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The purpose of this paper is to help clarify understanding of the logistic platform concept so as to release its potential for the benefit of the logistics sector.

Cross-sectional research was conducted in Slovenia, Poland and Singapore. Web-based survey responses were obtained from four organization types: logistics companies (LCs); production or service non-LCs; branch associations/state agencies/chambers of commerce; and educational institutions.

Logistics platforms (LPFs) are a very much a multi-level phenomenon which, through macro-level organization, may multiply the micro- and meso-level effects obtained. The joint development of promising inter-organizational concepts which involve different stakeholder groups can be inefficient owing to differences in concept content understanding.

The research was limited to Slovenia, Poland and Singapore. Further research in other countries would be beneficial, and the survey can be repeated for other inter-organizational concepts.

This paper proposes a general LPF model and seeks to raise awareness of the complexity surrounding the implementation of this particular inter-organizational concept. From the viewpoint of a practitioner, the knowledge that different stakeholder groups may have divergent perceptions of the concept’s content is important and will help strengthen inter-organizational projects by devoting attention to basic fact unification.

This paper is the first transparent overview on the understanding and utilization of LPFs in theory and practice. The paper proposes a general LPF model. The authors wish to highlight the need for research into the perceptions held among different stakeholder groups regarding the concept’s content for the implementation of inter-organizational projects.

The present study has two purposes. One is to investigate the relationship between an Inter‐Organizational Career Orientation (IOCO) of employees and their career strategies. The second is to investigate the effects of the career attitudes that an IOCO has on employee career strategies.

The facts and conclusions presented in this paper were obtained from a study of 365 employees from 16 companies. A multiple regression analysis was adopted for testing hypotheses.

With regard to the first objective, it was determined that IOCO has a positive effect on inter‐organizational career strategies (career exploration) and a negative one on organizational career strategies (self‐nomination). With regard to the second objective, the moderating effects of career attitudes toward the relationships described as follows became clear: job involvement of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and creating career opportunities; job involvement of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and self‐nomination; job involvement of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and career insight; and career goal commitment of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and challenging work behavior.

An analysis according to demographic factors and the implementation of longitudinal research are suggested as future research subjects.

This paper showed that IOCO contributed not only to the rejection of organizational career strategies but also to that of organizational and inter‐organizational career strategies. “Domain fit hypothesis” was verified in new organizational behavioral concepts between career orientation and a career strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a more precise conceptual understanding of the interplay between food product traceability and supply network integration.

A resource‐based network approach was used to create a framework with empirical evidence from a fresh strawberry product case.

A conceptual model describes product traceability as interacting with different organizational and informational resources.

This is a preliminary model that substantiates a cross‐functional approach teamwork‐based to developing product traceability.

The study shows developing food product traceability as a complex undertaking dependent on information connectivity including a technical aspect of supply chain integration, and different forms of knowledge, an organizational aspect of supply chain integration.

This study aims to systematically review the literature on the use of customer value for the evaluation of inter-organizational performance, with a wide perspective embracing different contexts and settings.

Searching within the Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases, a systematic literature review has been conducted analyzing 41 papers published between 1991 and 2020.

Categorization of customer value and inter-organizational performance measures were developed and the main differences among different settings were discussed.

The results presented in this study may be helpful for practitioners and managers who, in the completion of their activities, have to maintain strong and frequent relationships with other organizations. In fact, practitioners and managers interested in enhancing customer value and measuring inter-organizational performance may find an innovative perspective linking the two dimensions. They could find the categorizations presented in this study as a starting point for developing a performance evaluation framework suitable for evaluating their present business relationships. In fact, the categorizations provide a panorama of how scholars have measured until now inter-organizational performance through customer value, and therefore, they could choose the measures more appropriate for their situation.

No systematic literature review of the use of customer value for assessing inter-organizational performance has previously been undertaken, especially considering different settings.

This paper aims to investigate the concept of inter‐organisational supplier development programs and to stress the importance of considering suppliers' interest and motivation when implementing development initiatives.

This paper's theoretical framework is based on an in‐depth literature review that analyses how extant supplier development literature considers an inter‐organisational approach. A single case study of eight inter‐organisational relationships is also included.

The literature review reveals a lack of focus on inter‐organisational approaches to supplier development, even though the literature mentions it as a missing theme. Customer attractiveness is presented as one approach that takes supplier view and motivation into consideration. This idea is supported by the case study, which indicates that supplier performance is influenced by perceived customer attractiveness.

This paper is based on only a single case study and does not provide the basis for statistical generalisation. A theory on customer attractiveness is under development, and the analysis presented here is based on the theoretical findings.

Because suppliers can have their own strategic agendas, such as prioritising developments with the most attractive customers, buyers should consider suppliers' perspectives and motivations when analysing and implementing supplier development programs.

This paper is among the first to focus on the importance of viewing both parties' interest in a buyer‐supplier relationship when implementing supplier development initiatives. The concept of customer attractiveness as an inter‐organisational approach represents a valuable addition to supplier development literature.

This study aims to investigate the risks associated with managing the dispersed knowledge in inter-organizational arrangements for innovation. Specifically, it proposes a model to analyze the knowledge management risks in open innovation, applied in four steps.

Initially, the authors carried out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the concepts that connect knowledge management, inter-organizational arrangements for innovation and risks. The SLR results led to a complementary theoretical review on the conceptual elements in question. Based on the findings, the authors have developed a model to analyze the knowledge management risks in open innovation, which was validated by experts. It was then studied the case of GOL Airlines, a company that uses innovation to overcome the paradox between low-cost and full service in the commercial air transportation industry, considering the application and adjustment of the proposed model.

Open innovation is one of the inter-organizational arrangement types most applied in the context of innovation. Relations between agents are the primary sources of risks when managing the dispersed knowledge in these arrangements. The authors have found five main risks associated, namely, risk of the innovative effort does not reach the expected objective, risk of knowledge transfer being ineffective, risk of misappropriation of value, risk of dependency (lock-in) and risk of relations.

The practical implication is the proposition of a procedure for applying the model to analyze the knowledge management risks in open innovation, which makes it a prescriptive model for identifying risks. The proposed model is described in four steps, namely, to identify the agents in the environment of the value of open innovation; to identify the types of relations of each agent; to consider the barriers to knowledge management in innovation; and to assess the risks considering the possibilities derived from the agents, their relationships and the barriers. The model is applied in the GOL case and the results are presented.

First, it uses a novel approach to investigate open innovation while studying its risks. This approach considers the knowledge is dispersed and flows from one organization to another through a combination of relations inside the environment of value where the open innovation materializes. Second, it contributes to theory development by opening a research front that fuses four areas: risk management, knowledge management, innovation and inter-organizational arrangements. Third, this paper proposes a theoretical model and presents its operationalization. The study aims to make an impact beyond academia and uses a case study to illustrate the model application in a real and interesting open innovation project to support the business model at GOL Airlines.

Technological innovations that resulted in the emergence and widespread adoption of digital communication in recent years have led to a surge of academic and practitioner interest in its implications for the co-creation of value and customer engagement. However, in comparison to the attention given to the study of customer engagement in consumer markets, few studies have examined its key role in business markets. This paper aims to examine the impact of digital communication on value co-creation and customer engagement in inter-organizational relationships in business networks.

Co-creation of value and customer engagement in business networks occurs among interconnected organizations that are partners in intermediate transactions. The paper develops a matrix of inter-organizational engagement among partners in business networks and propositions linking digital communication to value co-creation and inter-organizational engagement.

The relationships among network organizations may be characterized by the extent of relational exchange and inter-organizational bonds among them. Four types of inter-organizational engagement emerge: transactional partners, loyal partners, trusted partners and engaged partners. The partners co-create value to better satisfy customers.

The paper is an initial attempt to develop a conceptual understanding of customer engagement in business markets and formulate propositions that can be further investigated. Networks of partner organizations co-create value, altering their input and output markets, value addition and products, permitting greater flexibility and customization in satisfying the needs of customers.

The ability afforded by digital communication for real-time interactive communication enables individuals from multiple departments and hierarchical positions within multiple organizations dispersed across geographic locations and industries to maintain contact, quickly and easily communicate task information, build trust and commitment in long-term relationships with network partners and provide superior customer value.

The paper represents a unique attempt to understand the nature of customer engagement in business markets. It discusses how digital communication alters market transactions among partner organizations in a network by facilitating changes in their make/buy decisions. It develops a matrix of inter-organizational engagement in business networks and propositions that improve understanding of the customer engagement concept and provide the foundation for strategies to better satisfy customers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the benefits and drawbacks that strategically imposed liminality inflicts upon inter-organizational digitalization efforts within the different phases of its utilization.

This study empirically examines digitalization in a large multinational manufacturing company, Sandvik Machining Solutions, using data that were collected through interviews and a qualitative research design.

This study shows that a liminal space separated from the structures in which one is supposed to inflict changes increases the risk of developing an incompatible system that will be rejected in the incorporation phase. An inter-organizational perspective on liminality thus contributes to our understanding of the benefits and drawbacks that liminal space can pose for the organizations involved.

The study suggests that, in the separation phase, driving change processes by creating liminal spaces could be a way to loosen up rigid resource structures and circumvent network over-embeddedness. Finding the right amount of freedom, ambiguity and community within the liminal space is, however, essential for the transition of information as well as the incorporation of the imposed changes.

Introducing an inter-organizational perspective on liminality contributes to our understanding of the stress that liminal space can place on individuals as well as the individual organization.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the limitations of existing approaches for guaranteeing the quality of a joint output in temporary enterprise networks such as virtual organisations and to identify possibilities for future research on solving this problem.

The paper works towards the analysis of requirements for managing quality in temporary networks such as virtual organisations. Afterwards, it discusses the problem and thus the limitations of existing approaches to guarantee quality of the joint output of such networks.

The review shows that in temporary networks, individual organisations often do not have the right concepts to control inter‐organisational information exchange within the network. Nevertheless, inter‐organisational information exchange gain is important, because it influences the quality of the network's joint output. Existing approaches to define communication structures to support information exchange on the inter‐organisational level do not seem to be sufficient and represent a risk in guaranteeing the quality of a joint output.

This paper explores new directions in quality management from an inter‐organisational perspective in temporary enterprises networks. The findings contribute to supporting the need for the further development of existing approaches to competence management in order to address quality aspects in temporary enterprise environments. This work contributes to the theoretical demand for interlinking quality management with highly dynamic collaborative relations. This point of view goes beyond the internally focused perspective with the goal of integrating converging quality management processes with an inter‐organisational perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to review existing literature on organizational learning (OL) through networking activities in tourism and hospitality (T&H) research. Referring to theories and concepts from the mainstream literature in OL and inter-organizational network research, the study provides an overview of the existing level of knowledge in T&H research, elaborates theoretical and practical implications and suggests future research directions.

A systematic literature review approach was used to identify and analyze relevant literature. The literature search involved six scientific online databases, namely, EBSCOhost, Emerald, ProQuest, Sage, ScienceDirect and Web of Knowledge, which were systematically scanned with defined keywords. Relevant articles were evaluated, selected, analyzed and synthesized to find out what is already known and what is yet to be known.

A total of 69 articles were identified that present insights into OL through networking activities in T&H research. The review reveals that the resource, and especially the knowledge-based view of the firm, social capital theory, the relational view and trust and agglomeration theory represent insightful theoretical approaches to study OL phenomena and OL outcomes such as innovation, value creation and competitive advantage.

According to the author’s information, this paper represents the first attempt to provide a comprehensive review of T&H-specific OL literature from a network perspective. The findings call for increased attention to this research field, especially regarding the adaptation of OL concepts to a T&H-specific context as a networked industry.