The Role of Ownership in Managing Interfirm Opportunism: A Dyadic Study

We extend research on transaction cost theory that shows that vertical integration enables firms to protect their investments in exchange relationships better than market mechanisms. However, extant research finds ownership to exacerbate, rather than limit, exchange partner opportunism. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate conditions under which ownership can be effective for constraining an exchange partner's opportunism. Using matched dyadic data for 296 hotel brands, we conduct multi-level hierarchical linear modeling and identify conditions under which common ownership limits hotel opportunism. Findings indicate that ownership can limit hotel opportunism when brand headquarters can easily monitor the hotel's activities.     

Religion, Opportunism, and International Market Entry Via Non-Equity Alliances or Joint Ventures

One challenge that globalization has brought to business is that firms, as they expand their market globally through cross-border alliances, need to deal with partner firms from countries of different religious background. The impact of a country’s dominant religion on its firms’ international market entry mode choices has not been examined in traditional approaches. Focusing on hypothesizing the influence of Christian beliefs and atheism (i.e., the absence of belief in any deities), this research aims to fill the gap by exploring religion’s role in providing moral restraint on managers’ propensity for opportunism, which in turn affects these managers’ choices of their firms’ international market entry via non-equity alliances or joint ventures. A study of 22,156 cross-border alliances formed in 48 industries world-wide over 9 years provides new insight toward understanding religion’s influence on firms’ international market entry mode decisions through the ethical dimension of strategic leadership. This article would fit best under the International Management section for reviewing purposes.     

East Meets West: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Cultural Variations in Idealism and Relativism

Ethics position theory (EPT) maintains that individuals’ personal moral philosophies influence their judgments, actions, and emotions in ethically intense situations. The theory, when describing these moral viewpoints, stresses two dimensions: idealism (concern for benign outcomes) and relativism (skepticism with regards to inviolate moral principles). Variations in idealism and relativism across countries were examined via a meta-analysis of studies that assessed these two aspects of moral thought using the ethics position questionnaire (EPQ; Forsyth, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 175–184, 1980). This review identified 139 samples drawn from 29 different countries, for a total sample of 30,230 respondents, and concluded that (a) levels of idealism and relativism vary across regions of the world in predictable ways; (b) an exceptionist ethic is more common in Western countries, subjectivism and situationism in Eastern countries, and absolutism and situationism in Middle Eastern countries; and (c) a nation’s ethics position predicted that country’s location on previously documented cultural dimensions, such as individualism and avoidance of uncertainty (Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, 1980). Limitations in these methods and concerns about the validity of these cross-cultural conclusions are noted, as are suggestions for further research using the EPQ.     

The Role of Idealism and Relativism as Dispositional Characteristics in the Socially Responsible Decision-Making Process

This study investigated how decision-makers differ in processing their organizational environment (peers and organizational control systems), depending on the levels of their idealism and relativism. Focusing on socially responsible buying/sourcing issues, responses from buying/sourcing professionals from U.S. apparel and shoe companies were analyzed, using a series of regression analyses. The results generally supported the proposition that the degrees of idealism and relativism determine involvement levels that, in turn, result in varying levels of reactions to the organizational environment and corresponding amounts of information processing. Highly idealistic (relativistic) individuals were influenced by only idealistic (relativistic) signals of organizational environment. Further analysis showed highly idealistic and relativistic individuals were more likely to evaluate the organizational environment in terms of its business merit. The results suggest that organizations need to carefully plan how to communicate underlying meanings of organizational initiatives with their employees, knowing that individuals who have strong ethical opinions will only react to what they believe and elaborate its value for business. Further theoretical and practical implications and suggestions are discussed.Haesun Park is Assistant Professor in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana State University. She received her Ph.D. from the Dept. of Consumer and Textile Sciences, the Ohio State University in 2001. Her research interests include fair labor management and international sourcing in the textiles and apparel industries.     

资产专用性、渠道异质性与渠道投机行为:基于中国汽车企业的实证

为了提升渠道价值和培育竞争优势,营销战略会针对特殊的渠道交易伙伴进行专用性投资。交易成本理论认为专用性投资在带来高的附加值的同时,也使得进行专用性投资的渠道成员面临投机行为风险。中国的实证数据表明,虽然销售商的专用性投资会导致制造商渠道投机行为,但这会受到制造商自身的专用性投资的影响以及渠道关系持续的影响,即双边“锁定”和渠道关系的持续会有效避免渠道投机行为。     

Examining the Nomological Network of Opportunism: A Meta-Analysis

Opportunism has prompted several orientations to the study of inter-firm interaction. Some research maintains that opportunism is an exogenous construct, whereas other research implicates opportunism as a mediator of the relationships between organizational properties and organizational effectiveness. Yet another stream of research argues that the assumption of opportunism precludes researchers from investigating collaborative governance. To examine the merits of each perspective, this study employs meta-analytic techniques and structural equation modeling to assess the nomological network of opportunism research. The analysis of 684 effect sizes extracted from 262 publications supports two of the three orientations. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.     

Traders’ Subjective Appraisals: Comparison of Negotiations and Auctions

ABSTRACT

The assessments of business trade often involve economic and relational concerns. They may become more challenging when our understanding of the impacts of trading mechanisms is still limited. The current experimental study compares two generic trading mechanisms, namely, multibilateral multi-issue negotiations and multicriteria auctions. By examining economic measures and subjective appraisals in controlled exchange episodes, the study shows some subtle relationships between mechanism use, substantive outcomes, and subjective appraisals. While use of negotiations versus auctions did not reveal significant differences on economic measures, traders are strongly influenced by the gain-or-loss contingency. When they win a contract, their subjective appraisals are heavily influenced by their achieved substantive outcomes. When they do not win a contract, they feel auctions are better than negotiations. The results confirm the assessments of business trade that rely solely on substantive measures are not sufficient.     

制造商IT资源、合同治理与分销商渠道投机

从交易成本视角入手并结合信息系统相关研究,文章分析了制造商IT资源对其合同治理手段的影响,以及对分销商渠道投机的抑制作用。经由实地收集的数据实证检验发现：第一,制造商的IT设备越先进,越有助于其与分销商制定更细致的一般合同条款与意外情况合同条款。第二,制造商IT人员提供的支持越多,则越有助于其与分销商制定更细致的一般合同条款与意外情况条款。第三,只有更细致的一般合同条款可以有效地抑制分销商投机,但更细致的意外情况条款则无助于降低分销商的投机。最后,根据上述研究结论,文章给出了企业怎样使用IT资源来提高渠道合同控制效率的相关建议。     

Comparative Analysis of Text Data in Successful Face-to-Face and Electronic Negotiations

Various combination of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning methods offer ample opportunities wherever texts are an important element of an application or a research area. Such methods discover patterns and regularities in the data, seek generalization and in effect learn new knowledge. We have employed such methods in learning from a large amount of textual data. Our application is electronic negotiations. The genre of texts found in electronic negotiations may seem limited. It is an important research question whether our methods and findings apply equally well to texts that come from face-to-face negotiations. In order to confirm such more general applicability, we have analyzed comparable collections of texts from electronic and face-to-face negotiations. We present our findings on the extent of similarity between these two related but distinct genres. In this study we have analyzed similarities in the text data of electronic and face-to-face negotiations. The results show that – in certain conditions – vocabulary richness, language complexity and text predictability are similar.This is an expanded version of a paper published in the Proceedings of FINEXIN 2005 (Workshop on the Analysis of Formal and Informal Information Exchange during Negotiations), 31–42, Ottawa, Canada, May 2005.     

文化差异对国际商务谈判的影响及对策探析

分析了国际商务谈判的文化因素,探讨了文化差异对谈判方式、沟通方式、民族性格等方面的影响,重点分析了与美国人和日本人谈判的应对技巧,以促进谈判的有效进行和高效沟通。     

Western Hemispheric Trade Integration: An Update of FTAA Negotiations

ABSTRACT

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a comprehensive trade negotiation process embracing the 34 democratic nations of the Western Hemisphere. The FTAA is premised on enabling prosperity through increased economic integration and free trade (where barriers to trade in goods and services and investment are progressively eliminated) among the countries of the Western Hemisphere with a view to raising standards of living. Leaders of these hemispheric partner nations officially launched trade negotiations at the second Summit of the Americas. The FTAA process has again reached an important milestone as far-reaching negotiations are set to begin in earnest come May 15, 2002. This article seeks to examine briefly and provide an update of the process and also offer insight into how it could be affected by a March decision by the Bush Administration to severely restrict the U.S. market to steel imports from the rest of the world. This latter analysis is specific to and especially relevant for the “small economies” of the Caribbean.

RESUMEN. Un proceso de negociación comprensible que engloba a 34 naciones democráticas del Hemisferio Occidental. Su concepto se basa en la premisa de fomentar la prosperidad a través de una mayor integración económica y el libre comercio (donde las barreras contra los bienes, servicios e inversiones se eliminarían paulatinamente) entre los países del Hemisferio Occidental, con miras a aumentar los patrones de vida de la región. Los líderes de estos Estados Partes lanzaron oficialmente las negociaciones durante la segunda Cumbre de las Américas. El proceso del ALCA nuevamente enfrenta una gran posibilidad de avance, ya que las negociaciones se han programado para el 14 de Mayo de 2002. El propósito de este artículo es hacer un breve examen y actualizar el proceso, ofreciendo una visión un poco más profunda del efecto que las discusiones programadas para Mayo podrían sentir por el efecto de una decisión tomada por la Administración Bush de restringir, rigurosamente, las imploraciones de acero al Mercado norteamericano provenientes de cualquier parte del mundo. Este último análisis afecta específicamente a las “pequeñas economías” del Caribe.

RESUMO. A Área de Livre Comércio das Américas (ALCA) é um processo abrangente de negociação comercial, envolvendo as trinta e quatro naç[otilde]es democráticas do Hemisfério Ocidental. A ALCA se fundamenta na possibilidade de promover a prosperidade, através de uma crescente integração econômica e da livre negociação (em que as barreiras para o comércio de bens e serviços e de investimento são eliminadas progressivamente) entre os países do Hemisfério Ocidental, objetivando a melhoria do padrão de vida. Os líderes das naç[otilde]es associadas deste hemisfério criaram, oficialmente, tais negociaç[otilde]es comerciais, na segunda Conferência das Américas. O processo da ALCA conseguiu, novamente, atingir um marco importante, ao estabelecer que estas negociaç[otilde]es, de grande alcance, tenham início, impreterivelmente, no próximo dia 15 de maio de 2002. Este artigo tenta examinar, sinteticamente, este processo, atualizá-lo e, também, mostrar a dimensão das conseqüências da decisão da Administração Bush, de março, impondo ao mercado americano severas restriç[otilde]es às importaç[otilde]es de aço do resto do mundo. Esta última análise é especialmente relevante para “as pequenas economias” do Caribe, a que se refere especificamente.     

我国在铁矿石贸易谈判丧失“话语权”原因和对策

我国是国际铁矿石的需求和进口大国,可以说是市场需方的一个大寡头,但是在每次的国际铁矿石贸易价格谈判中处于几乎"失语"的尴尬处境。本文分析了其原因并为改善这种不利处境为我国钢铁企业提供参考对策。     

An Empirical Investigation of Bilateral Investments and Opportunism in Buyer-Supplier Relationships

Collaboration between buyers and their suppliers often requires both parties to dedicate specialized investments to the relationship. These bilateral idiosyncratic investments serve as mutual hostages and signal commitment to the relationship, yet they are susceptible to expropriation. Drawing on research in social psychology and transaction cost economics, we argue that the nature of the bilateral idiosyncratic investments influences perceptions of a supplier's opportunism that in turn influences retailer opportunism and relationship outcomes. Data collected from 120 Norwegian managers of consumer electronics retail stores provide an assessment of the proposed model. The results indicate that the total and asymmetrical nature of the bilateral idiosyncratic investments influence perceptions of supplier opportunism and these perceptions, in turn, influence the retailer's opportunism and commitment to the relationship. Implications of these findings and future research are discussed.     

Initiating Negotiations: The Role of Machiavellianism, Risk Propensity, and Bargaining Power

Initiation is an often-overlooked yet essential stage of the negotiation process. This study examined the effects of two measures of personality—Machiavellianism and risk propensity—and relative bargaining power (as based on multiple situational factors) on three phases of the initiation process—engaging a counterpart, making a request, and optimizing the request. Using a multi-scenario approach, one hundred fifteen participants indicated their initiation preferences for three distinct negotiations. The results of repeated measures ANOVAs indicate that bargaining power influences an individual’s decision to initiate negotiations. In addition, those high in Machiavellianism choose to initiate negotiations even when relative bargaining power is low, whereas those high in risk propensity tend to optimize their requests. The implications of these findings for practitioners and future research are discussed.     

文化差异对国际商务谈判的影响及对策研究

在全球经济一体化的总框架内,国家间的贸易活动更加频繁,商业关系日益复杂,国际商务谈判成为跨国贸易交往中不可或缺的重要环节。如何能更好地融合不同文化背景的人进行国际商务谈判,解决文化差异将是谈判的一个关键部分。本文首先对关于文化差异对国际商务谈判影响的相关文献进行简单搜集和整理,然后从文化差异产生的原因及类型、文化差异如何影响商务谈判以及相应的应对策略这三个方面进行分析和阐述。     

Emerging Powers in WTO Negotiations: The Domestic Sources of Trade Policy Preferences

In the current round of multilateral trade liberalization, emerging powers such as Brazil and India created the G-20 coalition and refused to accept further tariff rate reductions for industrial products before the United States and the European Union made reciprocal concessions in agriculture. This article examines how and why Brazil and India have taken a more offensive and proactive position at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Following Putnam's two-level games approach, I focus on domestic factors and specifically on interest groups to explain actors' policy preferences in WTO negotiations. From a theoretical perspective, the case studies Brazil and India lend credit to the literature discussing the impact of powerful, sector-specific interest groups on governments' trade policy preferences. From an empirical perspective, the findings show how these two countries translated these demands into government positions and influenced WTO outcomes as agenda-setters and coalition builders.     

Winning Hearts and Minds: Business-to-Business Branding and the Role of the Salesperson

Many business-to-business firms recognise that strong brands can be a valuable resource in today's competitive business environment. To realise the potential of B2B brands, effective communication of brand values is essential. In most B2B markets, the primary form of brand communication is through the sales force and their ability to adapt sales strategies and messages to accommodate customer interactions. There are gaps in the literature regarding the brand value communication process in the customer-salesperson dyad. We argue that successful B2B brand communication requires sales strategies that incorporate brand values appealing to the emotional and the rational concerns of organisational buyers. This paper examines the brand communication process in the salesperson-customer dyad and the extent to which adaptive selling based on a brand platform of rational and emotional brand values could better respond to buying centre members.     

The Role of Ethical Ideology in Workplace Deviance

Ethical ideology is predicted to play a role in the occurrence of workplace deviance. Forsyths (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire measures two dimensions of ethical ideology: idealism and relativism. It is hypothesized that idealism will be negatively correlated with employee deviance while relativism will be positively related. Further, it is predicted that idealism and relativism will interact in such a way that there will only be a relationship between idealism and deviance when relativism is higher. Results supported the hypothesized correlations and idealism and relativism interacted to predict organizational deviance. Idealism was a significant predictor of interpersonal deviance, but no interaction was found.Christine (Chris) A. Henle, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Management at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research interests include counterproductive employee behaviors, employment law, and organizational justice. Her current research focuses on cyberloafing at work, religious discrimination in employment, and the role of supervisor and coworker norms in predicting counterproductive work behaviors. She has provided consulting services in the areas of job analysis, recruiting, selection, and performance management.Robert A. Giacalone, Ph.D. (State Univeristy of New York-Albany) is Professor of Human Resource Management at the Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Giacalone is coeditor of five books, co-author of two books and has authored over 90 articles on ethics, employee sabotage, impression management and exit interviewing, appearing in journals such as Human Relations, Business and Society Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of the Organizational Behavior, and the Journal of Social Psychology. His current research focuses on the impact of materialism/postmaterialism and workplace spirituality on business ethics.Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Ph.D. is the John W. Dupuy Endowed Professor and the Womens Hospital Distinguished Professor of Healthcare Ethics at Louisiana State University. Her publications include a wide array of scholarly articles, books, and the general press. She maintains an active consulting practice in the areas of organizational psychology, ethics, and leadership.     

The Domestic Sources of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: Explaining Brazil's Negotiating Position in the Doha Round

This article investigates the effects of a transfer between two countries participating in a customs union. This analysis yields very paradoxical results which differ from the conclusions obtained by the traditional literature which has been developed in a two-country framework or in a multilateral world but with universal free trade. The compensation scheme adopted by the authorities of the customs union may create an overall terms of trade deterioration and induce an impoverishment for both member countries. Thus, transfers may not be an adequate instrument to redistribute the gains of economic integration between the members of a free trade association.