What really is alliance management capability and how does it impact alliance outcomes and success?

Strategy scholars have asserted that a firm's alliance capability provides competitive advantage. As interest in alliance capability has grown, we see two streams of research emerge that address different, but equally important, issues related to this subject: one stream that focuses on how alliance capability develops in firms, and a second stream that investigates what elements specifically constitute a firm's alliance capability. In recent literature, the question of how firms develop alliance capability has received greater attention than the question of what elements actually comprise it; therefore, in this study we address the latter issue in great depth. We do this by building on prior research and on our fieldwork, to conceptualize alliance management capability as a multidimensional construct that comprises three distinct but related aspects or skills to address the following aspects in managing a given individual alliance after it is up and running: coordination, communication, and bonding. We then test our conceptualization in a framework that also links this capability to relevant outcomes at the alliance and firm level. We use survey and secondary data from a large sample of interfirm relationships between software service providers and three major global software vendors. We find general empirical support for our conceptualization of alliance management capability and for its predictive validity in impacting certain alliance outcomes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Zur Anwendung des Bühlmann / Straub-Verfahrens in der Außendienstentlohnung

The German insurance market is opened to a large part of insurance agents, who are payed proportionally to their turnover. This turnover orientation ignores that there may be differences in the risks loss distributions. Therefore a profit margin based compensation system should be preferable but implies the problem that the profit margin is a random variable. In this paper we use the credibility theory and the Buehlmann / Straub method to generate a profit margin based compensation system which balances the insurers and the insurance agents demands. The effects of this system are examined in the context of a simulation study.     

Collusive Bidding in Hostile Takeovers

Bidders in hostile takeovers have colluded in five separate instances. It is found that these collusive agreements did not affect the target's price significantly. A model is developed to explain this observation. A welfare analysis indicates that a positive probability of cartel formation can be socially beneficial and may or may not be beneficial to the target's shareholders, depending on the process generating takeover attempts. This sheds light on the existing policy debate concerning regulations of collusive agreements. An analysis of the existing case law is provided, which indicates that such collusive arrangements are legal at present.     

Non-pecuniary Advantages Versus Pecuniary Disadvantages; Job Satisfaction Among Male And Female Academics In Scottish Universities

This paper considers job satisfaction in the academic labour market drawing upon a particularly detailed data set of 900 academics from five traditional Scottish Universities. Recent studies have revealed that in the labour force as a whole women generally express themselves as more satisfied with their jobs than men. Our results show that reports of overall job satisfaction do not vary widely by gender. This result is explained through the nature of our dataset, limited as it is to a highly educated workforce, in which female workers are likely to have job expectations comparable to their male counterparts. Ordered probit analysis is used to analyse the determinants of an academic's overall satisfaction at work as well as satisfaction with promotion prospects, job security and salary. Comparison salary is found to be an important influence on academics' overall job satisfaction although evidence suggests that academics place a lower emphasis on pecuniary relative to non pecuniary aspects of work than other sectors of the workforce.     

Service set similarities in patterns of consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction

Consumer problems with products and services may occur in identifiable patterns. By studying the patterns of consumer dissatisfaction across 22 services, a service set approach to satisfaction/dissatisfaction is developed. Through the use of principal components analysis, target analysis, and multiple regression analysis, two hypotheses are tested about service sets for a randomly selected sample of 922 Canadians, both French and English speaking. The results of this analysis suggest that consumer problems with services across time seem to be partially explained by individual differences - such as age, income. and education — and partially explained by characteristics of the services themselves. Together, these influences may provide a better theoretical explanation for consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction than do the more commonly used individual difference variables when taken alone.     

No Bosses Here: Management in Worker Co-operatives

No Bosses Here: Management in Worker Co-operatives examines the worker co-op structure as a workplace option for women. The appeal of the model for women is described in terms of the opportunity for skill development and control over workplace conditions. The structure also presents some unique challenges for training since all members participate in management functions. The author describes a six-month course, Co-operative Employment for Women which trained women in co-operative business development.Melanie Conn has worked extensively in the feminist movement since 1971 when she was a founding member of the Vancouver Women's Health Collective. She has also participated in a number of co-op sector activities including a women's contruction co-op. She currently works with WomenFutures, a Vancounver-based group that promotes women's participation in economic development.     

Are high‐performance work practices (HPWPs) enabling or disabling? Exploring the relationship between selected HPWPs and work‐related disability disadvantage

We develop the organizational characteristics element of Stone and Colella's (1996) framework by drawing on the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) model to assess the relationship between high‐performance work practices (HPWPs) and work‐related disability disadvantage. We develop competing “enabling” and “disabling” hypotheses concerning the influence of selected HPWPs (competency testing, performance appraisal, individual performance‐related pay, teamworking, and functional flexibility) on disabled relative to nondisabled employees. An empirical assessment of these competing hypotheses using matched employer–employee data from the nationally representative British Workplace Employment Relations Study 2011 reveals a negative relationship between these HPWPs when used in combination and the proportion of disabled employees at the workplace, although this relationship disappears in workplaces with a wide range of disability equality practices. While disabled employees report lower work‐related well‐being than their nondisabled counterparts, we find limited evidence that this is associated with the presence of HPWPs.     

Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations

Scholars and practitioners across fields increasingly recognize that business models for the circular economy may be an effective lever for solving ecological persistent problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing natural resource scarcity. Despite a growing interest in the potential of circular business models, interconnections between the organizational dimensions of firms and their business model innovation processes remain underexplored. Based on problem‐centered expert interviews with business consultants experienced in circular business development, this study creates a conceptual model that offers structured knowledge about why firms steadily reproduce linear BMs and how incumbents manifest themselves as a constant linear‐oriented value creation system. The model also demonstrates organizational conditions and management strategies that frustrate the reproduction of linear BMs and, thus, enable initial moves towards CBM innovation. Building on this, the article provides a set of propositions on how an organizational transition management may be configured and what incumbents require to successfully navigate circular business model innovation. The findings provide a foundation for a contemporary understanding of circular business model transition management, which simultaneously serve as impulses for future research investigations.     

Digitale Integration — Chancen für kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen in Deutschland

Wirtschaftsdienst - Die Nutzung digitaler Technologien zur Entwicklung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle und interner Prozesse bietet kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen die...     

From caterpillar to butterfly: experiencing spirituality via body transformation

ABSTRACT

Consumers increasingly seek out the spiritual to enlighten their inner emptiness and find their inner selves. We add a physiological, embodied perspective, which has been commonly overlooked in extant research as a valuable opportunity for individual consumer spirituality. Interpretative investigation of body-transforming consumers uncovers a powerful reincarnation process that eventually leads to the self-renewal and reunion of body and mind. We find that the consumption of body-transforming substances initiates a mindful, spiritual consumer journey allowing consumers to actively develop and experience their inner spirituality through recurring cycles of reduction, reflection and release. These findings allow us to develop implications for a broader understanding of consumer spirituality where the active consumer seeks unity in the self and beyond.