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The purpose of this paper is to explore how the proportion of skilled jobs in subsidiaries is influenced by resource gaps created by subsidiary development.

This paper develops a range of propositions that connect the constructs of effective autonomy and organisational relationships with subsidiary employment. Propositions are built on an extensive literature review based on such approaches as the resource‐based view, transaction cost economics, network approach, and institutional theory.

The framework developed in the paper suggests that a higher proportion of employment in skilled jobs in subsidiaries is most likely in cases where subsidiary entrepreneurship, role specialization, and absorptive capacity are higher. Conversely, the proportion is likely to be lower in cases of increased institutional distance from the parent company.

The conceptual model can help parent company managers assess the likely effects of developments in effective autonomy and organisational relationships in their subsidiaries. Subsidiary managers can assess the possible impact of such factors as development of entrepreneurial activities, specialization within the multinational corporation supply chain and enhancement of absorptive capacity on the proportion of skilled jobs.

This paper is the first to describe subsidiary development from a skilled job perspective. It further develops the concept of autonomy and introduces the term “effective autonomy”.

Constructs a new management agenda to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of the marketing organization for the future, reflecting certain key changes in the current marketing environment. Argues that these critical factors impacting on the marketing organization include accelerating both external environmental changes and internal organization developments. Raises many important questions relating to the survival and the future forms of the marketing organization and the implementation of the marketing process. Finds that a prime manifestation of these changes is the development of various types of network organizational forms to implement strategic alliances and inter‐organizational collaborations and partnerships. Proposes a structured approach to mapping the implications for the organization of such changes and the development of an organizational strategy that defines an appropriate role and form for the marketing organization and marketing processes in the corporation of the future.

The popularity of supply chain partnerships has exploded over the past few years with an increasing interest in the role of trust in facilitating the relationship. There has been a noticeable increase in the last quarter of the twentieth century of the importance of trust in partnerships and alliances in management literature. This paper deals with the nature and crucial role played by trust in long‐term relationships and tries to integrate a number of different perspectives to develop a framework along with three issues: ways the term “trust” is used, factors leading to trusting behaviour in the customer‐supplier relationship, and the effect of trust on the behaviour of a customer and a supplier. The paper presents some insights for supply chain managers from which they can examine their own partner relationships and provides supply chain managers with an in‐depth analysis of how to manage their supply chain relationships.

This research focuses on the construct of perceived vulnerability, which is based on the gap between perceived trust and perceived dependence in business relationships with suppliers and customers. The outcome of this study is generated from the empirical findings of a survey in the Swedish vehicle industry. These empirical findings indicate that there is to a large extent a significant association between companies' perceived trust and dependence in business relationships towards their suppliers and customers, i.e. that trust is important in lean business relationships. The contributions of this research are a generic conceptualisation of the vulnerability construct, a see‐saw model of perceived vulnerability and a typology of perceived vulnerability scenarios in business relationships.

The objective of this research is to describe and develop a conceptual framework that differs between the constructs of mutual and interactive trust in business dyads.

This study is based upon the empirical findings of a survey between a vehicle manufacturer (VM) and its most important suppliers.

On an overall level, there is both mutual and interactive trust between the VM and its suppliers, although on a specific level there is hardly any mutual trust, while there is interactive trust in the studied dyads, where one's trust is increasing the other's trust is decreasing.

The fact that the research was based upon a VM and its most important suppliers implies that the empirical findings of this research might not be generalised beyond the automotive industry. Another limitation has been the use of a trend dimension to estimate the interactive trust in the studied business dyads. Theoretical and managerial implications, as well as concluding thoughts and suggestions for further research of multidisciplinary and marketing channel aspects, are also provided.

Empirically, the research contributes to explore the constructs of mutual and interactive trust in business dyads. The theoretical and empirical contributions serve as a fundament and a structure for further research of mutual and interactive trust.

Theoretically, the contribution is a conceptual framework that distinguishes between mutual and interactive trust based upon two generic determinants, namely condition and process. A suggestion for further research is therefore to explore the process of interactive trust in business dyads at several occasions, and to match this to the condition of mutual trust. Accordingly, the empirical findings of mutual and interactive trust have to be further explored in different business dyads across industries.

The aim of this paper is to develop a model for presenting level of trust and analyzing the contribution of various trust-building measures undertaken by an organization.

The conceptual framework for the model is based on previous research and the concept of trust and its implications in business environment. This model includes various stages of trust measured against time and trust building measures (TBM). This trust model relates the trustee’s position with the trustor at any point in time and describes its impact on trustee’s position in terms of trustworthiness (sum of “trust deficit” and “trust gain”). 10;Vectors and linear Algebra equations are used to construct the model supplemented with an example from real-life business environment for better understanding of the model. 10.

A trust framework, elaborating level of trust between two parties is explained with the help of a mathematical model. The model includes various stages of trust measured against time and TBM.

In the practical application of the model, the authors adopted an existing scale to measure trust levels, which can have its limitations and shortcomings. It is however suggested to choose as specific scale for the industry as possible.

The model can be applied in any situation, person or environment specially to determine the current situation of organizational trust in business which can be helpful in making decisions.

The concept of making trust a part of strategy and a tool for decision-making is novel and applicable in all sectors and situations. By providing a real-time view of the level of trust and impact of TBM will help predict future levels of trust and make it an essential part of decision-making process.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the different roles of intra- and inter-organizational information and communication technology (ICT) in improving supply chain performance. It proposes different mechanisms to explain how intra- and inter-organizational ICT interact with supply chain integration, and contribute to supply chain performance. The main research question is: What are the distinctive roles of inter-organizational ICT and intra-organizational ICT in improving supply chain performance?

The paper builds on original survey data of 320 Chinese manufacturing firms gathered in China.

The paper shows that inter-organizational ICT has a positive direct relationship with supply chain performance and this relationship is mediated by supply chain integration. Intra-organizational ICT has no direct relationship with supply chain performance. However, intra-organizational ICT moderates the effect of the supply chain integration on supply chain performance.

The paper argues that more research into the specific roles and interaction of ICT with business processes is needed in order to better understand its role in improving supply chain performance.

For managers the findings show that inter- and intra-organizational ICT play a different role in the improvement of supply chain performance: the first leading to more supply chain integration, which in turn improves performance, while the second needs additional investment in integrative practices to help improve supply chain performance.

This paper adds to the debate on the role of ICT in improving supply chain performance and shows that a detailed investigation into underlying mechanisms, and the interaction of ICT with other business processes is valuable.

Theoretical models of collaboration assume that intra‐organizational relationships are more collaborative that inter‐organizational ones. This paper seeks to question the validity of this assumption by comparing the levels of collaboration in two cases that comprise both types of relationship.

Two case studies in the UK food industry were conducted, in each two relationships were analyzed: one inter‐ and one intra‐organizational. Data were collected through a questionnaire followed by semi‐structured interviews.

This exploratory research indicates that in both case studies intra‐organizational relationships have lower levels of collaboration than inter‐organizational ones. This appears to contradict the commonly held assumption that intra‐organizational relationships involve closer collaborations than inter‐organizational ones.

Case study approaches have reliability and generalisability limitations, however, the paper was given in‐depth access to four relationships (two per case), which provide a basis for further research. The use of multiple informants and two methods of data collection helped to increase reliability and efforts were made to reduce bias in responses by ensuring confidentiality and engaging with participating companies in an impartial way.

A better appreciation of collaboration in inter‐ and intra‐ organizational relationships will result in managers making better decisions about how their organization relates internally and externally. This could have implications for decisions on make‐buy, alliances, and acquisitions.

The paper shows that it is possible to have relationships with customers and suppliers that are more collaborative than those between departments within a single organization. This finding appears to challenge traditional assumptions and provides a new perspective of the management of supply chain relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how accounting and supply function specialists shape controls in collaborative supply networks (CSNs) and how both might co‐evolve.

This paper is a case study of an Australian metal manufacturer (“SteelBiz”) and its CSN is conducted.

The paper finds changes in both trust vis‐à‐vis formal controls and in intra‐organisational supply‐accounting relations occurred in a mutually constitutive manner. At SteelBiz, a shift to formal controls occurred due to the efforts of the accounting function in contesting organisational visibility. Overall, both intra‐ and inter‐organisational relations were found to co‐evolve.

The limitations of the paper include: an empirical examination of buyer organisations only; a focus on intra‐organisational issues between functional specialists to the relative exclusion of both more “macro” trends and inter‐personal relationships; and the limited generalisability associated with the methodology chosen. Future research should consider both buyer and supplier organisations and whether the “disciplinary alignments” observed here are reflective of more enduring patterns.

The contributions of this paper are two‐fold. First, the paper attempts to fill a gap in the literature pertaining to how intra‐organisational relations might influence network controls. Furthermore, the few studies that do exist describe the “intra‐inter” dynamic as uni‐directional only, whereas this paper reveals how both mutually constitute the other. Second, complexities into the trust‐formal control relationship are revealed while it is proposed that as CSN relations develop, process‐based mechanisms become more important than other relationship‐sustaining devices, with the trust‐formal control dynamic dependent on ongoing negotiation and information as mobilised by intra‐organisational participants.

This paper aims to answer following three important but not well-answered or unanswered questions in the extant trust literatures: What is the true magnitude that trust impacts on performance? Is there any consistency among the effects of trust on performance at different levels? How does vertical distance affect the trust-performance relationship?

It captures the law between trust and performance at different levels by conducting a meta-analytic examination consisting of 238 independent empirical studies, 586 effect sizes and 110,576 independent samples.

It makes a periodic conclusion that trust significantly promotes performance. Specifically, trust not only has stronger positive correlation with team performance than individual and organizational performance inside organization, but also strongly facilitates organizational performance between organizations. Moreover, consistency exits in the effects of trust on performance at different levels. On one hand, trust has stronger positive correlation with performance of contextual type than performance of innovative type than performance of task type at different levels. On the other hand, promotion effect of trust on performance strengthens when the vertical distance between trustors and trustees diminishes. Additionally, three potential moderators including publication status, measurement tool and common method variance moderate the focused relation, but moderating effect is not thorough for regional culture. Moderating directions of the above four potential moderators are highly consistent.

This paper answers the three important but not well-answered or unanswered questions.