Social Partnership or a ‘Complete Sellout’? Russian Trade Unions’ Responses to Conflict

In 1990 the former communist trade unions in Russia adopted a programme of social partnership, the aim of which was to defend their members’ interests during transition while also maintaining social peace. But critics of social partnership within the union movement argue that it amounts to little more than an excuse for inaction. To examine whether social partnership represents a departure from the collaborationist habits of the Soviet past, I examine 33 case studies of conflict at enterprise level conducted between 1999 and 2000. This analysis reveals considerable continuity with Soviet practice.     

Labor–Management Partnership and Employee Voice: Evidence from the Healthcare Setting

This paper examines the relationship between labor–management partnership (LMP) and employee voice in the healthcare setting. We argue that the ability of LMP to deliver gains to employees is contingent on the quality of the procedural infrastructure on which it is established. We maintain that the quality of LMP processes influences employee trust in their employer and perceptions of union effectiveness and that these perceptions, in turn, are related to employee patient‐care voice.     

Comparing the resource‐based and relational views: knowledge transfer and spillover in vertical alliances

We compare resource‐based and relational perspectives to examine competitive advantages within the context of vertical learning alliances. Previous research has shown that through such alliances suppliers acquire knowledge to forge new capabilities and attain performance improvements. We ask whether such improvements are exclusive to the learning partnership, or are available in other average partnerships of this supplier. We posit that the extent to which such performance improvements are partnership exclusive depends on whether the newly forged capabilities lie entirely within the supplier firm's boundaries, or at the learning dyad level. As such, we untie two forms of performance improvements arising from learning dyads. While the resource‐based view helps explain the performance gains learning suppliers deploy across average partners, the relational view reveals the additional performance edge that remains exclusive to the learning partnership. Based on empirical evidence from a survey of 253 suppliers to the equipment industry, we find that partnership exclusive performance (i.e., ‘relational performance’), the true source of learning dyads' competitive advantage, is a function of suppliers acquiring know‐how within the dyad, developing dyad‐specific assets and capabilities, and structuring buyer‐supplier relational governance mechanisms. We discuss implications for research and practice. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affirmative Action and the Occupational Advancement of Minorities and Women During 1973–2003

The share of minorities and women comprising high‐paying skilled occupations such as management, professional, and technical occupations has been increasing since the 1960s, while the proportion of white men in such occupations has been declining. What has been the contribution of affirmative action to the occupational advancement of minorities and women from low‐wage unskilled occupations into high‐wage skilled ones in U.S. firms? I examine this by comparing the occupational position of minorities and women at firms holding federal contracts, and thereby mandated to implement affirmative action, and noncontracting firms, over the course of 31 years during 1973–2003. I use a new longitudinal dataset of over 100,000 large private‐sector firms across all industries and regions uniquely suited for the exploration of this question obtained from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. My key findings show that the share of minorities and women in high‐paying skilled occupations grew more at federal contractors subject to affirmative action obligation than at noncontracting firms during the three decades under study, but these advances took place primarily during the pre‐ and early Reagan years and during the decade following the Glass Ceiling Act of 1991.     

Governance by targets and the performance of cross-sector partnerships: Do partner diversity and partnership capabilities matter?

Research Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of targets as a tool for the contractual governance of cross-sector partnerships. Applying a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that the use of explicit targets within performance contracts is an effective means for improving partnership outcomes, especially where partner diversity and partnership capabilities are high. Furthermore, we find evidence that target intensity is associated with stronger partnership performance. These findings suggest that contractual forms with explicit targets may be a particularly successful approach for enhancing the public value created by cross-sector partnerships. A downward turn in performance following the removal of targets lends further support to this conclusion. Managerial Summary: Cross-sector partnerships have become a vital means for creating value in pursuit of the public interest. In particular, the effective management of these partnerships is thought to hold the key to addressing the strategic and organizational challenges posed by major social and environmental issues, such as big data and climate change. In this article, we combine data on waste recycling from 2003 to 2014 with information on performance contracts between local cross-sector partnerships and higher levels of government in England to quantify the impact of governance by targets on the performance of those partnerships. The benefits of target-setting for partnership performance that we identify are even stronger when partner diversity is high and partnership capabilities are strong. We discuss the managerial and policy implications of our findings.     

Partnership at Work: Mutuality and the Balance of Advantage

A framework for the analysis of partnership at work is presented, emphasizing the principles, practices and outcomes of partnership. A survey using matched samples of 54 UK management and employee representatives found a link between partnership principles and practices, between practices and ratings of employee attitudes and behaviour, between these and estimates of positive employment relations and quality and productivity, finally between productivity and sales and profitability. The findings support a mutual gains model but show that the balance of advantage is skewed towards management and reflects generally low management trust in employee representatives.     

Do Unions Benefit from Working in Partnership with Employers? Evidence from Ireland

Advocates and critics of voluntary workplace partnership have presented a series of theoretical arguments as to the potential consequences for unions working under partnership arrangements. A survey of Irish employees’ views is used to assess these competing claims. The study is timely on two counts: first, empirical investigations of the effects of partnership on union influence and members’ commitment to unions are rare; and, second, it is 11 years since employers, unions, and government in Ireland first signed a national framework agreement to promote the diffusion of partnership as a means for the handling of workplace change. The evidence provides support for the arguments as advanced by advocates.     

Exploring reputation of B2B partnerships: Extending the study of reputation from the perception of single firms to the perception of inter-firm partnerships

Reputation is a concept that has been widely studied in terms of the perceptions of characteristics of single firms. We argue that there is merit in extending the study of reputation to the perception of characteristics of inter-firm partnerships. Cases of business-to-business partnerships are used to explore the notion of partnership reputation and its associated characteristics. Insights from the study of corporate reputation are used to develop a conceptual model and propositions that specify some of the characteristics and outcomes of partnership reputation. We propose that partnership reputation includes perceptions of mutual understanding, flexibility of interaction and synergy. The benefits of partnership reputation are then explored in terms of the positive behaviours such a reputation may engender with stakeholders. The paper concludes by discussing limitations and outlining directions for future research.     

Dynamics of the transition process towards partnership thinking in centralized public procurement

This research paper seeks to increase the knowledge of the transition process from transactional arm's length tendering towards partnership thinking in centralized public procurement. In centralized public procurement, the professional public purchaser forms a triadic partnership relationship with the public unit managing the procurement implementation and the private organization. A triadic partnership relationship in a home nursing procurement setting is investigated to further the understanding of the relationship dynamics related to the transitioning of public and private actors towards partnership thinking. The research shows how transactional procurement logic hinders the transition to partnering by establishing challenges for initiating and nurturing public–private partnerships (PPPs) and how partnership thinking changes this procurement logic. It illustrates the transactional procurement logic of single actor and the logic underlying the relationship of two actors to engender and intensify the problems of triad in the centralized public procurement process and vice versa; that is, a shared understanding from jointly agreed procurement goals between two actors is identified as promoting triadic partnering. Managerial implications are given for those public and private organizations engaging in PPPs and seeking to understand the ways of managing them in the context of centralized public procurement, particularly during the transition towards partnership thinking.     

The Politics of Partnership? Innovation in Employment Relations in the Scottish Spirits Industry

Perspectives that emphasize links between workplace innovation and broader HR policies, particularly of a 'mutual gains' nature, have become increasingly influential. This paper analyses the links and tensions between workplace change and industrial relations systems in the context of attempts to create a shop-floor politics of partnership during a period of corporate restructuring in two spirits companies. We argue that interface tensions between the employment relationship, the labour process and organizational governance are inextricably linked to the outcomes of partnership initiatives. While there are positive outcomes to more integrated approaches to partnership, a range of industrial relations issues, notably the ambivalent position of shop-stewards, remains problematic.     

Social Partnership Agreements in Britain: Labor Cooperation and Compliance

This article reviews evidence on the outcomes of British social partnership agreements using matched comparisons. It concludes that in industries marked by employment decline, partnership firms often have shed jobs at a faster rate than nonpartnership firms. However, in expanding sectors, partnership firms have created jobs at a faster rate than nonpartnership rivals. There is no discernible impact of partnership on either wage settlements or union density. It is argued that we need evidence on information sharing, trust, and power and suggested that partnership agreements are unlikely to contribute significantly to union revitalization.     

The Process of Fixing the British National Minimum Wage, 1997–2007

The British National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 under the guidance of a Low Pay Commission constructed on a basis of 'social partnership'. The article analyses its conduct over its first 10 years from diary data. Key challenges were for it to be independent of government, to have its advice accepted by government and to maintain internal unanimity. The changing internal dynamics of the Commission, and its major negotiations over the level of the minimum wage, are described and analysed. Conclusions are drawn for the social partnership process.     

Estimating the Excess Returns to Housing at a Disaggregated Level: An Application to Sydney 2003–2011

The returns to housing are particularly important because this asset class makes up such a large fraction of household wealth. Yet they are not straightforward to calculate given both the heterogeneity in homes and the fact they sell only infrequently. We outline a methodology for constructing the excess returns to housing at a disaggregated level, essentially that of the individual home. Our approach explicitly takes account of the inherent risk in homeownership with regard to the capital gain or loss component of housing returns. This approach is applied to a rich data set for Sydney, Australia, from 2003Q1 to 2011Q2. Our findings indicate that the returns to housing are on average quite weak though they exhibit significant diversity across dwelling types and regions. Excess returns are also strongly influenced by assumptions regarding the level of risk aversion.     

The continuing validity of the strategy‐structure nexus: new findings, 1993–2003

This study analyzes whether a diversification strategy facilitates subsequent divisionalization (and hence that ‘structure follows strategy’), and/or whether the multidivisional structure leads to a diversification strategy (and hence that ‘strategy follows structure’). In theoretical terms, this study is original in that it institutes a debate between the Chandler thesis and other perspectives that challenge the generalizability of the strategy‐structure nexus. Interestingly, this new study with contemporaneous data for the period 1993–2003 sheds light on this contested issue and postulates that despite the criticism of Chandler's contribution, it still works. Our results show that strategic diversification affects structural divisionalization, and in turn, structural divisionalization affects strategic diversification. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why has Irish Social Partnership Survived?

The present system of social partnership in Ireland is in its twentieth year. A range of explanations have been put forward to explain why social partnership has been so durable even though it does not possess the institutional endowments often considered necessary to sustain tripartite industrial relations arrangements. Although these accounts are considered to have merits, this article suggests that they also suffer from a range of weaknesses. The article suggests that the longevity of the social partnership regime is a result of it being part of an unorthodox system of institutional complementarities that triggered a spectacular period of economic and employment growth.     

Value creation in university‐firm research collaborations: A matching approach

University‐based technological opportunities are often exploited through joint corporate and academic entrepreneurship activities such as university–industry research collaborations. This paper explores the partner attributes that drive the matching of academic scientists and firms involved in these relationships. The paper models the formation of firm–faculty partnership as an endogenous selection process driven by synergy between partners' knowledge‐creation capabilities. The main findings indicate that faculty–firm matching is multidimensional: firms and scientists complement each other in publishing capabilities but substitute each other in patenting skills. Furthermore, firms and scientists with specialized knowledge create more value by teaming with more knowledge‐diversified partners. The paper contributes to the literature on university–industry knowledge transfer and, more generally, to the literature on alliance formation.     

Globalization and Uncertainty: Earnings Volatility in Sweden, 1985–2003

Earnings volatility has been linked to economic integration only through contradictory conjectures. We assess globalization’s role by examining volatility trends in manufacturing, private services, and public services. If trade increases uncertainty, volatility trends should differ markedly across industries since manufacturing, in contrast to especially public services, is exposed to international competition. We analyze earnings trajectories in Sweden 1985–2003, a country and period evincing accelerating trade, finding no indications of greater volatility increases in manufacturing.     

What's in a name.com?: The effects of ‘.com’ name changes on stock prices and trading activity

This paper uses a market signaling perspective to examine investor reactions to firm announcements of name changes to include ‘.com.’ Firms that change their name as a purely cosmetic technique are contrasted to those that employ other strategic investments. Results show that announcements of ‘.com’ name changes are associated with significant increases in stock prices and trading activity. Furthermore, the magnitude of investor reactions is significantly larger when name changes are accompanied by other strategies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.