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Customer participation has been recognised as a critical factor in successful new product development (NPD). However, there is scant empirical evidence on how customer participation affects NPD performance. This research attempts to provide a framework to interpret how inter‐organisational relationships mediate the impact of customer participation on NPD performance based on marketing, innovation management and social networks literature.

An empirical study of 179 high‐tech firms in Taiwan is analysed by structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that the impacts of customer participation as an information resource and customer participation as a co‐developer on NPD performance are mediated by inter‐organisational relationships.

The results offer a guideline for high‐tech firms that decide to involve customers in NPD activities. In order to improve efficiency and effectiveness, this research suggests that firms build inter‐organisational relationships with customers to foster knowledge sharing, cooperation, and problem solving. However, firms should be aware that product innovativeness may be hindered by such close collaborative relationships.

The research demonstrates that the contributions of customer participation may not be regarded as inevitable. The authors confirm that research for investigating the linkage between customer participation and NPD performance should consider the mediating roles of inter‐organisational relationships, which may help resolve the conflicting results obtained by researchers on the contributions of customer participation. In addition, the results show that the establishment of close customer‐supplier relationships during NPD cooperation is a key success factor for both efficiency and effectiveness, but has the opposite effect on product innovativeness.

Inter-organizational collaboration is the organizational guarantee and key link to achieve the goals of megaproject management. Project governance has always played an important role in the construction of megaprojects, but the relationship between project governance and organizational collaboration is unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore the role paths of different project governance mechanisms in influencing the collaborative behaviors of stakeholders and collaborative performance and to elucidate the mechanism of project governance on inter-organizational collaboration.

A conceptual framework was developed based on a comprehensive literature review, termed the structural equation model (SEM). The hypotheses of the model were tested based on data obtained from a questionnaire survey of 235 experts with experience in megaprojects within the construction industry in China.

The results show that project governance positively contributes to the collaborative behavior of megaproject stakeholders and the collaborative performance of the project team. Collaborative behavior acts as a partial mediator between project governance and the collaborative performance of the megaproject inter-organization alliance. The complexity of the project modulates the relationship between the governance mechanism of the project and the collaborative behavior of the stakeholders, which affects the collaborative performance of the megaproject inter-organization alliance.

The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for promoting positive collaborative behavior among stakeholders in megaproject selection and improving the collaborative performance of megaproject inter-organization alliances.

The purpose of this study is to design a trust-based knowledge-sharing framework based on the characteristics of the e-learning community.

The interaction network is constructed to illustrate the relationships between knowledge-sharing agents and objects. Then, a trust evaluation method for knowledge sharing is proposed based on identified agent types and object types. Three sub-methods are included in the model to provide the trust-level references between agents.

This study develops strategies based on proposed diagnosis framework to improve the willingness of knowledge sharing in the e-learning community. Finally, the authors apply the proposed diagnosis framework to a case study in China to propose strategies for the development of inter-organization knowledge sharing via e-learning community.

Previous research on e-learning community strategies has generally suggested broad guidelines without diagnosing the current trust status. The purpose of this study is to design a trust-based knowledge-sharing framework based on the characteristics of the e-learning community.

The purpose of this research is to provide academics and practitioners with an insight to the barriers involved in knowledge transfer, arising from the levels of learning in the organization (i.e. individual, team, organizational, and inter‐organizational).

An empirical research methodology, called the Delphi technique, was employed to investigate these barriers. Owing to the non‐threatening nature of the process, and its usefulness in obtaining a reliable consensus of opinion from a group of experts, it was deemed suitable for this research. The Delphi process was applied in two stages. In the first stage the major barriers in the transfer of knowledge in the levels of learning were obtained. Only the primary paths of transfer were considered, i.e. individual to team (and vice versa), team to the organization (and vice versa), and organization to inter‐organization. In the second stage Delphi process, the critical sources from which these barriers arise were derived.

A total of 14 sources from which the barriers arise were obtained. The significant impact of these sources on the levels of learning, as perceived by the Delphi participants, was derived.

This research provides useful insights for practitioners wanting to minimize barriers and optimize knowledge transfer across the organizations. It also serves as a useful base for researchers to expand further research into barriers of knowledge transfer.

This research is the first attempt made, using Delphi methodology, to analyze the barriers to knowledge transfer from a holistic perspective. It considers the levels of learning, providing academics with a base to consider other paths of knowledge transfer.

This article proposes a conceptualisation for supply strategy – an explanation for how organisations arrange and conduct themselves within modern economic environments, in order to satisfy markets in the long and short terms. After an explanation of the emerging global environment within which organisations must compete, the previous approaches to explaining this area of business are explored and found to be insufficient for the new context. There follows a conceptualisation and an account of new, supporting research – a Delphi survey, conducted to test, extend and validate some of the features of the concept. Finally, some suggestions are made for the further development of supply strategy as a useful subject area for managers and researchers.

The antecedents and cost management methods and their effects on the value creation of inter-organization are essential topics of inter-organizational cost management (IOCM) in a hybrid relational perspective. This study aims to develop a synthesis coordinating mechanism theory which combines supply network theory and transaction cost economics. Using this modified theory, a structural model of IOCM and its hypotheses are developed by considering the organic connection among hybrid relational context, capabilities, methods and the effects of IOCM.

The data were collected under convenient sampling using the questionnaire survey method and analyzed using principal component analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results (significant at p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 level) show that there is a positive correlation among the hybrid relational context, capabilities (antecedents), methods and the effects of IOCM. Capabilities (antecedents) and cost management methods are also found to have a positive impact on synergic effect value and on improving collaborative efficiency in IOCM.

The managers of inter-firm networks may use the results of this study to ensure competitive advantages through collaboration with each other and building and retaining a long-term relationship.

This study demonstrates that the coordinating mechanism of IOCM can create the synergic effect value and improve the collaborative efficiency of the inter-organization relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to overlook influential factors associated with the collaboration itself, and to explore the effect of these factors on inter-organizational relationship.

This paper analyses two different technology projects requiring inter-organization collaboration for implementing medicine traceability: end-to-end verification system and e-pedigree. Based on a survey where 72 pharmaceutical organizations exposed their perceptions about each technological project, collaboration factors are identified.

This paper shows that pharmaceutical organizations in this study perceived differently the cost and benefits from traceability project. Organizations involved experience neither organizational nor technological proximity, impacting negatively collaboration in the inter-organizational project.

To strengthen collaboration, organization from different levels should consider how close they are each other, and this is at the geographic, organizational and technological level. Geographic proximity is defined as physical closeness, organizational proximity can be understood as the degree to which organizations are similar in interests and structure, and technological proximity concerns the similarity between the systems used to mediate communication and store information.

This paper presents empirical evidence on inter-organizational collaboration for industrial projects (i.e. implementing medicine traceability systems). It demonstrates proximity is a significant factor in producing inter-organizational collaboration success. Indeed, organizations experiencing proximity have a better knowledge of actors involved in the inter-organization project.

The purposes of this study were to formulate a hierarchical table of factors that influence adoption of an inter-organization system (IOS) by enterprises and to apply multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools to find the weights of these factors and to objectively identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for the adoption of IOSs by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This study first used a literature review to collect the factors that affect an enterprise’s adoption of an IOS and then constructed a three-level hierarchical table of these factors, based on a technology – organization – environment framework. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy processing was used, based on the returned questionnaires, to determine the weights of the factors. The concept of VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) acceptable advantage was used to objectively identify the CSFs of SMEs that have adopted an IOS.

This study identifies six CSFs of SMEs that have adopted an IOS: industry knowledge and experience, the degree of application of information technology within the industry, system safety, the organizational infrastructure, customer relationships and ease of use. In addition, four findings are proposed.

The work has studied, in depth, the factors that influence the adoption of an IOS by SMEs and identified four practice implications that provide a useful guideline for SMEs when they plan to adopt an IOS.

The identification of CSFs is also an MCDM problem. However, very few previous articles have used MCDM tools to identify the CSFs. This study adopted MCDM tools to objectively identify these CSFs and determine their appropriate weights. The results can help the managers of SMEs allocate their resources, according to the weighting of these CSFs, when they are making plans to adopt an IOS.

Managerial job changing is becoming an increasingly important issue in managerial careers. Due to reasons such as global competition, mergers, acquisitions, corporate downsizing, and cost‐cutting, fewer executives believe that the organisations that they start their careers with will be the organisation that they retire from. Executives who changed jobs in 1987 through five worldwide executive search firms reported their expectations about job change (Worldwide Executive Mobility, 1988). Of the less senior executives, about three‐fourths expected to change companies again within the next ten years. Salary was one potential outcome for these managers. The median raise associated with a job change was about thirty per cent. Advancement was another possible outcome. Top executives had typically held five different jobs and had worked for three different companies in the previous fifteen years. Increased job responsibility was also a potential outcome, although for some job changers job responsibility decreased. A third of U.S. executives changed jobs without changing titles but a third of those who changed job titles moved to jobs of a lower rank. Forty‐three per cent of managers outside the U.S. changed jobs without changing job titles and a quarter of the job title changes were to lower rank.