Moving Beyond The Clash of Interests: On stewardship theory and the relationships between central government departments and public agencies

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationships between central government departments and agencies through the lens of stewardship theory. Stewardship theory has been developed as an alternative to agency theory and focuses on shared goals and norms. The paper first shows how current regulations are strongly imbedded in agency theory and then proceed to analyse, on the basis of a survey and focus groups, how the problems experienced by public managers generally point to the relevance of stewardship. On this basis and with input from sixty public managers, a stewardship model for the relationships between agencies and central governments is developed.     

建设工程项目协同工作实证研究

提高各参与方协同工作的程度和效率,已成为解决建设工程项目生产效率低、目标失控的关键方案。基于文献综述,构建了建设项目协同工作的理论框架,包括团队集成度、目标方向、制度规范、团队能力和文化氛围,并采用问卷调查的实证研究方法,探讨了协同工作与项目规模、交付模式、业主类型、中标方式、项目参与方角色、个人职位和目标要求等项目属性之间的关系,为提高建设工程项目协同工作效率提供借鉴。     

Managerial Objectives and the Governance of Public and Non-Profit Organizations

By investigating managerial objectives, we test the simultaneous need for both control (agency theory) and collaboration (stewardship theory) in public and non-profit governance. We construct a discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences of managers in Belgian public and non-profit nursing homes. The results confirm that boards of nursing homes may experience pressure to simultaneously control and collaborate with their managers, thereby suggesting that agency and stewardship theory can be combined into a more general internal governance framework. We conclude by providing some policy implications to improve public and non-profit governance.     

An exploratory study of stewardship for Chinese nonprofit organizations

This study examined how Chinese nonprofits practice stewardship and how stewardship principles influence nonprofit–donor relationships and donor retention. Fifteen qualitative in‐depth interviews were conducted with experienced fundraisers in China. Results showed that Kelly's stewardship principles were applicable in China; Chinese fundraisers practiced stewardship principles of reciprocity, responsibility, reporting, and relationship nurturing to maintain relationships with major gift and annual donors. Besides, practitioners also utilized a variety of communication channels, ranging from face‐to‐face, telephones, emails, to digital shared media such as WeChat and Weibo, in communicating with individual and general public donors. Finally, interviewees also provided evidence on the positive role of quality nonprofit–donor relationships in retaining donors. This study illustrated the current status of nonprofit fundraising practice in China and expanded the explanatory power of the stewardship theory. The findings are implicative for Chinese nonprofits professionals on how to develop their unique stewardship practice in managing relationships with donors.     

Boards of Directors and Shark Repellents:Assessing the Value of an Agency Theory Perspective

Because shark repellents decrease the vulnerability of firms (and their incumbent managers) to the market for corporate control, the decision to adopt these devices represents an excellent test of agency theory. In this empirical study, we examined the relationships between the adoption of shark repellents and several mechanisms that, according to agency theory, should align the interests of corporate board members and shareholders and/or make directors more effective monitors of management behaviour. Of the variables included, only board stock ownership (especially by employee directors) was linked to a reduced propensity to adopt shark repellents in the predicted manner. Two variables not immediately as- sociated with agency theory — the proportion of inside directors appointed by the incumbent chief executive officer (CEO) and a lower ratio of CEO compensation to the compensation of other top executives — were linked to higher rates of shark repellent adoption. Given that agency theory explains relatively little of the variance in shark repellent adoption, we advocate serious consideration of other theoretical formulations for corporate governance, including two approaches — stewardship theory and agent morality — that take the moral ('other regarding') obligations of directors seriously.     

政府投资项目代建制的契约本质探讨——基于生产要素的视角

运用项目各利益相关者构成的角色网络是动态网络的理论,通过对政府投资代建制项目利益相关方的角色从生产要素的角度进行定义,以利益相关方所代表的投入项目的生产要素的时间性及其之间的逻辑关系、数量关系作为切入点,深入研究政府投资代建项目契约组成,提出代建制的契约本质应为一组利益相关者围绕公共需求,共享项目资源而缔结的长期、中期和短期契约的契约序列。     

Threats to new product manufacturability and the effects of development team integration processes

The thesis of this article is that new product manufacturability (NPM) is influenced by certain challenges inherent in new product development (NPD), and by efforts to integrate manufacturing and other functional concerns into the product design process. This research tests the direct and interacting effects of these influences via a survey of 91 completed NPD projects representing a variety of manufacturing industries. While most hypotheses were supported, the analysis also provides some surprising findings. Project complexity and increased levels of design outsourcing are associated with poorer NPM. Product newness and project acceleration are associated with better NPM. All the measured aspects of development team integration are associated with better NPM, including intense manufacturing involvement, a collaborative work environment, supplier influence on the product design, and strong management support in the project. Furthermore, certain integration variables exert moderating effects on relationships between technological uncertainty, product newness, design outsourcing, project acceleration and NPM. By exposing these relationships this research extends the theory of product development influences on manufacturability beyond a focus on engineering-oriented approaches (e.g., design-for-manufacture). The results suggest that larger managerial issues must be addressed and that more contingency-oriented research is needed to explore the benefits and limitations of development team integration processes.     

Collaboration risk management in IT-enabled asymmetric partnerships: Evidence from telestroke networks

Information technology (IT)-enabled partnerships can unlock previously unattainable value propositions between organizations that have resource, capability, and other asymmetries by allowing larger organizations access to niche and local resources while providing smaller organizations access to enhanced resources and capabilities. However, recent studies have shown that many IT-enabled asymmetric partnerships often fail because the organizations do not effectively manage the involved collaboration risks. Most organizations focus on the strategic aspect of whether partners behave cooperatively or competitively, while paying scant attention to the operational aspect of bringing together partner contributions through coordination. To examine this problem, we report on a case study of two hub-spoke networks that used telemedicine to facilitate expertise sharing and decision making about stroke treatment at emergency departments in rural hospitals (spokes) based on information exchanges with remote neurologists at academic medical centers (hubs). As a result, we contribute to the inter-organizational information systems literature by explaining how organizations in IT-enabled asymmetric partnerships manage collaboration risks. We demonstrate how partners in such relationships perceive and approach strategic cooperation and operational coordination risks differently. We also explain how collaboration interactions change over time as the partners manage risks based on needs and resource endowments. Drawing on these findings, we provide guidance to organizations on how to manage sustainable IT-enabled asymmetric partnerships in general, and telestroke networks in particular.     

项目教学法在机械装配与维修专业中应用的研究

项目教学法是以建构主义理论为基础,通过选取"项目"来创设"情景",通过"协作学习"的方式开展学习,通过完成"项目"来达到"意义建构",是一种比较有效的教学方法。本文对在机械装配与维修专业中实施项目教学法进行了研究,并对整个教学方案进行了设计,为下一步实施项目教学奠定了理论基础。     

Attitudinal loyalty and trust in entrepreneurship: building new relationships

This paper studies the impact of attitudinal loyalty and trust in entrepreneurship, following a client-focused strategy. In this context, trust and commitment are the cornerstone of relationship marketing, and contributes positively to achieving attitudinal loyalty, which is suitable for the maintenance of relationships over time. This variable also acts as a facilitator or mediator on the influence satisfaction has on loyalty. We show that satisfaction has a positive impact on trust and attitudinal loyalty. Following structural equation modelling methodology we test all the relationships in a sample composed by travel agency customers.     

Expanding the boundaries of buyer-supplier agency problems: Moving from dyad to triad

Extant agency theory addresses dyads consisting of a principal and an agent. It informs us about how to overcome agency problems in the buyer-supplier relationship. In this conceptual paper, we propose a theoretical argument that if we expand the boundary conditions from dyads to triads, we find new solutions to dealing with agency problems. To the buyer-supplier dyad, we add the supplier’s supplier, the buyer’s other supplier, the supplier’s other customer, and the buyer’s customer. As such, we consider four types of triads in supply chains and propose that the buyer as the principal could reframe agency problems with the focal supplier by moving to one of these triads. In particular, we investigate alternative mechanisms that may reduce the level of goal incongruence, information asymmetry, and power asymmetry in the buyer-supplier relationship. Our conceptualization suggests that supply managers should look outside the buyer-supplier dyad for additional opportunities to resolve agency problems.     

Preserving a Professional Institution: Emotion in Discursive Institutional Work

We studied the discursive institutional work written by pharmacy leaders as part of a larger institutional project to preserve the institution of pharmacy. Our analysis of monthly editorials printed in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association from 1960 to 2003 shows how different discrete emotions were systematically incorporated in specific rhetorical argument structures over the course of an institutional project. In contrast to previous research, we show how discursive institutional work that is directed to members of the same specific social group (e.g., a profession) can vary over time in response to significant events and changes in practices of the target audience. Our longitudinal study shows that the relative frequency of argument types, the incorporation of emotion, and the content of rhetorical argumentation changed over time. We contribute to theory about the role of emotions in discursive institutional work by unpacking the role of discrete emotions and showing how such discourse evolves over time in concert with field conditions.     

Coordination artifacts in Agile Software Development

Agile Software Development is characterized by collaborative social interactions and fast-paced and iterative changes in project requirements. Much of the extant Agile development literature focuses on team and organizational aspects of Agile development projects. However, coordination mechanisms used within Agile projects have received less attention. Particularly, existing research lacks a discussion on how artifacts are applied in Agile software development to support project coordination, and how their potential for information richness and mutability impact their ability to support coordination.To address these issues, we conducted a case study of an Agile development project that involved customer and vendor organizations. Our case follows the interactions between the two organizations, identifies the different types of artifacts that they utilized to coordinate their joint activities throughout the various phases of the project, and traces the enactment of these artifacts' informational potential.Our study reveals that the organizations applied four different types of coordination artifacts - Foundational, Projective, Exposition and Indicative artifacts – to address different coordination challenges that arose throughout the project. The four types of artifacts were characterized by varying levels of information richness and mutability, which were shaped to support the Agile activities within which they were used.Our study enriches the understanding of the role of coordination artifacts in Agile projects, provides insights on the informational potential of the artifacts, and highlights some of the pitfalls than can result from misunderstanding object use.     

An Empirical Exploration of Decision-making Under Agency Controls and Stewardship Structure

abstract Two theories have emerged in the managerial control literature as to the best way for organizations to ensure that managers are acting in the firm's best interest: agency theory, which stresses controlling decision‐makers through monitoring and incentives aligned with organizational goals, and stewardship theory, which stresses that decision‐makers will act in the organization's best interest even in the absence of controls. Much of the research investigating the utility of these two positions is based on archival data where actual decision‐making can only be inferred. In this study, we utilize a laboratory methodology in order to determine if decision‐makers actually make different decisions when under the types of control (or lack thereof) suggested in these two theories. The results of this study show that individuals under agency controls invest more in alternatives that maximize profits of an organization than individuals under stewardship controls.     

Measures for Dealing with Competence and Integrity Violations of Interorganizational Trust at the Corporate and Operating Levels of Organizational Hierarchy

We examine how partners in an interorganizational relationship can repair violated trust, and if that is impossible, how they can preserve the collaborative relationship. We also consider under what circumstances exit from the relationship is the only viable option. We propose that the effectiveness of legalistic and non-legalistic measures in response to a trust violation is a function of the hierarchical level at which the violation occurred (corporate vs. operating), the character of the violation (competence vs. integrity), the frequency and severity with which it occurred, the organizational context in which boundary spanners are embedded, and the degree of dependence between the partners. Based on these factors, we explore how the way in which violation of trust is dealt with at one hierarchical level might affect trust at the other level. Our theoretical model reveals that prior findings on trust repair in inter-personal context may not hold in the interorganizational context.     

Public Funding for Science and the Value of Corporate R&D Projects; Evidence from Project Initiation and Termination Decisions in Cell Therapy

How do firms decide which R&D projects to pursue and which ones to cast aside? We use a real options approach to advance our understanding of how firms manage uncertainties in R&D project management, in particular uncertainties linked to the external scientific environment. Our findings highlight how these uncertainties have an impact on the initiation and discontinuation of R&D projects. We examine these effects in the context of shifts in US science policy in the cell therapy field, using a dataset on 570 R&D projects in the global cell therapy sector, initiated over the period 1986–2011. We find decreased R&D project initiation rates and higher discontinuation rates for projects initiated by US firms in the aftermath of policy shifts that increased uncertainties about public funding support for US cell therapy research. We also highlight how this effect was reversed as the US public funding outlook for such research recovered.     

Collaborative academic–industry SCM research and knowledge building

This empirical study represents the first attempt to explore how academics and practitioners engage each other in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) discipline, and provides a better understanding of collaborative SCM research between both parties. A two-pronged approach, involving a content analysis and an e-mail survey, is employed to explore the issues on collaborative SCM research. We examine 131 articles co-authored by both scholars and practitioners of 6 SCM journals from 2003 to 2013. Specifically, we analyse the motivations, expectations, and communication involved in the process of collaborative research. Our findings suggest that academics and practitioners can partner as co-investigators in research collaboration to better explore an array of SCM phenomena embedded in SCM practice. Further, building collaborative SCM knowledge relationships expedites collaboration and benefits SCM knowledge learning, transfer, and co-production. The development of practice-based scientific SCM knowledge is useful for SCM theory building and serves to bridge the gap between rigour and relevance.     

Does relationship learning lead to relationship value? A cross-national supply chain investigation

In global business-to-business markets, shared resources between buyers and suppliers often result in competitive advantages and enhanced relationships between firms. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research regarding learning capabilities between business partners in a cross-border setting. This study takes the approach to integrate customer value literature into interorganizational learning theory and adopts the often-neglected theoretical perspective of transaction value by contextualizing inter-firm collaboration in terms of relationship learning and value co-creation viewed by both the buyers and sellers in one single study. Through the development of a conceptual framework that examines how global environmental and inter-organizational conditions influence learning capabilities, the study investigates how relationship learning influences relationship value for both supplying and buying firms. Using a survey of 126 cross-border dyads in the industrial chemical, packaging, consumer durable, and apparel industries, the authors show how relationship learning is valued by both buyers and suppliers, and how it is critical when viewing the “supplier as a customer.” The results indicate the strategic nature of relationship learning in maintaining cross-border business-to-business relationships. Simultaneously, the findings provide evidence that cultural distance is not a significant influence on the firm's propensity to share knowledge with its global partners. It helps advance our understanding of the significance of cultural-pollination in the era of globalization.     

Radical Intellectuals: What Happened to the New Urban Sociology?

This article is about the rise and fall of radicalism among ‘new urban sociologists’ during the 1960s and 1970s. First, I analyze the social and theoretical developments of that time and demonstrate the novelty of the questions that the new urban sociologists posed. Second, I examine the features of the practical engagements and motivations of the members of this group and show how they changed over time. Finally, I discuss the processes of institutionalization of this group. The story of the new urban sociologists is the story of members of the same generation who, dissatisfied with the development of theory in their field, developed a distinct approach to urban problems. The project that they developed combined elements of both intellectual and political projects. I consider both aspects of this project in light of Gouldner’s sociology of intellectuals, and show that de‐radicalization was a consequence of a peculiar combination of political disillusionment, theoretical triumph and a successful project of professionalization.     

在项目从始至终的全过程中应用价值方法论完成并加速项目的进程(英文)

作为项目开发过程的组成部分的、价值分析方法的应用,在时间、人力、资本成本和生命周期成本方面,都产生了巨大的节约.在价值分析方法是竞争的有利武器,人们逐渐接受了它,把它作为在不损害质量的情况下,确保价值的方法.价值分析方法的恰当应用,提供了一个跨学科的框架.为了优化和控制项目的价值、资源和进度,本文概括了这一框架.这个框架突出跨学科的小组的努力,突出按时、按预算地完成项目,突出项目委托方对质量、功能等方面的要求,同时,在不损害项目质量的情况下,可以系统地消除不必要成本.出于价值分析的努力,项目功能的增强程度、成本的降低程度,都明显地增加了.