where speech acts come closer to concrete actions. Our purpose is to lay groundwork for rigorous and nuanced theorization about why and how companies use speech acts. We therefore present an initial attempt to bring the language school of competitive dynamics research to an equal footing with the traditional school.
2. Research implications to the competitive dynamics literature are twofold. First, we argue that speech acts come in different distinct varieties and are a part of companies’ competitive reality. In other words, they are a part of companies’ competitive action repertoire alongside concrete competitive actions and must be differentiated from “cheap talk”. Second, we take a first step towards theorization of speech acts by following the upper echelons research in exploring how CEOs – in their capacity of “speaking for the company” – go about using speech acts.
3. Practical implications for changes in the operating environment: In this era of convenient and borderless communication, our project’s implications are even more relevant. Managers should not simply regard language-based competitive actions or responses as “cheap talks”. Additionally, the use of speech acts, such as commissives, should be carefully considered if managers do not “walk the talk”. Furthermore, managers can strategically use a configuration of concrete actions and speech acts in managing competitive interactions. Since certain types of speech acts require relatively lower resource commitment but still exert some competitive force, it may be wise for managers to use them before turning to concrete irreversible actions.
4. Data and Methods: We aim to analyze a sample of CEOs in the top 100 pulp and paper industry (PPI) firms between 2005 and 2020. Prominent figures in the field include CEOs from Finnish PPI companies such as Jussi Pesonen (UPM) and Jouko Karvinen (Stora Enso). We focus on the PPI because that industry has experienced several periods of turbulence such as the change in demand for product portfolio, the introduction of new materials, new products, and the opening of new markets and production areas. 2005 was the year when several leading global paper firms embarked the major restructuring and renewal programs due to performance difficulties. We collect CEOs’ letters to shareholders from company annual reports, and interviews and conference calls from EBSCOhost Business Source Elite. Next, we use structural content analysis to code and categorize speech acts in our data. In addition, following established practice in psychological studies, we employ language-based measures of personality processes to reflect CEOs’ psychological characteristics.
Co-author: Tomi Nokelainen
2. Research implications to the competitive dynamics literature are twofold. First, we argue that speech acts come in different distinct varieties and are a part of companies’ competitive reality. In other words, they are a part of companies’ competitive action repertoire alongside concrete competitive actions and must be differentiated from “cheap talk”. Second, we take a first step towards theorization of speech acts by following the upper echelons research in exploring how CEOs – in their capacity of “speaking for the company” – go about using speech acts.
3. Practical implications for changes in the operating environment: In this era of convenient and borderless communication, our project’s implications are even more relevant. Managers should not simply regard language-based competitive actions or responses as “cheap talks”. Additionally, the use of speech acts, such as commissives, should be carefully considered if managers do not “walk the talk”. Furthermore, managers can strategically use a configuration of concrete actions and speech acts in managing competitive interactions. Since certain types of speech acts require relatively lower resource commitment but still exert some competitive force, it may be wise for managers to use them before turning to concrete irreversible actions.
4. Data and Methods: We aim to analyze a sample of CEOs in the top 100 pulp and paper industry (PPI) firms between 2005 and 2020. Prominent figures in the field include CEOs from Finnish PPI companies such as Jussi Pesonen (UPM) and Jouko Karvinen (Stora Enso). We focus on the PPI because that industry has experienced several periods of turbulence such as the change in demand for product portfolio, the introduction of new materials, new products, and the opening of new markets and production areas. 2005 was the year when several leading global paper firms embarked the major restructuring and renewal programs due to performance difficulties. We collect CEOs’ letters to shareholders from company annual reports, and interviews and conference calls from EBSCOhost Business Source Elite. Next, we use structural content analysis to code and categorize speech acts in our data. In addition, following established practice in psychological studies, we employ language-based measures of personality processes to reflect CEOs’ psychological characteristics.
Co-author: Tomi Nokelainen
