We would like to invite you to participate in Management Engineering (ME) Seminar.

1. When: September 5th (Thursday), 16:00 ~ 17:30
2. Where: Building no.9, 7th #9701
3. Speaker: Prof. Jaemin Lee (Imperial College London)
4. Topic: HOW FIRMS’ STRATEGIC ALINGMENT WITH COMMUNITY ALIGNMENT AFFECTS ORGANIZATIONAL SURVIVAL: EVIDENCE FROM U.S. COMMERCIAL BANKS
5. Research field: Organization and Strategic Management
* Lecture will be delivered in Korean.

[Abstract]
Despite an increasing academic interest in the interaction between corporations and geographic communities, we know little about how companies strategically align themselves to communities, and when they benefit from such practices. Based on research on resource dependence and institutional legacies, we develop a theory on community alignment by organizations. We propose that companies can attempt to align by adjusting key organizational elements or fulfilling the community’s social needs. The benefits of such efforts offset the added costs, particularly at times of financial crisis, through the forging of mutual dependency which offers informational advantage, access to community social capital and joint actions. Testing our hypotheses using data from the U.S. commercial banking industry, we find that banks with stronger organizational and social community alignment are less likely to fail, especially during economic crises. Our theory and findings contribute to research on organization and community interactions, institutional legacies, and competition between large and small firms.