MANAGING LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION IN CHINA

While many companies outsource their logistics functions, creating a collaborative relationship with third‐party logistics service providers remains a challenge. The current study explores the effects of often overlooked human factors in this context. Data on buyer perspectives were collected in China. The analysis results suggest that buying firm's top management championship, supplier firm's designated employees, and the buyer‐seller personal relationships (i.e. Guanxi) at different levels, all have significant impacts on inter‐firm collaboration, which in turn enhances the buying firm's logistics performance.     

When Organizational Justice Matters for Affective Merger Commitment

We investigate when organizational justice matters to employees’ commitment in the postacquisition process after a company is taken over in a cross‐border acquisition. Overwhelming evidence from the literature suggests that employees who are treated fairly during acquisitions are more committed to their new firms. We extend this finding by dividing organizational justice into three subdimensions: informational justice, interpersonal justice, and procedural justice. We find evidence that procedural justice is an important antecedent of affective merger commitment at an early stage of the integration period, while informational justice becomes important at a later stage. Further analysis on heterogeneity between the target firm's employees and the bidder firm's employees reveals that, immediately after the acquisition, target firm's employees value knowing where they will be at the new firm (procedural justice), while bidder firm employees are more concerned about communication and transparency (informational justice). Our results point to the importance of organizational justice in a cross‐border merger and acquisition (M&A) setting and the need for a separate study of issues related to bidder firms and target firms. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

FDI in CEECs: How do Western investors survive?

This article emphasizes that knowledge transfer across a firm's boundaries, in a transition context, implies a specific involvement of Western investors. They need to promote specific relationships within affiliates. This article emphasizes two points. First, partners have few common practices and do not share the same perception of the firm. This is the problem with building new capabilities. Second, Western firms have to mobilize organizational resources to build efficient affiliates (new human resources management, introduction of new functions, management by expatriates). Setting up new management rules to run an affiliate in transition countries is costly and often underestimated by foreign investors. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Defining the Relationship among Founding Resources,Strategies, and Performance in Technology-Intensive New Ventures: Evidence from the Semiconductor Silicon Industry*

The degree to which a firm's performance is dependent on its resources and strategies is widely debated in the literature. We examine this issue by analyzing historical data on the entire population of new independent firms started worldwide in the semiconductor silicon industry for the first 50 years of its existence. We measure resources (managerial capabilities and technological competencies) and strategies (emphasis on demand pull or technology push) at the time of founding and test their relationship with each other as well as with multiple measures of performance (lifespan and best year's sales). We find that firms founded on managerial capabilities emphasize demand-pull strategies at founding, whereas firms founded upon technological competencies emphasize technology-push strategies at founding. We also find that firms emphasizing technology-push strategies perform better than firms emphasizing demand-pull strategies. Lastly, we find that though managerial capabilities are related to a firm's best year's sales, this relationship is mediated by the firm's founding strategy.     

Dynamic capabilities and new product development in high technology ventures: An empirical analysis of new biotechnology firms

In industries populated by entrepreneurial high technology firms, the rapid development of new products is viewed as a key determinant of success. Developing a portfolio of new products is necessary to gain early cash flows, external visibility and legitimacy, early market share, and increase the likelihood of survival (Schoonhoven, Eisenhardt, and Lymman 1990). In addition, recent research has shown that new product development improves a firm's ability to raise money through an initial public offering (Deeds, DeCarolis, and Coombs 1997).This paper develops a model of new product development which is tested on a sample of 94 pharmaceutical biotechnology companies. We hypothesize that new product development capabilities are a function of a firm's scientific, technological, and managerial skills. To test this relationship, we develop several firm specific measures in an attempt to triangulate in on the core construct of firm specific new product development capabilities.Some important implications for entrepreneurs/managers of high technology firms flow from our results. First, entrepreneur/managers need to view the choice of geographic location as an important strategic decision which will impact their firm's access to the skilled technical personnel and the streams of knowledge. Our results indicate that a choice location has a significant concentration of similar firms, but the level has not yet reached a point where competition for resources in the local environment offsets any advantages of the location. In the case of biotechnology, this would seem to indicate that the prime locations would be expanding areas such as San Diego, Seattle, and Philadelphia rather then the established locations of Silicon Valley and Boston.Second, as scientific knowledge plays an ever more important role in a firm's success the quality of the firm's scientific team is a critical ingredient in a firm's new product development capability. But how do you evaluate the quality of scientific personnel? Our results indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between the impact—as measured by citations—of a team's prior research in the academic community and the productivity of that team in a commercial research laboratory. Therefore, the judgement of a scientific field, captured by citations or perhaps expert judgement, should prove to be a useful tool when evaluating personnel for a firm's research team.Third, the results from our measures of CEO experience and the percentage of the top management team with a Ph.D. are interesting. As expected the prior experience of CEO in managing a commercial research facility enhances a firm's new product development capabilities. However, results for our top management team variable appears to indicate that the over reliance on technical personnel in the management of the organization detracts from the product development process. Taken together these results seem to imply that it is important that the leadership of the organization have knowledge of and experience in managing the new product development process, but that diverting the firm's scientific personnel's energies away from the laboratory and into the management of the organization maybe counter-productive. Therefore, what a high technology venture appears to need is leadership that understands and has experience in the new product development process, but which is separate and distinct from the scientific team. This type of leadership keeps the scientific team focused on research and development, and out of the boardroom.     

Institutional unpredictability and foreign exit−reentry dynamics: The moderating role of foreign ownership

We extend the internationalization process literature by theorizing how institutional unpredictability and its changes can affect the foreign exit?reentry process and how the multidimensionality of foreign ownership can alter these impacts as a firm's conduit to different foreign countries. Drawing on the dynamic institution-based view, we examine a process whereby firms exit and reenter foreign countries in response to institutional dynamism. By distinguishing foreign shareholders from host and nonhost foreign countries, we identify the negative moderation effects of host-country foreign ownership but not nonhost foreign ownership. Our study, therefore, contributes an integrative framework to the de- and re- internationalization research.     

Doing More with Less: The Disordinal Implications of Firm Age for Leveraging Capabilities for Innovation Activity*

Innovation requires the entrepreneurial capabilities of opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation. Such capabilities generally accrue over time from a firm's cumulative learning and experience. In this study, we theorize that firm age should therefore moderate the firm's ability to leverage these capabilities for innovation activity, such that older firms can obtain higher outputs from their capabilities than younger firms can. We examine this relationship using a sample of 676 small and medium enterprises. We find that when both younger and older firms have highly developed innovation capabilities, older firms appear to enjoy higher levels of innovation activity than younger firms do. However, younger firms generally appear more likely to have higher levels of innovation activity than older firms do, when neither firm has highly developed innovation capabilities. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for research and practice.     

THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT POLICIES ON SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Afirm's corporate culture and human resource management (HRM) policies have an important impact upon the success of that organization's supply chain management strategy. A model that examines the relationship between organizational culture, HRM policies, and the firm's transaction/relationship orientation toward its employees and the impact of these factors on its choice of supply chain partners is presented. The paper then discusses four different HRM/logistics strategies a firm can implement and examines the degree of cultural fit that is likely to develop in each of these four strategies. Finally, managers are provided with a list of questions that allow an assessment of the fit between the firm's human resource and logistics management strategies.     

Different forms of corporate philanthropy,different effects: A multilevel analysis

This study investigates how different types of corporate philanthropy impact employees' life satisfaction. Grounded in signaling theory, we explore and clarify the nuances among three types of corporate philanthropy values: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy, the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past level, and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size. Results of multilevel analyses on a large scale sample with 218 firms and 2,261 employees at two time points reveal that: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy positively influences employees' life satisfaction; the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past philanthropy negatively impacts employees’ life satisfaction; and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size positively affects employees' life satisfaction. The results indicate that the influences of corporate philanthropy on employees' life satisfaction vary depending on the evaluation benchmarks. Firms may benefit by taking their size and past philanthropy into consideration when making corporate philanthropy investment decisions.     

Firm-level export duration: The importance of market-specific ownership linkages

This paper explores the impact of a firm's market-specific ownership linkages and trade complementarities on different dimensions of its exporting longevity. Unlike previous studies that were mostly based on country-product-level data, this paper uses transaction-level trade data on the population of firms in Slovenia in the 2002–11 period, matched with detailed origin/direction of inward/outward FDI information to determine a firm's integration in international production networks. Our results indicate that firm's bilateral inward and outward FDI flows with an export-destination country have a strong positive effect on a firm's export survival in that market. Importance of market-specific ownership linkages for export duration is exclusively driven by intermediate goods which suggests prolonged export duration through production network involvement. However, the perseverance effect of bilateral FDI ties on export spells has been weakened during the crisis period. We find pronounced market- and product-related trade complementarities as either exporting or importing experience with the relevant market/product substantially improves the chances of a product–market export spell continuing. Finally, the risk of exports termination is lower for a firm's core export products.     

Service Orientation: Its Impact on Business Performance in the Medical Service Industry

From the viewpoint of internal marketing, employees who are content in their job may be motivated to satisfy their customers better than ones who are not content. Another relevant premise is that the content employees, because of their work motivation, would eventually help improve the performance of their firm. To verify these relationships, some previous studies looked into the effects of organisational service orientation on employee's satisfaction. But only few of them investigated the mediating effects of variables such as service value and customer orientation for their role in linking service orientation to business performance. This study examines how an organisation's service orientation had an effect on its performance at hospitals. For this purpose, verification of the mediating role of service value perceived by employees as well as the role of customer orientation on the firm's performance was attempted. For this study, a total of 292 usable questionnaires were collected from hospital staffs located in metropolitan cities of Korea. The hypotheses concerning relationships among service orientation, service value, employee satisfaction and customer orientation were verified by covariance structural modelling, using SPSS 10.0 and AMOS 4.0 programs. The result is as follows. First, organisational service orientation had a positive effect on both employee satisfaction and service value perceived by hospital staff. Second, employee satisfaction had a positive impact on service value and customer orientation. Finally, service value as well as employee's customer orientation were found to exert positive influence on the medical firm's performance.     

Host-Country Determinants of the Market Strategies of US Companies' Overseas Subsidiaries

As compeition in many industries becomes increasingly global, MNEs have found that import-substitution subsidiaries, focusing on the supply of national markets, are much less viable. In the pursuit of enhanced competitiveness through export-oriented subsidiaries, MNEs are also finding that relying on low-cost host-country inputs to produce established productss is also a limited strategy. The more dynamic strategy of allowing subsidiaries to use a wider range of creative local inputs to take full responsibility for the development, production and international marketing of distinctive new products is a more effective approach. Such an upgrading of the subsidiaries' role within the MNE often parallels the aims of host-country governments to achieve a more individual and dynamic basis for their country's evolving comparative advantage. It is thus argued that MNE subsidiaries and host countries can go through a mutually supportive period of creative transition, endowing both with a new level of technological dynamism and independence. The paper tests aspects of these arguments by analysing the host-country determinants of the degree of export-orientation of US MNEs' overseas subsidiaries.     

Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth

The Internet has been shown to facilitate elements of internationalisation such as information accumulation and network opportunities. However, there is limited understanding of how the Internet combined with marketing capabilities drives international market growth. This study, based on a sample of 224 Australian firms, develops and tests, using structural equation modelling (SEM), a conceptual model of Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth. Results indicate that firms deploying Internet marketing capabilities will benefit due to the reduction of information uncertainty and increased capacity to develop international network capabilities. Moreover, Internet marketing capabilities indirectly lead to international market growth when the firm has a high level of international strategic orientation and international network capabilities. Overall, Internet marketing capabilities enhance the firm's ability to generate other internal capabilities within the firm, which in turn have a positive impact on the international market growth of the firm.     

Enhancing frontline employee support during a product-harm crisis: Evidence and strategic managerial implications for firms

Product-harm crises can negatively affect a firm's corporate image, reputation, and credibility. This research investigates antecedents and factors that can impact the extent to which frontline employees will be supportive of their organization when the firm faces such a crisis. Leveraging social exchange theory and its focus on reciprocal exchanges, we theorize and test processes using regression models, which shed light on how managers can solicit employee support during crises situations by providing the frontline employees with ethical and supportive working conditions. To offer convergent validity across multiple methodologies, we also test the influence of experimental effects of the relative severity of a crisis and whether a firm was quick or slow in its response on frontline employee support. Furthermore, our research demonstrates that the firm's strengths in corporate social responsibility, the employees' organizational citizenship behavior, and employee organizational identification serially mediate the supportive relationship, which provides a unique contribution to the marketing literature. Finally, we provide managerial implications to further enhance frontline employee support.     

The Transformation of Boral: From Dependent,Specialist Bitumen Refiner to Major Building Products Manufacturer

This essay explores the route by which Boral transformed itself from being a small firm operating in a niche within the petroleum industry to its current position as one of the largest manufacturers of building products in Australia. Boral's exit from the oil industry was largely influenced by the declining attractiveness of that market as a result of a more competitive environment. The direction of its subsequent voyage across industry and market boundaries was set by the exploitation of firm specific knowledge and competencies. Boral's bold leaps into apparently unrelated new industries represented the transfer of a core set of capabilities into new markets. Boral acquired new skills which augmented its competencies and it was able to use them to gain a competitive advantage in a wide range of related markets.     

The business plan as a project: an evaluation of its predictive capability for business success

Although there is extensive research aimed at identifying the main success factors for new ventures, efforts directed at evaluating the real effect of the existence and quality of a business plan on a firm's survival chances have been limited. This study attempts to fill this gap by analyzing to what extent the quality of a business plan, measured according to its economic, financial and organizational viability, constitutes a good predictor of business survival; and how other variables related to the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the business can affect the predictive capability of the model under consideration. Hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2142 service firms. The results show that none of the three variables that evaluate business plan quality (economic, financial and organizational viability) seems to have a determining influence on survival chances. Adding essential characteristics related to the entrepreneur and the business (education and training, experience, kind of motivation, number of employees and start-up capital) does little to increase the model's predictive capabilities.     

Sharing management: Three ethical scenarios

How might a transition from closely-held to shared management help or hinder the presence of the ethical in a corporation? I propose three fictional scenarios according to which such a transition might occur. In one, managerial power is shared, but without any examination of the firm's presuppositions. In another the presuppositions are shared as well, but only insofar as top management seeks to generate cultic enthusiasm for the ‘corporate family’. In the third scenario the firm's presuppositions are discussed openly by all employees. I argue that only this third scenario embodies the conditions which make it possible for a firm to be moral.     

On tariff changes and firm-production evolution: insights from Turkish manufacturing

We contribute to the yet limited evidence on the relationship between trade liberalisation and a firm's product mix and diversification strategies for an emerging economy, Turkey. Lower import barriers foster firms’ specialisation in their core products. A drop in import tariffs, indeed, enhances a firm's propensity to drop fringe varieties and favours production growth of core products. More importantly, it favours firms’ specialisation in more sophisticated goods. Export tariff cuts, instead, by relaxing competitive pressure at home and lowering the cost to export, only reduce the firms’ incentive to innovate.     

Parent inheritance,founder expertise,and venture strategy: Determinants of new venture knowledge impact

A genealogical theory of new venture creation posits that “parent” firm routines are transferred to “progeny” ventures founded by the former employees of these parents. This study examines how the knowledge available to a venture from its parent firms and individual founders, as well as its initial technological direction, influences its own creation of impactful knowledge. We argue that new knowledge creation involves the recombination of underlying knowledge elements and hypothesize that the degree to which the venture's knowledge domain overlaps with the parents' knowledge has positive, but diminishing effects on the impact of knowledge created by the venture. We also predict that the breadth of founders' personal knowledge has a positive effect, but that the divergence between individual founders' and parent firm's knowledge domains has a negative effect on the creation of impactful knowledge by the venture. We test our predictions using a sample of 219 biotechnology ventures founded over the eleven year period 1990–2000 and tracked through 2010. Our results contribute to the entrepreneurship, knowledge creation, and genealogical literatures.