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A large part of maritime container supply chain costs is generated by carriers in port hinterland logistics. Carriers which operate in the hinterland are under pressure to reduce costs and increase profitability, and they face challenges of fierce price competition. This study aims to explore how collaboration is perceived and implemented by carriers in truck container logistics in the port hinterland as a way to tackle these issues.

This study adopts a qualitative multiple case study approach. Qualitative interviews with carriers in the port hinterland of Hamburg, Germany, were conducted and analyzed using grounded theory.

The study reveals two collaboration types in the hinterland, based on the different carriers' interpretation of market conditions as changeable or as given, driving their collaboration mindsets and strategic actions: The developer, who has a proactive collaboration mindset and practices strategic maneuvers toward changing poor market conditions through collaboration, and the adapter, who has a defensive collaboration mindset and perceives market conditions as given and constraining collaboration.

The qualitative results will help researchers better understand how collaboration practices depend on the carriers' subjective interpretations and perceptions of the market.

Based on the findings, managers of carriers gain an understanding of the different types of actors in their market and the relevance of acknowledging these types. Consequently, they can design appropriate strategic measures toward collaboration.

The findings for the first time provide exploratory insights of carriers' mindsets.

The major part of studies in the field of strategic cognition focussed on strategy content, while process studies are comparatively rare. Those of the studies that are dedicated to explain strategy occurrence are dominantly restricted to formal decision making. In contrast to this, the purpose of this paper is to draw on a framework that helps to get a differentiated picture on contingent processes, strategies may pass through in organizations. Furthermore, an own elicitation procedure is introduced that enables to measure strategic cognition on different levels.

The paper provides an empirical approach by applying collective causal mapping techniques, both on an individual as well as collective level. The conceptual framework of the study rests on the “genesis” concept of strategy formation introduced by Kirsch and colleagues.

The main contribution of the paper is the presentation of a methodical approach to study the formation of shared strategic orientations in small companies. An operationalization to study these cognitive processes, based on collective causal mapping techniques is provided.

Applying the methodical approach presented in the paper is expected to make a contribution to the understanding of the shared knowledge of organizational members about major strengths and weaknesses of a new strategic reorientation and to contribute to practical concerns of organizational members in specific problematic situations, especially in small companies.

The study empirically approaches the complex phenomenon on strategy formation in small companies and therefore expands the understanding of shared cognition in organizations.

Long regarded as a far-fetched notion, companies from post-socialist economies (PSEs) increasingly compete with companies from advanced economies in their domestic markets and abroad. This study identifies PSE companies' motives and determinants of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in advanced economies.

This study analyses Slovenian business activities in Germany by juxtaposing eight Slovenian investors and three exporters using a multiple case study approach. The authors use content analysis to examine rich data from semi-structured interviews, databases and internal and external documents to provide comprehensive and in-depth insights into PSE investments in advanced economies.

The authors identify market-seeking motives and competitive advantages which differ from those of other emerging economy companies and offer theoretical suggestions. In contrast to findings from other emerging economies, the authors identify firm- and country-specific advantages, such as high technology, high service quality, a highly educated labour force, and European Union membership, which Slovene companies have employed to enter the advanced German market.

This study represents the first application of springboard theory to explain PSE company investment in advanced economies. The authors offer contextualised explanations of PSE investments in advanced host economies, which have been lacking thus far. The authors also contribute to the scarcity of studies on the effects of supranational institutions on OFDI from emerging economies.

This article explores how strategy formulation affects firm performance to determine whether rational/analytical strategy formulation is more effective than emergent/reflexive strategy formulation. Additionally, the article assesses if such superiority holds for different cultural contexts.

Meta-analysis was performed using the Raju, Burke, Norman, and Landis (RBNL) procedure applied to a dataset of 43 empirical studies reporting 54 effect sizes on strategy–performance relationships.

Implementing a formal strategy formulation process positively relates to firm performance. Rational/analytical formulation approaches are more effective than emergent/reflexive approaches in enhancing firm performance, especially for cultures with low future orientation, high uncertainty avoidance, and high power distance.

The reduced number of published empirical studies limited the scope and generalizability of the results across countries, industries, or firms. This limitation might be especially true for Latin American firms given the absence of relevant studies in this region. Another potential limitation is related to the distinction between strategy formulation and strategy implementation. Given the empirical nature of the studies meta-analyzed, strategic tools are used as a proxy to determine the formulation approach.

Firms that operate in short-term oriented, uncertainty-avoiding, and elitist cultures should favor implementing rational/analytical strategy formulation techniques rather than emergent/reflexive approaches. Although prescriptive recommendations are limited by the lack of studies in Latin America, firms in this region would seem to be better off using rational/analytical strategy formulation approaches.

These findings provide a partial explanation for the varying results yielded by strategy formulation and suggest cultural contexts in which rational/analytical strategy formulation should be more effective than emergent/reflexive approaches.

Este artículo explora cómo la formulación de la estrategia afecta el desempeño de la empresa y busca determinar si la formulación de la estrategia racional / analítica es más efectiva que la formulación de la estrategia emergente / reflexiva. Además, el artículo evalúa si dicha superioridad es válida para diferentes contextos culturales.

El metaanálisis se realizó aplicando el procedimiento de Raju, Burke, Norman y Landis (RBNL) a un conjunto de datos de 43 estudios empíricos que reportaron un total de 54 tamaños de efecto sobre las relaciones estrategia-rendimiento.

La implementación de un proceso formal de formulación de estrategias se relaciona positivamente con el desempeño de la empresa. Los enfoques de formulación racional / analítica son más efectivos que los enfoques emergentes / reflexivos para mejorar el rendimiento de la empresa, especialmente para culturas con baja orientación al largo plazo, alta evitación de incertidumbre y alta distancia al poder.

El reducido número de estudios empíricos publicados limitó el alcance y la generalización de los resultados entre países, industrias o empresas. Esta limitación podría afectar especialmente a las empresas latinoamericanas dada la ausencia de estudios relevantes en esta región. Otra limitación potencial está relacionada con la distinción entre la formulación y la implementación de la estrategia. Dada la naturaleza empírica de los estudios meta analizados, las herramientas estratégicas se utilizan como proxy para determinar el enfoque de formulación.

las empresas que operan en culturas orientadas al corto plazo, que evitan la incertidumbre y que muestran alta distancia al poder deberían favorecer la implementación de técnicas de formulación de estrategias racionales / analíticas en lugar de enfoques emergentes / reflexivos. Aunque las recomendaciones prescriptivas están limitadas por la falta de estudios en América Latina, las empresas en esta región parecen estar mejor utilizando enfoques de formulación de estrategias racionales / analíticas.

estos resultados proporcionan una explicación parcial de los resultados variados producidos por la formulación de la estrategia y sugieren contextos culturales en los que la formulación de la estrategia racional / analítica debería ser más efectiva que los enfoques emergentes / reflexivos.

Using the framework of the philosophy of science, this chapter explores some basic theoretical issues that must be recognized and addressed in developing theory within the competence perspective. We first develop an overview of resource-based and competence-based research to highlight some fundamental theoretical issues. We then identify a set of basic assumptions for conducting a research program focused on development of a “competence-based theory of the firm.” Working from these basic assumptions, we argue for a shift in the epistemological aim of competence theory development from explaining market success to explaining firm competitiveness. We explain how such a shift theoretical focus and approach can remedy the problem of circular reasoning often observed in resource-based thinking that tries to contribute to the competence literature.

While a return to work following trauma exposure can be therapeutic, this is not always so. As with many topics related to traumatic stress in organizations, several contingency factors complicate the effort to draw an overarching conclusion about whether returning to work is therapeutic. The purpose of this paper is to present important determinants of whether work is therapeutic or triggering for those with traumatic stress conditions. The need for contingency approaches in the study of traumatic stress in organizations is illustrated.

Literature on traumatic stress in organizations is reviewed.

Three of the key determinants of whether a return to work is therapeutic or triggering for traumatic stress sufferers are trauma-type contingencies, condition-type contingencies and work-setting contingencies. For instance, human-caused and task-related traumas are more likely than natural disasters to make a return-to-work triggering. Additionally, the time since developing a traumatic stress condition is inversely related to the degree of improvement in that condition through the experience of working. Moreover, managerial actions can affect how therapeutic an employee’s return to work is.

These findings suggest the challenges of reintegrating a traumatized employee to the workplace can be highly situation-specific. Careful consideration of the traumatic event suffered by each traumatic stress victim, their traumatic stress condition, and the work setting to which they would return are recommended.

Promoting mental health in organizations can contribute to employers’ social performance.

Examination of the factors that complicate predicting whether work is therapeutic posttrauma demonstrates how contingency approaches can advance research on trauma in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to study the perceptions of the advisors and valuers of German associations regarding the relevance of intangible assets in general, and for the purpose of company succession in particular.

To perform this study German associations were examined, which play an essential role in company succession in Germany, from both sides of the process. Conducting a web‐survey, 51 answers were received (response‐rate = 42.5 per cent) which could be used for the analyses.

Amongst others, the study showed that intangible assets are of a moderate relevance. However, a large proportion of respondents expect intangible assets to be of greater relevance in the future. The study highlighted that intangibles do have a great impact on the decision‐making process of an investor.

The total population of German Association is 135. The author received answers from 51 associations, which did not fulfil the statistical size to conduct advanced statistical methods. The specific relationship of German associations with small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is rather unique compared to similar institutions around the world, therefore, the results may not be replicable in other countries.

The results of this study will help practitioners as well as academics to better understand the relevance of intangible assets in SMEs.

This paper is pioneering in the analysis of the influence of intangible assets in German SMEs for the purpose of company succession.

Mobile ad hoc networks rely on cooperation to perform essential network mechanisms such as routing. Therefore, network performance depends to a great extent on giving participating nodes an incentive for cooperation. The level of trust among nodes is the most frequently used parameter for promoting cooperation in distributed systems. There are different models for representing trust, each of which is suited to a particular context and leads to different procedures for computing and propagating trust. The goal of this study is to analyze the most representative approaches for mobile ad hoc networks. It aims to obtain a qualitative comparison of the modeling approaches, according to the three basic components of a trust model: information gathering, information scoring and ranking, and action execution.

The paper identifies the different tasks required by a trust system and compares the way they are implemented when the system model itself is based on information theory, social networks, cluster concept, graph theory and game theory. It also provides a common nomenclature for the models. The study concentrates exclusively on the trust models themselves, without taking into account other aspects of the original articles that are beyond the scope of this analysis.

The study identifies the main components that a trust model must provide, and compares the way they are implemented. It finds that the lack of unity in the different proposed approaches makes it difficult to conduct an objective comparison. Finally, it also notices that most of the models do not properly manage node reintegration.

The best of our knowledge, the study is the first that uses information scoring and ranking as classification key. According to this key, approaches can be classified as based on information theory, clusters and social network theory, and cooperative and non‐cooperative game theory. It also provides a common nomenclature for all of them. Finally, the main contribution of the paper is to provide an analysis of the most representative approaches and present a novel qualitative comparison.

An increasing number of last mile deliveries (LMDs) pose many sustainability challenges that retailers and logistics service providers (LSPs) can address. Using cognitive frames (CFs) as a lens, this study explored how retail and LSP managers make sense of sustainable LMDs.

The methodological approach used is a multiple embedded case study. The data were obtained from interviews with retailers and LSPs, supplemented with secondary data for triangulation.

The findings present the operational aspects of LMDs that managers associate with sustainability and indicate that retail and LSP managers frame sustainability primarily as emission reduction. Managers indicate an externalization of responsibility and a compartmentalization of the supply chain, in which social sustainability is not associated with the last mile. Most managers indicate hierarchical CFs regarding sustainability, in which sustainability is an important topic but is subordinate to economic interests.

Collaboration between retailers, LSPs and other stakeholders is viewed as challenging but could alleviate some of the sustainability shortcomings and aid in the paradoxical framing and inclusion of social issues.

A conceptualization of managerial CFs for sustainable LMDs, together with empirical frame indicators and three propositions, is presented, providing novel insights into how paradoxical CFs could make LMDs more sustainable. This approach illuminates the possibilities for how to untangle the operational manifestations of managerial framing and adds to the empirical exploration of CFs in supply chain management.