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The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant impact of partner similarity on the success of horizontal alliances in logistics service providers (LSPs) from China.

Primary data were collected via questionnaire distribution to 380 Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors in 262 small and medium logistics enterprises in China. There are 316 valid questionnaires for further analysis with 83 percent accuracy in response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to test the impact of partner similarity on alliance management capability, stability and performance.

Partner similarity and logistics alliance management capability (LAMC) are positively correlated to alliance stability and performance in horizontal alliances among Chinese LSPs, especially competence similarity and cultural similarity. Moreover, alliance stability mediates the impact of partner similarity and LAMC on alliance performance.

The basic limitation of this research is to collect data just from small and medium logistics enterprises that operate in China with sample size (n=316). This research could further be extended to other regions in China or other countries.

This research verifies the positive relationship between partner fit and management capability. Besides, based on research findings, the research proposes guidelines for LSPs pursuing horizontal alliances

This research proposes an experimental model for Chinese LSPs to cooperate successfully and build horizontal alliances in order to increase their effective customer response capability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of two dimensions of technological relatedness, namely technological similarity and complementarity, on collaborative performance, plus the mediating role of collaboration network stickiness and the moderating role of partner expertise and geographical distance in interfirm collaboration contexts.

This study takes Chinese Scientific and Technological Achievements (STA) of inter-firm collaboration in five high-tech fields in 2010–2020 as the sample and uses OLS regression to test the hypothesis.

Technological similarity and complementarity positively affect collaborative performance. Partner expertise negatively moderates the relationship between similarity, complementarity and collaborative performance. Geographical distance positively moderates the relationship between similarity and collaborative performance while negatively moderates that between complementarity and collaborative performance. Collaboration network stickiness partly mediates the relationship between similarity and collaborative performance.

This study expands literature on inter-firm collaboration, especially research on the antecedents of collaborative performance. Moreover, this study not only compensates for lack of empirical analysis in partner selection research, but also utilizes second-hand data to enhance the objectivity of analysis. Additionally, we enrich the research on the moderating role of partner expertise and geographical distance as well as the mediating role of collaboration network stickiness.

This study seeks to identify antecedents of trust among top managers representing partners in international joint ventures (IJVs) and to show how this trust influences IJV performance.

The paper proposes that the national cultural distance of the foreign partner, the business similarity of partners' organizations and behavioural integration are antecedents to trust, and that trust is a key mediator through which these antecedents affect IJV performance. Data are collected through a field survey from IJVs in Beijing and Shenzhen, PRC, and employ regression analysis to test these propositions.

It is found that: trust across IJV factional subgroups is influenced by partners' business similarity and by the behavioural integration of top managers representing the partners from both sides; and this trust mediates the relationship between the behavioural integration of top managers in Sino‐foreign IJVs and overall venture performance. The effects of business similarity and partner national cultural distance on overall performance were not mediated by trust.

The sample of the study used is limited to one country only – China. Besides, the paper's measures of cultural distance and categorization of national origin of foreign partners of IJVs may be subject to criticism.

First, the paper explicitly hypothesizes and tests the role of trust as a mediator of the relationships between trust antecedents and IJV performance. This is done in order to develop a more detailed understanding of how fixed partner characteristics and adjustable group processes affect IJV outcomes. Second, the study finds evidence that supports situational perspective and developmental perspective of trust development, but not the deterministic perspective. This is also consistent with some additional qualitative evidence which the authors collected through interviews. Third, the results indicate that some trust antecedents have direct effects on IJV performance, while others affect IJV performance through partner trust.

The study's exploratory results offer important new information for IJV researchers and for managers of IJVs.

Starting from the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships developed by Faems et al. (2007), the purpose of this paper is to refine and improve this model, assessing its reliability in a different and wider context and extending it according to the outcomes.

A multiple case-study approach was implemented, examining 34 dyadic inter-firm R&D relationships. This methodology suited the research goal of exploring the validity of a model in an area where little data or theory exists.

The theoretical model proposed by Faems et al. (2007) was improved, confirming the adequacy of the overall structure of their intuition and highlighting several differences in terms of factors that lead to the dissolution of R&D relationships. These differences mainly refer to partners’ similarities before starting R&D relationships, co-opetition situations, knowledge leakage/opportunistic behavior and reputation issues.

This work is the first to investigate two open research gaps related to the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships: the need for additional case studies in other contexts to develop a more general theory and the lack of research incorporating issues such as relational capital between partners, governance form and alliance scope in an integrated analysis.

Purpose: This study investigates how couple similarity in various aspects affects their life satisfaction and how these impacts vary across educational groups among the young married couples in Shanghai.

Methodology: This study employs the pooled data from three waves of the Fudan Yangtze River Delta Social Transformation Survey which sampled Shanghai youths born between 1980 and 1989, the first single-child generation. Couple similarity is evaluated through the comparison in age, hukou status, education, and income quartile between the husband and wife. Ordered logistic regression model is applied to assess the impacts of couple similarity on life satisfaction.

Findings: Marriage hypergamy in age, education, and income barely have any impacts on couples’ life satisfaction, while hukou comparison, as an important indication of social stratification in Shanghai, is strongly associated with life satisfaction. The couple in which husband holds the urban hukou and wife rural hukou as well as the couple in which both partners hold the urban hukou are significantly happier than those in which both partners hold the rural hukou. Such a positive impact is partially explained by the higher husband’s decision-making power in male-advantaged families. Moreover, husband’s urban hukou status is especially important for those without college education, but not for those with college education.

Values: This chapter highlights the importance of hukou hypergamy in life satisfaction for married couples, in particular, lower-educated couples in Shanghai. These findings reveal an implicit but persistent preference for male-dominated family model, where husbands retain a higher decision-making power that, in turn, promotes life satisfaction for both partners.

This study investigates the impact of agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) characteristics on the antecedents of horizontal logistics collaboration (HLC). Specifically, the study compares the relationship between collaboration activities and outcomes for companies in and outside AFSCs.

First, a survey was used to collect data from different industries. Second, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to compare the measurement and structural models from different industry categories.

The results support the premise that collaboration improves trust and commitment in the relationship, which in turn enhance satisfaction. The results also show the existence of a minor influence of AFSCs characteristics on HLC antecedents, in the form of an indirect impact of dedicated investments on commitment.

The factors having a significant influence on the collaboration outcomes and their respective effects are generally similar across food and nonfood supply chains, providing opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaboration experiences.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge on interfirm collaboration by considering the specificities of HLC. It also highlights the importance of conducting contingency research on collaborative experiences, as firms from different industry contexts operate under distinct operational conditions.

Partners are responsible for allocating audit tasks and facilitating knowledge sharing among team members. This study considers changes in the composition of partners to proxy for the continuity of the audit team. This study examines the effect of audit team continuity on audit outcomes (audit quality and report lags), pricing and its determinant (lead partner experience), which have not been thoroughly examined in previous studies.

This study employs string similarity metrics to measure audit team continuity. The study employs multivariate panel data regression empirical models to estimate a sample of 26,007 firm-years of listed Japanese companies from 2008 to 2019.

The study reveals that audit team continuity is negatively associated with audit fees, regardless of the auditor’s size. This finding contributes to the existing literature by showing that audit team continuity represents one of the determinant factors of audit fee. For clients of large audit firms, companies with higher (lower) audit team continuity issue audit reports in less (more) time. The experience of lead partners is a strong predictor of audit team continuity, irrespective of audit firm size. Audit quality is not associated with audit team continuity for either large or small audit firms.

This study proposes and examines audit team continuity measures that employ string similarity metrics to quantify changes in the composition of partners in consecutive audit engagements. Audit team continuity expands upon the tenure of individual audit partners, which is commonly used in prior literature as a measure of client–partner relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of supervisor and subordinate personality in high quality supervisor-subordinate (leader-member exchange; LMX) relationships.

In this field study, 142 supervisors drawn from a leadership development program, and 509 of their subordinates, completed a personality survey and reported on the quality of their relationships.

Self and partner personality (agreeableness and extraversion), and the match between them were predictors of LMX. Consistent with approach/inhibition theory of power, personality traits of relationship partners had a stronger effect when the partner held a position of power (i.e. supervisors) than when the partner was a subordinate.

The results inform organizational selection by showing the importance of supervisory traits for the formation of high quality supervisor-subordinate relationships. They may also help organizations facilitate the development of high quality supervisory relationships. The findings also suggest that it is critical to consider the balance of power when assessing LMX, along with factors that lead to its development, or benefits that ensue from it.

To date, there is an assumption that certain traits predict the development of high quality relationships between supervisors and subordinates. The results point out the importance of considering the role of power in LMX relationships. The paper shows that the effects of supervisory traits, which are rarely examined in the context of LMX relationships, more strongly predict LMX than do the traits of subordinates.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how an international joint venture (IJV) company can efficiently develop a competitive international service strategy in the competitive global marketplace. Specifically, this study seeks to highlight the key antecedents related to the development of an international service strategy and its implementation through the case of the IJV of Starbucks Korea.

The case study method is used. A series of in-depth personal interviews with the CEO of Starbucks Korea, a marketing manager at Starbucks Korea, and outlet managers of Starbucks Korea were conducted. Furthermore, an array of secondary data and company documentation was reviewed to triangulate the findings of the study.

Several themes illuminating the development and implementation of a successful international service strategy in the case of an international joint venture are identified. It was found that one of the critical antecedents related to the successful international service strategy in the context of an IJV is the similarity of organizational values between the IJV partners. The similarity between the corporate values and missions of the two partners in Starbucks Korea has become a major impetus in the development of a competitive international service strategy for Starbucks Korea.

The findings of the study may not be applicable to other service firms since the study uses a single firm and a single country as its context.

The results of the study should help international service firms understand the importance of a successful international service strategy in the case of an international joint venture. Furthermore, the findings of the study illustrate the importance of understanding the local culture to develop a successful international service strategy.

This study aims to compare the expectations of non-collaborating professionals and the actual opinions of collaborating professionals regarding success factors of horizontal logistics collaboration (HLC) and investigates the reasons behind the observed differences.

This study employs a mixed-method approach. First, a survey is conducted to collect data from two samples representing collaborating and non-collaborating industry professionals. Second, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to compare the measurement models from the two samples and identify their similarities and differences. Third, a Delphi study is conducted to identify factors limiting collaborative behavior.

The results show that collaborating professionals exhibit lower levels of joint relationship efforts and trust than expected. This is primarily due to inadequate information sharing, poor collaboration formalization and the absence of a clear costs and benefits allocation mechanism.

The findings indicate that, in HLC, managers should give high importance to facilitating timely and complete information exchange, putting in place an acceptable costs/benefits allocation mechanism, formalizing the collaboration and prioritizing integrity over competency when selecting partners.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that shows the existence of differences between industry professionals' pre-collaboration expectations and the actual experiences in HLC. This is also the first study that points to the exact HLC enablers that fail in practice and the barriers responsible for it.