Tripartite role of communications in channel relationships: Mitigating exchange hazards,reducing opportunism,and curtailing its ill effects on relationship performance

Mitigating channel members' opportunism is critical for supplier firms to maintain superior channel relationships and sustain relationship performance. Research in marketing channels suggests that supplier-channel member communication is vital for reducing information asymmetry and developing relational bonds in channel relationships. Building on that, in this research, we integrate information asymmetry and relationship-based views to articulate how communication, directly and indirectly, influences channel members' opportunism and curtail its ill effects on relationship performance. Based on the matched data from 239 supplier-distributor dyads, we find that communications (instrumental and social) have tripartite effects on channel outcomes, i.e., a) it directly reduces channel members' opportunism, b) weakens (negatively moderate) the positive effects of exchange hazards (antecedents) on opportunism and c) curtail the ill effects of opportunism on relationship performance. Additionally, we find that instrumental and social communications can have nuanced effects on channel members' opportunism. We provide newer insight into the role of communications in managing channel outcomes and present important theoretical and managerial implications.     

Power dependence,diversification strategy,and performance in keiretsu member firms

Conceptualizing the keiretsu as a power‐dependence system, we propose that benefits accruing from keiretsu affiliation differ across member firms, depending on their power in (or dependence on) the keiretsu. By integrating power with governance and internal market perspectives on group affiliation, we develop and find general support for the hypotheses that powerful keiretsu member firms are able to place more emphasis on growth in pursuing product and international diversification, whereas less powerful keiretsu member firms are subject to strong monitoring and emphasize profitability. These findings provide support to the study's proposition that power‐dependence relationships in a keiretsu influence member firms' appropriation of group affiliation benefits in pursuing diversification strategies. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

B-to-B relationships: A resource,knowledge, and capability (RKC) perspective

The literature on the establishment and performance of business to business (B-to-B) relationships is extensive and diverse. Multiple perspectives such as the Resource-Based View, Knowledge-Based View, and more recently (Dynamic) Capability-Based View have been used by researchers to explain the existence of B-to-B relationships. While these perspectives have their own merits, they lack cohesion and paint a somewhat scattered picture of the rationale behind B-to-B relationships. This study is an attempt to bring these divergent perspectives together to offer a parsimonious logic for B-to-B relationships – a match or mismatch between what the buyers want (resource, knowledge, and capability) and what the sellers can offer (resource, knowledge, and capability). A 3 × 3 typological framework is proposed, which includes three broad types of B-to-B relationships – balanced relationships (BR), seller dominant relationships (SDR), and buyer dominant relationships (BDR). The boundary conditions and possible outcomes of the relationship types are also outlined. This study has important implications for theory and practice.     

The interplays of coopetition,conflicts, trust,and efficiency process innovation in vertical B2B relationships

In this study, we examine the interplays among coopetition, conflicts, trust, and efficiency process innovation in vertical business-to-business (B2B) relationships. We posit that, in vertical B2B relationships, coopetition is positively associated with efficiency process innovation. Such association is also mediated by conflicts (i.e., affective and cognitive), thus resulting in the indirect effects of vertical coopetition on efficiency process innovation through affective and cognitive conflicts. In addition, we hypothesize that the conflict-based indirect effects are contingent on the trust level in the coopetitive relationships. We then empirically test the proposed hypotheses, using survey data collected from two international trade fairs. The results yield support for the positive association between vertical coopetition and efficiency process innovation. The mediating role of affective conflict in the indirect effect of vertical coopetition on efficiency process innovation is also supported, but that of cognitive conflict is not. Finally, the results indicate that trust moderates the indirect effect of vertical coopetition on efficiency process innovation through cognitive conflict but not through affective conflict. The implications of our findings for future research and managerial practices are also discussed.     

A multilevel framework of firm boundaries: firm characteristics,dyadic differences,and network attributes

Extending prior firm boundary research that tends to focus on economic explanations and rely on atomistic assumptions, we propose a multilevel framework by bridging the resource‐based view and the social network perspective, with their respective emphases on the importance of firms' internal resource endowments and external resource opportunities. Specifically, we argue that firms' boundary choices can be better understood by considering the tension between the need for external resources and the need for risk controls, affected by internal and external resource factors at three important levels: firm characteristics, dyadic differences, and network attributes. We also explore firms' boundary choices under two conditions: whether to initiate external relationships (non‐partnering vs. partnering) and whether to pursue either alliances or acquisitions if external relationships are needed. Our analyses of the United States computer industry over a nine‐year span largely support our theoretical framework and demonstrate the importance of unique factors at and across individual, dyadic, and network levels in understanding firms' boundary choices. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supply chain integration and performance: The effects of long-term relationships, information technology and sharing, and logistics integration

Supply chain integration is widely considered by both practitioners and researchers a vital contributor to supply chain performance. The two key flows in such relationships are material and information. Previous studies have addressed information integration and material (logistics) integration in separate studies. In this paper, we investigate the integrations of both information and material flows between supply chain partners and their effect on operational performance. Specifically, we examine the role of long-term supplier relationship as the driver of the integration. Using data from 232 Australian firms, we find that logistics integration has a significant effect on operations performance. Information technology capabilities and information sharing both have significant effects on logistics integration. Furthermore, long-term supplier relationships have both direct and indirect significant effects on performance; the indirect effect via the effect on information integration and logistics integration.     

A relationship-management assessment tool: Questioning, identifying, and prioritizing critical aspects of customer relationships

With customer-relationship management (CRM) no longer a buzzword among trendsetters, organizations in all types of industries initially rushed to embrace it. Although a seductively attractive concept, the implementation of CRM proved difficult, however, and organizations are struggling with realizing their vision of a CRM organization. To help managers assessing the stage of relationships between their organization and the organization's business customers we consider the automotive industry. Based upon our case organization and its relationships with numerous business customers we develop a practical tool to question, identify, and prioritize critical aspects of customer-relationship management. First, we identify key areas in CRM. Secondly, we investigate how the chosen case organization has managed each of these key CRM areas over a broad range of business-customer relationships. Thirdly, we acknowledge that many organizations simultaneously have different types (transaction-relationship continuum) of business customers. We finish the article with a discussion of the study's limitations, and suggest avenues for future research.     

Meta-analytic reviews of board composition,leadership structure,and financial performance

Careful review of extant research addressing the relationships between board composition, board leadership structure, and firm financial performance demonstrates little consistency in results. In general, neither board composition nor board leadership structure has been consistently linked to firm financial performance. In response to these findings, we provide meta-analyses of 54 empirical studies of board composition (159 samples, n = 40,160) and 31 empirical studies of board leadership structure (69 samples, n = 12,915) and their relationships to firm financial performance. These—and moderator analyses relying on firm size, the nature of the financial performance indicator, and various operationalizations of board composition—provide little evidence of systematic governance structure/financial performance relationships. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organization–stakeholder fit: A dynamic theory of cooperation,compromise, and conflict between an organization and its stakeholders

Research Summary : We advance the concept of organization–stakeholder fit (O–S fit) to explain cooperative behavior between an organization and its stakeholders. O–S fit describes the compatibility that exists between an organization and a stakeholder when their characteristics are well matched. We highlight two dimensions of O–S fit: value congruence, or the supplementary fit of organizational and stakeholder values, and strategic complementarity, or the complementary fit of strategic needs and resources. For each dimension, we detail the unique relational factors—including core elements of trust, predictability, attraction/exchange, and communication—that motivate cooperation. We then explicate the ways in which value congruence and strategic complementarity dynamically interrelate over time. Finally, we consider how organization‐stakeholder misfit may result in alternative relational behaviors, such as conflict or compromise. Managerial Summary : We develop a new way of thinking about the relationship between organizations and stakeholders. Recognizing that positive relationships require a degree of fit or compatibility, we argue that cooperative behavior between an organization and its stakeholders is maximized when relational partners share both core values and strategic priorities. We explain that high fit along these two dimensions increases trust, relational predictability, attraction/exchange, and communication. We also describe how positive relationships might be formed with fit along only one dimension, and how negative relationships might result in the presence of misfit. Ultimately, we suggest that managers who want to foster positive relationships with stakeholders should concentrate on aligning their values and priorities, rather than simply concentrating on one or the other.     

Persistence of innovative activities, sectoral patterns of innovation and international technological specialization

In this paper, we focus on the role of persistence and heterogeneity of innovative activities at the level of the firm in determining the patterns of technological change in different industries and countries. We ask: are persistence and heterogeneity associated with higher degrees of concentration in innovative activities, stability in the ranking of innovators, and lower degrees of entry and exit in the population of innovators? Or, do the patterns of innovation depend on other variables like firm size and industrial concentration? Moreover, what are the relationships between the patterns of innovative activities, their determinants, and the technological specialization of countries? We compute indicators of persistence and heterogeneity using the OTAF-SPRU patent database at the firm level for five European countries over the period 1969–1986 for 33 technological classes. Then, we estimate the relationships between our indicators of the sectoral patterns of innovative activities and international technological specialization on the one hand, and our indicators of persistence, heterogeneity and market structure on the other. Results show that persistence and asymmetries are important (and strongly related) phenomena that affect the patterns of innovative activities across countries and sectors, while the role of market structure variables is less clear. Finally, international technological specialization is associated to a competitive core of persistent innovators.     

Risk,uncertainty, ignorance and myopia: Their managerial implications for B2B firms

Rare events are common: Even though any particular type of ‘rare event’ - a world war, global economic collapse, or pandemic for that matter - should only occur once every 100 years, there are enough of those types of ‘rare events’ that overall, they commonly occur about once every 10 years. As we are currently experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not sufficiently leverage the rich toolset that risk management offers to prepare for and mitigate the resulting uncertainty. This article highlights four aspects of risk management, and their practical and theorical implications. They are: 1) Risk (in the narrower sense), where possible future outcomes can be captured through probability distributions. 2) A situation of uncertainty, where there is transparency regarding what is not known, but probability distributions are unknown, as well as causal relationships influencing the outcome in question. 3) A situation of ignorance, where there is no understanding that certain possible future developments are even relevant. And finally: 4) The emergence of organizational and inter-organizational myopia as an effect of risk, uncertainty and ignorance on collective human behaviour.     

Institutions and business networks: A comparative analysis of the Chinese, Russian, and West European markets

The paper analyses business networks originating from three markets: Chinese, Russian, and West European. So far, little attention has been given to the fact that business networks in particular markets may be dissimilar because of differences among institutions. The paper advances a model where institutions are assumed to influence five major characteristics of business; (1) the processual aspects of the network, (2) the structural aspects of the network, (3) the function of firms and relationships in the network, (4) the meaning of strategy and planning, and (5) social relationships in the context of inter-firm relationships. The analysis builds on three types of substances of institutions — cognitive, normative, and regulative, which in turn are specified according to different aspects. The cognitive substance of business networks is explored through the aspects of self, time, and causality. The normative substance is explored through the aspects of achieved versus ascribed status, inner versus outer direction, universalism versus particularism, and trust. The regulative substance is specified as an authority system and a sanction system. The analysis demonstrates that, as institutions differ in these three markets, the business among them also differs in terms of the five characteristics, and this variation calls for different strategies for firms operating in these markets.     

Causation,counterfactuals, and competitive advantage

Causation is still poorly understood in strategy research, and confusion prevails around key concepts such as competitive advantage. In this paper, we define epistemological conditions that help dispel some of this confusion and provide a basis for more developed approaches. In particular, we argue that a counterfactual approach—one that builds on a systematic analysis of ‘what‐if’ questions—can advance our understanding of key causal mechanisms in strategy research. We offer two concrete methodologies—counterfactual history and causal modeling—as useful solutions. We also show that these methodologies open up new avenues in research on competitive advantage. Counterfactual history can add to our understanding of the context‐specific construction of resource‐based competitive advantage and path dependence, and causal modeling can help to reconceptualize the relationships between resources and performance. In particular, resource properties can be regarded as mediating mechanisms in these causal relationships. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Firm orientations, innovativeness, and business performance: Advancing a system dynamics view following a comment on Hult, Hurley, and Knight's 2004 study

Hult, Hurley, and Knight's [Ind. Mark. Manage. 33 (2004) 429.] study reports correlations for each of the three subfactors of market orientation (competitor orientation, customer orientation, and interfunctional coordination) and innovativenss. However, their report fails to discuss the nature of these relationships. Such findings are worthy of discussion because they support prior evidence demonstrating the centrality of customer orientation in linking competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination with both innovativeness and business performance. Also, the finding that interfunctional coordination relates strongly with innovativeness supports the paradigm shift toward relationship marketing. The point needs mentioning that several different (more than one) standardized effects, structural equation models explain similar amounts of variance of business performance besides the models that Hult et al. examine. Thus, the implication by Hult et al. (p. 436) that “…learning orientation has no significant direct effect on performance” is accurate only for the model tested (shown in their Fig. 2). Applying the “quick clustering” method helps to inform interpretation when nearly all relationships among variables are statistically significant. The present article includes a proposal for advancing from one-directional structural equation modeling of innovativeness and business performance to system dynamics modeling that includes real-world feedback loops.     

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.     

Governance,ownership structure,and performance of IPO firms: the impact of different types of private equity investors and institutional environments

This paper examines performance effects of ownership concentration and two types of private equity investors (venture capitalists and business angels) in firms that have recently undergone an initial public offering (IPO) in the United Kingdom and France. We expand and contextualize nascent understanding of multiple agency theory by examining heterogeneity of private equity investors and by suggesting that multiple agency relationships are affected by different institutional contexts. We employ a unique, hand‐collected dataset of 224 matched IPOs (112 in each country). Controlling for the endogeneity of private equity investors' retained share ownership, we find support for the agency theory argument that concentrated ownership improves IPOs' performance. The research also shows that the two types of private equity investors have a differential impact on performance, and the legal institutions in a given country moderate this impact. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managers' compassionate goals,innovation, and firm performance: an examination of mediating processes,and boundary conditions in small- and medium-sized enterprises

This study aims to examine the relationships of managers' compassionate goals with innovation and performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By integrating social exchange theory with social information processing theory, we hypothesize a serial mediation model in which organizational cooperation and firm innovation sequentially mediate a positive relationship between managers' compassionate goals and firm performance. However, we predict that this positive indirect effect would occur only when managers have low self-image goals and there is a high innovation-supportive work environment. Based on survey data from a sample of 116 SMEs in France, our results provide support for our predictions. This study contributes to the literature by disclosing the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship of managers' compassionate goals with SMEs' innovation and performance. Theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

Strategy,strategy-making,and performance in a business game

In a recent study, Segev (1987) examined the relationships among strategy, strategy-making, and performance, focusing on the connection between two important typologies: Miles and Snow's (1978) concept of strategic types and Mintzberg's (1973) concept of strategy-making modes. The findings of that study clearly indicated links between the two, and partially supported propositions asserting the effects of the strategy/stategy-making fit on organizational performance. In the current study a business game served as the vehicle for examining this tripartite relationship. The two typologies were applied to the firms' in the game, and then an inquiry was made into the relationships between them. An hypothesis regarding the effect of fit on performance was tested, and the findings compared with previously reported empirical results.     

Choice situation,strategy, and performance: A reexamination

This study further examines strategy and performance relationships between and within situations of varying strategic choice and environmental determinism. Contrary to Lawless and Finch's (1989) previous test of Hrebiniak and Joyce's (1985) dynamic, interactive view of organizational adaptation, the results are more in line with the theory. Some discrepancies are found, however, suggesting useful issues and hypotheses for future research.     

Private Labels,National Brands and Food Prices

We study the relationships between national brand prices and the development of private labels, using home-scanned data from a consumer survey reporting purchases for 218 food products. When the impact of private label development is significant (116 cases out of 218), we observe a positive correlation (89%) between brand price and purchases of private labels. When controlling for changes in product quality, we still find a positive relation between private label development and national brand prices. Thus, the change in the national brand product characteristics only partly explains the increase in the national brand prices. Furthermore, the price reactions of national brands differ according to the type of private labels they face. Finally, we demonstrate that the development of private labels has less effect on the prices of second-tier brands than on the prices of the leading brand.