考虑声誉效应的外包中服务商激励机制

在考虑声誉的情形下,建立一个博弈模型,探讨了外包中服务商激励约束机制的内在机理。分析表明：声誉对服务商激励有重要影响,可以提高服务商在前期的努力程度,在某种程度上,声誉效应能很好地解决来自服务商的道德风险问题。同时,文章还提出了基于服务商声誉的约束机制建设的建议。     

Achieving efficiency and effectiveness in Purchasing and Supply Management: Organization design and outsourcing

As a function with a strategic role, Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) needs to continuously find ways to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. One potential way to specifically addressing efficiency targets is to outsource parts of the purchasing process. While outsourcing remains one of the most prevalent business practices in various areas, many businesses fail to realize the benefits anticipated from their outsourcing initiatives. Research reports that one major reason for these outsourcing challenges lies in the design of the focal organization. In this paper, we take an organization design view to outsourcing in the PSM context. Based on a multi-year case study from 2010 to 2013 at a global chemical and pharmaceutical company, we elaborate how the organizational design of the PSM function relates to outsourcing opportunities in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness by allocating internal resources to more value-adding activities. The case illustrates how an activity-based organizational design of PSM can support outsourcing of some parts of the purchasing process.     

The role of organizational control in outsourcing practices: An empirical study

Recent case study research has examined the role of organization control as a critical component of outsourcing performance (Kang et al. 2012a. Journal of Business Research 65, 1195–1201). In contrast to case study methodology, this paper aims to empirically examine the relationships among outsourcing strategies and organizational control in the Chinese context and refine the theoretical and managerial implications of the current research model. Based on data collected from 158 firms operating in China, this paper examines the impact of two types of outsourcing strategies on different organizational control measures. Our findings suggest that for efficiency-seeking outsourcing, output control and process control are appropriate in creating successful outsourcing practices. As for innovation-seeking outsourcing, social control and process control are the most effective options. Theoretical and managerial implications for strategic outsourcing are also discussed.     

The micro-processes of supplier satisfaction: A longitudinal multiple case study

Supplier satisfaction has often been argued to be an important determinant for supplier performance in the buyer-supplier relationship. The micro-processes of how supplier satisfaction develops and how it relates to supplier performance, however, are not well understood. By means of a longitudinal multiple case study design of 18 buyer-supplier relationships, this paper provides insights into the micro-processes of how supplier satisfaction develops. Our findings provide several new insights. First, we observed how supplier satisfaction levels showed little change even though the buyer's behavior did not align with the supplier's expectations, thereby nuancing current conceptualizations of supplier satisfaction being a function of expected and realized relational value. Second, we show how intra organizational dynamics at the supplier influence the relationship between supplier satisfaction and supplier performance. Third, our findings give insights into the complex interplay between the relational and economic antecedents of supplier satisfaction.     

非核心业务外包决策因素研究——外包市场成熟度因素的引入

本文在现有国内外研究成果的基础上,针对非核心业务外包决策中遇到的难题,综合性地提出了一个重要的决策因素——市场成熟度,并且利用因果关系图工具提出了影响外包市场成熟度的五个主要影响因素。同时,针对这些主要影响因素,提出了一些相对应的培育市场的对策。     

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.     

Supply chain integration and operational performance: The contingency effects of production systems

The boundary conditions of supply chain integration (SCI) have been widely studied in order to find out when SCI is applicable and effective. However, prior studies have mainly focused on external contextual factors, such as supply complexity, environmental uncertainty and country-level infrastructure. This study contributes to the SCI literature by examining the contingency effects of internal production systems on the relationship between supplier integration, customer integration and operational performance. Based on organizational information processing theory, we provide evidence to show that the impact of supplier and customer integration on operational performance varies across production systems, such as one-of-a-kind production, batch production and mass production systems. The empirical results also reveal how supplier and customer integration can be matched with different configurations of production systems in order to achieve the desired quality, flexibility, delivery or cost performance.     

Firm performance in dynamic environments: The role of operational slack and operational scope

This study examines the effects of operational scope (breadth of product offering, extent of geographical diversification, and extent to which production processes can effectively meet varying demand) and operational slack (resources in excess of what is required to fulfill expected demand) on firm performance, contingent on two components of a firm's dynamic environment, unpredictability and instability. We collate quarterly data on 3857 publicly traded firms in 19 industries from the years 1991 to 2013 (representing 99,559 firm-quarter observations). Using panel data analysis, we find that narrow product offerings, low geographical diversification, low levels of excess capacity, and low inventory slack are each positively associated with firm performance. More importantly though, we find that operational scope is associated with improved performance in unpredictable environments, whereas operational slack is associated with improved performance in unstable environments. These findings contribute to the research on operations strategy by identifying the industry-specific environmental conditions under which operational slack and operational scope are associated with firm performance.     

The undervaluation of corporate reputation as a supplier selection factor: An analysis of ingredient branding of complex products in the manufacturing industry

Prior research studies on supplier selection factors assess vendor reputation as a low ranked criterion. Reputation in these articles, however, only refers to the position in the industry, without considering the role of the final customer. Our results from a survey with 565 individuals suggest that the end user as a stakeholder should be also considered when analyzing a vendor’s prestige. We demonstrate that a supplier’s standing has negative as well as positive reputational effects on the buyer. Depending on the relevance of the purchased good as well as the reputation of the supplier and the buyer, low/high-ranked ingredients significantly decrease/increase the final customer’s perception of the buyer.     

The new challenges of organizing intellectual property in complex industries: A discussion based on the case of Thales

The defense industries in France and elsewhere have, in recent years, undergone important technological, organizational and institutional changes that have profoundly altered their architectures. These changes have introduced a new division of labor bringing new opportunities for interaction leading to the creation of additional assets. In this context, the issue of protecting innovations and their exploitation has become central. Managing intellectual property rights (IPR) requires industrial groups to draw on additional capabilities. This article analyzes these evolutions and focuses in particular on the new organizational arrangements that have accompanied them. Using the case of Thales, which in 2005 outsourced its Intellectual Property (IP), we answer questions such as: why should IP be outsourced; how should the outsourcing of IP activities be organized; and, how should capabilities involved in this new organizational arrangement be managed. These issues lie at the center of this research and illustrate new challenges inherent to in-house and outsourced IPR management strategies.     

The role of buyer and supplier knowledge stocks for supplier-led improvements in logistics outsourcing

In service outsourcing, supplier-led relationship-specific improvements (RSIs) are vital to buyers, yet, often falls short of the buyer's expectations. One explanation for the lack of such RSIs are insufficient relationship-specific knowledge stocks. However, it is not understood how relationship-specific knowledge stocks facilitate RSIs. Our research addresses this gap by providing a nuanced view of knowledge stocks as relationship-specific resources in service outsourcing. This research is based on a multiple case study of ten logistics outsourcing dyads. The findings build on the Relational View of Dyer and Singh (1998) and extend the understanding of how different types of relationship-specific-knowledge stocks and their sub-dimensions affect proactive and reactive RSIs. In this respect, supplier knowledge of the specific value-creating processes (e.g., logistics processes) at the buyer form the foundational layer for RSIs, flowed by a second layer of supplier knowledge of the buyer company and its up- and downstream interconnections with the customers and other suppliers. The third knowledge-layer is formed by more generic relationships-related market knowledge. In addition, the buyer’s knowledge of the service supplier showed vital in facilitating RSIs by removing barriers that hamper the supplier’s improvement efforts.     

Outsourcing in the IT industry: The case of the Philippines

Outsourcing of labor, especially in area of the Information Technology (IT) sector, has grown rapidly in recent years. This article further defines what is meant by outsourcing, and examines the opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs to outsource in the Philippines. This emerging economy has been cited as one of the most attractive destinations for outsourcing, despite the lack of information. The article offers historical, business, and cultural insights and identifies strategies for outsourcing success in the Philippine environment.     

Outsourcing customer support: The role of provider customer focus

An increasing number of firms are outsourcing customer support to external service providers. This creates a triadic setting in which an outsourcing provider serves end customers on behalf of its clients. While outsourcing presents an opportunity to serve customers, service providers differ in their motivation and ability to fulfill customer needs. Prior research suggests that firms with a strong customer focus have an intrinsic motivation to address customer needs. We suggest that in an outsourcing context, this intrinsic motivation does not suffice. Using a Motivation–Opportunity–Ability framework, we posit that the effect of a provider's customer focus will be moderated by a set of relational, firm, and customer characteristics that affect its ability to serve end customers. We test our conceptualization among 171 outsourcing clients from the Netherlands and then validate these results among 135 Indian outsourcing providers. The findings reveal that customer-focused providers achieve higher levels of customer need fulfillment but this effect is contingent on their ability to serve end customers. In particular, customer-focused providers more effectively fulfill customer needs when clients and providers share close relational ties, when clients also have a high level of customer focus, and when end customer needs exhibit a low degree of turbulence. In addition, we find that, in turbulent markets, equipment-related services offer greater opportunity for effective customer need fulfillment than other outsourced services.     

Antecedents to supplier integration in the automotive industry: A multiple-case study of foreign subsidiaries in China

Supplier integration has become an important concept for improving supply chain performance. The aim of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate and inhibit supplier integration in the context of the Chinese automotive industry. An inductive approach based on grounded theory was chosen as the research methodology, where data was collected through 30 detailed case interviews with subsidiaries of foreign automotive companies operating in China. The results indicate that buyer-side leadership is an important antecedent for building motivation, trust, and commitment among suppliers and for shaping their mindsets. This, in turn, facilitates strategic alignment and enables suppliers to build collaborative capabilities, which are finally shown to be a key enabler for successful supplier integration.     

The differing impacts of operational and financial slack on occupational safety in varying market conditions

Operations management scholars have long debated the right level of slack resources required to optimize a production system. Recent research suggests that the right level of operational slack, typically in the form of inventory, is very little but not none. However, this conclusion was reached without considering the role of slack resources in occupational safety, which is a critical oversight since the safety literature predicts that the reduction of operational slack harms workers. To address this gap, secondary data from 3945 publically listed U.S. firms is used to explore the role of operational and financial slack as well as market factors in occupational safety. The results show that decreasing operational slack harms workers and that this effect is mitigated when firms hold higher levels of financial slack. Furthermore, the external market environment also plays a crucial role in the operational slack – safety relationship.     

Quality management practices and their relationship to buyer’s supplier ratings: a study in the Korean automotive industry

This research explores if quality management practices are different among suppliers whose performance is rated high, medium, or low by a common buying company and identifies which specific practices contribute to the differences. The entire population of first-tier suppliers to a Korean auto assembler was surveyed to measure use of quality management practices. Useable returns were received from 25% of the suppliers surveyed. To measure conformance quality and overall rating, suppliers were categorized into high, medium, and low performing groups based on the buying company’s data. Multivariate analysis of variance was done using general linear model (GLM-MANOVA) to explore differences in the high-, medium-, and low-performing supplier groups based on their use of quality management practices. No statistically significant differences were found when suppliers were categorized based on conformance quality. However, when categorized based on overall rating, the highest rated suppliers were found to emphasize process management and employee satisfaction to a greater degree than the lowest rated suppliers.     

Organizational interfaces and innovation: The challenge of integrating supplier knowledge in LEGO systems

Suppliers have become increasingly important as partners in firms' innovation efforts. Reaping potential collaboration benefits is complex due to challenges in combining internal and external knowledge. The paper explores how various types of organizational interfaces between buyer and supplier create both opportunities and problems for their joint actions. The paper is based on a longitudinal case study of attempts to develop an innovative packaging solution for the toy manufacturer LEGO systems. The study shows that buying firms need to carefully analyse what form of organizational interface access to prioritize since each type offers its specific possibilities and drawbacks. Furthermore, the feasibility of organizational interfaces may change over time due to mutual organizational learning.     

From market to hierarchy: An empirical assessment of a supply chain governance typology

This study performs an empirical assessment of the highly influential supply chain governance typology put forth in Gereffi et al. (2005). In spite of the influence this Global Value Chain (or GVC) Typology has had, there have been few (if any) attempts to empirically assess its alignment with real-world supply chain structures and to establish a baseline for its predictive utility. The GVC Typology is assessed for face and nomological validity through testing of its key dimensions in relation to purchasing-logistics integration and supplier performance measures, using an information-processing theory framework. The GVC Typology appears to have considerable face validity as actual supply chain governance structures aligned well with those it proposes. It also has reasonable predictive power with regards to governance dimensions and integration, and in some connections between governance types, integration, and supplier performance. This study provides researchers with the tools to move this typology beyond the “conceptual” stage in their work, allowing for holistic and higher-level assessments of supply chain governance structures and changes. It may also help researchers and managers to consider when and to what extent purchasing-logistics integration should be fostered.     

Ubiquitous inequality: The home market effect in a multicountry space

We show that spatial inequalities in an economic space of multiple countries in terms of both nominal income and real income are ubiquitous in the sense that they appear when countries are differentiated by population only. A new trade theory model is constructed without any freely traded homogeneous good, so that we can examine the home market effect (HME) and the non-monotonic relation between income inequalities and globalization. Meanwhile, there are three HME definitions for a two-country space in terms of firm share, labor wage, and trade pattern. The first two remain applicable in a multicountry space, and they are shown to be equivalent. However, a natural extension of the third is not equivalent.     

The importance of consumer multihoming (joint purchases) for market performance: Mergers and entry in media markets

Consumer “multihoming” (watching two TV channels, or buying two news magazines) has surprisingly important effects on market equilibrium and performance in (two‐sided) media markets. We show this by introducing consumer multihoming and advertising finance into the classic circle model of product differentiation. When consumers multihome (attend more than one platform), media platforms can charge only incremental value prices to advertisers. Entry or merger leaves consumer prices unchanged under consumer multihoming, but leaves advertiser prices unchanged under single‐homing: Multihoming flips the side of the market on which platforms compete. In contrast to standard circle results, equilibrium product variety can be insufficient under multihoming.