Interorganisational project dynamics: A longitudinal study of perceptual distance and client-contractor collaborative relationships

Despite the importance of good collaborative relationships in interorganisational projects, clients and contractors often develop adversarial relationships due to perceptual distance about key project issues. In this case study research, we investigated how perceptual distance emerges and changes over time, and how the collaborative relationship between client and contractor develops alongside these dynamics. In this exploration, we built upon agency theory and stewardship theory as complementary perspectives for understanding client-contractor collaborative relationships. We gathered quantitative and qualitative data in two projects, conducting three assessments in about one year. We found that perceptual distance increased and decreased over time, and that a reduction was typically associated with the collaborative relationship being characterized by stewardship rather than agency. These findings suggest that a regular assessment and evaluation of partners’ perceptions of critical project issues is warranted to timely detect and counteract perceptual distance. Moreover, partners would best adopt a stewardship orientation to reduce perceptual distance, although this may take considerable effort given the distributive nature of many pre-project negotiations.     

War and economy. Rediscovering the eighteenth-century military entrepreneur

Abstract

The detrimental effects traditionally assigned to warfare in the development of pre-industrial economies have obscured the prominent role that military entrepreneurs played in economic development in this period. Historiography minimises the extent to which war and the concomitant strengthening of the central state provided a whole new range of opportunities for capital investment, a tendency that has been strengthened by the paradigm of Redlich’s ‘decline of the soldier-entrepreneur’ and the technological determinism of the debate on the Military Revolution among others. The aim of this introduction is to look into the background of this relative lack of interest and to reaffirm the mutual dependence of eighteenth-century state-formation and the business of war.     

中国现阶段的工业品市场营销模式初探

随着中国市场经济的快速发展、科技水平的提高以及中国加入WTO,工业品的市场竞争将更加激烈。对于中国现阶段的工业品来讲,由于行业、企业、产品特点及销售对象不同,各公司的营销策略各有不同,尤其对市场营销模式需要进一步探索。     

Accounting for control and trust building in interfirm transactional relationships

This paper theorises the accounting-control-trust nexus in interfirm transactional relationships. In the context of such relationships, accounting has predominantly been conceptualised as a control technology. However, in our paper we analyse stable and durable relationships as being the results of interaction between control and trust building. Such an analysis calls for an additional conceptualisation of accounting as a trust building technology. Furthermore, we explain the interaction between accounting for control and accounting for trust building in the context of a process of embedded agency.     

Grounded Theory und ihre bisherige Anwendung in der empirischen Controlling- und Rechnungswesenforschung

Zusammenfassung  Die Bildung von Forschungshypothesen ist zwar immer ein kreativer, sollte aber gleichzeitig kein unsystematischer Prozess sein. Im vorliegenden Artikel liegt der Fokus auf der Methodenunterstützung des Entdeckungszusammenhangs. Die Methode der Grounded Theory bietet einen Bezugsrahmen für qualitative empirische Studien, mit dem Theorien entwickelt werden, die aus dem Textmaterial zu begründen sind. Eine Literaturanalyse verdeutlicht, dass das Potenzial dieser Methode bisher in der Controlling- und Rechnungswesenforschung weitgehend ungenutzt bleibt. Anhand einer Diskussion empirischer Studien, welche auf die Methode zurückgreifen, werden Anwendungsm?glichkeiten der Grounded Theory für diese Disziplinen aufgezeigt.

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Summary  Creating research hypotheses is always a creative but not necessarily an unsystematic process. In our study we introduce a method supporting the logic of discovery. The grounded theory approach provides a framework for a systematic development of theories emerging from empirical data. A literature review stresses that the potential of the method so far is unused in accounting research. The grounded theory approach is introduced to support empirical work within this research field. Options for an application of the method in accounting research are shown by the means of a discussion of empirical studies. Furthermore the reader gets hints for reference studies.

     

?中青年以声带息肉、慢性喉炎为

8 casesTAO Yongming,SHI Zhuoya,FENG Lianming,et al.Xiaoshan Hospital of TCM,Hangzhou 311201,ChinaObjective To study the causes and clinical features of hoarseness.Methods The laryn     

Die Wirkung der Positionierung eines Zulieferunternehmens auf das Vertrauen des Kunden

Zusammenfassung Aus bisherigen Studien lassen sich kaum Handlungsempfehlungen ableiten, welche Positionierung eines Zulieferunternehmens sich besonders vorteilhaft auf das Vertrauen eines Kunden auswirkt. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Wirkungen von vier Positionierungsstrategien, die Zulieferunternehmen zur Verfügung stehen, auf das Vertrauen ihrer Abnehmer aus der Automobilindustrie untersucht. Diese Strategien bestehen in der Anpassung an Kundenprozesse, in Serviceorientierung, in Flexibilit?t und in der Verwendung von Kompetenzsignalen gegenüber dem Markt. Wir zeigen, dass die Anpassung an Kundenprozesse auf Grund der hohen Spezifit?t der damit verbundenen Investitionen die st?rkste positive Wirkung auf das Vertrauen des Kunden aufweist und dass Kompetenzsignale gegenüber dem Markt kein geeignetes Instrument zur F?rderung des Kundenvertrauens sind, wenn das Zulieferunternehmen für den Abnehmer eine hohe Bedeutung besitzt.

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The effects of a supplier’s positioning strategy on buyers’ trust

Summary Many studies have identified measures that are able to enhance partners’ trust in business-to-business relationships. However, it is not known which measures are more effective than others or under which conditions certain measures might be helpful or not. In the present study the effects of four possible positioning strategies on buyer’s trust are examined. The positioning strategies considered here are the supplier’s adaptations regarding its customer’s processes, its service orientation, its flexibility, and market-signals stressing the supplier’s competence. We found that, due to the high specificity of the required investments, adaptations of the supplier’s processes are the strongest instrument to enhance buyers’ trust relative to the other three strategies. We could also show that investments in market signals stressing the supplier’s competence are not effective if the supplier is of high importance to the customer.

     

一种新型高速数字锁相环的研究

本文针对传统方法实现的数字锁相环(DPLL)工作速率低的问题,通过对一种典型的DPLL的分析,找出影响其工作速率的主要因素,研究并提出了一种全新的高速实现方法,并在实验室进行了数据传输位同步提取实验。