Because of recent ineffective performance, boards of directors are experiencing increasing pressure from shareholders, lawmakers, and regulators to be more forceful in preventing managers from acting in their own interest

Research suggests that institutional activism may not have a strong direct effect on firm performance, but it may indirectly influence a targeted firm’s strategic decisions, including those concerned with social issues

Autonomous strategic behavior results in internal innovations that are highly consistent with the firm’s current strategy

According to Michael Dell, an overemphasis on financial controls to produce attractive short-term results contributed to performance difficulties at Dell, Inc. This point emphasizes the importance of properly balancing the use of strategic and financial controls

The market for corporate control may not be as efficient as a governance device as theory suggests because takeover targets are not always low performers with weak governance

Organizational inertia often prompts top management to initiate structural change when organizational performance levels drop

To implement a related linked strategy, a firm usually needs a strategic business unit structure

To successfully implement a firm’s strategy, the workforce must be viewed as a:

Critics advocate reforms to ensure that independent outside directors represent a significant majority of the total membership of the board. But outsider-dominated boards may emphasize the use of financial as opposed to strategic controls. The risk of reliance on financial controls is that they may encourage managers to make decisions to maximize their interests and reduce their employment risk

An innovation developed through autonomous strategic behavior will probably take the firm into new markets not addressed by its current strategy