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Using a baseline model of buyer‐supplier relationships, the study aims to identify the types of relationships in the Turkish automotive industry, and to test predictions as to how these relations would differ across contextual, managerial, and social climate variables.

Questionnaire data from 51 buyers in automaker firms and 72 supplier firms were subjected to K‐means cluster analyses to establish relationship groups in the two samples. Differences across the groups were tested using ANOVA and Scheffé tests.

Three relationship types (captive supplier, market exchange, and strategic partnership) were identified both in the buyer and supplier data. Significant differences were observed in terms of contextual (product and supplier characteristics), managerial (information exchange and cooperation), and social climate variables (mutual understanding, payoff equity, and satisfaction). Turkish buyers were found to strategically segment their suppliers based on product and supplier characteristics, whereas supplier groups were differentiated along social climate variables.

The Turkish results differ somewhat from the ones for developed countries, which suggests that more work should be conducted in emerging economies. Future research that uses matched pairs of buyers and suppliers may provide in‐depth insights.

The results demonstrated a perception (hence, communication) gap between buyers and suppliers in how they differentiated relationship types. Strategic partnership led to cooperation in both samples, and to satisfaction, mutual understanding, and equity in the supplier sample.

This study used data from both parties, contrasted buyer‐supplier relationships in an emerging market with those in developed markets, and highlighted the effects of the industry's historical evolution on the present state of buyer‐supplier relationships.

Governance is the key to establishing effective collaboration among humanitarian logistics partners addressing an ongoing relief work. With a focus on humanitarian interorganizational collaboration, this research draws on governance theories to investigate how conflicts can be mitigated in this challenging setting.

The focus on governance extends attention to the frontiers of contractual agreement, trust and environmental uncertainty to be applied in the humanitarian setting. To develop perspectives, an online survey of 289 field executives working in humanitarian organizations across the globe is conducted. The findings are based on hierarchical regressions.

Environmental uncertainty, in humanitarian logistics, is not straightforward, but wields distinctive challenges in the response phase (immediate to the disaster) as well as the recovery phase (beginning of build back) – to loom prospects of conflict between partners. Findings outline that contractual agreement can increase conflict during the response phase (high environmental uncertainty), but mitigate it during the recovery phase (low environmental uncertainty). Furthermore, contractual agreement interactively strengthens the ability of trust to reduce conflict. Yet, trust acting alone shows best outcome to mitigate conflict.

Contrary to the established understanding in traditional logistics suggesting the vitality of contracts to easily mitigate challenges posed by environmental uncertainty, the humanitarian setting extends a unique outset for interorganizational governance based on the temporality of response and recovery phases.

This research pioneers to quantitatively examine the setting of humanitarian logistics based on survey. Given the difficulty of data acquisition, the extant research has largely relied on qualitative investigations when considering the agenda of governance.

Many manufacturing firms source components and subsystems from suppliers. Consequently, the suppliers' product and manufacturing knowledge is a central concern at the interface between R&D and manufacturing. This paper aims to specifically investigate how supplier knowledge is integrated and what role trust plays in knowledge integration with suppliers at the R&D-manufacturing interface.

The study is based on qualitative case studies of two different collaborations with suppliers at one firm.

Two distinct processes are identified. First, capturing represents knowledge integration through decoupling, for which a basic level of trust specifically with regard to the competence of the supplier is necessary. Capturing can take place through interactions that are limited in time and scope. Second, joint learning represents a coupled knowledge integration process and takes place during a more extended period of time preceding and following the R&D-manufacturing interface and builds on relational-based trust.

The interface between R&D and manufacturing needs to be extended to include a focus on suppliers' contributions in terms of product and manufacturing knowledge. The choice for suitable knowledge integration processes needs to be guided by concerns about the level of trust and the character of the supplier contributions.

The paper adds new insights to previous literature by distinguishing between different types of knowledge integration processes and levels of trust. It bridges the gap between innovation and operations management and clearly shows that the interface between R&D and manufacturing crosses organizational borders.

This paper examines supplier involvement in design based on survey data from 145 Japanese, 189 US and 87 UK automotive component suppliers. First, cross‐national differences in the degree of supplier involvement are examined. Second, regression analysis is used to identify factors which predict high or low levels of supplier involvement in design. Third, the effects of supplier involvement in product development on the degree to which products are designed for manufacturability are assessed. The data show that, contrary to much of the literature that suggests the highest levels of supplier involvement in design are in Japan, suppliers in the USA and UK are more likely to report greater influence on product design decisions, earlier involvement and more frequent communications with customers about design. Moreover, manufacturing planning and design begin later, as a proportion of the development cycle, in Japan than in the USA and the UK. Regression analysis shows that involving suppliers early and giving them influence over design is associated with greater contributions of suppliers to cost reduction, quality improvement and design for manufacturability. Suppliers are given the greatest influence and communication is most intensive for the design of complex subsystems and new designs, and this does not vary by country.

The purpose of this paper is the development of a patent-based supplier portfolio that can be used to evaluate and select suppliers on account of their technological competencies.

In addition to traditional approaches, the authors develop a supplier portfolio that characterizes suppliers according to the similarity between supplier's and OEM's technological competencies as well as their technological broadness. These variables are measured on the basis of patents, which constitute a valuable source of information in technology-driven industries. Contrary to existing binary measurement approaches, the authors’ portfolio uses semantic analyses to make use of the specific information provided in the patents' texts. The authors test this method in the field of gearings, which is a key driver for the automotive industry.

The authors identify six generic positions, characterizing specific risks for an OEM to become either technologically dependent or dependent on suppliers' production capacities. For each position the authors develop specific management strategies in face of the aforementioned risks. The approach helps OEMs navigate in the competitive landscape based on the most recent and publicly available information medium.

This work explicitly applies the construct of technological competencies to supplier evaluation and selection on the basis of portfolio approaches. Furthermore, the authors improve the use of patents for supplier evaluation in two respects: First, the authors analyze OEMs and upstream suppliers on an organizational level. Second, the authors utilize advanced semantic analysis to generate variables for the measurement of the criteria mentioned above.

A typical governance challenge that has emerged with the introduction of shared service centers and other forms of service-related centralization within organizations is how to balance horizontal integration with vertical accountability. From a transaction costs perspective, this study aims to analyze the relationship between intra-organizational demand and supply linkages, asset specificity and coordination costs.

For this purpose, a case study has been conducted within a European military organization that has undergone major budget cuts, forcing it to start following a strategy of functional concentration with captive buying and selling relationships between internal customers and suppliers.

The research findings clarify that organizational hybridity may be the result. In a supplier role, the organizational elements are primarily concerned with efficiency, while operational effectiveness predominates when they are in the customer position. Also, the results show that focusing on standardized service delivery may sometime carry too far. When services are treated as being standard, while in reality, they ask for a more tailored approach, productive internal demand and supply collaboration will be put at risk. Moreover, the organizational actions needed to restore the internal supply chain’s efficacy will seriously increase transaction costs.

Despite being mentioned as a key governance category, actual research on the practicalities of internal captive buying and selling, in relation to the functioning of SSCs, is still lacking. To advance on this topic, the present research introduces knowledge from supply chain management theory, where dedicated inter-organizational buyer–supplier interaction in the automotive industry has already received academic attention.

This study aims to find, analyse and synthesise the body of literature on how different health-care businesses form business-to-business (B2B) alliances. By doing so, this study seeks to identify visible research gaps to suggest future research questions and develop a conceptual framework to set a future research agenda.

The study uses the time-tested systematic literature review method to identify 57 studies that have addressed B2B relationships in the health-care industry. Thereafter, a qualitative analysis is performed to delineate the research profile and synthesise the key themes examined in the selected studies.

The qualitative analysis uncovers two key thematic foci: types and purposes of B2B relationships and pertinent issues in continued B2B relationships. Within these themes, the authors highlight different types of firms and their reasons for engaging in B2B relationships. The authors also summarise various issues that these firms deal with in such relationships. Finally, the authors highlight the limitations in the existing research and suggest future research questions to address them. The findings are summarised in a conceptual framework.

Although several reviews exist that evaluate the state-of-the-art research on B2B relationships, very few have examined the same in the context of health care. This review adds value to the research by providing a comprehensive overview of the existing findings in the area to encourage future research through a conceptual framework.

The purpose of this study is to report and contrast manufacturer–supplier relationships, supplier selection and procurement performance of two manufacturing sectors in Kuwait. The effect of supplier relationship and selection on the performance of the procurement function was also investigated.

Surveys of supplier selection, supplier relationship and procurement performance are taken from 62 plants operating in 2 competitive manufacturing sectors in Kuwait (foods industry and refractors industry). The study utilizes multivariate and multi-regression analyses in understanding the effect of supplier relationship and selection on the performance of the procurement function.

Findings indicate a significant effect of supplier relationship and supplier selection on a plant’s procurement performance. However, variance in plant size and/or industrial sector was found to not affect this relationship.

Despite the significance of the Gulf states and the growing importance of the manufacturing sector in these countries, relatively little is known about how buyers and suppliers within this sector interact. This study is the first to document supplier relationships and selection processes in this area of the world. The study also provides a reliable and valid scale for measuring the performance of the procurement function in the Kuwaiti manufacturing sector. Furthermore, the postulated impact of supplier–buyer relationships on the performance of the procurement functions was investigated in a newly emerging economy in the Gulf.

This study examines the effects of incremental and radical creativity on both product and process innovation by considering the moderating roles of knowledge sharing in intensity and quality.

Primary research is conducted over 250 employees from service and manufacturing firms operating in Pakistan. Principal component analyses are conducted for the data reduction process, and multiple regression analyses are performed to test the research hypotheses.

Knowledge sharing intensity and the quality of knowledge sharing moderate the effects of radical creativity on product and process innovation that predicts firm performance. Besides, the research presents the differences in the impacts of incremental and radical creativity with the moderations of organisational knowledge on product and process innovations between the service and manufacturing firms and implications for practitioners and researchers.

This work represents a sample from manufacturing and service firms operating in Pakistan. Still, caution is the generalising specific results to other organisations in either service or manufacturing domains or manufacturing.

While boosting creativity in organisations, knowledge sharing practices differ for sector domains. For service firms, knowledge intensity is essential, while knowledge quality is meaningful for manufacturing firms.

This study contributes to the literature at the crossroads of organisational creativity and innovation twofold; the first is to investigate the combined effects of incremental and radical creativity on product and process innovation separately. The second is to examine the moderator roles of knowledge sharing practices of knowledge quality and intensity while predicting product and process innovation with incremental and radical creativity.