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Although trust and distrust as distinct phenomena are of increasing interest to operations and supply chain management (OSCM) scholars, they have been inconsistently conceptualized and there is a lack of evidence regarding the distinctiveness of their respective antecedents. This study, therefore, focuses on one of the most widely accepted dimensions of trust, benevolence, to help more fully analyse (supplier) trust and distrust (in a buyer) and explore the effects of relational norms and structural power as specific antecedents.

The study employed a scenario-based role-playing experimental method. The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The results that while relational norms increase supplier trust, power asymmetry can simultaneously generate supplier distrust, support the coexistence of supplier trust and distrust in a buyer–supplier relationship.

This study is one of the first to explore the antecedents of supplier trust and distrust in a buyer. It demonstrates that supplier trust and distrust can coexist when the relationship is characterized by relational norms and asymmetrical power. This opens important questions for future trust–distrust research.

Trust is an important facilitator of successful B2B relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate affect-based antecedents of both interpersonal and interorganizational trust, and their impact on the performance of buyer–supplier relationships. The authors ask two research questions: (1) What are affect-based dimensions of interpersonal and interorganizational trust? (2) How do interpersonal and interorganizational trust influence buyers’ operational performance?

The authors use data from an original survey of 156 buyer–supplier relationships between multinational enterprise subsidiaries and local suppliers in the Thai manufacturing sector to develop a structural model in which the authors test the hypotheses.

Consistent with social exchange theory and social psychology, the empirical analysis shows that affect-based dimensions at the individual level, namely, likeability, similarity and frequent social contact, and at the organizational level, namely, supplier firm willingness to customize and institutionalization of cooperation, are important for establishing trust. In addition, interpersonal trust enhances buyers’ operational performance indirectly via interorganizational trust.

Buying and selling firms may develop organizational trust by developing processes that enhance organizational trust. Individuals with purchasing or sales responsibilities may enhance trust in their personal relationship. However, such interpersonal trust needs to be translated to the organizational level to benefit organizational performance.

The findings contribute to the literature on affect-based antecedents and outcomes of trust. Specifically, the authors offer theory and empirical evidence regarding the contribution of salespersons toward affect-based dimensions of trust and its impact on buyer’s operational performance.

The purpose of this article is to share a year-long initiative of a predominantly white liberal arts college library that fostered relationality and inclusive culture through an understanding and critique of White Supremacy Culture.

This case study presents the development and implementation of a library-wide reading group to discuss Okun's (2021) White Supremacy Culture Characteristics through relational meetings (Chambers, 2003). Relational-cultural theory provided a guiding framework for implementation of relational meetings in the context of conversations about race.

After participation in the reading group, participants reported their ability to identify characteristics of White Supremacy Culture in their lives and a greater preparedness to participate in work related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The authors suggest vulnerability, consideration of power and privilege and observations of White Supremacy Culture within the local context frequently occurred in the reading group conversations.

This work operates as an opportunity for library staff to learn about White Supremacy Culture in a way that helps to undermine white privilege and, therefore, holds similar aims to anti-racist affinity work (Michael and Conger, 2009). However, the library staff only has one person of color and, therefore, the authors cannot speak to engaging a more racially diverse staff. The authors include reflections on how their racial identities impact their engagement in this work.

Attention to White Supremacy and white privilege is, according to Gulati-Partee and Potapchuk (2014), an overlooked part of diversity, equity and inclusion work. This case study demonstrates a path toward inclusive culture that focuses on the identification of White Supremacy Culture Characteristics (Okun, 2021) in the authors’ local context and provides rationale for utilizing relational meetings (Chambers, 2003) to emphasize individual and collective reflection.

Although researchers have long recognized the importance of participating organizations’ (POs) relational behavior for mega construction projects (MCPs) performance, relational behavior may not be executed by POs without effective leadership from project owners. However, little is known about the mechanisms linking owners’ leadership styles to POs’ relational behavior. This study draws on full range leadership theory and role theory to examine the relationships between owners’ leadership styles (i.e. transformational and transactional) and relational behavior. POs’ role orientations (i.e. normative and economic) are considered as potential mediators.

Data were collected from 175 managers deeply involved in MCPs. Hierarchical regression model and bootstrapping methods were performed on the data to examine the direct effects of owners’ leadership on POs’ relational behavior and the mediating effects of POs’ role orientations.

The results revealed that both owners’ transformational and transactional leadership positively affect POs’ relational behavior, despite the former being higher than the latter, and indirectly influence relational behavior via POs’ normative and economic role orientation, respectively.

This study provides a clear picture of how owners’ leadership can motivate POs’ relational behavior to achieve high-quality inter-organizational relationships in MCPs. The findings can guide owners’ top manager selection by prioritizing those with transformational leadership, which is beneficial to achieving high-level relational behavior of POs. The results also imply that owners should pay greater attention to cultivating POs’ normative role orientation by encouraging teamwork and open communication to enhance their implementation of relational behavior.

Unlike previous research focusing more on intra-organizational leader–follower relationship within one PO, this study is one of the first to empirically confirm owners’ leadership as a critical antecedent of POs’ relational behavior, thus enhancing the theoretical understanding of inter-organizational relationship management in MCPs. Based on role theory, this study considers a novel organizational psychology mechanism, i.e. POs’ role orientations, as the mediator to unravel how owners’ leadership affects POs’ relational behavior, which was rarely invoked in MCP leadership literature.

This paper aims to investigate the role of informational and relational mechanisms on equity crowdfunding investors' conformity behaviors by focusing on a relational culture of China.

The data of 108 financing projects and 7,688 investment records from a union of Chinese equity crowdfunding platforms are gathered. Lead investors' response to a campaign and follow-investors’ former links explain investors' conformity by social network analysis (SNA) and ordinary least squares (OLS) analysis.

The results show that informational and relational influences drive conformity in Chinese equity crowdfunding. Moreover, the informational influence weakens in a highly centralized structure of linked investors.

The results add new knowledge to follow-investors’ conformity behaviors in equity crowdfunding and enrich the literature on conformity theory by finding the contextual effect of information-influenced conformity and the adaption of conformity theory to cultural uniqueness. Besides, this preliminary work also suggests opportunities for future research.

The paper inspires new consideration on a strategical use of follow-investors’ conformity mentality to promote successfully financing and reminds platform managers to be alert to the interference of small groups formed based on informal relationships to the normal financing order.

This is the first study that discovers the non-informational influence and the limited influence of information on equity crowdfunding conformity through contextual concerns.

According to governance theory, choosing an effective supply chain (SC) governance mechanism can balance the interests and conflicts between enterprises and help them achieve their performance goals. However, incentive and relational governance have not been fully studied in improving enterprise cooperative performance (ECP). This study aims to examine the relationship between incentive and relational governance in general, the direct effects of combined governance strategy (CGS; the combination dimension of the above two governance mechanisms) on ECP and the mediating effects of SC ambidexterity on CGS and ECP in particular.

To test the hypotheses, this study implements hierarchical linear regression and bootstrap with a survey data set of Chinese manufacturing enterprises.

Results demonstrate that incentive and relational governance can generate complementary effects through enabling and compensating mechanisms, and their combination, that is, CGS, can promote ECP more than a single governance approach; CGS is conducive to solving the SC ambidexterity dilemma and can simultaneously enhance SC alignment and adaptability, thus further improving ECP; and SC ambidexterity plays an intermediary role between CGS and ECP.

The present study examines the complex interaction between incentive governance, relational governance, SC ambidexterity, and ECP. Implications for theory and practice are that formulating appropriate CGS can develop SC ambidexterity and improve ECP.

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), driven by the downstream buyers' power, transfers sustainability responsibilities to the upstream supplier. In contrast to the heavily-focused buyers' perspective in the literature, the authors investigate how this buyer-driven SSCM influences suppliers' performance, using the measure of stock market reaction.

Grounded by the resource dependence theory (RDT), the authors empirically analyze the power effect on suppliers. Event study methodology and regression analysis are used, based on a sample of 1977 paired supplier observations from 1990 to 2016.

The result suggests that although a negative stock market reaction for suppliers in SSCM exists, the effect is less negative at a high level of buyer and supplier dependence. For the investigation of the “consolidated SSCM initiative,” where buyers acquire exogenous power by collaboratively managing SSCM with their peers, the authors uncover that the negative impact of this consolidated SSCM initiative can be mitigated by the high interdependence that generates relational norms in the dyads.

The authors focus on dyadic relationships. Future research can use the study's findings to study the SSCM diffusion to lower-tier suppliers.

This paper has good managerial implications for both suppliers and buyers. The authors propose dependence-based strategies for supplier managers to reduce uncertainty in SSCM. Moreover, buyer managers can use the study's findings to strengthen suppliers' commitment.

The novelty of examining the suppliers' perspective contributes to exploring the supply chain impact of SSCM. The authors extend RDT and show that high dependence is not necessarily detrimental to suppliers in this buyer-driven SSCM context. The interesting finding of interdependence in the context of the consolidated SSCM initiative brings new insights that relational norms constrain the leverage of power in the dyads and are beneficial to the power-disadvantageous suppliers.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a tremendous negative effect on the economies around the world by infusing uncertainty into supply chains. In this paper, the authors address two important research questions (RQs): (1) did COVID-19 wage subsidies impact small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to become more flexible towards the SMEs' business customers and (2) can such flexibility be a source for greater resilience to the crisis? As a result, the authors investigate the relationship between governmental wage subsidies and SMEs' flexibility norms towards the SMEs' business customers (study 1). The authors further uncover when and how flexibility towards existing customers contributes to SME resilience (study 2).

The authors frame the inquiry under the resource dependence theory (RDT) and behavioural additionality principle. The authors use survey methodology and test the assumptions in study 1 (n = 225) and study 2 (n = 95) on a sample of SMEs from various business-to-business (B2B) industries in Croatia.

Overall, in study 1, the authors find that SMEs that receive governmental wage subsidies have greater flexibility norms. However, this relationship is significantly conditioned by SMEs' competitive profile. SMEs that strongly rely on innovation are more willing to behave flexibly when receiving subsidies, whereas SMEs driven by branding do not. Study 2 sheds light on when flexibility towards existing customers increases SME resilience. Findings show that flexibility norms are negatively related to resilience, but this relationship is becoming less negative amongst SMEs with lower financial dependence on the largest customer.

This study extends RDT in the area of firm–government relationships by showing that wage subsidies became a source of power for the Government and a source of dependency for SMEs. In such cases, the SMEs receiving those subsidies align with the governmental agenda and exhibit higher flexibility towards the SMEs' customers. Drawing arguments from behavioural additionality, the authors show that this effect varies due to SMEs' attention and organisational priorities resulting from different competitive profiles. Ultimately, the authors showcase that higher flexibility norms can contribute to resilience if the SME restructures its dependency by having a less-concentrated customer base.

This study aims to (1) validate the efficacy of contractual and relational governance in enhancing operational performance and (2) explore the influence of product complexity on the effectiveness of these governance mechanisms, thereby determining the optimal approach for varying levels of product complexity.

By utilizing a comprehensive theoretical framework encompassing transaction cost economics, social exchange theory and contingency theory, this research explores the intricate interplay between governance mechanisms, product complexity and operational performance, drawing insights from a dataset comprising 246 responses within Mainland China’s manufacturing sector. To rigorously test the proposed hypotheses, this study employed a hierarchical regression analysis.

The findings of this study are summarized as follows: (1) while both contractual governance and relational governance have a significant impact on operational performance, relational governance is found to be more effective than contractual governance in enhancing operational performance; and (2) the moderation effect of product complexity is evident, as it weakens the impact of contractual governance while simultaneously enhancing the positive influence of relational governance on operational performance.

The study uncovers a moderation effect of product complexity on the relationship between governance mechanisms and operational performance. This finding adds an original contribution to the literature by highlighting how product complexity can interact with governance strategies, providing practical insights for industries dealing with varying levels of product complexity.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between absorptive capacity, relational capital and interorganizational relationship performance and examine the moderating effect of contractual governance on this relationship.

This study used a quantitative design, analyzing data collected through a survey questionnaire. The sampling frame consisted of 111 cross-industry, small and medium-sized manufacturers in Malaysia. The research model was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results show that interorganizational relationship performance is positively influenced by relational capital and absorptive capacity. While absorptive capacity has a positive effect on relational capital, this study finds empirical evidence that contractual governance weakens the effect of absorptive capacity on relational capital. Furthermore, this study also examines the hitherto under-researched moderating effect of contractual government on absorptive capacity and relational capital and their relationship with interorganizational relationship performance.

This study provides insights into the interorganizational relationship among SMEs and explains the nature of knowledge management in this context. This study shows the potential role of absorptive capacity in building close cross-border interorganizational relationships.