Part I.
(200 words for each question)
1. You are consulted by University to design strategies that will enhance the innovativeness of the undergraduate students. List three patterns you observe among the friendships of the students. For example, who are the popular students? Do students tend to associate with others who are similar to them? How does social media like Facebook change the ways students interact? How can social networks affect innovations? From the network point of view, what concrete steps will you suggest for it to take in order to make students become more innovative?
2. Explain the strength of weak state. How does it affect diversity programs?
3. What does imprinting mean in Marquis (2003) and in general? What implications does imprinting have on organizational design?
4. Use examples to elaborate the ideas related to ecology and niche and the 70-20-10 rule?
5. What is isomorphism? Use examples to elaborate the three mechanisms of isomorphism.
Part II.
Many competitions are close competitions. Here are a few examples.
• Business: Fujifilm vs. Kodak, Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola, Toyota vs. Ford vs. GM;
• Presidential elections: John Adams vs. Thomas Jefferson in 1796, Rutherford Hayes vs.
Samuel Tilden in 1876, Kennedy vs. Nixon in 1960, Al Gore vs. GW Bush in 2000;
• Sports: Lakers vs. Celtics in the 1980s, and Red Sox vs. Yankees;
• States: Athens vs. Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, and U.S. vs. USSR during the cold war.
1. Based on the above examples, please provide a short definition of close competitions and list the features that distinguish them from other competitions? (200 words)
2. Read the case on cola wars on the course website and answer the following questions.
(1)Evolving structures (200 words)
List the four types of participants in the cola industry. What are the relations among them? Why do Coke and Pepsi sometimes want to have full control of the bottling networks while other times not? What are the benefits and drawbacks of doing so?
(2)Competitive dynamics (200 words)
Between Coke and Pepsi, who won the wars in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s? For each period, list two strategies by Coke or Pepsi that significantly affected their competitive advantages? What roles do imitations and innovations play in the competitions? What consequences of the cola wars are on smaller concentrate producers and bottlers?
(3)Potential challenges (200 words)
What were the challenges to the profitability of Coke and Pepsi since mid 1990s? What measures did they take to address these challenges? Were they successful? In the future, how can they perpetuate their advantages in new markets? Do they need a second foundation and how to do that? Who currently looks more likely to win the cola wars?
3. Find another example of close competitions (except the above ones and the HBS cases used in class) and provide a summary. (200 words)
4. What conclusions would you draw for wining close competitions? These conclusions should be general, comprehensive, and supported by both theories and examples. Hint: consult the theories and cases we have studied on structure, leadership, innovation, network, culture, embeddedness, ecology, contingency, etc. (500 words)
Part III.
Go to the following link and find a list of business schools in the country.
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business- schools/mba-rankings
You will collect information on tenure track faculty (assistant, associate, and full professors) who holds a sociology degree (including BA, MA, and PhD). Only count the sociology degrees. For non-sociology degree, skip.
Coding scheme:
Faculty rank: assistant professor = 1; association professor = 2; professor = 3 Sex: female = 0; male = 1
Race: white = 1; black = 2; Asian = 3; others = 4
Research interests: copy them from faculty’s website or CV. If missing, skip.
See “An_example” for an example.
Collect the information for selected schools based on the first letter of your last name. (last name: )
A-G: schools ranked 1-5
H-N: schools ranked 6-10
O-T: schools ranked 11-15
U-Z: schools ranked 16-21
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