探索“风口法则”的理论智慧:基于案例诠释和情景实验的混合研究

Exploring the Theoretical Wisdom behind"the Whirlwind(Fengkou)Principle":A Mixed Study Combining Case Interpretation and Vignette Experiment

“风口”法则在互联网企业实践中得到广泛应用,但也引起一些管理困惑与质疑,对其理论逻辑的探索与构建是一个重要且有挑战性的研究问题。为此,本文首先基于“启发新的理论灵感”的目的,通过对小米公司实地调研的访谈数据以及二手数据展开案例研究。案例研究发现:“风口”的实质是一种维持组织延续既定方向发展的情景力量,管理者对这种形势变化的心理感知为其辨识机会提供了可以把控的时间窗;而管理者有意识的系统布局或布局势是他们成功将创业风口转变为成长机会的前提,管理者以认知能力为代表的战略领导力有助于感知和构建心理势。我们将以上案例研究发现归纳为4个理论命题。接下来,本文基于案例命题和前期文献推导出理论模型和假设,采用情景实验研究方法收集465份有效问卷并进行了实证分析。分析结果验证了以上案例研究的发现:管理者所感知到的组织势对其成长机会把握有重要影响;而布局势和心理势这两种形态的组织势之间存在紧密的关联性;管理者的认知能力对组织势感知具有重要影响,分析性思维占优的管理者更能判别出两种形态组织势之间的关联性;结构需求高的管理者更能察觉到蕴含在当前组织成长情景中的布局势。本研究揭示出组织势在理解“风口”法则中的理论贡献,有助于从外部情景条件视角澄清“机会发现观”和“机会构建观”关于创业者角色的理论争议,启发企业管理者重视业务活动布局与组织势感知,以期实现组织成长。

The"whirlwind(fengkou)"principle has been widely applied among the Internet enterprises,yet it has also raised some man-agement perplexities and doubts.Exploring and constructing its theoretical logic is an important and challenging research issue.Hence,this pa-per first conducts a case study via combining interview data and archival data,based upon the purpose of"inspiration for new theoretical ideas".The findings of the case study indicate that the essence of"whirlwind"is a situational force that sustains the development of an organi-zation in its established direction,and managers'psychological perception of such changes provides them with a controllable time window to identify opportunities.The purposeful configurational layout of organizational activities or configurational momentum by the managers is the premise for them to successfully turn the"whirlwind"into a growth opportunity.The strategic leadership of managers in terms of cognitive abil-ity helps them to perceive and construct psychological momentum.We summarize the above findings into four theoretical propositions.In the empirical study,we then develop theoretical models and hypotheses based on the case propositions and previous literature,and collect survey data as valid 465 samples via a vignette experiment method.The results verify the findings of the case study and show that organizational mo-mentum perceived by the managers has important impacts on their grasp of organizational growth opportunities.There is a close positive rela-tionship between configurational momentum and psychological momentum.The managerial cognitive capability also has important effects on the perception of organizational momentum.Managers with higher levels of analytical thinking perceive stronger positive correlation between the two forms of organizational momentum.The managers with higher desire of structure are more aware of configurational momentum con-tained in the current organizational growth context.This study reveals the theoretical contributions of organizational momentum in understand-ing the"whirlwind"principle,to help clarify theoretical debates on the role of entrepreneurs regarding the perspectives of"opportunity discov-ery"and"opportunity construction"through the view of external situational conditions,which inspires managers to emphasize the layout of business activities and the awareness of organizational momentum to achieve organizational growth.