Scholars often say that there are good firms and bad firms. Here Phin Upham looks at a seminal work which challenges some of these findings. In Thomas H. Brush and Philip Bromiley’s What Does a Small Corporate Effect Mean? A Variance Components Simulation of Corporate and Businesses Effects, they analyze, reinterpreted, and retest Rumelt’s 1991 essay […]
Social Animals – an examination of theories of social interaction, by Phin Upham
How influenced are we by the world around us? How much are our personality, our observations, our actions, and even our thoughts are deeply influenced by what we believe will be effective or by the norms of the social world around us. Phin Upham reviews some of the seminal pieces on the topic. A deep claim […]
To Thine Own Self Be True – Self Concept and Self Identity
Who, and what, am I? This question seems to be central to our existence as individuals, yet it has stumped philosophers for decades. Recently, psychologists have begun to use their methodologies to tackle this question, with illuminating results. Phin Upham presents some of the seminal works by psychologists. A few things seem clear about our identities: One, our […]
Relationships Matter, by Phin Upham
Companies exist in a web of suppliers, partners and allies. How do these relationships affect success. Phin Upham discusses a seminal work in the field. In Specialized Supplier Networks as a Source of Competitive Advantage: Evidence from the Auto Industry, Jeffrey Dyer presents a compelling and interesting case for the interrelation of inter-firm specificity and performance. Specifically, he studies […]
Social Systems and You, by Phin Upham
What is the purpose of society and its parts? Phin Upham discusses the theory of functionalism. By attempting to explore/describe aspects of society through the lens of functionalism, one is explaining objects in society in terms of what roles they play. Talcott Parsons, in particular, is not so much dealing with the specifics of society in […]
What is Emotion, by Phin Upham
What is emotion and how can it be studied? Is it hardwired or learned? A review of some of the seminal works on the topic by Phin Upham. The study of emotion is a difficult one from many perspectives. For one, it seems to suffer from a lack of agreed upon definitions; Or it suffers from too […]