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Based on a survey study of 138 software buyers in Turkey, this study examines conditional indirect effects of requirements uncertainty on supplier opportunism where buyer dependence, a proxy for relation-specific investments, undertakes a mediator role. The authors consider a two-level moderation effect of trust and contract in buyer–supplier relationships throughout the software project lifecycle.

A survey-based empirical study was conducted, and conditional process analyses were run using PROCESS macro in SPSS. The present study tests a two-stage moderated mediation model in which competence-based trust with a detailed contract setting moderates the mediational path from requirements uncertainty to buyer dependence.

The data obtained from the buyer side in the Turkish software industry showed that a relationship in which the buyer is structurally dependent begins at a high level of trust. On the other hand, the authors found that contractual rigidity fosters supplier opportunism ex-post in evolving process of the relationship.

This study contributes to project management literature by testing a two-level moderation effect of governance and the mediator role of buyer dependence in the relationship between requirements uncertainty and supplier opportunism. Moving differently from the previous studies, this study integrates contributions of both economic perspectives, such as resource dependence theory and transaction cost analysis, and relational perspectives into the information processing view.

This paper aims to propose an integrated model based on buyer and supplier opportunism to show the mechanism through which current and competing suppliers influence buyer market competitiveness.

Questionnaires were distributed to purchasing staff in listed electronics firms in Taiwan to collect empirical data. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze these data and examine the fitness of the proposed model.

The findings show that current and competing suppliers influence buyer market competitiveness through supplier opportunistic behaviors and buyer commitment. The alternative attractiveness of competing suppliers affects buyer market competitiveness through the influence of asset specificity. Supplier opportunism negatively and indirectly influences buyer market competitiveness through buyer commitment. Nevertheless, buyer opportunism does not influence buyer commitment and market competitiveness.

The investigation focused on only one industry in one country. Future research could investigate other industries and countries to increase the generalizability of the findings.

The results suggest that buyers can focus on utilizing the pressure of alternative suppliers to improve market competitiveness through increased specific investments by the current supplier.

On the basis of buyer–supplier opportunism, this study shows the mechanism through which the asset specificity of current suppliers and alternative attractiveness influence buyer market competitiveness.

Among world’s economies, the circular economy (CE) has become popular especially in the European Union and China, which opens several opportunities for sustainability leaders to gain a first-mover advantage and, consequently, to pursue organizational sustainability and growth. In spite of public policy support, since CE often requires entrepreneurial innovation among complex networks of companies, most companies are still learning how to manage knowledge dynamics at the inter-organization level. The chapter starts by defining the key characteristics of CE and identifying the peculiarities in terms of inter-firm cooperative and competitive relations, which help in delineating contributions from the green supply chain literature. The second section shows – through the discussion of term maps – how multiple- and inter-disciplinary streams of research are increasingly linked by hard (i.e., information communication technologies based) and soft (i.e., relational and organizational) aspects of knowledge management. The third section provides a discussion on key hard and soft factors that characterize four knowledge dynamics, i.e., knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer, and knowledge sharing that can improve the adoption and integration of circular processes within inter-organizational coopetitive strategies. Particular attention is here given to the cross-analysis of outcomes from theoretical papers, case studies, and quantitative empirical researches that contribute to shaping relations between internal and external factors that might play as predictors of a successful implementation of CE principles. Finally, the last section concludes with recommendations for improving organizational and managerial capabilities to manage inter-firm knowledge dynamics while pursuing CE objectives in international business environments. Beside this guidance for practitioners, directions for further research are suggested for each pillar of the emerging conceptual model.

The extent of relational behaviors displayed by independent partners in channels of distribution is a critical determinant of the efficiency and effectiveness of distribution operations. The purpose of this study is to focus on the two key antecedents of relational behaviors in channel dyads, dependence on and trust in the exchange partner, and to explore the relative effects of dependence and trust on each of the three major relational behavior forms of flexibility, information exchange, and solidarity.

Formal hypotheses are developed in the study regarding the joint and relative effects of dependence and trust on each relational behavior. Data collected from 192 automobile dealerships in Turkey are used for testing the hypotheses through separate regression analyses.

In line with the main study thesis, the results suggest that the relative effects of dependence on and trust in the supplier differ across dealer flexibility, information exchange, and solidarity displayed toward the supplier firms. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Findings of the study provide guidelines to channel firms in regard to the policies and programs that need to be developed to evoke desired forms of behaviors within their distribution networks.

Considering each relational behavior separately, this study provides support for the view that the emergences of different forms of behaviors in channel relationships occur through different motivational mechanisms.

We propose that in addition to its resources and capabilities, a firm’s capital structure and financial health will act as an important determinant of its attractiveness as an alliance partner. Alliances with leveraged firms are prone to unplanned termination due to financial distress, which puts at risk the value embedded in the collaboration. As a result, ceteris paribus, highly leveraged firms will be viewed as less desirable partners in the market for interfirm collaboration when compared to low leverage firms. In support of this proposition, we find that when forming an alliance firms tend to partner with other firms with similar levels of leverage: low-leverage firms partner with other low-leverage firms while high-leverage firms partner with other high-leverage firms, as well as with lower quality ones. Furthermore, we show that alliances with highly leveraged firms are more likely to involve equity participation as a form of ex post protection, especially when they involve partners with relatively lower leverage. Finally, we show that leverage is negatively related to the intensity of alliance activity, suggesting that firms also maintain lower leverage in their capital structure in order to attract potential partners. Overall our results imply that financial policies regarding capital structure have an important role to play in alliancing activity.

Firms are subject to power from both upstream and downstream partners; those partners may have different or even opposing impacts on supply chain relationships and financial performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate how upstream and downstream dependence structures affect a firm's financial performance through upstream and downstream relational depth (DEP) and relationship extendedness (EXT).

Data representing both upstream and downstream supply chain perspectives was collected using a multiple-respondent survey and was further augmented using financial performance data from an archival database.

Dependence advantages (ADVs) and disadvantages from upstream and downstream partners affect relational mechanisms and firm performance differently. Only downstream ADV will enhance a firm's DEP and EXT and subsequently affect firm's revenue and profit. Contradictory to widely held belief, the results reveal that firms that maintain long-term relationships with buyers and suppliers may experience lower revenue/profit.

This research represents a significant step in understanding the economic ramifications of dependence by (1) highlighting the difference between upstream and downstream supply chain dependence structure and (2) understanding the indirect effects of dependence structure on financial performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors predicting which employees receive employer‐funded commercial pension insurance contributions in Shanghai's zhenbao (town insurance) program, introduced by the Shanghai Government in 2003.

A series of hypotheses are developed to examine whether employees with characteristics that make them more influential constituencies will be more likely to receive voluntary commercial pension insurance contributions. The hypotheses are tested through application of a ReLogit model to data on 103,095 employees enrolled in the town insurance scheme in one district as at the end of 2004.

The study finds that only a small proportion of individuals in the sample receive commercial pension insurance. The most important determinant of whether an employee received commercial pension insurance is his or her level of education.

The study provides support for the societal corporatist perspective that employers who place a premium on human capital and invest significant resources in the skills of their workers will favor social policies that target benefits to a selected group of workers to reward their performance and foster commitment. A limitation of the research is that it is based on data collected soon after the town insurance scheme was introduced. The low level of employee coverage may improve once employers become more familiar with the operation of the scheme.

Employers should consider social insurance as a labor market strategy to retain staff and enhance the human resource base of the firm.

Little attention has been given to the role of employer‐funded social insurance within the ambit of labor market strategies designed to enhance the human resource base of the organisation. This is the first study to use micro level data to examine the determinants of voluntary employer contributions to social insurance.

So as to understand the effects of network resources on firm innovation and performance within alliances and networks, this paper aims to examine the correlation between network resources and innovation performance through the mediation of capability accumulation and relative bargaining power.

Drawing on a survey of 208 Chinese firms engaged in global production networks, this paper extracts four sets of hierarchical regressions to test the impact of network resources on innovation performance.

Results show that network resources are an important source of competitive advantage and the distinction between accessed resources and embedded resources is critical. Other than through direct influences, innovation performance was partly achieved through the mediating role of technological capability and relative bargaining power.

Building upon the data introduced in this paper, future studies may examine the effects of network resources in different contexts and the interaction between external and internal resources.

For firms competing within and between various networks, the forming and utilizing of network resources become a new source of competitive advantage. Hence, careful planning and a consideration of network resources should be undertaken to achieve improvements to a firm's performance.

First, this paper adds value to the network resource construct by distinguishing two different dimensions. Second, by integrating the mediating effects of technological capabilities and relative bargaining power, this paper reveals the mechanism by which network resources impact innovation performance within various network structures.

Drawing on the relational view and contingency theories, this study explores supply chain relationship conditions' roles in interrelationships between environmental, social and supply chain performance (SCP), i.e. triple bottom line (TBL).

The data from industries and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to validate the proposed model. Interviews with industry experts were conducted to further understand the findings.

The authors find that relationship conditions, such as inventory information sharing, dependency, opportunistic behavior and conflicts, moderate TBL linkages. Interestingly, power asymmetry does not moderate the linkages. Social performance mediates between environmental and SCP. This indirect effect is stronger than the effect of environmental performance on SCP.

This research is perhaps the first to bring a much-needed nuanced view on the importance of relationship conditions for TBL performance linkages. The research further underlines the importance of social performance in an emerging economy.

This paper aims to apply service-dominant logic thinking to the field of supply chain management (SCM) in order to classify, structure, and analyze different types of supply chain services (SCS) collected from interdisciplinary literature. The authors investigate how value is co-created between supply chain actors and develop research propositions regarding the influence of service type on value co-creation.

Content analysis is employed to research SCS across 218 articles from 28 journals of logistics and SCM, service, finance and accounting, and information systems research.

The occurrence of SCS within the literature is rising, and most SCS mentioned have a relieving as opposed to an enabling function. Also, SCS related to material and information flows dominate the field, whereas finances-flow-related services receive less attention. Finally, the paper provides evidence that different types of SCS require different management approaches.

Analyzing the literature and integrating different streams of research are only a first step towards building new theory. To test the developed propositions, further empirical research is encouraged.

The paper offers implications for the management of different types of SCS from both the service provider ' s and service customer ' s perspective.

The paper provides an interdisciplinary overview of the value proposed by different types of SCS. Furthermore, six service-dominant logic-based research propositions regarding the impact of service type on value co-creation are developed.