Understanding how organizations respond to failure is important to management research, yet prior studies have offered contrasting findings for whether, in a multiunit hierarchical organization, a corporate office improves business unit search following product failure. To better understand how a corporate office affects business unit search, we focus on the role of corporate proximity (hierarchical, geographic, and cognitive) between the corporate office and constituent units. We argue that corporate proximity improves a business unit’s local search process through two mechanisms—vertical linkages and corporate attention—that positively condition the likelihood of persisting, that is, re-entering a product market after having experienced a prior product failure in that market. We find support for our theory using data on reentry in the U.S. medical device industry following exit from the market due to product failure. We also explore how age of the product market and characteristics of the failure—cause and severity—further moderate corporate proximity’s role in business unit reentry. Overall, our study offers a better understanding of how complex organizations respond to failure, thereby contributing to literatures on search, corporate headquarters, and product entry.

中文翻译：

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企业接近度和产品市场重新进入：企业总部在业务部门对产品故障的响应中的作用

了解组织如何应对失败对管理研究很重要，但先前的研究提供了对比结果，即在多单位层次组织中，公司办公室是否在产品失败后改善了业务单位搜索。为了更好地了解公司办公室如何影响业务部门搜索，我们关注公司办公室和组成单位之间的公司邻近度（层次、地理和认知）的作用。我们认为，企业邻近度通过两种机制——垂直联系和企业关注——改善了业务部门的本地搜索过程，这对持续存在的可能性产生了积极的影响，也就是说，在该市场经历了先前的产品失败后重新进入该产品市场。我们使用美国再入的数据找到了对我们理论的支持 医疗器械行业因产品故障退出市场。我们还探讨了产品市场的年龄和失败的特征——原因和严重程度——如何进一步缓和企业接近在业务部门重新进入中的作用。总体而言，我们的研究提供了对复杂组织如何应对失败的更好理解，从而有助于搜索、公司总部和产品进入的文献。