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This paper analyzes how German municipalities organize their purchasing activities. It aims to identify patterns in the structure of the purchasing function and to study how the size of the municipality influences the design of its purchasing organization. Therefore, an analytical framework based on contingency and organization theory is developed and results of an empirical study are presented. The results indicate that German municipalities use a medium level of centralization and specialization in organizing their purchasing activities, but that the purchasing process is highly formalized and represented on high hierarchical levels in many cases. As to the relationship between the size of a municipality and the structure of its purchasing function, the study indicates that size, measured by the number of inhabitants, the number of employees and purchasing volume influences the structural variables in various ways.

The success of corporate innovation is based less upon the success of a single innovation program than on a holistic and overarching corporate innovation system integrating various activities. Taking this perspective, the purpose of this paper is to extend existing research on the design of innovation programs.

Utilizing an inductive theory-building case study approach, this study provides a detailed analysis of how one of the largest and most successful German technology companies structures its many innovation activities.

The analysis identifies key elements of innovation programs and suggests three configurations that illustrate how these generic elements can be structured so as to offer the best fit with the underlying logic of the respective innovation program. Furthermore, this study highlights how the identified configurations come together to deliver overarching strategic innovation goals.

Existing research too often focuses solely on single innovation programs. The current research is among the first to take a holistic and overarching perspective, considering different innovation programs within a single company and analyzing their configuration and their interplay.

Through digitization and globalization, corporate incubators have gained new relevance as tool to foster innovation within established companies. Although many studies address business incubators in general, the specifics of corporate incubators are often neglected in the literature. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The author systematically reviewed academic articles regarding corporate incubation, published in peer-reviewed journals. In the course of a subsequent analysis, open questions for further research were identified and addressed.

Corporate incubators differ significantly from business incubators. Based on an analysis of 45 academic papers, the main features of corporate incubators have been identified and addressed.

The present work suggests that it is one of the first that systematically analyze the literature on corporate incubation. Based on the literature review, a holistic framework was constructed that highlights the different elements of corporate incubation and also considers the incubator as knowledge broker between business units and ventures.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the relevant literature on transparency, provide a comprehensive definition of transparency, and present a new framework for facilitating the adoption of transparency as an ethical cornerstone and pragmatic strategy for organizational responsible business management.

A systematic literature review – a methodology adopted from medical sciences to eliminate research bias – was conducted. In doing so, the definitions, antecedents, and consequences of transparency are accessed and synthesized.

Based upon this process transparency is defined as the extent to which a stakeholder perceives an organization provides learning opportunities about itself. A conceptual framework emerged from the data. It describes when transparency is especially important, what organizations can do to be more transparent, and the potential benefits of transparency.

The transparency framework can be used as a guide for organizations attempting to change their behavior, image, and performance by adopting transparency as a value in their organization. In addition, the framework can be used to create and adopt a universal (i.e. industry-wide or even societal-wide) code of conduct. Furthermore, this review, definition, and framework provide a template for academics to advance transparency theory, and empirically test the construct’s application.

As a new research field, transparency has lacked a concise definition as well as a conceptual framework. This is the first comprehensive summary of transparency. In addition, this study contributes to the methodology of evaluating construct definitions to advance empirical research.

This work reports on a study to measure tractor owners' (mostly farmers') repurchase behavior (RPB). While earlier studies have focused on the technical aspects of the tractors, none as yet have considered farmer intention and behavior for predicting purchase decision. A conceptual model was built considering all possible antecedents of farmers' RPB based on in-depth interviews and discussions with marketing managers. Interviews with customers were used to understand these antecedents or interactions with salespersons, either directly or indirectly during conversations or visits to stores. The authors have attempted to develop a scale on farmers' consumption experience from the perspective of farmers.

The model was validated using Smart-PLS, and the best tractor brand was identified using data envelopment analysis (DEA). At the village level, snowball sampling was adopted to identify potential tractor owners who had repurchased the same brand or a higher model as respondents.

Findings reveal that all the paths were found to be significant. Farmers' consumption experience (FE) seems to be the biggest predictor of RPB, followed by image, satisfaction and trust. The newly introduced construct FE has a significant effect on farmers' RPB. DEA results further indicate that most tractor companies function with 100% efficiency.

The study was carried out in India; it can be extended to other countries. Also, the sample was collected from one state in India and is cross-sectional in nature, so it cannot be generalized.

First, the authors developed a conceptual model considering all possible antecedents of RPB. No studies had yet developed a scale on FE. Second, the authors created a benchmark for the various preferred tractor brands from the farmers' perspective using DEA.