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1 – 10 of over 64000The primary purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of interorganizational trust within an international joint venture (IJV) context. In exploring how…
Abstract
The primary purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of interorganizational trust within an international joint venture (IJV) context. In exploring how interorganizational trust is developed during the course of managing IJVs, we will look at fair action as a key factor in building interorganizational trust. Based on the existing literature, we propose the fair joint decision‐making process, cultural adaptation and the fair distribution of bargaining power as being antecedents of interorganizational trust within the IJV context. After developing hypotheses about the relationships between these three antecedents and interorganizational trust as well as causal relations between the antecedents, an empirical study is conducted using a sample comprised of 109 IJVs located in Korea. The findings show that perceived fairness in the joint decision‐making process and the distribution of bargaining power directly affects trust‐building between IJV participants; and also reveal the indirect effects of cultural adaptation on the development of interorganizational trust.
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This paper aims to understand the factors of the exchange relationship that influence a target-partner’s decisions to adopt virtual governance strategies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the factors of the exchange relationship that influence a target-partner’s decisions to adopt virtual governance strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses are tested using an online panel of 259 key informants from manufacturing firms that sell goods to retailers. Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The study confirms the hypotheses that the target partner’s trust in the initiating partner is a significant driver of supply chain management system (SCMS) adoption intention. While trust fully mediates the adverse effects of technological uncertainty on adoption intentions, asset specificity directly influences both trust and adoption intentions. Additionally, the initiating-partner’s incentive orientation mitigates these effects and encourages SCMS adoption.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes to the study of virtual governance and interorganizational adoption decisions in two primary ways. First, it elucidates the relationship between transaction costs and relational norms. Second, it examines the role that the shadow of past incentives has on the target-partner’s decisions to electronically integrate with the initiating partner.
Practical implications
The findings from this study contribute to the virtual governance and interorganizational technology adoption literature by demonstrating the relevance of characteristics of the exchange relationship in the target-partner’s decision to adopt the SCMS technologies necessary for electronic integration. This study provides a better understanding of the function of transaction costs and relational norms that paves the way for further exploration of the choice to adopt virtual governance strategies.
Originality/value
Given that SCMSs enable virtual governance, the findings of this study make important contributions to understanding how transactional and relational elements of the exchange relationship influence a target-partner’s decisions to participate in vertical control strategies with an initiating-partner.
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Qingyan Ye, Duanxu Wang and Kai Zeng
Employee entrepreneurship has recently become an emerging area of investigation. However, due to the fragmentation of the turnover and entrepreneurship literature, no coherent…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee entrepreneurship has recently become an emerging area of investigation. However, due to the fragmentation of the turnover and entrepreneurship literature, no coherent theoretical framework has been developed to provide an adequate description of the employee entrepreneurial process. The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of why and how an employee in an established organization progresses toward starting a new venture by exploring the key decision-making processes during the initial stages of employee entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study addresses the following research questions: What are the key decision-making processes during the initial stages of employee entrepreneurship? How are these decisions made, and how do they interact? This study employed a multiple case study approach, which enabled the authors to gain valuable insight into these “what” and “how” questions. The data consist of 28 in-depth employee entrepreneurship cases.
Findings
Based on an in-depth study of 28 cases, this study constructs a comprehensive model of the dynamic and interactive decision-making processes that lead to employee entrepreneurship. In particular, the findings reveal that rather than being a linear staged activity, employee entrepreneurship is an inherently iterative process that involves a set of interrelated subdecision-making processes related to turnover, team entrepreneurship and partner recruitment that entail multiple iterations and feedback loops based on an individual's cognitive judgment.
Originality/value
By illustrating and clarifying the importance of the effects of different initial motivations and the attributes of the network in the course of the employee entrepreneurship decision-making process, this study integrates the turnover and entrepreneurship literature and makes significant contributions to the current literature on employee entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study complements research investigating entrepreneurial team formation by providing a detailed understanding of how the lead entrepreneur and the prospective partner make mutual choices during the entrepreneurial team formation process.
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Chong Wu and David Barnes
The purpose of this paper is to present a four‐phase dynamic feedback model for supply partner selection in agile supply chains (ASCs). ASCs are commonly used as a response to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a four‐phase dynamic feedback model for supply partner selection in agile supply chains (ASCs). ASCs are commonly used as a response to increasingly dynamic markets. However, partner selection in ASCs is inherently more complex and difficult under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity as supply chains form and re‐form.
Design/methodology/approach
The model draws on both quantitative and qualitative techniques, including the Dempster‐Shafer and optimisation theories, radial basis function artificial neural networks (RBF‐ANN), analytic network process‐mixed integer multi‐objective programming (ANP‐MIMOP), Kraljic's supplier classification matrix and principles of continuous improvement. It incorporates modern computer programming techniques to overcome the information processing difficulties inherent in selecting from amongst large numbers of potential suppliers against multiple criteria in conditions of uncertainty.
Findings
The model enables decision makers to make efficient and effective use of the vastly increased amount of data that is available in today's information‐driven society and it offers a comprehensive, systematic and rigorous approach to a complex problem.
Research limitations/implications
The model has two main drawbacks. First, practitioners may find it difficult to match supplier evaluation criteria with the strategic objectives for an ASC. Second, they may perceive the model to be too complex for use when speed is of the essence.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is that, for the first time, it draws together work from previous articles that have described each of the four stages of the model in detail to present a comprehensive overview of the model.
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Gülçin Büyüközkan and Ali Görener
Today, customers are generally perceived to be demanding higher quality and better performing products, in shorter and more predictable development cycle-times and at a lower…
Abstract
Purpose
Today, customers are generally perceived to be demanding higher quality and better performing products, in shorter and more predictable development cycle-times and at a lower cost. These market pressures drive firms to collaborate with possible partners in product development (PD) processes. However, the selection of a suitable partner for an effective PD is not an easy decision and is associated with complexity. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to effectively evaluate PD partners.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed evaluation procedure consists of several steps. First, based on a literature review and expert validation, the strategic main and sub-criteria of the PD partner selection process that companies consider the most important are identified. After constructing the evaluation criteria hierarchy, the criteria weights are calculated by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The VIKOR (a compromise ranking) method is used to obtain the final partner ranking results. A case study is given to demonstrate the potential of the methodology. In the last part of the study, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the influence of criteria weights on the decision making process.
Findings
The PD partner evaluation model contains three main criteria, namely, partner, collaboration and PD-oriented criteria, with 13 sub-criteria. The market position, competency of the partner, compatibility, technical expertise and complementarity are found as the most considerable evaluation criteria for the ABC case company. Results of the sensitivity analysis from different cases demonstrate that the integrated AHP-VIKOR model is quite sensitive to the weights assigned to the evaluation criteria. This finding underlines the importance of forming a capable, qualified group of experts for the decision-making procedure. The results of the empirical study show that the proposed evaluation framework is practical for solving partner selection problems.
Originality/value
Partner selection is critical to the success of a collaborative PD process. The main contribution of this paper is the definition and development of an effective evaluation framework to guide managers for suitable PD partner selection. In our knowledge, there exists no study in the literature that combines the established AHP VIKOR model for PD partner selection problem. This study can be useful to researchers to better understand PD partner selection problem theoretically, as well as to organizations in designing better satisfying PD partner evaluation systems.
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Joseph Sarkis, Srinivas Talluri and A. Gunasekaran
This paper aims to provide a practical model usable by organizations to help form agile virtual enterprises. The model helps to integrate a variety of factors, tangible and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a practical model usable by organizations to help form agile virtual enterprises. The model helps to integrate a variety of factors, tangible and intangible, strategic and operational, for decision‐making purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive development of factors is determined from the literature and an analytical network process (ANP) methodology is introduced for decision model development. An illustrative example is presented.
Findings
The results provide a robust model that will aid decision makers and agile virtual enterprise brokers form partnerships within these organizational structures.
Research limitations/implications
The paper introduces a conceptual model with an illustrative validating example. A practical application and reapplication of the model are required to further validate the model. ANP can require significant managerial input for its application, potentially causing fatigue for decision makers.
Practical implications
Practical implications include a partner selection tool and framework for decision makers. The model may be easily tweaked by the elimination or addition of decision factors and their relationships.
Originality/value
The paper is useful to practitioners and organizations seeking to manage partnership formation of agile virtual enterprises, an emerging organizational form. This work expands the number of factors and interrelationships among these factors that no other model has explicitly addressed for the agile virtual enterprise formation situation.
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Sybil S. Henderson and Erma Jean Smith-King
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize multi-sector, cross-sector, and other interorganizational alliance structures and processes with particular focus on their saliency in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize multi-sector, cross-sector, and other interorganizational alliance structures and processes with particular focus on their saliency in partnership/alliance decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper focusing primarily on management and public administration literature that examines decision making in multi-sector, cross-sector, and other interorganizational alliances.
Findings
The paper identified that decision making takes place at every stage of the partnership process, with complexity being dependent on organizational structure and design, i.e. dyad or network. Organization structures and key processes including coordination, cooperation, and trust are critical elements that impact decision making. Trust is foundational for the development and sustainability of collaborative alliances. Many of these same characteristics are also found in strategic alliance structures and processes.
Practical implications
This analysis of selected literature on decision making and trust has the capacity to enhance awareness and expectation-setting for those entering a collaborative partnership. Trust is an integral and enduring component at every stage.
Originality/value
This study crosses the boundary between sectoral partnerships and other interorganizational alliances in the analysis of decision-making structures and processes.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the following research question in partner selection decisions in business-to-business strategic partnerships/collaborations literature…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the following research question in partner selection decisions in business-to-business strategic partnerships/collaborations literature: How do inertia and uncertainty affect partner selection? Explicitly, the paper analyzes how inertia of previous alliance selection routines and uncertainty of entire market movement shape firms’ preferences regarding exploratory partner selection (i.e. selecting new partners who never collaborate with the focal firm).
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded on inter-firm partnerships, partner selection and network theory literature, the study empirically tests a fine-grained sample of 511 open-end funds initiated by 61 fund management firms in China. To do so, it runs Tobit regression for main analysis and applies a variety of sensitivity analyses to check the robustness.
Findings
Results show that inertia in previous partner selection has a negative effect on exploration. Importantly, these inertial forces impact domestic firms but not international firms. Market uncertainty also affects exploratory partner selection: short-term market uncertainty encourages exploration, whereas long-term uncertainty inhibits it. These effects also depend on firms’ type: long-term market uncertainty has a negative effect on exploration for international firms but not for domestic firms. Both types of firms exhibit a stronger tendency toward exploration when they encounter short-term uncertainty. However, this inclination is stronger in international firms.
Originality/value
Earlier research has examined how inertia affects exploitation but largely overlooked its effect on exploration. A critical examination of firm and environment level factors provides a deeper understanding of why and when firms have inconsistent preferences for specific partner selection strategies. Thus, this study offers a unique perspective for understanding firms’ exploratory partner selection by focusing on two important characteristics of focal firms: one internal (inertia) and one external (market uncertainty) in nature.
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Fred Bronner and Robert de Hoog
Information‐search for vacation decision‐making can occur in two different contexts: an individual one, in which one forms one's preferences, and a social one in response to…
Abstract
Purpose
Information‐search for vacation decision‐making can occur in two different contexts: an individual one, in which one forms one's preferences, and a social one in response to discussions with partners and family members. This paper focuses on the latter.
Design/methodology/approach
By means of a longitudinal study the research investigates the main topics of discussion in couples, and the information sources couples use in their discussion. Furthermore, the research investigates whether the information sources used depend on the nature of the sub‐decision – search‐determined or experience‐determined – the couples discuss.
Findings
The research finds that there is considerable discussion between partners and that the amount of discussion varies in relation to the type of sub‐decision. During these discussions, the use of different information sources is widespread. More generally, the study confirms the overall importance of the social context: information sources used in the social context are different from sources used in the individual context. The research does not confirm the expected relationship between the nature of a sub‐decision and the type of information source used. As the decision process proceeds over time, the role of objective information sources increases in discussions.
Research limitation/implications
Compared with the classical individual approach to researching tourist information search, the social context of information‐searching needs other market research data, to provide insight into the topics of discussion. Tourism marketing messages in a social decision context should be directed to significant others, as these messages are likely to be used as important information sources during the joint vacation decision process in couples. In this respect, the use of electronic word‐of‐mouth offers new opportunities for vacation marketing.
Originality/value
A new perspective on information search: the relevance of social contexts.
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Christos S. Tsanos, Konstantinos G. Zografos and Alan Harrison
The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, review the literature on the topic of behavioural antecedents of collaboration and their impact on supply chain integration and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, review the literature on the topic of behavioural antecedents of collaboration and their impact on supply chain integration and performance; second, lay the theoretical foundations and develop a conceptual model linking behavioural antecedents of collaboration, information integration, coordination of operational decisions and supply chain performance; and third, set out operationalisation considerations.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model with theoretical basis on Relational Exchange Theory (RET) and extant supply chain theory is developed as a causal model that can be operationalised using structural equations modelling (partial least squares) and a “single key informant” approach.
Findings
Positive relationships between behavioural antecedents of collaboration (trust, commitment, mutuality/reciprocity), information integration, coordination of operational decisions and supply chain performance (efficiency, effectiveness) are hypothesised. RET provides adequate theoretical background that leads to the theoretical establishment of hypotheses between behavioural antecedents, supply chain integration and performance, which are worth testing empirically.
Research limitations/implications
The ideas presented in this paper enrich the study of behavioural factors in supply chain management and their impact on supply chain performance, and may benefit researchers in the field. The paper also sets the scene (experimental design, measurement items) for the upcoming field research. The empirical part of the work will provide the necessary evidence for the validation of the established hypotheses.
Practical implications
The proposed linkages may stimulate the interest of supply chain strategists towards more collaborative relationship management and affect their decisions on the behavioural antecedents of relationship formation and management. Moreover, the proposed model may help clarify how the integration of critical operational contingencies – information, operational decisions – can help achieve superior supply chain performance.
Originality/value
The paper establishes a causal relationship between constructs which have not been researched (mutuality/reciprocity, coordination of operational decisions) or have been researched individually or in combination (impact of integration on performance, impact of collaboration on performance) but not in the proposed integrated way. It also addresses the challenge of lack of theoretical justification on the development of knowledge that will assist decision making in SCM/logistics and its integration into models, processes and tasks. Finally, by using RET in selecting of behavioural factors and establishing hypotheses, it adds to the body of knowledge concerning the use of interorganisational theories in supply chain relationships.
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