Organizational values and procedures as antecedents for goal interdependence and collaborative effectiveness

Organizational values of people and respect and interdependent structures of team procedures and task interdependence may help departments believe their goals are cooperative and thereby coordinate effectively. CEOs in China completed measures of their organization’s values and interdependent structures and their Vice-Presidents completed measures of the department’s goal interdependence (cooperative, competitive, and independent) and collaborative effectiveness. Structural equation analysis suggested that values and interdependent structures promote cooperative, but not competitive or independent, goals that in turn results in collaborative effectiveness. These results, coupled with previous research, were interpreted as suggesting that people and respect values, team procedures, task interdependence, and cooperative goals are complementary foundations for synergy in China and perhaps other countries as well.

Motivating R&D team creativity: the social cognitive effect of external developmental feedback and internal goal interdependence

The relationship between external communication and R&D team creativity has received increasing attention in the R&D management literature. However, little is known about the motivational mechanism between the two. We propose a second-stage moderation model based on social cognitive theory to explain whether, how and when R&D team’s external developmental feedback motivates its creativity. Using the data gathered from 452 R&D team members and 84 supervisors in a time-lagged field study, we found external developmental feedback had a positive effect on R&D team creativity via increasing team creative efficacy. Further, conditional indirect effect analyses found that a high level of cooperative goal interdependence strengthened the positive effect of team creative efficacy on R&D team creativity and the mediating effect of team creative efficacy between external developmental feedback and R&D team creativity.     

Policies and practices for aquaculture food safety in China

There are growing concerns over the safety of aquaculture food products from China, which supplies 70% of the world’s farmed fish food. We present a comprehensive literature review, supplemented with qualitative data obtained from interviews with experts in the field, to examine the policies and practices designed to ensure the safety of food produced by the Chinese aquaculture industry. The food safety system has many parts that are administered by different governmental organizations with poor coordination among them. The system apparently operates as two entities: one for products destined for the export market and based largely on the requirements of importing countries, and the other with lower standards and levels of enforcement for domestic market products. The top-down approach focuses more on the end product rather than the production practices. There are several indications that regulations pertaining to antibiotic use are not being followed. Recent events have brought the issue of overall food safety to the attention of the Chinese public and the Government is acting positively towards addressing deficiencies of the system. Chief among these is the Food Safety Law which comes into effect in June, 2009. But the central government must work in concert with provincial and local authorities to improve the infrastructure for inspecting and tracking food from farms to the end consumers to ensure a greater degree of safety of aquatic food for the Chinese population.     

影响安全教育的心理因素及对策

煤矿属于采掘业．生产环境特殊．脏累险威胁着职工的生命安全。所以．对职工的安全教育显得尤其重要?虽然多年来．国家不断完善安全教育法规．企业不断完善安全教育制度．并同经济手段相结合。但是，所有这些取得的安全教育效果并不明显。笔者根据多年的实践经验．总结出影响安全教育的心理因素及对策。     

Business and government interdependence in China: Cooperative goals to develop industries and the marketplace

Although government withdrawal from business has traditionally been considered a key reform in developing a market economy, the Chinese government remains active. This study uses the social psychological theory of cooperation and competition to analyze the interdependence between government and business. Structural equation results of interviews of specific incidents collected from 105 government officials and business people in Shanghai, China, support the model that cooperative, but not competitive or independent, goals induce open-minded discussions that in turn strengthen their relationships, accomplish tasks, foster confidence they will work productively in the future, and develop their industry and the marketplace.

Modeling heterogeneity in consumer preferences for select food safety attributes in China

Food safety issues often arise from asymmetric information between consumers and suppliers with regards to product-specific attributes. Severe food safety scandals were observed recently in China. These events not only caused direct economic and life losses, but also created distrust in the Chinese food system domestically, as well as internationally. While much attention has focused on the problems plaguing the Chinese government’s food inspection system, little research has been dedicated to analyzing Chinese consumers’ concerns surrounding food safety. In this paper, we measure consumer preferences for select food safety attributes in pork and take food safety risk perceptions into account. Several choice experiment models, including latent class and random parameters logit, are constructed to capture heterogeneity in consumer preferences. Our results suggest that Chinese consumers have the highest willingness-to-pay for a government certification program, followed by third-party certification, a traceability system, and a product-specific information label. The results of this study call for the direct involvement of the Chinese government in the food safety system. A stricter monitoring system will not only improve consumer well-being in the short-run, but also restore consumers’ trust leading to a social welfare increase in the long run.     

Food safety and development of the beef industry in China

Food safety concerns have escalated in China as they have elsewhere, especially in relation to meats. Beef production and consumption has increased proportionately faster than all other meats over the last two decades. Yet the slaughtering, processing and marketing of beef remains, for the most part, extremely primitive when compared with Western beef supply chains. By comparing the economics of household slaughtering with that of various types of abattoirs, this paper explains why household slaughtering and wet markets still dominate beef processing and distribution in China. The negative economic, social and industry development implications of enforcing more stringent food safety regulations are highlighted. The willingness/capacity of consumers to pay the added cost of better inspection and other services to guarantee food safety is investigated. In this context, the paper also evaluates the market opportunities for both domestic and imported “Green Beef”. The paper questions the merit of policy initiatives aimed at modernising Chinese beef supply chains for the mass market along Western lines.     

我国农村饮水安全技术标准发展动态及需求分析

概述我国农村饮水工作的发展历程及主要成就;介绍我国农村饮水领域标准的发展情况,列出在此期间颁布实施的技术标准,分析这些技术标准对农村饮水工作发展发挥的重要作用。探讨现行标准中存在的一些问题,并针对这些问题,提出今后我国农村饮水安全领域,需要研制的关键技术及与之配套的技术标准。     

The relationships among leadership,goal orientation,and service quality in high-contact service industries: An empirical study

High-contact service industries are characterized by close interaction between service employees and customers, and diverse customer needs. Such characteristics pose a great challenge to the delivery of services of superior quality. In this research we conceptually explore and empirically examine several attitudinal and motivational factors of customer-contact employees, and the management style of managers as antecedents to service quality in high-contact service sectors. Based on dyadic data collected from 230 service firms in Hong Kong, we examine the relationships among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, affective organizational commitment, learning goal orientation, performance goal orientation, and service quality. We find that learning goal orientation is more effective than performance goal orientation in fostering service quality in the high-contact service context. We also observe that transformational leadership tends to be more effective than transactional leadership in influencing employee attitude in high-contact service firms. This research pioneers theory-driven examination of service quality in high-contact service firms using data collected from service employees and shop managers for hypothesis testing.     

Social capital and innovation in R&D teams: the mediating roles of psychological safety and learning from mistakes

The relationship between social capital and R&D team innovation has received increasing attention in the literature. However, little is known about the mechanisms between the two. This study aims to narrow the gap by investigating the mediating roles of psychological safety and learning from mistakes between the three dimensions of social capital and innovation at team level. Our sample comprised 151 R&D teams with 585 members from nine Chinese high‐tech companies. The results showed that psychological safety and learning from mistakes (LFM) partially mediated the relationship between the structural and cognitive capital and innovation in R&D teams, and fully mediated the relationship between the relational capital and innovation in R&D teams. We further discussed subsequent managerial implications and future research directions.     

A novel differential evolution algorithm for joint replenishment problem under interdependence and its application

In this paper, we propose a new differential evolution (DE) algorithm for joint replenishment of inventory using both direct grouping and indirect grouping which allows for the interdependence of minor ordering costs. Since solutions to the joint replenishment problem (JRP) can be represented by integer decision variables, this makes the JRP a good candidate for the DE algorithm. The results of testing randomly generated problems in contrastive numerical examples and two extended experiments show that the DE algorithm provides close to optimal results for some problems than the evolutionary algorithm (EA), which has been proved to be an efficient algorithm. Moreover, the DE algorithm is faster than the EA for most problems. We also conducted a case study and application results suggest that the proposed model is successful in decreasing total costs of maintenance materials inventories significantly in two power companies.     

Spillovers and competition among foreign and local firms in China

Combining the FDI spillover literature with a competitor analysis framework, we examine the relative size of spillover and competition effects in China between foreign entrants and local firms, among foreign entrants, and among local firms. Our results show that the increased presence of foreign entrants has generally benefited local firms nationally, but has negatively affected the survival rates of local firms in regional markets. Surprisingly, foreign entrants are crowded out not only by their peers, but also by reformed local firms at both the national and regional levels. Copyright © 2008 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.     

Power and interdependence in buyer supplier relationships: A purchasing portfolio approach

Power and interdependence are generally considered to be important concepts for understanding buyer-supplier relationships. Yet, empirical research on power and interdependence in buyer-supplier relationships is still limited. Power and interdependence issues also play an important role in Kraljic's portfolio approach, which is increasingly used by purchasing practitioners for managing different supplier relations and developing appropriate purchasing strategies. In this paper, the concepts of power and interdependence have been quantified for each quadrant of the Kraljic portfolio matrix, using data from a comprehensive survey among Dutch purchasing professionals. Several hypotheses have been tested and the findings largely confirm the theoretical expectations. The observed supplier dominance in the strategic quadrant of the Kraljic matrix is a notable finding, which indicates that even satisfactory partnerships are dominated by the supplier. Therefore, the presumed power symmetry of buyer-supplier relationships in the strategic quadrant seems no longer valid.     

大禹水利科技奖信息系统的设计与实现

笔者参与研究开发了《大禹奖网络申报评审系统》合同项目。该项目的实施对推动大禹水利科技奖（以下简称大禹奖）申报评审工作现代化的进程有重要意义。文中阐述了系统的工作环境,网络申报评审管理工作程序,系统的处理流程,系统结构及系统的主要特点和实施步骤。     

Shared ownership and pricing in a network switch

We observe that many wholesale switches in automated teller machine (ATM) networks are jointly owned by their members and that this tends to occur more frequently when the wholesale industry is highly concentrated. We also observe that network switches are ‘natural monopolies’, their costs being largely fixed and their demand exhibiting substantial network externalities. Motivated by these observations, we model the competition for members between wholesale switches and the role joint ownership can play in attracting members. The model analyzes both the adoption decision (which network a bank chooses to join) and the subsequent pricing of switch and ATM services. We compare competition between two solely owned switches with competition between one solely owned and one jointly owned switch. Our analysis shows that a more concentrated structure results under the latter and that retail prices are higher. This calls into question the leniency of antitrust policy toward jointly owned structures.     

Structural and relational influences on the role of reward interdependence in product innovation

This study examines the relationship between reward interdependence, or the extent to which managers' rewards are tied to the performance of colleagues in other functions, and product innovation. It also considers how structural and relational features of the organizational context might moderate this relationship. Our analysis of a sample of Canadian‐based firms reveals a positive relationship between reward interdependence and product innovation that is invigorated at higher levels of job rotation, social interaction, and interactional fairness, but we find no evidence of a moderating effect of decision autonomy. Consistent with a systems approach to organizational contingencies, we also find that the reward interdependence–product innovation relationship is stronger when the organization's context comes closer to an ‘ideal’ holistic configuration that is most conducive to knowledge exchange within the organization, with a more prominent role played by the relational sub‐context (social interaction and interactional fairness) than the structural sub‐context (job rotation and decision autonomy). The findings have important implications for innovation research as they shed light on how the extent to which individual rewards are tied to collective performance can be channeled to enhance innovation pursuits.     

Common purpose and divided loyalties: the risks and rewards of cross-sector collaboration for academic and government researchers

International evidence shows that research is increasingly being carried out in organisational forms built around cross-sectoral (government, academic and business) and transdisciplinary teams with well-defined national social, economic or environmental objectives in view. As a result, new and unfamiliar forms of organisational arrangements for research are emerging within universities and elsewhere. These collaborative research centres have been variously termed 'hybrid' or 'parasitic'. This paper draws upon around 30 in-depth interviews with participants from selected Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC). It examines how researchers reconcile the many demands of their dual role, first, as a government researcher or academic, and second as a committed participant in an industry-collaborative research centre. These collaborations go beyond 'applied research' to span fundamental research and immediately useful knowledge. But reward systems and performance measures for academic researchers are still founded largely on 'discovery', while those for government researchers are based upon 'application'. The risk is that researchers will be deflected by the collaboration in ways that conflict with their institutional responsibilities. The paper reports work analysing the management strategies used by the CRCs and their public sector partners to ensure that their common goals are achieved while preserving their institutional interests and the expectations of their research staff. The aim is to identify effective ways of managing the various 'risks' of cross-sector collaborative research and development (R&D) in Australia and more widely.     

Shifting the goal posts for design management in capital goods projects: 'design for maintainability'

Two case studies of capital goods projects, both of which were faced with new forms of demand for their products, are reported in this paper. In both cases, the contracting organisations involved were adjusting to new customer requirements for the long-term provision of the services associated with the capital goods they normally produced, rather than for the capital goods themselves. While both contracting organisations recognised the need to re-focus their equipment design efforts, to reflect the need for long-term service reliability (both contracting organisations were tied to penalties associated with agreed service levels), they nevertheless responded differently to this challenge, and their differing responses reflected the differing natures of the extended networks which comprised both projects and the organisational architectures in which the projects were themselves embedded. The paper explores the differing opportunities and barriers to the management of design in complex projects presented by these two case studies. In so doing it points to the conclusion that successful design management in complex projects can depend upon the successful management of the (multiple) contexts in which design takes place.