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The purpose of this article is to develop and propose a comprehensive framework that identifies the factors that influence a company’s decision to adopt business to business (B2B) technologies.

The authors review the literature regarding technology adoption from multiple disciplines including: Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Sociology, Information Systems, Marketing and Economics. A synthesis of the review provides the foundation for developing a comprehensive model of inter-firm technology adoption.

The review and synthesis finds inconsistencies in the theoretical models and constructs used in previous studies of inter-firm technology adoption. The comprehensive framework presented identifies four major categories of antecedents to technology adoption: characteristics of a technology, organizational factors, external factors and relationships. The presented model focuses attention on the inclusion of relational factors that affect the adoption of B2B technology.

An important area that has been ignored in the inter-firm adoption literature is the impact of inter-firm relationships on technology adoption. This paper emphasizes the importance of inter-firm relationships and identifies power, trust and justice as important relationships that influence the adoption of inter-firm technologies.

The expanded framework identifies the antecedents of B2B technology adoption, which can be used as a guiding framework by both academics and practitioners. The paper also offers directions for future work in the form of propositions.

Prior studies have demonstrated the important role of coopetition in firms’ innovation. Based on the paradox perspective, this study aims to focus on technology transfer, the pre-innovation stage, to provide a supplementary understanding of the complementarity and contradictoriness of paradoxical coopetition, with the formal and informal governance mechanisms which are suitable with this understanding in coopetition.

This study conducted an original, multisource survey of 280 Chinese manufacturing firms. Hypotheses were tested through multiple regressions.

Coopetition has a positive impact on technology transfer between firms. Along with the increasing specificity of assets invested ex ante as a kind of formal governance mechanism, the relationship between coopetition and technology transfer becomes stronger. Meanwhile, inter-firm justice as an informal governance mechanism in the technology transfer process can be positively affected by coopetition between partners.

The study adds to the business-to-business coopetition literature on how to properly treat and use coopetition in technology transfer. Using the paradox perspective in the Chinese context, the findings emphasize the positive role of coopetition in the inter-firm technological exchange process, enriching the understanding of the complementary and contradictory features of paradoxical coopetition. To govern coopetitive relationships, the firms should also implement two fundamental governance mechanisms, that is, specialty asset and inter-firm justice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how contractor firms manage their relationships with extended supply chain tiers and investigate the range of ICT technologies used to facilitate such practices.

An on-line questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information about supply chain management operations, supplier relationship management and the ICT technologies used by contractor firms to manage their extended supply chain tiers.

The extended supply chain relationships of contractor firms are primarily composed of contractual, technical and financial entities, but findings suggest that the vision to consider extended supply chain firms when selecting suppliers are still myopic. Majority of ICT technologies are used between Tier 1 supply chain firms and there is an inconsistency in the number of technologies adopted with the extended supply chain tiers. Despite having a high involvement relationship with Tier 2 downstream firms, findings indicate a lack of use of ICT technologies to manage the organisational, personal and technological interactions with these firms.

On the basis of different relationship types this study develops an initial framework for management of supply chains that are facilitated by relevant ICT technologies.

This paper provides insights into the management of extended supply chain firms by contractor firms from a relationship-centric perspective and develops an initial framework for relationship-centric supply chain management.

Based on theories of organizational learning and strategic considerations, this study aims to develop a strategic contingency model for technology alliance and identify how alliance‐specific factors, strategic factors, and organizational capability factors influence firms to acquire competencies and competitive advantages through technology alliance.

A six‐page, 94‐item survey questionnaire was developed and mailed to top‐level managers of the semiconductor firms in Taiwan. A total of 63 valid responses were received.

The study results indicate that firms with higher absorption orientation, higher risk reduction orientation, higher R&D scale economy orientation, and higher top management team experiences tend to perform better in acquiring competitive advantages. In addition, the strategic fit between strategic factors, organizational capability factors and technology alliance choice could lead firms to better competitive advantage.

Although the results of this study are fruitful, several suggestions could be made for academicians and business practitioners. First, the respondent rate of this study is low and could be improved. Second, in addition to the strategic contingency model as developed in this study, more research factors could be further investigated. Third, more case studies could be conducted to reconfirm the results of this study.

The major contribution of this study is to investigate what critical factors would influence the choice of a technology alliance model, and what effects the influencing factors have on the relationship between a technology alliance model and the intended competency development. The results of this study provide very important references for academicians and practitioners to investigate the effectiveness of technology alliance.

The aim of this paper is threefold: giving a description of how much internet‐based tools are used in inter‐firm supply chain relationships in Italy; analysing the different adoption behaviours of such tools held by Italian firms; and describing the main features of the firms using the internet for supply chain (SC) management, in terms of structures, players, processes and governance.

The paper is based on a survey carried out by involving Italian firms having more than 50 million euros turnover: 1,458 firms were involved and 463 answered, with a 31.8 per cent response rate. Firm referents were first‐level managers from SC, distribution, procurement or the IT/IS areas. The questionnaire was designed in five sections investigating: general SC features; internet‐based tools diffusion; main effects in terms of efficacy, effectiveness and customer value; relationships governance; general information about the firm.

Three adoption modalities can be pointed out: firms are divided in those mainly oriented to SC execution processes, from those mainly driven to collaboration in new product development or marketing processes. Most of the former operate with high‐order frequency and low product complexity in a make‐to‐catalogue environment, while the latter face higher product complexity, variability and customization: the use of the tools is consistent with firms' strategies. Correlation is found between the use of internet‐based tools and the collaborative environment within the SC, as marked by intense information and knowledge sharing among partners.

The paper gives a description of the adoption modalities of internet‐based tools by large Italian companies. Because of the high response rate and the international context characterizing such firms – most of them are branches of international companies, findings are generalizable and can be used to understand adoption behaviours of most firms.

The purpose of this paper is to study nanotech technical and scientific seminars (TSS) companies from a managerial perspective. Specifically, it means to: firstly, understand how TSS firms manage the sale of their services; and secondly, to identify the implications that different approaches in the TSS sale management have on the client firm's innovation process.

First, a literature analysis identifies the critical variables of a service sale management model for nanotech TSS firms. Then, an empirical investigation involving ten nanotech Italian companies was conducted. The empirical results were analytically generalised and integrated with suggestions from the literature to provide general insights into the research topic.

The paper shows that nanotech TSS companies adopt two alternative models for managing their service sale: a customised approach and a standardised one. They differ in terms of: management of the commercial relationship; phases of interaction with the client firm; and degree of standardisation of the provided service.

Because of the applied research methodology, the findings can be generalised to TSS companies offering services in the field of nanotechnology, although implications for similar technology‐intensive sectors are discussed.

The two TSS sale management models have different implications on the client's innovation process, in terms of: firstly, structure of the process itself and, secondly, applied managerial and organisational practices. These effects should be considered by the innovator that wants to fully exploit the potentiality of the acquired service.

So far, TSS have been analysed in the literature from the client firm's point of view. The paper widens this perspective, since it considers the two opposite viewpoints in the TSS sale: the service supplier's and the service buyer's.

Many factors in today's competitive and global business environment contribute to an organization's financial success. A business enterprise's management must adopt a strategy that fully exploits information technology's power as a key element in order to optimize the organization's competitiveness. Recent spectacular technological advances and breakthroughs have made the effective use of modern information technology a critical, competitive business weapon.

Tourism supply chains (SCs) are recently gaining importance and there is a dire need for empirical testing and theory development in allied areas. The current investigation aims to explore the importance of management learning, relationship development, shared vision, inter-firm integration and technology perception as essential management capabilities required for the development of dynamic capability of tourism SC agility. Furthermore, the study explores the agile influence on competitive advantage.

The study collected perceptual responses from 233 active participants and respondents in the tourism sector. The collected data were analyzed for the validity of the proposed relationships through partial least squares.

Findings suggest relationship development, shared vision, inter-firm integration and technology perception as significant enablers. Furthermore, tourism SC agility was found to enhance competitive advantage.

The study further advances theory development and empirical testing through extending the concept of agility to tourism SCs and examining its enablers. Furthermore, the study developed measured for the utilized enablers of tourism SC agility through appropriate development in tourism contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the interrelationships in internal and external supply chain integration (SCI) across multiple tiers of manufacturing-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing country, Malawi.

Utilizing the resource-based view, resource-dependence and network theory perspectives, and drawing on a multiple embedded case-study approach, the research investigated the internal and external linkages within three-tier supplier, manufacturer and retailer SCs and described varying perspectives of SCI across supply chain positions.

Firms with strategic intra-firm resources were less committed to external integration, deploying their resources as a source of power to dominate and exploit their dependent partners. The SCI across multiple tiers was impaired by dependence but enhanced by interdependence strategies of firms. Although lack of trust, promotion of non-overlapping self-interests, corruption in sourcing processes and resource constraints negatively affected SCI, firm commitment to external integration promoted greater commitment among firms, thus having a positive effect on SCI.

Further analysis of SCI of SME triads and a more systematic longitudinal analysis across other market segments should be explored to generalize the conclusions of this study.

The external influences on dyadic relationships go beyond the interactions of heterogeneous firms in the network to encompass interpersonal interactions across the network, where individuals may potentially prioritize personal connections and sabotage the interests of their firms.

The research explored the internal and external dimensions of SCI in multi-tier SCs of SMEs, and provided for the first time new evidence to show that firm commitment to engaging with partners complements the mechanisms of SCI within a developing country context. It highlights the need to develop trust, eliminate corruption, promote greater commitment of SC partners and encourage greater investment in firms’ resource capabilities to enhance SCI among SMEs.

The author, with the help of a conceptual and integrated review of inter-firm collaborative strategies literature, developed an integrated perspective framework regarding inter-firm collaborative business strategies (IFCBS). The purpose of this study is to attain a holistic comprehension regarding IFCBS.

The author undertook a conceptual integrated literature review to arrive at the integrated framework on IFCBS. Argumentative and incremental logic was applied to develop the integrated perspective. This is as advocated by scholars (Barney, 2018; Whetten, 1989; Bacharach, 1989; Weick, 1989; Smithey Fulmer, 2012; Cornelissen, 2017, 2019).

This work contributed to theory by conceptualizing an integrated perspective framework. The integrated framework regarding inter-firm collaborative strategy was developed based upon the six conceptual elemental questions proposed and discussed in the papers. These were drawn from extant literature developed from the theoretical aspects regarding various aspects of participation between collaborating firms. It was also based upon the dominant and dormant roles played by the partnering firms as well as the objectives of the partnership. The six conceptual elemental questions were as follows: “Why to cooperate?”; “When to cooperate?”; “Which partners to collaborate with?”; “Where to cooperate?”; “How to cooperate?”; and “What are the benefits of collaboration?”

There was contribution of this conceptual theoretical work in a couple of ways. First, IFCBS have been conceptualized with a reductionist point of view into six conceptual elemental blocks. These acted as antecedent, mediating and dependent factors. Second, an integrated framework on IFCBS was developed.

This work would help strategy managers to secure a holistic understanding regarding planning and execution of inter-firm collaborative strategies. The conceptual elements indicated in the study would help managers assess the factors regarding which managers should focus on with priority. Further, the factors that might hinder post-collaboration success have also been conceptualized in this work for easy comprehension of the managers. The framework proposed would help managers to comprehend regarding what type of inter-firm collaborative strategy their firm should embark upon so that there would be maximum post-collaboration success. The type of inter-firm collaborative strategies to be followed would be dependent upon the dominance or dormancy of the collaborating partners regarding the conceptual elements as well as the goals to be attained and secured from the inter-firm collaborative strategies.

This is one of the first theoretical works toward establishment of an integrated perspective framework on IFCBS involving antecedent, mediating and dependent factors.