Search results

The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature of joint action between firms, and to examine how interfirm linkages impact the development of information systems that impact joint action. The research also examines how economic dependence impacts joint action or joint activities between firms. While the importance of interfirm relations has been widely acknowledged, the relationships between buyers and suppliers can vary widely on the amount of joint action they undertake with each other.

Using structural equation modeling, the authors test a model of influences on joint action that incorporates elements of social norms that develop between partners, their economic dependence on each other, and a coordination mechanism of shared information systems.

The findings indicate that joint action is influenced indirectly by some elements of social exchange, and instead is directly impacted by economic dependence and information systems. Social norms, specifically commitment, do impact the development of shared information systems.

This is a single industry study of automotive parts and accessories firms. Care should be taken in generalizing these findings to firms in similar settings – relatively small suppliers to larger assemblers or manufacturers.

The value of this research is to help understand the elements of interfirm relations, their impact on information systems, the overall impact of these on joint action or joint activities between firms, and the role of economic dependence.

This study aims to assess the moderating effect of the business network on the effects of between relational behavior and the effects of transaction‐specific investments on joint actions.

The study was a survey based field study designed using theoretical support from marketing channels, transaction cost economics and network perspectives.

The results show the importance of relational behavior and the network in coordinating joint actions, and this has relevant managerial implications for the coordination of a collaborative relationship. The characteristics of the relationship, its length as well as the size of each partner affect the collaborative efforts of the partners.

Firms and managers should understand not only the dyadic relationships they are in but also the network structure. Dyadic characteristics affect collaboration, while the network also has effects on the collaboration of partners in vulnerable positions.

The paper points out the role of the network as a countervailing safeguard for dyadic TSIs and network stability. Dyadic relationships are supported by the network.

The purpose of this article is to show the importance of joint actions and institutions for collaboration (IFCs) in the development and performance of information technology (IT) business clusters in the context of Mexico.

A review of the literature suggests the types of linkages that the clusters must develop to be successful in the context of emerging countries. Two IT clusters in the region of Puebla and Jalisco are compared to highlight the factors that differentiate successful and less successful clusters in this type of environment.

The presence of an IFC, such as the Jalisco Institute of Information Technology in Jalisco, is a determinant factor of the performance of the IT cluster there, contrary to Puebla. A model of dynamic interactions in clusters is proposed as a result of the analysis of the two cases.

Our analysis included clusters from IT industry in Mexico. It needs to be extended to more clusters, more industries and other emerging countries settings for the sake of comparison and generalization.

In the context of the relative scarcity of formal institutions in emerging country settings, the purposive collaboration of both private and public sectors in IFCs is necessary to ensure a long-standing development and performance of business clusters.

In this article, we show the specific role of institutional arrangements in cluster development and performance in emerging countries, which has seldom been investigated both theoretically and empirically.

The social inclusion of youth is addressed from the perspective of goal-directed action in order to understand and foster it effectively. Conceptualized from the perspective of contextual action theory (CAT), the specific understanding of action as levels, perspectives and systems provides the basis to unpack the complexity of human action. One pertinent action system is identified as project. It refers to a series of actions over time with the same goal. Using this understanding, the social inclusion of youth is described though the joint actions and projects between youth and non-familial adults. These joint actions and projects include advocating for youth, providing instrumental knowledge and encouraging community involvement and civil engagement. CAT is also used to conceptualize and conduct research on the social inclusion of youth. Specifically, the action project method was used to describe the joint projects of both youth with disability and immigrant youth as these projects involved the youth’s social inclusion.

Drawing on embeddedness theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive model that explains the incremental innovation process in the supplier‐manufacturer relationship.

Utilizing the partial least squared (PLS) technique, this study examines the incremental innovation process through the theoretical lens of the embeddedness perspective.

The overall picture emerging from this study indicates that establishing an embedded tie between a manufacturer and a primary supplier enables the creation of informal coordination mechanisms, including trust, joint problem‐solving, and commitment. These coordination mechanisms safeguard the transfer of knowledge and lead the partners to joint action. Such joint action provides an interactive forum for developing innovation capabilities that allow firms to enhance their incremental innovation performance.

From an academic perspective, this study is the first to examine the innovation process theoretically through the embeddedness perspective.

The evidence reported here is consistent with the finding that relational embeddedness plays a strong role in predicting better incremental innovation. In addition to engaging in their own trial‐and‐error experimentation to develop innovation capabilities, firms learn about innovation capabilities vicariously through embedded ties with primary exchange partners.

In essence, these results provide valuable insights for managers who wish to draw on knowledge from external sources in their innovation activities. Whereas previous studies have shown how a firm's incremental innovation is influenced by its internal resources, this paper illustrates that relational embeddedness also represents an important source of incremental innovation.

The form and content of relationship value dominates the literature. This paper contributes by studying companies’ actions based on their value perceptions, a field which has attracted less attention. Scholars advocate more studies on how companies’ value perceptions shape actions in relationships and how this leads to outcomes.

A longitudinal critical case study of a customer/supplier relationship constitutes the empirical basis of the paper. Interviews and observation studies were conducted over a period of three years, giving access to special insight into the actors’ value perceptions and related actions.

Value perceptions shape actions performed individually, jointly or in the wider network. Moreover, misperceptions of the counterparty’s value perceptions may result in a maelstrom of interactions with no specific value outcome. Acting based on value perceptions is a complex matter due to its evolving nature, which leads to development becoming a value driver.

The interdependencies between different value perceptions and their relational value drivers have special effects on actions and outcomes, also, value in actions needs to be studied.

Management needs to explore value from different perspectives to understand the counterparty’s value perceptions and communicate own perceptions. It is not sufficient to create value based on one value driver. Instead, it is vital to be able to connect value drivers to balance and prioritise relevant actions.

This paper stands out as one of the first contributions to relationship value literature that addresses and analyses value from both a customer perspective and a supplier perspective in a dyadic business relationship.

Outlines the building of an action science paradigm which seeks to synergize essential elements from within the disciplines of learning, action learning, problem solving, quality of worklife, negotiation, alternative dispute resolution methodology, team building, organization development and behavioural science to construct a new process which engages competing interest groups (in this instance management and unions) in a collective collaborative process called Joint Action Learning. Describes an action science pilot project carried out over a three‐year period in six service sector companies in Ireland, in which the process employed was designed and intended to have double‐loop and meta‐learning qualities which provide the potential for ongoing organizational learning.

This paper aims to focus on Brazilian business fairs primarily attended by metalworking companies.

Using a qualitative and exploratory approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews answered by exhibitor companies from two of the most relevant Brazilian states in this industrial sector: Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.

The results recognize the four pillars of the interorganizational relationship developed among exhibitors at business fairs and launch serious implications for the effective development of business fairs as spaces of interorganizational relationship and of value creation.

This is the first study discussing the trade fairs of the Brazilian emerging industry related to the metal-mechanic sector of two of the most significant states in the country: Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.

This study aims to investigate how contract complexity and relational trust could impact offshore outsourcing innovation (OOI) performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study further examines the moderating effects of knowledge routines and joint actions on the relationships between contract complexity, as well as relational trust and OOI performance.

The empirical investigation extends transaction cost economics and the relational view of buyer-supplier dyads in the context of offshore outsourcing SMEs. To test the hypotheses, the authors collected and analysed survey data from 200 European manufacturing SMEs that have existing offshore supplier relationships.

The results suggest that both complex contracts and relational trust as governance structures positively affect SMEs’ OOI performance. Additionally, while both formal knowledge routines and joint actions help strengthen the relationship between complex contracts and OOI, they showed no significant moderating effect on the relationship between relational trust and OOI. Furthermore, based on the results, the authors also develop a governance framework covering four configurations – fit, firm, flexible and fragile (4F).

The 4F governance scenarios – fit, firm, flexible and fragile – introduced in this study emphasise the need for a combination of contract complexity and relational trust mechanisms in OOI relationships. The 4F labelling has rich implications for practitioners on how interfirm outsourcing innovation relationships can be managed based on configurations of contractual and relational governance. The study also adds to the understanding of how SMEs’ specific characteristics (e.g. resource shortcomings and flexibility) may influence their OOI decisions in comparison with large firms.

It is the aim of this paper to discuss the value of trust and the effects of transaction specific investments for the relative degree of collaborative joint efforts, and also to assess the moderating effect of the information network on such joint efforts.

The paper takes the perspective of the buyer making the joint effort decision and draws on transaction cost economics, relational exchange and network perspectives to develop the hypotheses of the conceptual framework. Wholesalers and other merchant‐distributors in the Dutch flower industry provided the data to test the hypotheses.

The results show the importance of trust in coordinating the joint efforts and the joint effort response in terms of safeguarding and better integrating the transaction specific investments.

While the information network does not moderate the relation between trust and joint efforts, there is a significant moderating effect of the network on the relation between transaction specific investments and joint effort. This result suggests that buyers temper their specific investments to the degree of joint effort according to the information that is obtained in the network. This implies that coordinating collaborative joint efforts with suppliers is more than just buying well. The degrees of trust, specific investments and the information from the network have managerial implications for the coordination of a buyer‐supplier relationship.