Factors affecting current users’ attitude towards e-auctions in China: An extended TAM study

E-auctions have the potential to gain a larger market share of the C2C sector by increasing participation of current users. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that impact attitude towards e-auctions among current Chinese e-auction users. Variables of the extended technology acceptance model and their antecedents were examined. Data were collected from 210 current users of e-auctions in China. Using structural equation modeling, the results highlighted key antecedents, such as security, social motives, and playfulness, suggesting the importance of creating a safe, interactive, and fun e-auction platform. Connection speed and economic gain as influential factors were also identified.     

Service innovation: Inward and outward related activities and cooperation mode

Knowledge of how customers co-create value, the way that suppliers and providers co-produce services, and how research and development centers and universities transfer technologies is becoming increasingly important to scholars' understanding of service innovation. This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between inward and outward innovation activities in service organizations and their modes of innovation, using network innovation premises and an extended innovation model. Empirical data from retail, health and education sector service organizations show the existence of a relationship between the degree of development of the inward innovation process and the degree of development of outward innovation activities. The majority of service organizations have innovation processes with an orientation toward customers and suppliers rather than other service network members, and leading service organizations follow a path that the literature defines as oriented toward the service value network. Findings lead to implications of how innovation managers could develop their internal innovation capacity to balance inward and outward activities properly.     

Inter-firm learning and knowledge-sharing in multinational networks: An outsourced organization's perspective

This research provides insights into how learning and knowledge are exchanged multinationally between customer firms and their outsourced suppliers who provide non-core, yet essential, services. The paper seeks to understand: (1) how information is exchanged in these networks; (2) how cumulative knowledge adds value in these networks; and (3) how boundary-spanners assist in the dissemination of knowledge and learning within the network. Based on a pharmaceutical industry case, the results suggest that: (a) multinational firms operate more effectively and interact by sharing knowledge with outsourced firms which reflect the customers' structure and fit; (b) networked firms benefit from interactions through economies of scope, but knowledge is not necessarily shared equally among partners; (c) learning and knowledge-sharing interactions are tightly coupled at the product development stage; and (d) outsourced firms interact with external boundary-spanners as needed. The research provides insights for managers of multinational organizations and managers of firms from where essential services are outsourced.     

An Empirical Study of Environmental Awareness and Practices in SMEs

With increasing awareness of environmental issues, there has been rising demand for environmental-friendly business practices. Prior research has shown that the implementation of environmental management practices is influenced by existing and potential stakeholder groups in the form of external pressures from legislators, environmental groups, financial institutions and suppliers, as well as internally by employees and owner/manager attitudes and knowledge. However, it has been reported that despite business owner/managers having strong “green” attitudes, the level of implementation of environmental-friendly practices is low. In order to explore the connection between pressures for improved practices and the management actions taken, this article examines how influence from various stakeholders is related to awareness of environmental issues, and how this awareness relates to actions taken within the businesses to reduce the environmental impact of their operations. The results indicate that legislation does result in general environmental awareness, and that organizations are then willing to␣change their business processes and environmental strategies. However, despite their actions they have little awareness of the benefits that might arise from cost reductions from their environmental-friendly practices. Those influenced by their suppliers act to reduce waste, but do not put into place formal environmental management systems, or use environmental messages to market their goods or services. Nevertheless, it can be argued that they have a real commitment to environmental issues, as evidenced by a willingness to voluntarily contribute to environmental organizations.     

Integrating global and local procurement for superior supplier working relations

Globalization is forcing global organizations to focus on processes that will enable them to more effectively and efficiently integrate and coordinate their activities throughout their worldwide organization. As such, global sourcing is becoming a standard practice in many global organizations. Using a dataset of 1455 observations from the suppliers of a North American-based global manufacturer of high technology products, this research evaluates how a global company can utilize a globally integrated procurement organization to achieve global and local sourcing responsiveness and superior supplier working relations. The study found that if a global procurement organization aspires to achieve exceptional supplier working relations, it should be highly integrated across its geographic regions with knowledgeable global and local procurement personnel who effectively communicate with the firm's suppliers, while working closely together in a coordinated manner to achieve a globally responsive supply chain.     

Customers,marketing and the network organization

Customers are becoming more demanding. Network organizations are emerging which embrace customers, and are more flexible and responsive to their needs. CEO's increasingly regard customers as part of the organization. Customers are too important to be “left” to one or two directors and their divisions. CEO's are requiring everyone to focus upon the requirements of customers. To help achieve this, organizations are seeking ways of linking remuneration and performance assessment to customer satisfaction. Increasingly customers assume reliability and performance. Quality of itself may no longer differentiate alternative suppliers. In markets in which all suppliers have their quality programmes, managers need to consider what lies beyond quality. Reason is no longer enough. Less tangible factors such as feelings, emotions and values need to be understood. CEO's question whether marketing departments can respond to these and other challenges and help facilitate the changes they are seeking.     

Customer Participation and Project Performance: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing in the Chinese Telecommunication Service Industry

Purpose: Extant literature has devoted more attention to customer value co-creation and knowledge sharing, not only in business-to-customer (B2C) markets, but also in business-to-business (B2B) markets. This study explores and examines the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing in the context of B2B markets by applying the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework.

Methodology/Approach: This empirical study involves two structured surveys of project managers from both suppliers (n = 213) and customers (n = 312), which were conducted in the context of the Chinese telecommunication service industry. The conceptual model of this study was subsequently tested by developing Partial Least Squares (PLS) based structural equation models.

Findings: It was found that customer knowledge sharing is facilitated by four MOA factors: customer orientation, customer perceived benefits, customer socialization, and customer technological capability. It was determined that knowledge sharing has a direct and significant effect on project performance. Furthermore, the study revealed that such relationships vary across suppliers and customers.

Research Implications: This study extends the existing research stream of interfirm knowledge sharing by examining the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing from dual perspectives of customers and suppliers, and sheds light on the benefits of customer knowledge sharing. The dyadic perspective embodied in this design facilitates our understanding and management of knowledge sharing between organizations.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This article provides an important contribution to the existing literature of customer knowledge sharing by revealing how to effectively facilitate interorganizational knowledge sharing, particularly knowledge from customers to suppliers, and discovers conditions under which customers are more likely to exchange information, and share knowledge with their suppliers from the dyadic perspective.     

Addressing skills mismatch: Utilizing talent supply chain management to enhance collaboration between companies and talent suppliers

Talent management continues to be a topic of interest for employers who face significant challenges dealing with the uncertainty of the supply and demand of talent in organizations. In particular, employers often speak of a talent gap that exists between the skills possessed by applicants and the skills needed in organizations. Supply chain management (SCM), a field that focuses on matching product supply with consumer demand, offers several concepts and models that could apply to and help resolve issues related to the skills mismatch. In order to address this issue, we base our conceptual development on a theoretical framework used in SCM called the collaborative, planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR) approach. We use this approach to develop a comprehensive model of talent supply chain management (TSCM) that applies concepts related to the field of SCM to managing the development and flow of talent. We further go on to describe how organizations can utilize TSCM to enhance connections with talent suppliers to get their labor demands fulfilled with individuals who have the necessary skills for success.     

Implementing Supplier Codes of Conduct in Global Supply Chains: Process Explanations from Theoretic and Empirical Perspectives

Western buying companies impose Supplier Codes of Conduct (SCC) on their suppliers in developing countries; however, many suppliers cannot fully comply with SCC and some of them even cheat in SCC. In this research, we link contract characteristics – price pressure, production complexity, contract duration – to the likelihood of supplier’s commitment to SCC through a mediating process: how the buying companies govern their suppliers. Our structural equation model analysis shows that the hierarchy/relational norms governance is a perfect mediator of contract characteristics’ effects on the likelihood of supplier’s commitment; the market governance, an insignificant one. The managerial implications are provided for successfully implementing SCC in global supply chains.     

Disruptions in Supply Networks: A Probabilistic Risk Assessment Approach

Supply disruptions are attracting growing attention. Even in geographically, politically and economically stable locations, companies are exposed to disruptions, because they depend on their suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers. The analysis of these disruptions helps mitigate risks: for example, instead of relying on local measures such as safety stock or insurance, a company can introduce new supply contracts or backup risky suppliers. In this article, we analyze risks caused by supplier disruptions by introducing concepts from probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), which is a widely employed methodology for the risk analysis of complex engineering systems. We apply PRA to examine simple networks such as triads analytically, and use simulation to analyze disruption risks in random networks of realistic size. We also illustrate how PRA can support strategic decisions such as whether or not to use single or multiple suppliers; which suppliers are more risky than others; and what impacts the complexity of the supply base has on the reliability of the supplier network.     

AN ANALYSIS OF SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATIONS AND THEIR EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES

This research examined how operational outcomes, relational outcomes and business performance are affected by a collaboration project between buyers and suppliers in a supply chain. It is hypothesized that interdependence of knowledge and process, supply chain partner insight, and the level of collaboration between the firms affect the outcomes of a collaboration project. Survey data from buyers and suppliers from a wide range of industries and organizations were used in this analysis. Among these participants, higher levels of collaboration led to improvements in operational and relational outcomes, which together led to improvements in asset utilization, competitive position, organizational performance, and profitability.     

Close to the customer: But is it really a relationship?

Everyone is developing relationships. Customers are being invited to have relationships with telephone companies, banks, auto dealers, airlines, and other suppliers of products and services. Relationship marketing is being touted as an effective strategy to guide companies into the next millennium. Recently there has been widespread reference to relationship marketing in the popular literature, and the concept has been embraced by many companies and organizations. There is little consensus, however, on what the concept means and even less consistency in how it is practised. What is relationship marketing? Practising marketers and articles in the trade press use the term in one way, while authors in academic journals seem often to be referring to something quite different. This paper reviews how the concept has been viewed by marketing authors and draws from social psychology to shed light on the characteristics of relationships. Some insights are drawn from a preliminary analysis of the results of focus group interviews that suggest how consumers describe their relationships with businesses.     

Using customer relationships to acquire technological innovation: A value-chain analysis of supplier contracts with scientific research institutions

In this exploratory research, a value-chain analysis is used to investigate how industrial suppliers working with the European Research Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) gain benefits resulting from technological innovation. The results suggest that while the impact of contracts with CERN on suppliers' short-term value-chain activities were negative, their effect on marketing and technology development activities were positive in cases where suppliers entered the contract with preexisting strategic goals linked to their core competencies.     

Supplier diversity and supply chain management: A strategic approach

Although purchasing trends are moving toward consolidation, a strong economic argument can be made for supplier diversity. In fact, most Fortune 500 companies currently employ supplier diversity initiatives. If integrated into the overall corporate strategy, supplier diversity can become a source of competitive advantage for corporations. In order for such integration to successfully occur, however, the initiative must have top management commitment, a supportive culture, and the availability of champions to promote the proposal. Minority suppliers, in turn, need to realize that their failure or success in this highly competitive environment depends on their ability to continually develop overall competences, to be learning organizations, and to become increasingly attuned to and adept at building strategic alliances amongst themselves and with their corporate customers. In these respects, they can make use of intermediary organizations (such as local supplier councils) to improve their competences and competitive edge.     

Strategic decisions in turbulent times: Lessons from the energy industry

Most of the firms currently in the S&P 500 probably will not be there in 15 years. In times of great uncertainty, managers are called upon to make the right strategic choices, preserve core businesses, and prepare their organizations for the future. How can managers make these choices when the industry is under transformation? In this article, we explore how the popular VUCA framework can help to make sense of turbulent contexts and drive the decision making of managers. We study the case of the energy industry, in which traditional business models eroded quickly and dominant players lost their positions. Based on personal interviews with the CEOs of RWE (Germany) and NRG Energy (U.S.), we analyze how these executives led transformation of their organizations. We get immersed in their decision-making processes and depict how the VUCA framework helps them to identify, map, and prepare their organizations to respond to the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in their industry. We propose a guide for executive managers to navigate through VUCA contexts, taking into account the necessity to introduce short- and long-term responses that prepare organizations and stakeholders for an uncertain future.     

Sustainable Supply Chains: Governance Mechanisms to Greening Suppliers

One of the key challenges for firms is to manage sustainability along the supply chain. To extend sustainability to suppliers, organizations have developed different governance mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of two different mechanisms (i.e., supplier assessment and collaboration with suppliers) to improve one dimension of sustainability: environmental performance. Structural Equation Modeling and cluster analysis were used to analyze the relationships between supplier assessment, collaboration with suppliers, and environmental performance. The results suggest that (1) both mechanisms, supplier assessment and collaboration with suppliers, have a positive and synergistic effect on environmental performance, and (2) assessment acts as an enabler of collaboration. Finally, the paper also contributes to the literature by providing a framework of sustainability governance mechanisms.     

The process of internationalization: how Swedish food retailers perceive their domestic supplier relationships

This paper focuses on how retailer–manufacturer relationships are influenced by the process of internationalization. Empirically, we study the Swedish food sector. It has previously been domestically oriented and concentrated. As Sweden joined the EU in 1995, however, a lot of entry barriers have disappeared and Swedish food retailers have been given new purchasing opportunities. We investigate how these changes have affected the retailers' relationships with their suppliers.Theoretically the paper is based on a network perspective and resource dependence theory.It develops and tests a set of hypotheses on howa retailer's relationships to its domestic suppliers will change when it gets a greater access to foreign products and suppliers, using a survey of 621 Swedish food retailers. Among other things, the study reveals that while being prepared to buy fewer products from Swedish manufacturers, the retailers still consider it very important to co-operate on a long-term basis with domestic suppliers.     

Managing for Excellence in the Food and Beverages Industry

Abstract

In order to understand how to manage for excellence in the food and beverages industry, one must recognize some key principles that are utilized by top companies in this industry. The following article will provide detail examples of three top organizations to let the readers realize the strategies used by each company and what makes them superior than other competitors. The first example is about Nestlé's excellent achievement on market research and successful story about “Wellness strategy”. The second example shows how Coca-Cola produces the world's best known product and implements “Total Quality Management” and “Just-In-Time” system. The third example reveals the success secrets of McDonald's franchise kingdom and “three-legged-stool” relationship with its franchisees and suppliers. To be the top leader in the food and beverage industry, we suggest learning these skills.     

Suppliers’ Compliance with MNCs’ Codes of Conduct: Behind the Scenes at Chinese Toy Suppliers

Despite increased academic and practitioner interest in codes of conduct, there has been little research into the actual compliance of suppliers in developing countries with the codes of conduct of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper addresses this lack by analysing Chinese suppliers’ level of compliance with Swedish toy retailers’ codes of conduct. Based on unannounced and unofficial interviews with employees of Chinese suppliers, the study shows that all of the nine studied suppliers breached some of the standards in the toy retailers’ codes, with over two-thirds of the suppliers not complying with the majority of the studied standards. While there are different explanations of this lack of compliance, the main explanation seems to be that Chinese suppliers successfully deceive toy retailers’ monitoring organisations by decoupling the formal monitored part of their organisation from the actual operational part of their organisation. The paper concludes with a discussion of how to increase compliance with MNCs’ codes of conduct. Niklas Egels-Zandén is a PhD student at the School of Business, Economics and Law, Goteborg University, Sweden. His areas of research are international business and corporate social responsibility, especially in relation to multinational corporations in developing countries. He has previously published in Journal of Business Ethics, Business Strategy and the Environment, and Journal of Corporate Citizenship.     

Action forums: How general electric and other firms have learned to make better decisions,faster

As management consultants at GE and other global companies, the authors found that many of the common impediments to good decisions are removed when decision makers and information sources are in the same room at the same time. Action forums are broadly inclusive corporate meetings that involve key players from management, the factory floor and even outside suppliers and customers. The authors maintain that action forums reduce opportunities for vacillation and intrafirm political maneuvering, two major obstacles to swift decision-making in many organizations. Thus, they achieve better decisions, faster; ensure the commitment of those who must implement decisions; and make full use of the power, perspective and wisdom of those at the top of an organization. The results of these experimental forums suggest an important area for further research. While it is difficult to offer precise estimates of the increased efficiency of decisionmaking through action forums, the authors report that companies as far away as Japan are now seeking to develop action-forum approaches for their organizations.