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Honours
2020, 2014, 2005 Schulich Research Award
2013, 2012, 2005, 2004 Nominated Schulich Teaching Award
Recent Publications
Weitzner, D. & Deutsch Y. (Forthcoming), "Contingency, Irony and Stakeholder Theory: Breaking Free of Institutionalized Logics", Journal of Business Ethics.
Keil T., Deutsch Y., Laamanen T. Maula M. V. J. (Forthcoming), "Craving for the Big Deal? Escalation, De-escalation and Momentum in Acquisition Behavior", Journal of Management Studies.
Weitzner, D. & Deutsch Y. (2022), "Harm Reduction, Solidarity, and Social Mobility as Target Functions: A Rortian Approach to Stakeholder Theory", Journal of Business Ethics.
Abstract
Instrumental Stakeholder Theory has begun to suffer from what might be termed “mission drift.” Despite its initial success in creating a foothold for ethics in managerial decision-making, the efficiency arguments which now dominate this research stream have become counterproductive to the original goal of connecting ethics and capitalism. We argue in this paper that the way forward is by re-centering contingency, conversation, and inefficiency in stakeholder theory. To start this process, there needs to be a reckoning of some unintended impacts of the success of the instrumental stream of stakeholder research. For a contrasting approach, we draw on Richard Rorty’s pragmatism and its foundation of ethical “irony,” a state of continuous doubts about the utility of one’s moral vocabulary. We offer a Rortian approach to stakeholder theory, unearthing the possibility for new corporate target functions in the goals of harm reduction, solidarity, and social mobility, the foundational building blocks of an ironist ethical perspective.
Keil T., Deutsch Y., Laamanen T. Maula M. V. J. (2022), "Temporal Dynamics in Acquisition Behavior: The Effects of Activity Load on Strategic Momentum", Journal of Management Studies.
Abstract
Momentum theory suggests that acquisition experience leads to acquisition momentum in the form of a higher likelihood of subsequent acquisitions of the same type. However, this argument has been challenged theoretically and empirically. We reconcile conflicting predictions and findings of prior research and extend momentum theory by incorporating activity load as a novel causal mechanism to both replicate the base finding and explain deviations from it. We find that a high activity load due to increased acquisition activity acts as a counterforce to momentum, decreasing the likelihood of subsequent acquisitions of the same type. Moreover, we also find that the interplay of routines, cognitive frames, and activity load causes companies to alternate between different types of acquisitions – from small to large and from large to small – as management engages in attention modulation to preserve momentum. Taken together, our arguments and findings contribute to an improved understanding of temporal patterns of acquisition behaviour.
Keyhani, M., Deutsch, Y., Madhok, A. and M. Lévesque (2022), "Exploration-Exploitation and Acquisition Likelihood in New Ventures", Small Business Economics, 58(3), 1475-1496.
KeywordsAbstract
The market for acquisitions has been a blind spot in exploration-exploitation research in the new venture context. The introduction of the acquisition exit outcome as a performance dimension for new ventures, especially among high-tech ventures, shifts the traditional temporal logic of exploration-exploitation theory by introducing previously unacknowledged short-term benefits of exploration. We bring the acquisition outcome into the picture and investigate the relationship between the exploration-exploitation continuum and profitability, survival, and acquisition likelihood simultaneously. Using the Kauffman Firm Survey data, we provide evidence for a link between exploration and the likelihood of acquisition (defined as the business being sold to or merged with another business), although industry technology level poses a boundary condition such that the association is not observed in low- and medium-technology firms. An inverse U-shaped relationship that is monotone negative for most of the data range was found between exploration and the profitability of low- and medium-tech firms, and a negatively linear relationship was found for exploration and the profitability of high-tech firms. Our findings lend some support to the viability of “born to flip” strategies involving comparatively higher exploration levels in high-tech start-ups and sacrifice of short-term profitability.
Deutsch, Y. and Weitzner, D. (2019), "Why the Time Has Come to Retire Instrumental Stakeholder Theory", Academy of Management Review, 44(3), 694-698.
Deutsch, Y. and Weitzner, D. (2015), "Understanding Motivation and Social Influence in Stakeholder Prioritization", Organization Studies, 36(10), 1337-1360.
Abstract
Insight into organizational responses to stakeholder claims and influence attempts is critical to understand the challenges currently facing managers and organizations. Drawing on Kelman’s (1958) model of social influence, we advance the field’s understanding of the factors driving firm-level prioritization of competing stakeholder claims by developing a theoretical framework that accounts for both the stakeholder attributes that are important to relevant decision makers, and the decision makers’ motivations for accepting or rejecting the influence attempts of varying stakeholders. Our framework distinguishes itself from existing research by focusing on stakeholder prioritization, not salience, recognizing that stakeholder-related decisions result from group interaction and that important decision makers are not limited to those found within the classic boundaries of the firm. Consequently, we argue that decision makers are simultaneously stakeholders with attributes that might be relevant to other decision makers involved in prioritization. In addition, we identify a more extensive set of stakeholder attributes that includes powerlessness and illegitimacy.
Deutsch, Y. and Valente, M. (2013), "Compensating Outside Directors with Stock: The Impact on Non-Primary Stakeholders", Journal of Business Ethics, 116(1), 67-85.
KeywordsAbstract
Two obvious trends in corporate governance include broadening board accountability beyond shareholders’ interests and paying outside directors with equity compensation (stock and stock options). By integrating common agency and instrumental stakeholder theories, we examine the effect of stock compensation on secondary stakeholders and a firm’s participation in social issues, two areas where interests are less aligned with shareholder value. Consistent with our predictions, we found that while stock compensation may be an effective way to align directors’ goals to those of shareholders, it has adverse effects on important non-shareholder constituencies in the company’s operating environment.
Deutsch, Y. and Valente, M. (2013), "The Trouble with Stock Compensation", Sloan Management Review, 54(4), 19-20.
Grants
Project Title Role Award Amount Year Awarded Granting Agency Project TitleIdentifying the instrumental logics imprinted in stakeholder theory Role Award Amount$45,675.00 Year Awarded2021-2023 Granting AgencySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Committee, Insight Development Grants Project TitleFostering Trust Between Leaders and Their Followers: A Signaling Framework Role Award Amount$175,852.00 Year Awarded2019- 2023 Granting AgencySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council - Standard Research Grant Project TitleFostering Trust Between Leaders and Their Followers: A Signaling Framework Role Award Amount$60,000.00 Year Awarded2020-2023 Granting AgencyDepartment of National Defense Research Initiative Project TitleThe Performance and Exit Trade-offs of Start-ups Role Award Amount$49,410.00 Year Awarded2015-2017 Granting AgencySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Committee, Insight Development Grants Project TitleSize Matters - Deconstructing the Effects of Agency Theory, Institutional Theory, and Behavioural Learning Theory in Small and Large Mergers and Acquisitions Role Award Amount$73,950.00 Year Awarded2010-2014 Granting AgencySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council - Standard Research Grant Project TitleThe Influence of Outside Directors' Stock-Based Compensation on Firms' Strategic Decisions and Financial Performance Role Award Amount$75,648.00 Year Awarded2003-2007 Granting AgencySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council - Standard Research Grant Project TitleReaserch fund Role Award Amount$75,000.00 Year Awarded2002-2005 Granting AgencySchulich School of Business