Asymmetric Vacillation in the FMCG Industry: A Case Comparison of Procter & Gamble and Unilever

Jisoo Kang, Seungyeon Lee and Seungho Choi ()
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Jisoo Kang: Ewha School of Business, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea
Seungyeon Lee: Ewha School of Business, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea
Seungho Choi: Ewha School of Business, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea

Administrative Sciences, 2023, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: While existing studies regarding organizational vacillation theory have focused on examining how vacillation may lead to ambidexterity, few studies have focused on how vacillation itself happens and whether it happens symmetrically or not. To bridge this research gap, this paper analyzed organizational vacillation over time with two canonical cases while examining patterns of organizational structure over time. Unlike previous studies that only revealed the existence of vacillation between centralization and decentralization, this study revealed that vacillation is observed with an asymmetric ratio of duration in the business world by finding that each company within the same industry spends a greater portion of time in a certain organizational structure than the other. By analyzing these changes throughout the business history, this study found that organizational vacillation happens asymmetrically while alternatively shifting between centralization and decentralization. Based on the case study result, this study draws propositions that can enable future researchers to advance theoretical and empirical understanding toward asymmetric vacillation.

Keywords: organizational vacillation; centralization vs. decentralization; organizational structure; international business (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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