Horizontal collaboration in logistics: decision framework and typology

Logistics service providers become increasingly aware of the need to collaborate to face challenges such as globalization and the heightened expectations of customers. This paper focuses on horizontal cooperation between logistics service providers in road transportation and introduces two novel conceptual models. Firstly, a decision framework for the development and management of horizontal logistics alliances is presented. This framework provides support to logistics service providers considering horizontal collaboration and allows for the analysis of the decision process underlying horizontal logistics alliances. The cyclical framework consists of five stages and attributes a central position to continuous evaluation. Secondly, an easy-to-use typology is proposed which defines six horizontal collaboration types based on their activity scope and degree of structural intertwinement. The typology provides logistics service providers with insights in the various horizontal collaboration types, including some key management questions. Both models are validated by knowledgeable practitioners and are applied to two real-life case studies.     

Wage Dispersion and Firm Productivity in Different Working Environments

This article investigates the impact of wage dispersion on firm productivity in different working environments. More precisely, it examines the interaction with: (i) the skills of the workforce, using a more appropriate indicator than the standard distinction between white‐ and blue‐collar workers, and (ii) the uncertainty of the firm economic environment, which has, to our knowledge, never been explored on an empirical basis. Using detailed cross‐sectional linked employer–employee data for Belgium, we find a hump‐shaped relationship between (conditional) wage dispersion and firm productivity. This result suggests that up to (beyond) a certain level of wage dispersion, the incentive effects of ‘tournaments’ dominate (are dominated by) ‘fairness’ and/or ‘sabotage’ considerations. Findings also show that the intensity of the relationship is stronger for highly skilled workers and in more stable environments. This might be explained by the fact that monitoring costs and production–effort elasticity are greater for highly skilled workers, and that in the presence of high uncertainty, workers have less control over their effort–output relation, and associate higher uncertainty with more unfair environments.     

Hierarchical thinking and learning in rank order contests

We analyze a class of coordination games in which the Kth player to submit an entry wins a contest. These games have an infinite number of symmetric equilibria and the set of equilibria does not change with K. We run experiments with 15 participants and with K=3, 7, and 11. Our experiments show that the value of K affects initial submissions and convergence to equilibrium. When K is small relative to the number of participants, our experiments show that repeated play converges to or near zero. When K is large, an equilibrium is often not reached as a result of repeated play. We seek explanations to these patterns in hierarchical thinking and direction learning.      

Les ambiguïtés du commerce équitable: construire un marché juste ou juste construire un marché?

Le projet du commerce équitable est de développer un commerce différent du commerce «conventionnel» en permettant notamment une juste rémunération des producteurs du Sud. Les différences entre les deux commerces sont bien souvent présentées comme allant de soi. Or, l'examen à la fois du fonctionnement du marché équitable et de l'idéal visé par ses promoteurs montre certaines convergences avec le commerce «conventionnel». Cet article rend compte de ces convergences.     

Going public: The role of accounting and shareholder value in making sense of an IPO

This study draws on interviews with corporate executives from four companies that went public and financial analysts involved in evaluating these firms. Top managers in all companies became more focused on short-term financial results than they had been when the companies were private. We contribute to existing research by analyzing, empirically and theoretically, the processes producing this focus. Following an IPO process offered a unique insight into a gradual increase in emphasis on accounting metrics through the outcomes of guided and restricted sensemaking. When preparing for the IPO, guided sensemaking produced an IPO prospectus incorporating quantitative and qualitative commitments. Quantitative commitments were based on accounting metrics, such as earnings per share and profit margin, which provided an important foundation for the financial focus. These commitments became the anchor for subsequent sensegiving and restricted sensemaking when the companies were listed. With the financial analysts as the social anchors, the richer communication in the prospectus was narrowed down to comprise an exclusive focus on the quantitative accounting commitments. The long-term accounting commitments in the prospectus were transformed into short-term targets that must be met when the financial measures served as specific and concrete extracted cues to quickly provide structure to the uncertain situation, gain the financial analysts’ confidence and sustain action. One year after the IPO, the financial focus was taken for granted and managers had accepted the rules of the game.     

Corporate entrepreneurship in a dispersed setting: actors, behaviors, and process

Although conceptual models of the corporate entrepreneurship process are numerous, our current empirical knowledge regarding it remains fragmented, especially concerning the contributions of individual employees to corporate entrepreneurship. Thus, two important questions remain unanswered: How do employees from different managerial ranks of an organization contribute to the corporate entrepreneurship process, and how do these contributions change as the project unfolds over time? In the current research, we aim to answer these questions and offer an integrative framework for the corporate entrepreneurship process that would account for dynamic contributions of multiple actors through their activities and behaviors. We approach these questions in a specific context by studying three cases within a large company in a dispersed corporate setting.     

EQUILIBRIUM FARM GATE PRICE IN THE CASE OF TWO SUCCESSIVE MARKETS WITH FIXED SUPPLY

This study aims to describe the evolution of the organisational structure of raw agricultural product markets in West African countries (the supply may be regarded as fixed) using microeconomic models to assess the evolution of the farm gate price; and focusing on the impact of the vertical integration of some firms on the producer price. This paper shows that the evolution of the commercial organisational structure of agricultural products has led to a gradual improvement in the producer price. It also shows that whatever the degree of vertical integration on these markets, it has a positive impact on the farm gate price. However, even if vertical integration also improves the price of agricultural input on the intermediary market, the intermediary firms undergo a deteriorating situation.     

Do firms’ growth rates depend on firm size?

The empirical literature dealing with corporate growth does not in general give support to Gibrat??s Law stating that the expected increase in firm size is proportionate to its initial size, leaving their growth rates independent of size. Using a relatively large and representative sample of approximately 2,500 Danish firms representing all industries, we have evaluated the validity of Gibrat??s Law over the period 1990?C2004. The present analysis addresses this question by applying econometric methods to test Gibrat??s Law and correcting for problems related to autocorrelation. The empirical findings of our study do not generally support Gibrat??s Law, but in contrast to the results of earlier studies, the analysis reveals that firms?? growth rates are more likely to be positively related to firm size.