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This paper investigates how symmetrical learning activity is, between the public client and the private contractor in the contracting and operation of complex, long-term infrastructure projects. Drawing on empirical material from two United Kingdom (UK) private finance initiative (PFI) cases, the paper analyses differences in the absorptive capacity and learning capability between parties. It suggests the private contractor appears to be better equipped to acquire, embed and renew their learning. These findings reflect less than 5 years of a 30-year contract, suggesting a skewed (imbalanced) relationship, where the contractor gains more learning capabilities than the client. The paper concludes with implications for management practice and suggestions for future research directions.

While the importance of interorganizational learning (IOL) as a resource for strategic renewal has been acknowledged in research, limited attention has been placed on exploring IOL in complex networks or ecosystems. This paper aims to bridge this gap in literature through conceptualizing IOL in the tourism industry at the micro, meso and macro levels of the ecosystem.

This paper applies a narrative literature review to explore the tourism industry and IOL. Through insights which evolved from literature, exploratory typologies and propositions were developed forming the basis of the multi-level typology of interorganizational learning in the tourism industry.

Based on the multi-level typology of interorganizational learning in the tourism industry, market actors may develop in isolation, in clusters or networks, with the aggregate output of these formations constituting the basis of the tourism ecosystem. Within the multi-layers of the tourism ecosystem, IOL may be subdivided into seven distinct typologies, with learning ranging from active, passive, interactive to asymmetric. Each typology of IOL is subsequently influenced by relational ties, which may range from collaborative to competitive, and power distribution, which may lead to symmetric or asymmetric relationships.

The novelty of this paper lies in an ecosystem perspective of IOL in the tourism industry, outlining the multi-level nature of IOL in a destination.

This study aims to explore how absorptive and joint learning can foster radical innovation. Furthermore, dependence asymmetry is investigated as a moderator of the effects of these factors on radical innovation. Radical innovation is an important source of any firm’s success. Yet, there has been a dearth of research in the literature on how different types of inter-partner learning cultivate the process of generating such innovation.

The authors use a sample of 204 Taiwanese electronics suppliers to test the effects of joint learning and absorptive learning on radical innovation. The empirical analysis adopts a structural equations modeling approach.

The authors find that a supplier’s joint learning has a stronger effect on radical innovation than its absorptive learning. However, when accounting for the moderating effect of dependence asymmetry, the analysis shows that absorptive learning does have a significant effect on radical innovation. The effect of joint learning on radical innovation is not moderated by the degree of dependence asymmetry.

This study broadens and deepens the understanding of how radical innovation by suppliers can be generated in customer–supplier relationships, and how this is shaped by the power-dependence structure.

Inter-partner learning; radical innovation; power; dependence.

Digital transformation in supply chains (SCs) has emerged as one of the most effective ways to minimize SC disruption risks. Given the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global SCs, this study aims to identify and provide empirical evidence about the drivers of digital SC transformation, considering the interactivity between environmental dynamism, technology, and organizational capabilities during the pandemic era.

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), this study examines 923 firms in Vietnam to ascertain the drivers of digital SC transformation between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises, based on the technology–organization–environment (TOE) as an overarching framework.

This study finds that greater digital SC transformation adoption could be achieved under the interactivity between the TOE components of firms' technological competencies, learning capabilities, and disruptions in socioeconomic environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, a multigroup analysis shows that the drivers of digital SC transformation differ between SMEs and large enterprises. SMEs were found to be more motivated by the COVID-19 disruption risk when adopting digital SC models.

This study represents an original and novel contribution from Vietnam as an emerging market to the literature on the impact of COVID-19 on the global value chain. Apart from the unique dataset at the firm level, the analysis of interactions between external and internal drivers of digital SC transformation could provide crucial managerial implications for SMEs to survive major disruptions, such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Promoting “Quality Education” as part of Sustainable Development Goal 4 requires educational stakeholders to understand the nature of online learning from the learners’ perspective. This study aims to explore the asymmetric effects of online learning attributes on overall learning satisfaction in tourism and hospitality education.

The authors adopt the three-factor satisfaction theory and the three analytical steps penalty–reward contrast analysis, impact range performance analysis (IRPA) and impact asymmetry analysis. The authors then juxtapose the results of such analytical approaches to the traditional importance–performance analysis (IPA) for further insights.

Traditional IPA suggests nine high importance and performance online attributes. However, the IRPA reveals that only four attributes fall within high performance and high range of impact on satisfaction. The attribute “secure” had a low performance despite a significant impact on satisfaction.

By exploring asymmetric effects, scholars, service providers and participants of online education can have a deeper insight into the nature and dynamic effect of attributes on overall satisfaction.

By exploring the asymmetric impacts of online learning attributes on overall learning satisfaction, the findings provide a novel insight into the multidimensionality of online learning attributes.

推动“优质教育”作为可持续发展目标四的一部分, 要求教育利益相关者从学习者的角度从本质上了解在线学习。本研究探讨了在线学习属性对旅游和酒店教育整体学习满意度的非对称影响。

我们采用三因素满意度理论结合三个分析步骤：惩罚奖励对比分析（PRCA）; 影响范围性能分析（IRPA）; 影响非对称分析（IAA）, 并将这种分析方法的结果与传统的重要性-表现分析（IPA）对比以获得深入理解。

传统的重要性-表现分析的结果展现了在线学习满意度具有较高重要性和表现的九个属性。然而, IRPA 显示只有四个属性属于高性能和满意度的高影响范围。“安全”这一属性虽然对满意度有显着影响, 但它的表现评估却很低。

对非对称影响的探索帮助在线教育的学者、服务提供者和参与者们更深入地了解对于整体满意度而言不同属性的本质和动态影响。

通过探讨在线学习属性对整体学习满意度的非对称影响, 我们的研究结果为理解在线学习属性对于整体满意度的影响提供了多维度的新颖视角。

La promoción de la “Educación de Calidad” como parte del Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible 4 requiere que los actores educativos entiendan la naturaleza del aprendizaje en línea desde la perspectiva de los estudiantes. Este estudio explora los efectos asimétricos de los atributos del aprendizaje en línea sobre la satisfacción general del aprendizaje en la educación en turismo y hotelería.

Aplicamos la teoría de la satisfacción de tres factores y los tres pasos analíticos: análisis de contraste de penalización-recompensa (PRCA), análisis de rendimiento del rango de impacto (IRPA) y análisis de impacto asimétrico (IAA). A continuación, aplicamos los resultados de estos enfoques analíticos al tradicional análisis de importancia-rendimiento (IPA) para obtener más información.

El análisis tradicional de importancia-rendimiento sugiere nueve atributos en línea de gran importancia y rendimiento. Sin embargo, el IRPA revela que sólo cuatro atributos se encuentran dentro de la franja de alto rendimiento y alto impacto en la satisfacción. El atributo “seguridad” tuvo un desempeño bajo a pesar de tener un impacto significativo en la satisfacción.

Al explorar los efectos asimétricos, los académicos, los proveedores de servicios y los participantes de la educación en línea pueden tener una visión más profunda de la naturaleza y el efecto dinámico de los atributos en la satisfacción general.

Al explorar los impactos asimétricos de los atributos del aprendizaje en línea en la satisfacción general del aprendizaje, nuestros hallazgos brindan una visión novedosa de la multidimensionalidad de los atributos del aprendizaje en línea.

Using asymmetric impact–performance analysis for examining an asymmetric relationship between user satisfaction and website features, the present research aims to identify features of high priority for quality improvement. For doing so, the current research was conducted in the context of the E-learning website of the most prestigious university in Iran, namely, the University of Tehran.

The main question was which of the three groups of basic, performance and excitement factors has the required dimensions of the quality of the website based on the model WebQual 4.0 by considering Kano’s user satisfaction model and impact–performance analysis. This is a descriptive survey, applied and cross-sectional study. The study population included Tehran University’s students who enrolled in virtual courses in the academic year 2020–2021 from which a sample of 457 students was selected. The data collection tool was the questionnaire of Webqual 4.0, as well as a researcher-made questionnaire to measure end-user satisfaction.

Using structural equation modeling and multiple regression, the findings showed that the customer’s overall satisfaction with the mentioned website is primarily affected by the feature interaction with services, including the two structures of trust and empathy, and then the dimensions of usability and quality of information. Examining the Webqual 0.4 dimensions indicated that the website usability dimension is a part of the high-performance excitement factors group, the information quality dimension is a part of the high-performance basic factors group and the website interaction dimension is in the low-performance basic factors group.

The research is highly innovative taking the theoretical model of Kano and methodological investigation of asymmetric impact–performance analysis into consideration alongside the WebQual 4.0 as a fundamental model for website assessment. Moreover, the research was conducted on an E-learning website, which is unique and a necessity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to investigate the importance and effect of asymmetric technological collaborations’ key success factors in developing countries. The number of collaborations between large enterprises and SMEs, known as asymmetric technological collaborations (ATC) is growing considerably. But this asymmetry in itself can increase the number and intensity of collaboration challenges. So far, limited studies have been conducted on the stability of ATCs, and most of them have been in the context of developed countries. Meanwhile, studying the strength and stability of collaboration in the nano industry with growing market value and increasing newcomers is of particular importance.

Here, with bionic engineering approach, we used chemistry for the first time to identify the main stability factors of ATCs and build our hypotheses and research model. To this end, we introduced the factors affecting the stability of the dative chemical bond as a bionic counterpart of corporate venture capital (CVC), which is a type of ATC, and proposed 4 hypotheses. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) method to examine the hypothesized relationships.

The analysis of survey questionnaire data from 26 asymmetric collaborations in Iran’s nanotechnology industry shows that “learning of the acceptor company” with a negative effect, “network ties” and “development of the collaboration host region” with a positive effect and “diversity in the collaboration portfolio” with an inverted U-shaped effect are the most influential factors in the stability and continuity of CVCs, respectively.

The findings of this research can be the beginning of a broad path leading to exploring and getting inspiration from chemistry to analyze management issues.

This paper aims to study the impact of the interactive effect of knowledge characteristics – tacitness, specificity and availability – and resource structure – complementarily and asymmetric – on learning race behavior among international joint venture (IJV) partners in China.

Preliminary in-depth interviews with three IJV managers were conducted to develop and evaluate the tentatively developed questionnaire. The finalized survey questionnaire was distributed to middle and top-level managers of IJVs, resulting in a total of 124 usable surveys. The psychometric properties of data were evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis and hypotheses were tested using a generalized linear model.

The results show that partners in IJV have low tendencies to acquire tacit and specific knowledge, but, when the resource is complementary, it stimulates the learning race. Also, when resources are asymmetric, IJV partners engage in the learning race more aggressively, particularly for highly specific knowledge. The situation reverses for highly available knowledge.

The findings provide important insights for both researchers and managers on knowledge characteristics and resource structure influencing learning race behavior. This insight allows firms to leverage features of knowledge and resource conditions to prevent or facilitate the learning race for either common or private interests.

This paper aims to describe in depth case studies demonstrating that many small companies that participate in collaborative relationships are not realising the knowledge and skill acquisition benefits that policy makers envision when they formulate public policy that promotes creation of collaborative business relationships.

Hamel's theory of inter‐partner learning is built upon to explain the possible reasons why firms fail to derive learning‐related benefits from participation in collaborative relationships, and the implications for public policy, for firms participating in collaborative relationships, and for future research are discussed.

Key findings reveal that small companies are not realising the intended benefits of collaboration. Many New Zealand firms that participate in alliances are not using them to develop new skills and competencies.

Learning was neither an objective nor an outcome of most of the collaborative business relationships investigated in this research. The cases studied were selected from a large database of collaborative business relationships involving New Zealand firms, so there is no reason to believe that these findings are unique to the particular relationships examined; however, it would be useful to investigate the extent to which the findings generalise to other collaborative relationships in New Zealand and in other countries.

Policy makers should carefully consider the types of collaborative relationships that they promote as not all relationships generate public benefits. Firms should consider collaborative relationships as a possible option for acquiring new skills and, if they wish to learn through participation in such a relationship, then they should make this a specific objective.

The paper shows that the adoption of a qualitative approach allows a more insightful examination of collaborative relationships and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between environment turbulence, knowledge transfer and innovation performance for emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) in an asymmetric international R&D alliance.

Data were collected through a survey of high-tech firms in Zhejiang Province of China from 2013 to 2015.

Innovation performance of EMNEs is positively influenced by knowledge transfer activities (knowledge replication and knowledge adaption), technological and market turbulence, while negatively influenced by institutional turbulence. In addition, different aspects of environmental turbulence moderate the relationship between knowledge transfer practices and innovation performance of EMNEs differently.

Future studies could use a longitudinal design to capture the dynamism driving innovation performance of EMNEs through R&D alliances.

Practical guidelines are provided particularly for EMNE managers on how to develop an innovation strategy by leveraging external knowledge, adaptive innovation and environmental turbulence.

This study deepens the knowledge of how EMNEs enhance their innovation by building the linkage between environmental turbulence and absorptive capacity through knowledge transfer activities in an asymmetric international R&D alliance.