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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 study aims to validate whether enhancing interorganizational task interdependence among tier 2 suppliers can act as an effective approach for the tier 1 supplier to enhance collaborations among these suppliers in the buyer-tier 1 supplier-tier 2 supplier triadic new product development (NPD) project when buyer's requirements are unstable.

Based on social interdependence theory, a model linking interorganizational task interdependence to interorganizational collaboration and NPD product performance is built. The authors conducted a survey study to collect data from 169 automotive tier 1 suppliers and performed regression analysis to empirically test the hypotheses.

The test results suggest that interorganizational task interdependence among tier 2 suppliers can promote interorganizational promotion-oriented information sharing and interorganizational joint decision making among these suppliers. These improvements can ultimately improve supplier’s NPD product performance. However, the buyer’s requirements uncertainty can reduce the positive effects of such an interdependence arrangement.

This study provides new insights into the role of a tier 1 supplier to enhance the collaboration among tier 2 suppliers in the limited condition of this relationship while providing an alternative explanation regarding contradictory ideas about task interdependence among suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate and test a theoretical model to explain inter-organizational cooperation behaviors among suppliers in automotive new product development (NPD) projects. This study aims to investigate the effects of cost and benefit factors on trust and inter-organizational cooperative behaviors among suppliers in automotive NPD projects from the perspective of social exchange theory (SET).

The structural equation modeling method is applied to test the proposed model, which is based on the analysis of survey data from 272 product managers of automotive part suppliers.

Knowledge sharing and coordination effort influence inter-organizational cooperation indirectly through trust. Specially, trust is negatively influenced by coordination effort but positively affected by knowledge sharing. Requirement uncertainty moderates the relationship between cost–benefit factors and trust differently. Specifically, requirement uncertainty increases the negative influence of coordination effort on trust but also strengthens the positive effect of knowledge sharing on trust.

This study provides a relatively comprehensive cost–benefit framework for further understanding the formation mechanism of inter-organizational cooperation among suppliers. It also contributes to SET by incorporating the contextual factor to explain the moderating effect of requirement uncertainty on the relationships between cost–benefit factors and trust in the context of automotive NPD projects.

This study investigates the moderating effects of age, experience and educational qualification on the relationship between uncertainty and subjective task complexity among lawyers working in private law firms in Lagos State, Nigeria.

A survey method was adopted and data were gathered using questionnaires. The analysis was carried out based on partial least squares structural equation modelling using SmartPLS 2.0 M3 software.

Results showed that the effect of uncertainty on subjective task complexity is significantly moderated by age, educational attainment, experience of the lawyers under study.

Although data were collected in the most populated state and commercial hub of Nigeria, generalisation based on findings may still need to be made with caution.

Attainment of higher educational qualification is highly important for lawyers even though the minimum requirement to practice as a lawyer is a degree. Lawyers with higher degrees (LLM and PhD) had less uncertainty and perceived their tasks to be less complex compared to their counterparts who had the first degree (LLB).

The demographic profile of professionals (age, education and experience) has proven to have an impact on their perception about task complexity as determined by uncertainty as found in this study.

Many uncertainties in Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems are treated as “controllable” elements, with a variety of buffering, dampening and other approaches being used to cope with them. However, such approaches are often found wanting, forcing enterprises into emergency measures to ensure delivery performance. Based upon the results of a questionnaire survey, this paper analyses the uncertainties in the aggregate, intermediate and operational levels that affect customer delivery performance in MRP environments. These uncertainties have been quantified and the relative importance to performance has been investigated. The results also show the widespread use of buffering, dampening and other approaches to provide a level of delivery reliability. It is contended that by concentrating on minimising the effects of the uncertainties, the underlying causes have not been addressed, resulting in sub‐optimisation of system performance.

In this paper, I examine the mediating effect of project planning on the link between three project uncertainty variables (project size, project diversity, and technical complexity) and IT project success in a developing country. The proposed model is validated using a field survey of 42 IT project leaders from Kuwait. The overall findings give support to the proposed model and to the role of project planning as a mediator between project uncertainty and project success. However, the results challenge the traditional conception by past IT implementation research regarding the direct negative role of uncertainty in IT projects. This finding may be understood in light of the different manifestations that uncertainty may have for IT projects in developing countries. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

This paper discusses the experimental work in modelling uncertainty under a multi‐echelon enterprise resource planning (ERP)‐controlled manufacturing system. A new method known as part tagging (Ptag) is successfully implemented in a material requirements planning (MRP) planning architecture, which is used to generate a planned order release (POR) schedule for controlling purchase and manufacture operations in a batch manufacturing system using simulation. One of the most important findings is that parts tardy delivery (PTD) is a more responsive performance measure compared with finished products tardy delivery (FPTD); therefore it is recommended that PTD should be measured to reveal the unmasked effects of uncertainty. The main conclusion and implication from this experiment are that an ERP‐controlled manufacturing enterprise should diagnose for uncertainty in a way that produces significant effects on delivery tardiness, so that reduction of their levels will significantly minimise tardy delivery.

The purchasing function is growing in importance in today's industrial economy. In many purchasing situations there are a number of conflicting considerations that influence the final purchasing decision. The professional purchasing person must make profitable buying decisions under these circumstances. The single item purchase lot sizing literature in the past has served as the foundation for developing and studying the requirements planning based models and techniques. The purchasing manager's methods for making quantity (lot size) decisions are examined. Significant literature on the subject is classified and a taxonomy provided. Variations within the purchase lot sizing literature are discussed. Purchase lot sizing literature has important limitations by focusing exclusively on lot sizing as the relevant criterion for making economic order size decisions. A logical extension would be to include, the economic performance of alternative lot size procedures in a capacitated Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) environment. Another extension should consider the economics of jointly ordering from one vendor.

The current research aims to answer the following question: To what extent and under what conditions does hiring consultants to implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system produce performance gains for companies? To answer this question, this research delves into the critical interdependent roles of CRM consultant resources (CR) and user involvement (UI) in overcoming CRM’s technological and organizational implementation challenges.

A quantitative field study methodology was used to empirically test the research hypotheses. Cross-sectional data (N = 126) were collected from large client companies using CRM technology. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to estimate the significance levels of the structural model.

The findings indicate that the extent to which CRM consultants improve CRM system quality (SQ) and, ultimately, firm performance, largely depends on UI, which acts as the key facilitating mechanism to cope with application complexity (APP) and requirements uncertainty (REQ).

This research probes into the largely unexplored interactions between CRM CR, UI, APP and REQ. Using these parameters, this model successfully predicts CRM SQ and firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that incorporates both firm- and process-level factors for understanding location distance choice in the business process outsourcing (BPO) decision.

The research involved undertaking in-depth case study analysis of a number of BPO decisions in six German companies, and employing transaction cost economics (TCE) and the resource-based view (RBV) as a theoretical basis.

The findings have shown that existing literature in the operations management (OM) literature does not provide a complete understanding of the complexities of location distance choice in the BPO decision. This decision requires an understanding of a range of factors at both the firm- and process-level. The findings here enhance the understanding of how these factors interact to influence the potential distance options.

The findings have shown how organisations can influence the factors that affect the location distance choice including modularising business processes, developing outsourcing capabilities, and supplementing internal skills in areas such as cultural management and performance monitoring.

This is one of the first studies in the OM field to analyse how organisations make the decision in relation to local, nearshore, and offshore location distance options. The paper has highlighted the importance of OM concepts such as performance management and continuous improvement to this phenomenon, and the paper has offered a number of important areas for further research.