Relational and transactional factors as hybrid criteria for buyer project selection (BPS): An exploratory study from industrial suppliers' perspective

Working off the literature in selection studies, evolving from supplier selection, to buyer selection, to selection as transaction embedded in relationality, this study asks how industrial suppliers actually engage in buyer project selection (abbreviated as “BPS”). Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to construct and pilot-test a new BPS instrument among electronics executives in Taiwan. A mail survey using the new BPS instrument subsequently resulted in three significant research findings. First, the five BPS factors uncovered a hybridity thesis: factors from the transactional paradigm and the relational paradigm co-existed side by side. Second, even though suppliers engaged in project selection, the majority of the respondents' firms lacked clearly articulated formal BPS criteria. Third, relational satisfaction, more than perceived power, significantly impacted project selection; and project economic contribution, more than the other four BPS factors, played a substantive role in assessing relationality. Our research hopefully will help practitioners to recognize the need of BPS formalization, making a rich literature related to the co-existence/hybridity of transactional and relational approaches in project marketing and management relevant to Taiwan, China and the broader Asian business world in the future.     

A test for randomness in behaviour

In biological analysis of behaviour, transition matrices occur of which the diagonal entries are essentially zero. For such transition matrices, a model of randomness is constructed, with a test for the hypothesis that this model holds.     

Pensions: the voluntary growth of participation*

In spite of the deepening of the economic recession, the issue of employee participation or industrial democracy has not disappeared from the political or industrial agendas. This article, which reports the findings of a two year UK study at Glasgow University, examines one area of survival—employee participation in the management of pension schemes.     

INSIDER TRADING - A REVIEW OF AUSTRALIAN AND UNITED STATES REGULATION

This paper looks at the regulation of insider trading in the Australian and United States context. Both the common law and statutory positions are outlined and where necessary, deficiencies in the law are pointed out. Several areas of potential reform are discussed by the authors.     

兼并完，但别让队伍整合“完蛋”了

完全可以肯定：企业的合并充满挑战性。但即便如此,它们仍然可以为企业组织提供变革的可能性。为了确保收入增长和实现合并行动所承诺但往往无法实现的价值,最大的变革之———销售队伍的整合——是企业的首要任务。     

Knowledge creation for practice in public sector management accounting by consultants and academics: Preliminary findings and directions for future research

This study is about knowledge creation for practice in public sector management accounting by consultants and academics. It shows that researchers emphasize the importance of practice, but worry about the prospects of a successful cross-fertilization between practice and research, because of the pressure they feel to publish in international research journals. Their contacts with consultants are limited. Consultants have limited access to academic research, because of pressures from their daily work. Knowledge created by consultants is initiated by problems coming from practice; it has to be ready-made for application in practice, and is often a combination of explicit and tacit knowledge. However, our interviews with researchers show a more diffuse picture; the knowledge created by some of them is disciplinary-driven and fundamental, whereas the research of others is more problem-driven and applied. Our study hints at two intermediary groups, i.e. consultant-researchers and consultants working in the expertise centres of their firms, both of which can potentially overcome hindrances in the communication between consultancy and research.