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The purpose of the current research seeks to understand what role supply chain (SC) collaboration plays in effectively managing customers of a firm. The research also investigates what role industry competitive intensity plays on SC collaboration formation.

The current research utilizes empirical survey data from professionals whose companies collaborate within a SC. Structural equations modeling is employed to assess the relationship of collaborative process competence on SC collaboration as well as the moderating impact of industry competitive intensity. A further boundary condition is examined with the partner interdependence SC collaboration relationship. Additionally the SC collaboration account management relationship is also investigated.

The paper provides empirical insights on how SC collaboration contributes to focal firm customer account management. Additionally, results suggest that collaborative process competence and its relationship with SC collaboration works differently in the presence of partner interdependence and the moderator of industry competitive intensity.

While the findings help to promote the generalizability of the new research, future research could seek to understand how firms could develop specific account management value propositions through SC collaboration in specific contexts.

The main contributions of the work include empirical analysis of a proposed theoretical model, a better understanding of the role collaborative process competence plays on SC collaboration formation and the discussion of customer account management as an outcome of SC collaboration.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance understanding on supply chain partnership strategy-environment context co-alignment and its relationship with performance. Using the environment-strategy-performance view framework and the supporting relational perspective, the study develops a model and hypotheses to understand how supply chain partnership strategy as a response to co-align with operating context elements may impact operational and overall firm performance. Additionally, the study investigates the interrelationships among partnership strategy elements.

Data for testing the hypothesized relationships in the conceptual model was collected through a survey of managers in the Hoover’s database of US manufacturing firms. The survey sample included 115 responses from a wide variety of manufacturing forms.

Findings support the conventional wisdom relating collaboration to operational and financial performance. While product complexity associates with the “building block” resources, resource complementarity and resource specificity, technological turbulence relates significantly with only resource specificity. Interestingly, competitive intensity associates differentially with the resources – positive with resource specificity and negatively with resource complementarity. The results also reveal mediating influences of resource specificity and collaboration.

The research findings have to be considered in context. The moderate size, wide industry/firm diversity and robust research design notwithstanding, and the cross-firm nature can potentially obscure causal linkages. Besides, more comprehensive insights could be obtained by modeling the co-alignment of strategy with other factors in the operating context such as industry munificence, and market unpredictability.

Firms derive operational and financial performance benefits from close collaboration with partners since the operational enhancements from such relationships have customer service implications. Besides, the synergistic interrelationships among strategic partnership resources and their eventual impact on operational and financial performance is highlighted suggesting that firms develop a proper mix of unique and complementing set of resources and leverage them through collaborative behaviors. Importantly, the results provide a framework for managers to understand the criticality of aligning their resources with contextual elements to realize enhanced operational efficiencies, customer service, and financial benefits.

Much of the evidence on the rent generation capabilities in supply chain partnerships is still anecdotal and extant empirical research lacks adequate explanation. Thus this study offers an initial strategic response framework for an appropriate co-alignment of partnership resources with environmental context factors to realize operational benefits and overall financial performance. The framework answers the critical question: does a supply chain partnership strategy that matches “fit” or co-aligns with its critical operating environment context realize better performance? Additionally, it unravels the interrelationships among strategic partnership resources.

Introduces a decision framework for making strategic competitive choices beyond the product‐brand, business unit, or corporate levels of analysis. It adds a fourth dimension: the multi‐organizational strategic competitive unit which is responsible for planning and implementing competitive strategy in the global marketplace. Long‐range competitive success can no longer be achieved by a single company, and in recent years, the relevant competitive unit has shifted from the company to the larger competitive system of companies aligned in strategic collaborations for competitive advantage. For example, no longer is competition between one auto assembler and another, but between Toyota and its Keiretsu programme of global networking and strategic alliances with suppliers and other competitors against Ford and General Motors and their relative commitment to the more narrowly focused corporate competitive unit.

Apprenticeship reforms have paved the way for higher education (HE) providers, including universities, to become Degree Apprenticeships (DA) training providers, creating new work-based HE routes. The changes aim to generate a new cohort of skilled individuals to support national economic growth, as well as improve levels of social mobility. The purpose of this paper is to focus on an HE partnership project which resulted in a number of collaborative models for development that address these aims.

The paper focuses on qualitative interviews undertaken during the process of creating DAs through a consortium of HE providers. It considers the collaborative relationships which were built on and which developed across the course of the short-term project. It assesses the concept of competitive collaboration and its link to social mobility.

The paper considers the various manifestations of collaboration which supported the DA developments in a competitive environment: collaboration as embedded; collaboration as negotiation; and collaboration as a driver for social mobility and social equality.

Working collaboratively across HE providers sought to raise the status of apprenticeships, provide opportunities for the development of new degree apprenticeship curricula and enable practitioners to establish these as a new route into HE. This paper contributes to what is currently limited knowledge about the impact of degree apprenticeships on social mobility and equality.

Partners' knowledge is an essential source of knowledge for organizations in the collaborative innovation. Exploratory innovation is an innovation strategy that is significant to the organization and is characterized by learning and absorbing new knowledge for new products and technology. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of partners' knowledge utilization on exploratory innovation and to analyze further the moderating effect of previous competitive and collaborative relationships between organizations on the above relationships.

In this study, the patent data of 1,636 organizations in the nano-biopharmaceutical field collaboratively from 1998 to 2020 are used as a sample. The knowledge networks and collaboration networks are constructed through the patent data. A negative binomial regression method is used to conduct the empirical study.

The results indicate that partners' knowledge utilization has an inverted U-shaped effect on exploratory innovation. The competitive relationship steepens the inverted U-shape effect of partners' knowledge utilization on exploratory innovation and makes the turning point to the left. The collaborative relationship steepens the inverted U-shape effect of partners' knowledge utilization on exploratory innovation and makes the turning point to the right.

This study is the first to examine the impact of partners' knowledge utilization on exploratory innovation and to explore the role of the competitive and collaborative relationships between organizations. It extends current research in organizational innovation and knowledge management by providing insight into partners' knowledge utilization.

Despite over 30 years of focus on supply chain collaboration, companies continue to struggle to achieve collaborative advantage. To better understand why some companies are able to collaborate for competitive advantage and others can't, the authors explore how managerial commitment enables collaborative capabilities.

The authors employed a longitudinal inductive study, interviewing companies with reputations for intense supply chain collaboration at four different times over 20 years.

The authors identified managerial commitment as a super-ordinate enabler. They describe the dynamics of commitment development and explore three types of commitment: instrumental, normative and transformative. The authors document key antecedents and outcomes of each type of commitment.

Theory regarding the antecedents to commitment to collaborative capability is underdeveloped. The authors elaborate these antecedents and the dynamics that enable or undermine the commitment necessary to build effective collaboration capabilities.

The authors provide insight (i.e. a practical and actionable roadmap) into the process companies use to cultivate commitment to collaboration and value co-creation.

Collaboration is critical to value co-creation, including effective supply chain risk mitigation and lasting sustainability efforts. The authors elaborate a theory of commitment dynamics that explains why most companies never go beyond basic levels of collaboration. At the same time, the authors provide a roadmap for deep, transformative collaboration.

Over the past few decades, many initiatives have been proposed in response to critical environmental challenges. However, in most cases, progress has been inadequate, raising questions as to why so few organisations have been successful in adopting effective sustainability measures. To address this dilemma, this paper aims to propose a range of sustainability-related co-opetitive strategies that are likely to be beneficial for organisations and society. The research findings provide support for co-opetitive approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability by providing evidence within an Australian context.

Research methods comprised 14 interviews with senior executives/managers from private and public sector organisations in Australia. Thematic content analysis indicates the presence of three types of drivers (commonality-driven, competition-driven and collaboration-driven) and three critical success factors (governance, public policy and relationship principles) related to co-opetition, CSR and sustainability.

Findings indicate that inter-firm co-opetition could be considered a viable strategy to improve performance across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Limitations concern the number of interviews conducted.

Based on the research findings, a typology was created that depicts different forms of co-opetition in CSR/sustainability and their relationships with firm performance. Moreover, the typology illustrates the importance of co‐opetitive partnerships in supporting effective responses to sustainability challenges and opportunities.

This paper aims to examine how – and whether – members of an industry cluster share knowledge through networking as a means to improving competitive advantage and, in particular, whether trust is present in the knowledge‐sharing process.

The research involved three surveys utilizing a relationship marketing orientation (RMO) that were conducted at intervals (in 2004, 2008 and 2010) in addition to interviews with key cluster members, which were also conducted over a seven‐year period.

Knowledge sharing and integration were found to mediate the relationship between RMO and competitive advantage in 2004 and 2010 but not in 2008. Lower mean scores for trust were also found in 2008.

The limitations are that the respondent numbers were small. It is recommended that one more survey is conducted in 2013 to determine whether the interventions reported here, the recruitment of new cluster staff and the continuing growth of the cluster, influence the comparative results over time.

Knowledge sharing and collaboration within industry clusters requires active and discerning facilitation, particularly where new members are concerned.

The paper adds value to the current research on industry clusters and knowledge sharing as surveys were conducted over a seven‐year period that tracked changes as the cluster grew. The findings highlight the necessity of focusing on member relationships/collaboration during times of growth and change.

This study investigates the impact of agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) characteristics on the antecedents of horizontal logistics collaboration (HLC). Specifically, the study compares the relationship between collaboration activities and outcomes for companies in and outside AFSCs.

First, a survey was used to collect data from different industries. Second, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to compare the measurement and structural models from different industry categories.

The results support the premise that collaboration improves trust and commitment in the relationship, which in turn enhance satisfaction. The results also show the existence of a minor influence of AFSCs characteristics on HLC antecedents, in the form of an indirect impact of dedicated investments on commitment.

The factors having a significant influence on the collaboration outcomes and their respective effects are generally similar across food and nonfood supply chains, providing opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaboration experiences.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge on interfirm collaboration by considering the specificities of HLC. It also highlights the importance of conducting contingency research on collaborative experiences, as firms from different industry contexts operate under distinct operational conditions.

The interest for collaboration among small and mediumsized enterprises and innovation has been highlighted, in recent times, due to the acceleration of technological changes and to increasing international competitiveness. Many small firms, with rigid structures and weak entrepreneurial dynamics, experienced difficulties in becoming innovators. Some of these firms can adopt collaborative agreements because these relationships enable them to get the necessary innovative activities, know-how, and exploit opportunities, which they cannot achieve alone. This study examines the motives for the formation of collaborative agreements in industrial Portuguese SMEs and presents some empirical evidence concerning collaboration as an important vehicle for the innovativeness of these small firms. The findings were based on a sample of 92 firms/collaborative agreements.