Mobile phones,the Internet and the institutional environment

This paper empirically investigates the determinants of the Internet and cellular phone penetration levels in a cross-country setting. It offers a framework to explain differences in the use of information and communication technologies in terms of differences in the institutional environment and the resulting investment climate. Using three measures of the quality of the investment climate, Internet access is shown to depend strongly on the country's institutional setting because fixed-line Internet investment is characterized by a high risk of state expropriation, given its considerable asset specificity. Mobile phone networks, on the other hand, are built on less site-specific, re-deployable modules, which make this technology less dependent on institutional characteristics. It is speculated that the existence of telecommunications technology that is less sensitive to the parameters of the institutional environment and, in particular, to poor investment protection provides an opportunity for better understanding of the constraints and prospects for economic development.     

Classifying relationships across cultures as successful and problematic: Theoretical perspectives and managerial implications

There is increasing interest in the theoretical and practical challenges that managers face in having to deal with the multiple dualities inherent in managing a portfolio of different business relationships. A number of relationship portfolio models have been developed which use a wide range of criteria for categorizing relationships. The research reported here takes a different approach by identifying the key process and/or outcome elements which managers use to distinguish between successful and problematic relationships, and also offering a comparison of the managers' perceptions across three different countries. The aim is to contribute to the development of more robust management thinking and action. Managers in the United Kingdom (UK), France and Finland were found to think about relationships in terms of both process and outcome variables. Whilst the outcome variables used to discriminate between successful and problematic relationships vary slightly across countries, it was found that they all used the process variables of trust and problem resolution.     

The timing of market entry and firm performance: A perspective of institutional theory

Integrating literature from institutional theory with that from market entry research, we study the effects of a firm's early marketing entry on other firms' behaviors and performances. In addition, we also consider the moderating effect of other institutional factors, such as the firms' home-country culture and institutional environments in an emerging economy. Based on a review of all the relevant research, we develop a theoretical model with testable hypotheses. With empirical data from multi-national enterprises (MNEs) competing in China's insurance-service market, we test the hypotheses. Our data analyses show evidence that, other things being equal, early market entry can cause institutional imitation, in terms of market diversification, among imitators. At the same time, the imitation can be moderated by the home-country culture of the MNEs. In addition, the imitation of early market entry firms has some significant effects on the performance of imitators, including less deviation from the industry norm and better financial performance.     

Managing customer relationships: Account manager turnover and effective account management

Managing relationships with customers and clients is a critical task for industrial sales organizations. This paper reports on research that focuses on improving client relationships through effective handling of account manager turnover and improved account management. Even in situations where account manager turnover is high, the relationship between the company and the SME client does not suffer if the account management turnover process is well managed. When account manager turnover is not well managed, customer satisfaction suffers. The research also identifies eleven specific management activities that are highly related to supplier satisfaction with both the account manager and the supplier financial institution.     

Mainframes and mandarins: The impact of internet use on institutional trust in East Asia

The roles of contextual determinants such as culture and political regime in existing studies of Internet use and institutional trust remain underexplored. Adopting a cultural-institutional perspective, we ask: How does Internet use relate to institutional trust? Under what conditions is the impact of Internet use on institutional trust most potent? Do authoritarian orientation and perceived institutional responsiveness mediate the relationship? Is this mediating process moderated by the degree of democratic freedom? A total of 20,667 respondents from 14 East Asian countries/territories completed questionnaires. Our results show that the indirect effect of Internet use on institutional trust via authoritarian orientation was stronger for countries/territories with a low degree of democratic freedom, while the indirect effect of Internet use on institutional trust via perceived institutional responsiveness was stronger for countries/territories with a higher degree of democratic freedom.     

Interacting effects of uncertainties and institutional forces on information sharing in marketing channels

Marketing channel members in China face difficulties created by market uncertainty and opportunistic costs resulting from behavioral uncertainty, both of which undermine channel performance. In this article, we argue that channel members can use information sharing to maintain channel performance under uncertain circumstances. With empirical data from China, we develop and test a theoretical framework which explores the effects of market uncertainty and contractual commitment on information sharing and supplier operational performance. Moreover, we also find that regulatory protection moderates the relationship between market uncertainty and information sharing. Normative and cognitive protection moderates the relationship between contractual commitment and information sharing. Indeed, information sharing serves as a mediator between uncertainties and supplier operational performance. Consequently, Chinese channel managers are advised to increase the use of more information sharing to counter market and behavioral uncertainties in marketing channels.     

Managing business and social network relationships in Russia: The role of relational capabilities,institutional support and dysfunctional competition

The current study provides empirical insight into the nature of creating relational rents when managing business relationships in the context of the emerging Russian economy. Addressing both formal and social business network relationships, the study aims to understand the role of a systematic and purposeful approach to building and managing business relationships in order to generate superior relational advantage. The study explores the effects on both subjectively and objectively measured relational rents. Additionally, the role of institutional context in both shaping relationships and obtaining relational rents is considered through the inclusion of dysfunctional competition and institutional support. The results of a survey on a sample of 148 business-to-business firms demonstrate the leading role of the business relationship portfolio in generating relational rents, as well as the supporting role of relational capabilities in building this relationship portfolio. These effects are significantly affected by institutional moderators, demonstrating multidirectional effects on the mechanisms behind building relationships and obtaining the associated relational advantage.     

Intercommunity relationships and community growth in China's high technology industries 1988–2000

In this study, we examine how intercommunity relationships affect the growth of organizational communities. Using a unique panel dataset on 53 technology development communities in China spanning 1988–2000, we found that regional community density, a community's geographic proximity to the nearest community and its domain overlap with the nearest community have an inverted U‐shaped relationship with the community's growth. These non‐monotonic results suggest that adjacent communities have both mutualistic and competitive effects on each other. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating guanxi dimensions and relationship outcomes: Insights from Sino-Anglo business relationships

This study aims to develop and test a concept for improving Anglo-Chinese business relationships. By piecing together and incorporating both Chinese and western relationship constructs into a cohesive framework and testing this on a sample of Taiwanese importers, the study conceptually and empirically advances our understanding of the discipline further. Specifically, three facets of guanxi, namely ganqing (an affective element), renqing (reciprocation and favor), and xinren (personal trust) are conceptualized to determine cooperation and coordination, which in turn lead to improved performance. Based on a sample of 208 buyers (surveying perceptions of their relationships with Anglo suppliers), we provide empirical support for our concept and reveal that ganqing, renqing and xinren are crucial for fostering the development of such Sino-Anglo relationships. By providing an international flavor in terms of the constructs outlined and the importer-exporter context, the study provides fresh insights to help broaden our horizon further and understand more about relationships in an international context. Several implications are extracted from the study which a) western marketers importantly need to practice as they grapple to enter Chinese markets and nurture business relations, b) Chinese buyers can consider when managing their supplier portfolios and c) academics can use to help measure important relational constructs and undertaking research in a Chinese context.     

Guanxi practice and Chinese buyer-supplier relationships: The buyer's perspective

This study explores the different effects of guanxi practice on Chinese buyer-supplier relationships in the initiation and the maintenance stages during the buyer-supplier relationship lifecycle. Using survey data collected from the retail industry in China, we find that retailers perceive varying buyer-supplier relationship behaviors in these two relationship stages and, accordingly, guanxi practice exerts opposite effects on retailer satisfaction. Specifically, during the relationship initiation stage, guanxi practice is negatively related to retailer social satisfaction and commitment. However, during the relationship maintenance stage, guanxi practice is positively related to retailer economic satisfaction. The results from this study provide suppliers with managerial implications on when to and when not to practice guanxi in China.     

Reconfiguring supplier relationships between local and global: History matters

Small and medium-sized companies are increasingly facing international markets as part of their processes of growth and development. A great deal of literature deals with different patterns of growth and international development that are specific to SMEs with respect to large companies. Fewer studies have been conducted on the reconfiguration of company supplier relationships involved in these processes. This paper focuses on the role played by the consolidated set of company supplier relationships when the firm faces some critical stages in its process of development, i.e., growth from small to mid-sized and the implementation of new ventures abroad accessing new business relationships with international suppliers. A multiple and longitudinal case study shows how the local set of supplier relationships of four mid-sized Italian mechanical companies acting in industrial districts has played an important role in shaping the emerging set of supplier relationships and addressing companies' actions in their growth and internationalization processes.     

Sources of alliance partner trustworthiness: Integrating calculative and relational perspectives

Research on the sources of organizational trustworthiness remains bifurcated. Some scholars have adopted a calculative perspective, stressing the primacy of actors' rational calculations, while others have approached trustworthiness from a relational perspective, focusing on its social underpinnings. We help to reconcile these seemingly disparate views by adopting an integrative approach that allows us to clarify the boundaries of both perspectives. Based on dyadic survey data from 171 strategic alliances, we find that the calculative perspective (represented by contractual safeguards) has higher predictive power when the partner lacks a favorable reputation. In contrast, the relational perspective (represented by organizational culture) predicts trustworthiness more strongly when familiarity with the partner organization is high. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Covalence and ionic bonding in business-to-business relationships: Insights from chemistry

The paper examines business-to-business (B2B) relationships using the framework of the covalence-ionic bonding theory in chemistry as an analogy to help make soft phenomena and relationships in B2B marketing more understandable to engineers and scientists in organizations and to managers with scientific and technical backgrounds. In the tradition of cross-fertilization of various scientific fields, the authors propose that the covalence-ionic bonding theory may provide insights in determining the factors that contribute to the emergence of bilateral, unilateral, and market relationships. This study compares and contrasts interparticle bonding with ways of managing B2B relationships. Beyond sheer analogy of the two phenomena, an explanation of B2B relationships and decision-making mechanisms is proposed. In adapting this concept theoretically, the meaning of the original parameters in physical science is assigned a new meaning in the marketing context. Furthermore, the paper extends conceptually the predictive capabilities of chemistry theories to relational behaviors in marketing. Drawing from a resource-based view of the firm, complementarity of resources and dependence levels are postulated to have critical roles in business bonding. Appropriate propositions are advanced, along with implications for managers and researchers.     

Business group affiliation and firm performance in a transition economy: A focus on ownership voids

In a transition economy, how does business group affiliation make a difference in firm performance? Under the broad label of institutional voids, what specific voids can business groups fill? This paper addresses these questions by drawing on insights from property rights theory and an institutional perspective. We argue that ownership voids, as a subset of institutional voids, occur due to the lack of unambiguously specified ownership of state assets in transition economies, and that business groups emerge to serve as the direct owners of state-owned enterprises to replace such voids. Based on a sample of 1,119 publicly-listed Chinese companies, we find that the interaction of business group affiliation and state ownership has a significant and positive effect on firm performance. Our findings point to business group’s substitution role in filling ownership voids in China’s transition economy.     

Securing and managing an organization's network legitimacy: The case of Motorola China

This study combines concepts from institutional and network theory to explain the currently observed behaviors of organizations in securing their network legitimacy. Organizations secure their network legitimacy by engaging in business, social, and political activities, with key network actors and institutions. This is achieved within an institutional framework of rules, regulations, and ideologies, including any consequential contextual changes. But while network legitimacy plays an important part in an organization's survival, limited attention has been paid to the development of a conceptual framework. In this article we provide one such framework and, specifically examine attributes of successful network legitimacy through an inductive, interpretative case analysis of Motorola China, in a transitional Chinese telecommunication sector.     

Emergent patterns of strategy,environment and performance in a transition economy

Insights from the resource dependence approach, dynamic fit, and strategic choice theories are used to explore the strategies adopted by Chinese enterprises, their settings, and the relationship between strategy, environment, and performance. Results from 959 firms indicate that respondents operating under ‘more marketized’ institutional settings tend to locate themselves in more munificent environments and place greater emphasis on meeting customer needs. Firms in China do not trade off one strategic direction against another, and certain strategy/environment coalignments have significant implications for performance. In particular, performance is better in more marketized and munificent environments and amongst firms who adopt an ‘aggressive’ strategic posture. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developing relationships in strategic alliances: Commitment to quality and cooperative interdependence

Organizations are using strategic alliances to develop competitive advantages in quality, innovation, and cost. To capture the potential synergies of these alliances requires that the partners develop long-term relationships. This study develops a model of strategic alliance relationship development based on the theory of cooperative and competitive goal interdependence. Thirty pairs of supplier and customer organizations in Xian, China participated in a survey where the supplier indicated the commitment and goal interdependence and the customer rated the relationship's long-term orientation. Results suggest that the commitment by both supplier and customer organizations to quality develop cooperative interdependence, which leads to effective strategic partnerships.     

The determinants of relational governance and performance: How to manage business relationships?

It is the aim of this study to assess the influence of the determinants of the transaction, dyadic, and business environment level on relational governance and ultimately performance. We build an integrated framework for relationship management drawing from literature of transaction cost economics, marketing channels, and business networks. Dutch suppliers of potted plant and flower products (N=174) provided data for the empirical analysis. Our results show that joint planning, one of the constructs of relational governance, is positively influenced by interorganizational trust, information obtained from the network, physical transaction-specific investments (TSIs), and by fixed lines as the exchange mode. Joint problem solving, the other construct of the governance, is solely influenced by the two dimensions of trust. These two constructs of relational governance effect positively our performance measures. Managers should consider carefully each of the determinants of relational governance for the management of a relationship. As shown in our study, the success is dependent on some of the determinants of the three analytical levels of our integrated framework.