The chosen ones, managerial attention and the selection of capabilities in professional service firms
co-authors: paola criscuolo - imperial college business school; thorsten grohsjean - university of munich; tore opsahl - measr inc.
Abstract:
this paper explores how managers select between different capabilities and how managerial attention shapes the willingness of managers to break away from, or to reinforce, past investments. Drawing from the attention-based view of the firm and micro-foundations of capabilities, we suggest that organizations' display a strong 'preference-for-cumulativeness' in the selection of, and support for, new capabilities. However, the importance of cumulativeness in the selection processes will be heighted when selectors face a high workload and weakened in the presence of senior managerial support for novelty. We also argue selectors' attitudes will be shaped by the timing of evaluation, with selectors favoring novelty early in the financial year, while punishing it at the end. These ideas are tested on a unique, multi-source dataset of r&d projects in a leading professional service firm. Implications for theories of capabilities and attention-based view of the firm and managerial practice are advanced.