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This study aims to open up the black box of the boardroom by directly observing directors’ interactions during meetings to better understand board processes.

We analyze videotaped observations of board meetings at two Australian companies to develop insights into what directors do in meetings and how they participate in decision-making processes. The direct observations are triangulated with semi-structured interviews, mini-surveys and document reviews.

Our analyses lead to two key findings: while board meetings appear similar at a surface level, boardroom interactions vary significantly at a deeper level (i.e. board members participate differently during different stages of discussions), and factors at multiple levels of analysis explain differences in interaction patterns, revealing the complex and nested nature of boardroom discussions.

By documenting significant intra- and inter-board meeting differences, our study challenges the widespread notion of board meetings as rather homogeneous and monolithic, points towards agenda items as a new unit of analysis and highlights the need for more multi-level analyses in a board setting.

While policymakers have been largely occupied with the “right” board composition, our findings suggest that decision outcomes or roles’ execution could be potentially affected by interactions at a board level. Differences in board meeting styles might explain prior ambiguous board structure-performance results, enhancing the need for greater normative consideration of how boards do their work.

This study complements existing research on boardroom dynamics and provides a systematic account of director interactions during board meetings.

This chapter develops a conceptual framework to explain variance in the functioning of multinational work teams. We draw upon existing theories of multinational teams (MNTs) looking at the core internal dynamics that provide critical building blocks for understanding team functioning. These dynamics are then examined in terms of the cultural intelligence of team members and how it interacts with the core features of an MNT. We discuss the ramifications of these results for structuring and running global teams in the field.

The paper aims to provide a methodology by which organisational knowledge can be extracted and visualised dynamically over time, providing a glimpse into the knowledge evolution processes that occur within organisations.

Recursive analysis of email interactions is offered as a case to account for the knowledge structure evolution related to the different programs of international non-governmental organization (INGO). Several methods are used: analysis of the network expansion to see whether the process is random or uniform is performed, visualisation of the network configuration changes throughout studied time period; and the statistical examination of network formation.

The results of the presented study indicate that content structure of electronic knowledge networks exhibits hierarchical and centralised tendencies. The social network analysis results suggest that INGO exhibits non-hierarchical and decentralized structure of the individuals contributing to the discussion lists.

By providing the means to carry out network evolution analysis of content structure dynamics and social interactions, the presented work provides a means for probabilistically modelling patterns of organisational knowledge evolution.

The approach allows the exploration of the dynamics of tacit to explicit knowledge, from individual to the group and from informal groups to the whole organisation.

By displaying the large collection of the key phrases that reflected the evolution of the organisational knowledge structure over the time, organisational emails are placed in meaningful context explaining the language of the organisation and context of knowledge structure evolution.

Computational models can facilitate the understanding of complex biomedical systems such as in HIV/AIDS. Untangling the dynamics between HIV and CD4+ cellular populations and molecular interactions can be used to investigate the effective points of interventions in the HIV life cycle. With that in mind, we have developed a state transition systems dynamics and stochastic model that can be used to examine various alternatives for the control and treatment of HIV/AIDS. The specific objectives of our study were to use a cellular/molecular model to study optimal chemotherapies for reducing the HIV viral load and to use the model to study the pattern of mutant viral populations and resistance to drug therapies. The model considers major state variables (uninfected CD4+ lymphocytes, infected CD4+ cells, replicated virions) along with their respective state transition rates (viz. CD4+ replacement rate, infection rate, replication rate, depletion rate). The state transitions are represented by ordinary differential equations. The systems dynamics model was used for a variety of computational experimentations to evaluate HIV mutations, and to evaluate effective strategies in HIV drug therapy interventions.

The purpose of this article is to augment evaluation of the effectiveness of broadband videoconferencing among distributed research teams.

Textual output from informal interaction in videoconferencing and chat room sessions was recorded and analyzed using qualitative and content analysis methods to test for knowledge processes thought to be embedded in informal collaborative interaction. An exit survey used nominal and ordinal data categories to measure participant perceptions of using videoconferencing technologies to enhance knowledge‐based collaboration. Indicators of informal interaction and knowledge processes were drawn from the knowledge management (KM) and videoconferencing literatures.

Analysis confirms communication and informal interaction dynamics supportive of knowledge creation and transfer. A summary assessment of the research addresses barriers identified in the study and suggests approaches for future KM research in video‐mediated research domain.

Project time and resource constraints imposed research limits in terms of inter‐coder reliability and attention to several human factors and behavioral considerations highlighted in the study. The latter, however, are suggestive of further research opportunities, specifically in terms of user expectations and cultures of use of videoconferencing in the organizational setting.

The research provides a template for communications‐based evaluation of advanced applications using broadband technology and collaborative workwares.

The paper is a first‐of‐its‐kind evaluation of true broadband videoconferencing that advanced a knowledge management perspective based on human communication dynamics over a normative information technology framework.

This paper aims to address procurement, logistics management, inventory control and distribution of perishable items, i.e. vegetables, fruits, flowers and fishes, during the social isolation period of the Covid-19 era to identify conflicting interests among the channel members; present inventory and information sharing scenario; and reveal organizational dispute and existence of redundant, nonessential and corrupted members in the supply chain.

This study uses an exploratory investigation to evaluate the relations among the members of the supply chain of perishable food items. In this context, it is designed to investigate the field, observe the members of the existing supply chain from rural and remote places and capture their interviews to accomplish the objectives.

This study identified that although the supply chain of perishable food items is controlled truly by private parties, from a realistic view, the private–public partnership is essential where the government should play the coordinating role. In this context, continuous interaction, coordination and information sharing among the members to establish an optimum and scalable network and remove any redundant nodal points is a key success factor for managing an efficient supply chain.

Theoretical and managerial implication of this research is enormous. The existence of functional and dysfunctional conflicts in the same supply network and how it can be detrimental to the performance of the members are exposed in this study, which can be an excellent source to be investigated. Practitioners and researchers can gain a greater understanding to identify the root causes of conflicts in the existing structural dynamics, shedding light on organizational interactions, power and group behavior during the Covid-19 era.

From the light of management and inter-organizational conflicts, this is a pioneer study that has detected the redundant channel members, their source of power and how their removal can present an optimum channel with group coherence and synergistic interest.

Despite total quality management (TQM) playing an important role in the survival and growth of the Indian automobile sector, India is still a player of little consequence in the global automobile production market. The paper identifies various dynamic interactions among the sub systems of TQM. The implications of these interactions have been captured using system dynamics modeling, which is based on causal relationship among different variables that constitute enablers and results. The model results have been discussed and validated based on a case study.

For most customers, the vacation experience is enjoyed in the company of others; thus, studying customer-to-customer interactions becomes critical. This research aims to explore customer-to-customer interactions and their impact on the guest experience.

An ethnographic approach was taken to study a tour group over the course of two weeks. The author was a covert researcher and a member of the touring group.

Individuals gained social status both among fellow travelers and also among friends and family by virtue of their travels, the stories told, pictures shared and social media postings. The group became highly cohesive in a short time span, which led to an “in” and “out” group dynamic. Informants were more prone to take risks, owing to both their status as travelers and the group dynamics. The consumption of alcohol was observed along with its positive and negative effects. It was also noted that group members influenced one another during the process of assigning gratuities to the tour guide.

The marketing of hospitality and tourism services can stress benefits that go beyond one single vacation. Companies can engage in more vigorous efforts to facilitate positive customer-to-customer interactions to enhance the guest experience. Finally, given the speed of group processes and formation of a cohesive environment, organizations should be vigilant of how both employees and customers interact in the early stages of group development.

Even though mature travelers have been the subject of much research attention, the interactions, habits and influence of young travelers in the literature is underrepresented. Furthermore, the present research challenges the previously held assumption that services are simultaneously produced and consumed. Using pictures, social media posting and stories, informants recall and continue to experience benefits from their vacation.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual foundation for understanding business-to-business (B2B) interactions at trade fairs.

The paper reports a qualitative study that was undertaken to gain in-depth insights into the relevance of the trade fair context for business relationships. Key informants were trade fair organizers, trade fair exhibitors, trade fair visitors and experts in the field.

Based on a qualitative approach, we propose a conceptual model that allows understanding the importance of relational interactions at B2B trade fairs. The model shows that interactions and networking served through information exchange, and social interaction among participants at B2B trade fairs are vital for relationship building and development. The model also highlights the fact that trade fairs are relevant to develop a relationship marketing strategy that involves interactions and networking with a multitude of players that goes beyond the interactions between exhibitors and visitors. The model also depicts the importance of trade fairs for product innovation and for generating innovative solutions to problems. Overall, findings suggest that a customized approach will become dominant in trade fairs.

This paper’s contribution is twofold: first, to the relationship marketing literature for developing an understanding of the influence of a specific context in promoting particular interaction dynamics capable of affecting relationship development; second, to the literature on trade fairs by focusing on such context from a relationship marketing perspective.

For over four decades, IB scholars have been conceptualizing and empirically examining the organizational structure of the multinational corporation (MNC) without really placing relationships at the center of attention. It therefore remains unclear what characterizes those relationships beyond subunits’ roles, motivation, or control mechanisms. Relationship as a term has often been used but rarely defined in the IB literature on intra-firm networks. We develop arguments that position such relationships as the focal unit of analysis. We extend current IB literature to examine in detail the nature and dynamics of relationships in MNCs by borrowing insights from Industrial Marketing and Purchasing research, which focuses on the relational nature and dynamics of interactions between actors. We offer a theoretical framework and develop a conceptual model that brings to the fore the multiplexity and temporality of relationships in MNCs. We also argue that intra-MNC network relationships can be seen as an evolving process and advocate for shifting away from variance-based and typological views toward a process view for examining relationships. Theoretically, understanding what characterizes the nature of MNC intra-firm relationships and what processes contribute to structuring them provides important insights into the global configuration of the MNC and the required organizational design mechanisms needed for MNC existence and resilience. The study is timely and practically relevant in the sense that considering intra-firm relationships deserves even more attention in the current global economic environment when accessing external resources becomes costly and/or inefficient.