The antecedents and consequences of organizational and personal commitment in business service relationships

This paper explores the potential for business service customers to form separate bonds of commitment with the service firm and the service representative. It examines the role of the individual and identifies six potential antecedents to each type of commitment. It also proposes that both types of commitment will influence the degree of relational exchange between the customer and the service firm. The hypotheses are tested using multiple regression and data from a survey of marketing research managers. The results support the majority of the hypotheses.     

Innovation and change in organizational relationships: interdisciplinary contexts

From July 13–15 of 1988 individuals from nine countries gathered at the Manchester Business School for the fifth international conference of INTERSTUDY (the International Association for the Study of Interdisciplinary Research). Entitled Interdisciplinary Research and the World Marketplace, the conference was co-sponsored by the Manchester Business School and the journal R&D MANAGEMENT. Founded in 1980, Inter-study has endeavoured to advance the art and science of IDR (interdisciplinary problem-focussed research) by organizing international meetings for representatives of the academy, industry, and government. Its major accomplishment has been publication of the results of those meetings in four books. These books, along with other publications in the growing field of IDR, provide a valuable collection of resources for scholars, managers, researchers, and practitioners.     

Value noncomplementarity and organizational commitment of engineers*

Based on data obtained from 358 engineering professionals, this study first identifies a set of ten work-related value dimensions relevant and important to engineers. For each of these dimensions, the relationship between the perception of unfulfilment (noncomplementarity) and commitment to the organization is then examined, along with the influence of several professional and organizational socialization variables. It was hypothesized and found, for each of the ten value dimensions, that perceived value incongruence is negatively related to organizational commitment. This relationship was strongest for technical values, collegial growth values, science values, and personal-interaction values. It was further found that the effects of the socialization variables on this relationship were relatively unimportant. Some implications of these results are discussed.     

A multilevel model of affect and organizational commitment

This multilevel study investigates affective antecedents of organizational commitment. 230 individuals from 56 working groups were surveyed in eight mainland Chinese firms. The results showed that frequently experienced feelings of guilt and determination in organizations were positively related to increased organizational commitment. In addition, the increase of intragroup relationship conflict strengthened the negative association between chaotic emotions and organizational commitment. The findings suggest that the overall commitment to an organization is related to certain emotions in an organizational setting. This study, which employed a large sample from mainland China, proved consistent with past theory and empirical evidence from the West. A multilevel model of affective events theory with wide applicability is correspondingly proposed.     

Social and organizational capital: Building the context for innovation

In the light of the key role intellectual capital has for firms' innovation capability, this paper analyzes the influence of two of their dimensions, organizational capital and social capital, on firms' product innovation, and the moderating role of radicalness. Unlike previous studies, the unit of analysis will not be the firm, but the R&D department. Thus, our research, conducted with a sample of Spanish industrial companies, provides a new insight with interesting results. First, our findings show that social capital favours firms' product innovation, especially under radical innovations. Second, organizational capital has an indirect effect on product innovation through positive influence on social capital. This implies that firms can stimulate communication and interaction among people, and therefore innovative activity, by means of explicit and codified knowledge (organizational capital).     

The impact of participative leadership behavior on psychological empowerment and organizational commitment in Chinese state-owned enterprises: the moderating role of organizational tenure

We investigated whether participative leadership behavior can produce psychological empowerment, which in turn, leads to organizational commitment for employees of Chinese state-owned enterprises. Based on the data collected from 173 employees in two state-owned enterprises, we found that participative leadership behavior was associated with organizational commitment, but not with all four dimensions of psychological empowerment, namely, meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. Our findings also showed that while participative leadership behavior tended to make short-tenure employees feel competent and thus, more committed to an organization, such leadership behavior did not have a significant impact on competence as well as organizational commitment for long-tenure employees.     

Multidimensional latent traits of perceived organizational innovation: Differences between Thai and Egyptian employees

A new approach, the multidimensional latent regression (MLR) approach of item response theory, is employed to evaluate the dimensions of individual employee creativity, workplace atmosphere, and workplace innovative activity. Based on the MLR concept, the relationships among the measurement scales of these variables are tested for their unidimensionality versus multidimensionality. Multidimensionality was found. While workplace atmosphere is closely linked to workplace innovative activity, individual employee creativity forms its own dimension but is still positively linked to the other two measures. To achieve an accurate comparison between the two groups of Thai and Egyptian employees who have the same levels of agreement with the scale items, it is necessary to adjust the scores of Egyptian employees downwards.

A model depicting the relations among perceived stressors,role conflict and organizational commitment: A comparative analysis of Hong Kong and the United States

As managers and employees from different cultures begin to encounter one another in the workplace, the need arises to understand how organizational variables relate differentially based on one's culture. This study attempts to provide a preliminary examination of the relationship between stressors, sources of conflict and job commitment across two differing cultures, specifically the United States and Hong Kong. Although more similarities than differences between the two cultures were found, this study provides at least preliminary evidence that members of different cultures may perceive some stressors differently and exhibit different relationships between stressors and work attitudes.     

Global marketing in business-to-business contexts: Challenges,developments, and opportunities

This article introduces the special issue on global marketing in business-to-business contexts. The aim is to advance knowledge on the subject that can stimulate further research in this important and emerging area of industrial marketing. The twelve contributions selected for this special issue bring together high quality contemporary research that address challenges and recent developments. The articles specifically offer unique insights that progress understanding in the area, provide interesting managerial implications, and present intriguing opportunities for future researchers. These contributions reflect the variety of current work in global marketing in the business-to-business context. While most of the contributions in this special issue focus on the development and deployment of unique resources and capabilities to enhance international competitiveness and performance success, insights are also offered on international relationships and/or relationship marketing within the business-to-business context, country of origin effects, and knowledge transfer between international partners in subsidiaries. The article concludes with a summary of important avenues for further research.     

Commitment in business-to-business relationships: The role of organizational and personal needs

This article examines commitment in business-to-business (B2B) relationships from the purchasing manager's perspective. It proposes that purchasing managers will form stronger bonds with suppliers who are better able to satisfy both the buying firm's organizational needs as well as the purchasing manager's personal needs. It also proposes that purchasing managers will be more influenced by personal rather than organizational need fulfillment. The results from a survey of purchasing managers support all hypotheses. The findings suggest that marketers will be able to develop stronger bonds with purchasing managers by offering benefit bundles that address both organizational and personal needs.     

Time to exit: Rational,behavioral, and organizational delays

Existing studies of exit delay typically focus on rational, behavioral, or organizational explanations in isolation. We integrate these different theoretical explanations, develop testable hypotheses for each, and examine them using the population of US banks between 1984 and 1997. Banks' exit behavior is not consistent with theories emphasizing the option value of avoiding reentry costs. Patterns of exit do, however, support models of rational delay under ability uncertainty. Controlling for this source of rational delay, we find evidence of delay due to behavioral bias—firms discount negative signals of profitability relative to positive signals—and organizational considerations—delay increases with the separation of ownership and control. These results demonstrate that all three sets of theories are necessary to describe exit behavior. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms

This paper focuses on the utilization of guanxi, which is an important cultural and social element in China, and the impact of guanxi on firm performance. Although guanxi is embedded in every aspect of Chinese social life, companies demonstrate different needs and capacity for guanxi cultivation. Chinese firms develop guanxi as a strategic mechanism to overcome competitive and resource disadvantages by cooperating and exchanging favors with competitive forces and government authorities. We develop an integrative framework theorizing guanxi utilization according to institutional, strategic, and organizational factors, and we explore the impact of guanxi on firm performance, primarily sales growth and net profit growth. Our findings, based on a survey of 128 firms in central China, provide strong support that institutional, strategic, and organizational factors are critical determinants of guanxi with competitive forces. However, only institutional and strategic factors are significant for guanxi utilization with government authorities. In general, guanxi leads to higher firm performance, but is limited to increased sales growth, and has little impact on profit growth. Guanxi benefits market expansion and competitive positioning of firms, but does not enhance internal operations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multilevel analysis of the role of interactional justice in promoting knowledge-sharing behavior: The mediated role of organizational commitment

Knowledge sharing behavior has received increased attention in the context of business due to its important role in enhancing organizational competitive advantage. This study aimed to identify possible predictors of knowledge sharing behavior and its underlying mechanisms from a multilevel perspective. The results showed that interactional justice positively related to knowledge sharing behavior both at the individual and the team levels. And organizational commitment took a mediated role between them. This study is the first to highlight the role of organizational commitment and interactional justice in knowledge sharing behavior, enriching current understanding of organizational knowledge management and providing further suggestions as how managers can improve knowledge sharing behavior in their organizations.     

Niche width revisited: organizational scope,behavior and performance

Although strategy research typically regards firm scope as a positional characteristic associated with performance differences, we propose that broad contemporary scope also provides insight into the routines that govern firm behavior. To attain broad scope, firms must repeatedly explore outside the boundaries of their current niche. Firms with broad niches therefore operate under a set of routines that repeatedly propel them into new market segments, expanding their niche. These niche expansions, however, involve risky organizational changes, behavior that disadvantages generalists relative to specialists, despite the positional value of broad scope. Empirical analyses of machine tool manufacturers and computer workstation manufacturers support this conjecture: (i) generalists introduce new products at a higher than optimal rate, thereby increasing their exit rates; and (ii) generalists also more frequently launch new models with novel features or targeted at new consumer segments rather than improving only incrementally on existing products, further accelerating their odds of failure. After adjusting for these behavioral differences, broad niche widths reduce exit rates, suggesting that they provide positional advantages. The paper discusses how this phenomenon may help to explain the diversification and multi‐nationality discounts. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diversification,coordination costs,and organizational rigidity: evidence from microdata

This paper examines the impact of coordination costs and organizational rigidity on the returns to diversification. The central thesis is that coordination costs offset economies of scope, while organizational rigidity increases coordination costs, further constraining economies of scope. The empirical tests of this proposition identify the effects of coordination and organizational rigidity costs on business unit and firm productivity, using novel data from the Economic Census on taxicab and limousine firms. The key results show that coordination and organizational rigidity costs are economically and statistically significant, while organizational rigidity itself accounts for a 16 percent decrease in paid ride‐miles per taxicab in incumbent diversifiers, controlling for the other costs and benefits of diversification and incumbency. The findings suggest that coordination costs, in general, and organizational rigidity costs, in particular, limit the scope of the firm. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computing occupations: organizational power, work transition and collective mobility

The computing occupations are in a state of transition between a technical service and something more central to organizational power and decision-making. This process has had complex implications for the nature of computing work and for careers. There is no certainty that embryonic changes will carry through. But neither should the chances of these occupations of mounting a 'collective mobility project' be written off early.     

Measuring the commitment to reduce hunger: A hunger reduction commitment index

Can an index be constructed to assess governments’ commitment to reduce hunger? This paper argues for the need for such an index and outlines one way of constructing it. We use secondary data to construct the Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI) for 21 developing countries.We operationalise commitment around 3 themes: legal frameworks, policies and programmes and government expenditures, to find Malawi, the Gambia, Guatemala, Brazil and Senegal heading the list, with China, Nepal, Lesotho, Zambia and Guinea Bissau coming bottom. Rankings were robust to our choices about weighting and ranking methods.The paper demonstrates a viable method to measure political commitment and highlights the analytical importance of disentangling hunger commitment from hunger outcomes. Cross-tabulations of HRCI scores with hunger, wealth, administrative capacity and voice and accountability scores can guide action from different stakeholders (governments, civil society, donors). Finally, we show how primary data collection might be used to assess areas of strength and weakness in country specific commitments to reduce hunger.     

Competitive dynamics,strategic consistency,and organizational survival

This study investigates strategic consistency in competitive behavior. We construct a logically consistent evolutionary model, providing a causal argument to link a level of strategic consistency to long‐term organizational survival. According to our results, strategic consistency seems to be related to both organizational survival and the most efficient change over time concerning the key elements of a firm's strategy. One of the benefits of the model is that some of the components and processes may be manipulated through experimental or simulation interventions. This means that the model can be formally tested in future studies and managers can use it to fine‐tune patterns of competitive behavior. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managerial ties,organizational learning,and opportunity capture: A social capital perspective

From a social capital perspective, this article investigates how entrepreneurs in new ventures utilize their managerial ties (consisting of ties with other firms and ties with government) to capture opportunity. We also explore the moderating role of organizational learning (via exploratory learning and exploitative learning) in this process. Drawing on a sample of 159 new ventures, we find that ties with other firms have a stronger positive effect on opportunity capture than ties with government. We also find that organizational learning moderates the relationship between managerial ties and opportunity capture. Overall, our contributions center on an integrated view of organizational learning, social relationships, and opportunity capture.