Impact of eBusiness technologies on operational performance: The role of production information integration in the supply chain

While the information technology (IT) literature is mixed regarding the direct benefits of eBusiness technologies on performance, the impact of such technologies on supply chain practices remains largely an unexplored area of research. We hypothesize that while there may be no direct benefit of eBusiness technologies on performance, these technologies might support customer integration and supplier integration in the supply chain, which in turn might impact operating performance.To examine our hypotheses, we collected data from respondents who focused their responses to a single major product the process that manufactures it, a significant customer, and an important supplier. Our analyses showed that there was no direct benefit of eBusiness technologies on performance; however these technologies supported customer integration and supplier integration. Further, supplier integration was found to positively impact cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery performance; however there was no relationship between customer integration and performance. Consequently, there is a relationship between eBusiness technologies and supplier integration that leads to better performance. Further, there is an interactive effect between customer integration and supplier integration that supports the notion that firms that have both forms of integration, supported by eBusiness technologies, significantly outperform the others.     

The influence of contractual and relational factors on the effectiveness of third party logistics relationships

Outsourcing has become popular in both management literature and practice, but few studies have examined the effects of two important and potentially complementary elements – contractual and relational elements – on the effectiveness of logistics outsourcing relationships. It is theorized that contract formality, the thoroughness of contract negotiations, trust and commitment increase the effectiveness of 3PL provider–client relationships. For empirical validation a survey was carried out in the 3PL industry among both 3PL providers and clients. Using PLS path modelling, we observed that for both LSPs and clients, contract formality, trust and commitment are all positively related to relationship effectiveness. The results for negotiation thoroughness are mixed. The model explains 59% (LSPs) and 60% (clients) of the variance in relationship effectiveness. It is concluded that both ‘hard’ contractual aspects and ‘soft’ relationship aspects are important for effective supply chain collaboration. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided.     

The impact of participative leadership on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior: distinguishing between the mediating effects of affective and cognitive trust

This study examines the mediating effects of cognitive trust and affective trust on the relationship between supervisors' participative leadership behavior and subordinate work outcomes, using data obtained from 247 dyads in a manufacturing organization located in mainland China. Structural equation modeling revealed that while affective trust fully mediated the relationships between participative leadership of supervisor and subordinate job performance and organizational citizenship behavior, cognitive trust had non-significant effects. These findings underscore the importance of interpersonal interactions between the supervisor and subordinate for engendering subordinate work outcomes. They also lend support to the exchange (relationship)-based explanation as to how trust enhances the response of subordinates to the participative leadership behavior of their immediate supervisor, given that affective trust involves a process of social exchange between both parties over an extended period of time.     

Effect of purchase volume flexibility and purchase mix flexibility on e-procurement performance: An analysis of two perspectives

Despite the widespread adoption of e-procurement by firms in recent years, academic research examining the mechanisms through which e-procurement applications lead to performance has been scarce. Anecdotal evidence points to numerous situations where companies have failed to harness the potential of e-procurement. In this paper, we argue that online purchase volume and mix flexibilities facilitated by these applications play a significant role in the ability of firms to benefit from e-procurement. We examine this tenet from both an economic as well as a social perspective. We propose that increased online purchase volume flexibility as well as online purchase mix flexibility can be facilitated by two mechanisms – supplier customization as explained by transaction costs perspective, and information sharing between supply chain partners using a social exchange theoretical perspective. The increased purchase volume and mix flexibility in turn leads to better performance along the dimensions of cost, quality, and delivery. We present and test a nuanced perspective where we argue that (i) the effect of supplier customization on both purchase volume and mix flexibilities will be moderated by the frequency of transactions conducted online, and (ii) the effect of information sharing on both purchase volume and mix flexibilities will be moderated by trust in the supplier. We estimate our research model using survey data collected from 130 purchasing and procurement managers. We find strong support for our proposed research model with results indicating that purchase volume and mix flexibilities play a vital mediating role in impacting e-procurement performance. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Barriers to supply chain information integration: SMEs adrift of eLands

The literature extols the potential benefits of supply chain integration and the crucial role of integrated eBusiness to deliver those benefits. However, adoption of eBusiness in supply chains has been slower than expected, particularly in small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper reports findings of a longitudinal study of four supply chains in different sectors over a 4-year period. Specifically it examines the barriers to adoption of eBusiness technologies and therefore to achievement of integrated information in supply chains. Differences between firms in supply chains and between supply chains are examined. The study reveals disparity between existing and planned use of eBusiness by larger downstream firms compared to upstream SMEs. The SMEs are cautious, only planning to invest in eBusiness if dominant downstream customers force them; however, they do not appreciate the full benefits to be gained from eBusiness adoption. The downstream larger businesses are forging ahead with eBusiness in ‘eIsolation’ and are not providing supply chain leadership. They are creating eLands with SMEs adrift of them.     

The effects of supplier-to-buyer identification on operational performance—An empirical investigation of inter-organizational identification in automotive relationships

Over the past decade conceptual and empirical research in operations management has embraced the idea that collaborative supplier-buyer relationships are a source of competitive advantage for manufacturing firms. Anecdotal evidence from the Japanese and U.S. automotive industry and emerging research suggests that inter-organizational identification of suppliers with their buyers, termed supplier-to-buyer identification, is an unexplored factor of relational advantage. This study presents a model and empirical test that supplier-to-buyer identification fosters superior operational performance by enhancing trust, supplier relation-specific investments, and information exchange. Through a survey of 346 automotive supplier-buyer relationships, the findings show that supplier-to-buyer identification directly impacts supplier relationship-specific investments and information exchange, although most of the latter effect is mediated by trust. The findings also indicate that supplier relation-specific investments and information exchange play different but complementary roles in influencing operational performance. The results suggest new directions for supplier-buyer relationship research in operations management and important managerial implications.     

试论服务业差异化竞争模式与服务标准化

服务商对差异化竞争战略的选择主要受制于博弈双方目标客户群体的交叉程度、服务商与目标客户群体的信息对称程度两大因素。按两大因素的状态进行组合,可得到服务商竞争关系矩阵图。服务商要降低来自其他服务商的竞争强度,就必须提高自身产品的差异化程度,提高与目标客户群体的信息对称程度,搞好与目标客户群体的信息沟通,加强服务业的标准化建设。     

前瞻性人格对员工变革行为的影响:组织公平气氛的调节效应

角色外行为可以分为归属性行为和挑战性行为两类。员工变革行为属于挑战性角色外行为。学术界重点关注员工变革行为的影响因素和形成机制。关于员工变革行为的影响因素,以往学者主要从个体和环境两个层面来分析。文章着重探讨前瞻性人格(个体因素)、组织公平气氛(环境因素)分别对员工变革行为的影响,以及环境因素在个体因素与员工变革行为之间的跨层次调节效应;关于控制变量的分析结论表明,任职年限、职务级别、教育程度等人口学变量对变革行为具有显著影响;关于主效应的分析结论表明,前瞻性人格正向影响员工变革行为,组织公平气氛也正向影响员工变革行为;关于交互效应的分析结论表明,组织公平气氛正向调节前瞻性人格对变革行为的影响。     

国际服务外包中提供商的信任与发包商的合作演化研究

以跨国公司全球价值链重构下的国际服务外包为背景,从发包方的角度出发,针对212家在中国的国际服务外包企业有效问卷的调查数据,探究来自服务提供商的信任与作为发包商的跨国公司合作之间的演化关系。实证结果表明:计算信任对关系信任有显著的正向影响;计算合作对关系合作有显著的正向影响;关系信任可以获取跨国公司的任何类型的合作,而计算信任需要通过关系信任等途径才能实现对于跨国公司合作的积极影响;外包双方均太注重利益计算,不利于合作关系的建立。在对跨国公司合作的影响效果上,关系信任高于计算信任,因此,为了获取跨国公司的合作,接包企业更应加强关系信任的培养。     

Business service firms,service space and the management of change

The growth of business service firms represents the latest stage in a continuing twentieth century process of technological and organizational restructuring of production and labour skills. It is associated with the rising information intensiveness of production and the development of an economy of signs. Business service activities located in service spaces drive innóva.tions both in production technology and in management systems. The co-presence of business service firms with their clients as well as other business service firms shapes the possibilities of trust between them. A detailed case study of the way in which large client firms utilize the services of independent business service companies is provided. This is followed by an examination of the relationship between small firms and business service expertise. A dual information economy may be developing in which large firms are able to search for specialist business service expertise irrespective of its location, while SMEs are tied into local providers of more generalist expertise.     

The bright side and dark side of trust: The mediating effect of franchisor trust on performance

Previous literature has not examined the dual role of trust in franchise relationships. We extend the franchise and relational governance literature by showing that trust has both a “bright side” and a “dark side” in franchisor–franchisee relationships. Based on transaction cost and knowledge-based reasoning, we argue that intangible knowledge assets and environmental uncertainty have an indirect effect on performance via trust, due to its relational risk and knowledge exchange effect. Using data from the franchise sector in Germany, we show that trust positively mediates the impact of intangible knowledge assets and negatively mediates the impact of environmental uncertainty on franchisor performance. The first effect refers to the “bright side” of trust showing that intangible brand name assets increase trust which, in turn, has a positive effect on performance. Conversely, the second effect refers to the “dark side” of trust highlighting that environmental uncertainty diminishes trust resulting in a negative effect on performance.     

Serving two organizations: Exploring the employment relationship of contracted employees

Although growth has occurred in contract employment arrangements both in the public and private sectors, scant research has been conducted on the organizations and employees affected by these arrangements.This study examines the employment relationship of long‐term contracted employees using a social exchange framework. Specifically, we examine the effects of employee perceptions of organizational support from contracting and client organizations on their (a) affective commitment to each organization and (b) service‐oriented citizenship behavior. We also examine whether felt obligation toward each organization mediates this relationship. Our sample consists of 99 long‐term contracted employees working for four contracting organizations that provide services to the public on behalf of a municipal government. Results indicate that the antecedents of affective commitment are similar for the client and contracting organization. Employee perceptions of client organizational supportiveness were positively related to felt obligation and commitment to the client organization. Client felt obligation mediated the effects of client perceived organizational support (POS) on the participation dimension of citizenship behavior. Our study provides additional support for the generalizability of social exchange processes to nontraditional employment relationships. Implications for managing long‐term contracted employees are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of generalized and institutional trust on donating to activist,leisure, and interest organizations: individual and contextual effects

In this paper, we answer the question as to what extent donating to activist, interest, and leisure organizations is affected by both individual and national levels of generalized and institutional trust. We use the European Social Survey 2002 to estimate multilevel random intercept models, based on more than 33 000 individuals living in 19 European countries and the USA. Our results show very consistent positive impacts of both individual generalized trust and institutional trust on donating to all types of organizations. The effects are strongest for donating to activist organizations and absent only for the relation between institutional trust and donating to interest organizations. At the national level, generalized trust positively affects donations to activist and leisure organizations, but not to interest organizations. Institutional trust at the national level is negatively related to donations to all types of organizations. This latter finding suggests that when institutions are perceived to function well, individuals estimate that their philanthropic donations are less needed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi-level impacts on perceived career opportunity from global integration: human capital development within internal institutional environments

Using human capital and institutional theories, we analyze the impacts of individual- and office-level factors on the career perceptions of employees in a globally integrated firm. More specifically, we examine factors related to both employee human capital and their institutional operating environments that might influence whether employees perceive that their careers would benefit from greater global integration of their company. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from 398 employees nested within 44 offices in 15 countries, collected from a single multinational company. We find evidence that two of our hypothesized human capital-related factors (shared clients and service years) at the individual level and three of our institutionally-based predictors at the office level (office size, office centrality and client multinationality) have significant impacts on perceived career benefits from global integration. We also find marginal significance for a fourth office-level factor (office performance). This study contributes to the relatively limited literature on local employee career perceptions, while also helping to reconcile different streams of literature by simultaneously examining multiple levels of analysis. By utilizing hierarchical linear analysis, the study is able to differentiate between individual- and office-level effects.     

The impact of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance

Although information technologies have been expected to directly enhance firm performance in specific value chain activities (e.g., supplier performance or customer service performance), their advanced capabilities offer the promise of organizational integration and spill-over benefits. Enterprise systems provide firms with platforms for electronically integrating their supplier and demand chain activities. Spill-over benefits refer to the impacts that occur when IT investments in one organizational domain benefit performance in a different value chain side of the firm. Supply-side electronic integration (SEI) refers to the use of electronic means to integrate the exchange of information and transactions with suppliers through enterprise systems. In our research, we examine whether SEI generates spill-over effects on customer service performance, over and beyond firms’ direct investments in customer-side digitization. We also examine whether structural attributes of the firm (e.g., vertical integration, diversification, and centralization) moderate the effects of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance. Our analysis of a secondary dataset of InformationWeek 500 firms shows that SEI helps firms realize cost-savings in their customer service performance, especially if they are less vertically integrated. In addition, SEI investments help diversified and centralized firms achieve cross-selling with their customers. We also find that SEI is more likely to help decentralized and diversified firms achieve customization in their customer service activities. These results suggest that SEI helps firms achieve twin goals in customer service: cost reduction and revenue expansion. Overall, our research reveals how supply-side electronic integration could generate benefits in customer service performance in firms.     

Customization of the online purchase process in electronic retailing and customer satisfaction: An online field study

This paper investigates the customization of the online purchase process in electronic retailing. We conceptualize customization relevant to the two constituent sub-processes in the online purchase process: (i) decision customization—the customization of the information content delivered to customers to help them in the decision-making sub-process; and (ii) transaction customization—the customization of the purchase transaction sub-process for each customer. We draw on and synthesize the theoretical perspectives of Website Usability, Technology Acceptance Model, and Transaction Costs, to triangulate and deduce hypotheses linking customization of the online purchase process in electronic retailing and customer satisfaction. The hypotheses are tested by analyzing: (i) primary data on customization of the online purchase process collected from an online field study involving a direct observation and content analysis of the websites of 422 retailers; and (ii) secondary data on customer satisfaction with the online purchase process for the same set of 422 electronic retailers collected from a publicly available data source. The research method used for the empirical analysis is Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA). The results indicate that decision customization that provides choice assistance by way of personalized product recommendations is positively associated with customer satisfaction with the decision-making sub-process; and transaction customization, oriented towards making the transaction sub-process personal, convenient, and interactive is positively associated with customer satisfaction with the purchase transaction sub-process. Additionally, the results indicate that both decision customization and transaction customization are associated with overall customer satisfaction with the online purchase process of electronic retailers. The contributions, managerial implications, and limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Work outcomes of relational demography in Chinese vertical dyads

Relational demography refers to the demographic differences (such as gender, age, race, and tenure) between supervisor and subordinate. This study examines its impact on employees' work outcomes in the setting of a foreign-invested enterprise in China. We hypothesize that dissimilarities on demographic attributes between supervisor and subordinate affect subordinate's leader–member exchange, trust in organization, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behavior. The hypotheses were tested on 239 supervisor–subordinate dyads via a questionnaire survey. The results of regression analysis showed that dissimilarities in gender and organizational tenure had negative effects on the outcome variables. In particular, a female supervisor with male subordinate displayed the lowest level of leader–member exchange and trust in the organization. Implications of these findings on human resource management are discussed.     

Establishing the use of cloud computing in supply chain management

Despite having various benefits associated with greater information flow in the supply chain, empirical cloud computing research is scarce in the supply chain management domain. This paper explores the managerial perceptions on the use of cloud computing in supply chain management. Specifically, this paper seeks to address: how cloud computing impacts information sharing among supply chain partners, the impact of trust in cloud information sharing and the impact of cloud computing on supply chain performance. Using a multi-method research design we present a combined semi-structured interviews of four different companies in the United States and a survey to analyze and empirically assess our results. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the results of this study. Our analysis provides empirical support based on managerial perceptions regarding cloud computing, information sharing and supply chain performance. The data provide evidence on the impact of cloud computing in enhancing information sharing. This information sharing through cloud computing appears to positively impact supply chain performance. This paper also provides support on the important role of inter-organizational trust in facilitating the use of cloud computing for information sharing purposes.     

Environmental and Firm Level Influences on Inter‐Organizational Trust and SME Performance

We investigate the effects of focal firm knowledge intensity and uncertainty on inter‐organizational trust and subsequent performance of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). We integrate the trust literature with transaction cost literature as both of these offer partial explanations of the dynamics of inter‐organizational trust in the context of an SME. We propose that knowledge intensity of the focal firm will have a positive relationship while uncertainty will have a negative relationship with inter‐organizational trust in an exchange relationship. Further, we propose a positive relationship between trust and SME performance, which will be contingent on the level of external and internal uncertainty faced by the focal firm. Empirical evidence, based on the survey data of 565 German SMEs, mostly supports our arguments.     

Can interfirm trust improve firms' cooperation on environmental innovation? The moderating role of environmental hostility

Based on the logic of “trust‐behavior,” we examined the relationship between interfirm cognitive trust, emotional trust, and firms' cooperation on environmental innovation, as well as the moderating role of environmental hostility on the relationship between two dimensions of interfirm trust and cooperation on environmental innovation. Data for the study were collected from 216 firms in China. The results indicated that both interfirm cognitive trust and emotional trust were positively correlated to firms' cooperation on environmental innovation, and the effect of emotional trust on firms' cooperation on environmental innovation was negatively moderated by environmental hostility. Finally, the results were discussed and future directions put forward.