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This study aims to investigate relationships among supplier capabilities, collaboration in new car development, and the competitive advantage of carmakers based on the resource‐based view (RBV).

A survey of first‐tier suppliers in the Korean automotive parts industry was conducted, and pertinent hypotheses were tested by using the ordinary least squares (OLS) method and hierarchical multiple regression analysis (HMRA).

It was found that suppliers' flexibility, engineering and modularization capabilities positively influence collaboration in new car development, which in turn positively affects the competitive advantage of carmakers. This result empirically verifies the RBV proposition that one motive for interfirm collaboration can be the opportunity to gain access to other firms' resources/capabilities. The theory of the RBV was further extended by demonstrating that suppliers' quality improvement and modularization capabilities directly contribute to the competitive advantage of carmakers and that the influence of quality improvement and modularization capabilities on this competitive advantage are robust against technological uncertainty. However, the positive effect of collaboration in new car development on the competitive advantage of carmakers is decreased by the moderating effect of technological uncertainty.

The findings of this study were obtained from a limited population of the Korean automotive industry. This study not only empirically verified the proposition of the RBV but also extended the RBV theory by empirically demonstrating direct relationships between suppliers' capabilities and carmakers' competitive advantages.

Suppliers must enhance flexibility, modularization and engineering capabilities in order to vitalize collaboration with carmakers in new car development. As technological uncertainty increases, carmakers should address in‐house the problems caused by technological uncertainty or delegate related jobs only to suppliers with significant capabilities for quality improvement and modularization.

This is one of the few studies to identify the moderating effect of technological uncertainty on interfirm collaboration.

The aim of the paper is to explore the theoretical underpinnings of knowledge transfer within developed‐developing country based interfirm collaborations and to develop a theoretical model on knowledge transfer in interfirm collaborations.

The vast literature on knowledge transfer in interfirm collaborations has been reviewed. A synthesis of this prior research has resulted in a theoretical model on knowledge transfer, especially between developed‐developing country based firms.

The reviews have resulted in the conceptual framework proposed here. The model distinguishes the sources of knowledge to be transferred and the antecedents to the knowledge transfer from the transfer process. Tentative propositions are also developed that could be explored during empirical investigations.

The framework presented provides a deeper understanding of the characteristics of transferors and transferees as well as their interaction and how these influence knowledge transfer across firm borders. Previous papers have failed to clarify this distinction between unique and relationship factors. The model thus advances theory on knowledge transfer between strategic alliances partners and provides practical insights into the management of knowledge within alliances.

Although past studies have suggested that business-to-business (B2B) interfirm relationship management contributes to a firm’s omnichannel integration, little research has been undertaken to reveal how that happens. This study aims to draw upon the relational view to propose a research model that associates interfirm information technology (IT) capability and interfirm trust with omnichannel integration through interfirm integration (i.e. authority integration and cooperative integration). Furthermore, this work considers a firm’s channel usage variety as the boundary condition of the interfirm integration’s influence.

The research model was examined using a seemingly unrelated regression of archival data and matched a survey of 324 Chinese omnichannel firms.

Interfirm IT capability positively relates to authority integration, and interfirm trust positively relates to cooperative integration. Authority integration and cooperative integration are both positively associated with omnichannel integration. A high level of channel usage variety strengthens the relationship between cooperative integration and omnichannel integration.

Prior literature has called for research on the factors influencing omnichannel integration within a B2B setting. This study answers this research call by examining interfirm IT capability, interfirm trust and interfirm integration as factors associated with omnichannel integration. This work also examines how channel usage variety regulates the relationship between interfirm integration and omnichannel integration.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a mathematical method of formal concept analysis (FCA) to facilitate evaluation of potential partners, and to select the most appropriate partner for horizontal strategic alliances. Horizontal collaboration between ship design firms is important in relation to business cyclicality in the industry. The workload in ship design firms drops during the troughs of the shipbuilding cycle and increases dramatically during the peaks of the cycle.

The proposed method of partnership selection applies FCA, which is based on mathematical lattice theory. FCA allows firms to evaluate and select the best suitable partners for horizontal interfirm cooperation from several possible candidate firms. Utilization of FCA allows a firm to visually analyze a potential partner for a horizontal strategic alliance.

The contribution of this study to the literature is twofold. First, it contributes to the literature on the application of FCA in management field. Second, this study contributes to the partner selection literature. The contribution of the study is an alternative quantitative method for partner selection based on FCA. FCA compliments qualitative approaches in the process of alternatives evaluation and decision‐making regarding partner selection for horizontal collaboration.

Practitioners from ship design firms can use the FCA tool to facilitate decision‐making relating to the screening of potential partners for horizontal cooperation with regard to pre‐specified selected criteria.

FCA has been marginally applied to aid managerial decision making. The FCA tool is valuable for practitioners from ship design firms to manage the selection of partners for horizontal collaboration. The FCA tool is associated with numerous advantages, notably, relative simplicity and versatility of visual analysis when compared with other mathematical approaches such as the analytic hierarchy process, the analytic network process, optimization modeling, and fuzzy set logic.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems development and emerging practices in the management of enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver a complex product and/or service) and identify any apparent correlations. Suitable a priori contingency frameworks are then used and extended to explain apparent correlations. Discussion is given to provide guidance for researchers and practitioners to deliver better strategic, structural and operational competitive advantage through this approach; coined here as the “enterprization of operations”.

Theoretical induction uses a new empirical longitudinal case study from Zoomlion (a Chinese manufacturing company) built using an adapted form of template analysis to produce a new contingency framework.

Three main types of enterprises and the three main types of ERP systems are defined and correlations between them are explained. Two relevant a priori frameworks are used to induct a new contingency model to support the enterprization of operations; known as the dynamic enterprise reference grid for ERP (DERG-ERP).

The findings are based on one longitudinal case study. Further case studies are currently being conducted in the UK and China.

The new contingency model, the DERG-ERP, serves as a guide for ERP vendors, information systems management and operations managers hoping to grow and sustain their competitive advantage with respect to effective enterprise strategy, enterprise structure and ERP systems.

This research explains how ERP systems and the effective management of enterprises should develop in order to sustain competitive advantage with respect to enterprise strategy, enterprise structure and ERP systems use.

We introduce a multi-level model of the dependence of interfirm network topologies on the distribution and commonality of information in a network and the information strategies pursued by its member firms. Network topology, information properties of the network, and firm-level action within the network form dynamic, recursive, cross-level relationships – information properties in the network determine firm-level action, which in turn impacts the network topology and information properties. We derive predictions about the kinds of information strategies that firms are likely to adopt and succeed with in different information regimes, and about the kinds and short- and long-run dynamics of network topologies expected under different information regimes. Our model sheds new light on network topologies as a dependent variable that can be explained by network-level information regimes and firm-level information strategies.

This paper aims to examine how interfirm transactional and relational assets drive firm performance (FP) in digitally integrated supply chains.

The authors combine the Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Relational Exchange Theory (RET) frameworks to hypothesize that FP will be a function of Asset Specificity (AS), Digital Technology Usage (DTU) and Collaborative Information Sharing (CIS). In addition, the authors hypothesize that Supply Chain Integration (SCI) will partially mediate the effect of DTU and fully mediate the impact of AS and CIS on FP. A cross-sectional survey of supply chain managers is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings indicate that specific investments in digitally integrated supply chains would increase FP. In addition, SCI fully mediates the relationships between AS and FP and CIS and FP, while SCI partially mediates the influence of DTU on FP.

Managers could strategically engage in the technologies that effectively fit within the firm’s supply chain strategies and seek to develop a pragmatic expertise that enables the effective use of technology in a comprehensive setting.

The study enriches the extant literature by incorporating TCE and RET as contradictory viewpoints on AS and investigating how transactional and relational assets affect FP in digitally integrated supply chains.

This paper presents a conceptual model of partners’ assessment of the performance of their co‐partners in a collaborative relationship. The model’s usefulness has been illustrated through a study of 12 collaborative arrangements between Danish and Ghanaian companies. The results indicate gaps in partners’ expectations and perceived performance of their co‐partners. The perceptual gaps have been explained with reference to differences in motives of collaboration, intensity of interaction, cultural differences as well as the active involvement of a catalyst institution in the development of the relationship. The paper also draws attention to the policy and strategy implications of the empirical evidence.

Prior studies have found that productivity gains associated with information technology (IT) adoption, measured at either the firm‐ or aggregate‐economy levels, differ between developed and developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to extend prior cross‐country research to the interfirm IT capabilities and relationship‐level.

A two‐country comparative study is conducted: the USA, a developed country; and Thailand, a developing country. The measurement constructs for the interfirm IT capabilities and performance are derived from the existing literature. Data are collected from IT managers who oversee interfirm relationships as follows: 68 from the US firms; 107 from Thai firms. Several statistical tools are used to test the developed hypotheses, including correlation, regression, and t‐test analysis.

The important results of the paper indicate the following: IT technical capabilities are positively associated with interfirm performance across two countries. However, IT personnel IT capabilities had a positive relationship with interfirm performance only in Thai firms. Also, Thai firms realize higher innovation performance as a result of IT adoption than the US firms.

This is an exploratory study as it is based on data from only two countries. Thus, a new causal theory about interfirm relationship‐level performance is not sought. The future research needs include data collection from more countries and longitudinal analyses of trends based on advances in IT capabilities in different countries.

In today's networked global economy, many organizations have value chains that involve interfirm relationships. This paper is the first attempt to explore productivity gains associated with IT adoption, measured at interfirm relationship‐level, based on cross‐country comparative analysis.

The study this chapter reports focuses on how network theory contributes to the understanding of the internationalization process of SMEs and measures the effect of network capability on performance in international trade and has three research objectives.

The first objective of the study relates to providing new insights into the international market development activities through the application of a network perspective. The chapter reviews the international business literature to ascertain the development of thought, the research gaps, and the shortcomings. This review shows that the network perspective is a useful and popular theoretical domain that researchers can use to understand international activities, particularly of small, high technology, resource-constrained firms.

The second research objective is to gain a deeper understanding of network capability. This chapter presents a model for the impact of network capability on international performance by building on the emerging literature on the dynamic capabilities view of the firm. The model conceptualizes network capability in terms of network characteristics, network operation, and network resources. Network characteristics comprise strong and weak ties (operationalized as foreign-market entry modes), relational capability, and the level of trust between partners. Network operation focuses on network initiation, network coordination, and network learning capabilities. Network resources comprise network human-capital resources, synergy-sensitive resources (resource combinations within the network), and information sharing within the network.

The third research objective is to determine the impact of networking capability on the international performance of SMEs. The study analyzes 11 hypotheses through structural equations modeling using LISREL. The hypotheses relate to strong and weak ties, the relative strength of strong ties over weak ties, and each of the eight remaining constructs of networking capability in the study. The research conducts a cross-sectional study by using a sample of SMEs drawn from the telecommunications industry in Ireland.

The study supports the hypothesis that strong ties are more influential on international performance than weak ties. Similarly, network coordination and human-capital resources have a positive and significant association with international performance. Strong ties, weak ties, trust, network initiation, synergy-sensitive resources, relational capability, network learning, and information sharing do not have a significant association with international performance. The results of this study are strong (R2=0.63 for performance as the outcome) and provide a number of interesting insights into the relations between collaboration or networking capability and performance.

This study provides managers and policy makers with an improved understanding of the contingent effects of networks to highlight situations where networks might have limited, zero, or even negative effects on business outcomes. The study cautions against the tendency to interpret networks as universally beneficial to business development and performance outcomes.