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Selected Publications

Governance

Mikko Ketokivi & Joseph T. Mahoney

EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION: A GOVERNANCE APPROACH

Oxford University Press, 2023

This managerially oriented book, written for practitioners who are in charge of designing organization and governance structures, examines the foundations of efficient organization design.

Akhil Bhardwaj & Mikko Ketokivi

BILATERAL DEPENDENCY AND SUPPLIER PERFORMANCE AMBIGUITY IN SUPPLY CHAIN CONTRACTING: EVIDENCE FROM THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY

Journal of Operations Management, 2021

When a locomotive engine fails, it is often difficult to pinpoint the root cause of the failure, in fact, with systemic failures the root cause may not even exist. This ambiguity has fundamental implications for supply chain contracting. For example, how should the buyer react if the engine failure involves a failure of a subsystem supplied by an external supplier? Due to supplier performance ambiguity, it may be impossible to determine whether the subsystem failure caused the system to fail, or vice versa. In this article, we counsel the contracting parties to engage in joint problem solving and mutual adaptation in the face of such ambiguous failures.

Mikko Ketokivi & Joseph T. Mahoney

TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS AS A THEORY OF SUPPLY CHAIN EFFICIENCY

Production and Operations Management, 2020

Our understanding of supply chains tends to focus on power asymmetries and how comparatively more powerful players in the chain seek to take advantage of their power. In a stark departure from the power-based perspective, transaction cost economics (TCE) emphasizes supply chain efficiency through mutual value creation (as opposed to selfish value capture). In this article, we examine the economic efficiency approach to supply chain management.

Mikko Ketokivi & Joseph T. Mahoney

TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS AS A THEORY OF THE FIRM, MANAGEMENT, AND GOVERNANCE

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management, 2017

This article covers the foundation and some of the common applications of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). We show that TCE can be construed not only as a theory of the firm but also one of management and governance. Because of this versatility, TCE can be applied very broadly to any situation that can be construed as a contracting problem.

Mikko Ketokivi & Joseph T. Mahoney

TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS AS A CONSTRUCTIVE STAKEHOLDER THEORY

Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2016

Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) is perhaps the most widely misunderstood theory of governance and management; criticized, ridiculed, and dismissed for all the wrong reasons. In this article, we seek to set the record straight by pointing out the exclusively constructive and cooperative approach that TCE takes to governance and management. Indeed, TCE shares many characteristics of modern stakeholder approaches.

Methodology, reasoning, and argumentation

Mikko Ketokivi & Saku Mantere

WHAT WARRANTS OUR CLAIMS? A METHODOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF ARGUMENT STRUCTURE

Journal of Operations Management, 2021

This article applies philosopher Stephen Toulmin's framework of arguments structure to the context of arguments made in management research. The article focuses specifically on the use of warrants, which Toulmin described as the "bridging principles" that enable empirical researchers to move from their grounds (their data) to their central conclusions. Importantly, conclusions in research can never be supported by data alone.

Mikko Ketokivi, Saku Mantere & Joep Cornelissen

REASONING BY ANALOGY AND THE PROGRESS OF THEORY

Academy of Management Review, 2017

Our understanding of complex phenomena and complex entities such as organizations is unavoidably based on simplifications of some kind: We think of the organization as if it were something comparatively simpler. In short, we build our understanding of the world based on analogical thinking and analogical reasoning. In this article, we example some of the central analogies used in our research approaches to organizations. For example, we may think of the organization as if it were a nexus of contracts, a governance structure, or a social network, to mention a few influential analogies.

Saku Mantere & Mikko Ketokivi

REASONING IN ORGANIZATION SCIENCE

Academy of Management Review, 2013

The aim of this article is to examine the use of the three forms of scientific reasoning -- induction, deduction, and abduction -- in the context of research on management and organizations. We emphasize the fact that induction, deduction, and abduction are indeed forms of reasoning, not research designs. Even though we casually speak of "inductive research" and "deductive approaches," these are misleading labels, because all researchers use all three forms of reasoning, they just use them for different purposes.

Mikko Ketokivi & Saku Mantere

TWO STRATEGIES FOR INDUCTIVE REASONING IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH

Academy of Management Review, 2010

The problem of induction is one of the famous and enduring puzzles in the philosophy of science literature. In this article, we show that the problem is not limited to philosophical investigations but indeed pervades the practice of empirical research on management and organizations. We seek to formulate ways by which researchers can cope with the research dilemmas that the problem of induction presents.

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