Cooperative game with nondeterministic returns

We study a non-traditional cooperative game where returns from coalitions are nondeterministic. The long-standing concept of core can be generalized to reflect players’ contentment with their allocations. It is now imperative to formalize the restrictions, such as those pertaining to information, on allocations. The latter are also at times more conducive to fractional representations. With probabilistic structures added, nondeterministic returns become random variables, utility functions attain risk-attitude connotations, and the timing of players’ allocation resolutions gains significance. Under various conditions for utility functions, we show how various core concepts of the general game can be related to its traditionally defined auxiliaries. These developments help pave the way for our illustrations, within two distinct settings, that players’ increased risk aversion would promote the formation of the grand coalition.     

How special rewards in loyalty programs enrich consumer–brand relationships: The role of self-expansion

Although brands offer different kinds of rewards through their loyalty programs, little is known about how they can impact consumer–brand relationships and brand attitude. How do loyalty program rewards influence the consumer–brand relationship? And which kinds of rewards establish or maintain closer relationships between consumers and brands than others? To answer these questions, the present research makes use of self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) and two experiments that manipulate the extraordinary character of rewards offered to consumers. Our findings show that special rewards produce higher self-expansion than mundane rewards. Moreover, the positive effect of the rewards’ extraordinary character on brand evaluation, recommendation, and identification is sequentially and fully mediated by self-brand inclusion and self-expansion. Finally, we show that consumer satisfaction moderates the impact of special and mundane rewards on self-brand inclusion.     

How and when does co-production facilitate eco-innovation in international buyer-supplier relationships? The role of environmental innovation ambidexterity and institutional pressures

Eco-innovation is an important element of a firm's environmental sustainability strategy and provides both competitive and environmental benefits, resulting in a win-win solution. Although previous studies have examined the influence of co-production on innovation, little is known about how and when co-production affects eco-innovation in the context of international buyer-seller relationships. Building upon the resource-based view, the dynamic capability perspective, and institutional theory, this study develops a conceptual model focusing on the effects of co-production on eco-innovation, the mediating effects of environmental innovation ambidexterity, and the moderating role of institutional pressures. The research was carried out using a survey-based quantitative study and the proposed hypotheses were tested using the hierarchical regression analysis. The results of a survey of 124 OEM suppliers in Taiwan show that co-production has a positive effect on environmental innovation ambidexterity. Our findings also show that the direct relationship between co-production and environmental innovation ambidexterity is stronger when institutional pressures are high as opposed to when they are low and that environmental innovation ambidexterity mediates the relationship between co-production and eco-innovation. This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of why some firms develop more environmental innovation ambidexterity than others, by analyzing co-production as a predictor and institutional pressures as a moderator. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.     

Brand fidelity: Scale development and validation

The goal of this research is to develop and validate a multi-dimensional scale measure of brand fidelity. This paper reports the rigorous process of scale development, through two separate studies involving 592 US consumers. Study 1 involves scale item generation, content validation and scale purification, while Study 2 involves a two-wave data collection method, evaluating the refined brand fidelity scale within a nomological network of relationships. The results demonstrate the 20-item brand fidelity scale to have strong construct validity as a first-order reflective, second-order formative scale. The findings suggest that if consumers engage in the behaviours/cognitions (as defined within the brand fidelity scale), then consumer/brand relationships are likely to be stable and predictable; are likely to endure the ravages of time; and, importantly, are likely to remain monogamous. For practitioners, the overall brand fidelity score can be used to track brand performance over time and for industry benchmarking purposes. Additionally, the measured brand fidelity dimensions provide specific direction upon which remedial marketing action can be implemented.     

Value co-destruction and its effects on value appropriation

ABSTRACT

The importance of the fair appropriation of co-created value in business relationships has been widely emphasised in the literature. However, in business relationships, value can be both co-created and co-destructed, but what happens to value appropriation when value is co-destructed? Previous studies have focused on what causes value co-destruction, rather than its effects. The question posed is relevant because some actors experience higher diminutions in value appropriation, generating perceptions of inequities, dissatisfaction, and tensions. By analysing data from 39 qualitative interviews with companies that have experienced value co-destruction, this paper attempts to identify the reasons for the unbalanced relationship between value co-destruction and value appropriation. Two higher-level dimensions – awareness of value and awareness of context – are identified and used to generate four clusters of reasons for disproportionate value co-destruction effects. The paper also pinpoints specific actions for managing unfairness from value co-destruction.     

Creating a Sustainable Supply Chain Network by Adopting Relationship Management Strategies

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This paper develops a conceptual framework to analyze the impact of a supply chain network (SCN) structure on relationship management strategies (RMS) that focal firms apply to manage sustainability issues within the SCN.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a comprehensive review and analysis of the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP), sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), and SCN literature.

Findings: The conceptual framework expands the network perspective in the SSCM context by considering the important role of the SCN structure in the firm’s decision-making process. Four factors (dependency, distance, power, and transparency) were found that are useful in conceptualizing the SCN structure. The conceptual framework also categorizes various sustainability practices into four RMS (noncompliance, transactional, dictatorial, and collaborative), which are needed to make an SCN more sustainable. In addition, 16 propositions are developed based on how firms may identify the most effective RMS to implement appropriate sustainability practices through examining their SCN structure.

Research limitations/implications: The conceptual framework, developed as a result of a comprehensive review of the literature, led to the development of 16 propositions, which can assist in furthering a research agenda on RMS to diffuse various sustainability practices within SCN structures.

Originality/value: The relationship between SCN structure and RMS in the sustainability context remains an under-researched but emerging area of interest. This paper leverages existing research to develop a conceptual framework suitable for empirical testing.     

基于跨组织关系的现代跨组织系统

随着市场竞争的加剧,组织间的联系对于组织的生存与发展越来越关键,并且这种联系已经突破了单纯的物流和资金流,成为更深入复杂的一种跨组织关系：而信息技术,作为辅助和推动现代化企业管理的最有力工具,也开始被应用到这个领域形成了一种特殊的跨越组织边界的信息系统——跨组织系统（IOS）.本文将从系统参与者的竞争关系和它们的跨组织关系对企业战略的重要程度两个维度对跨组织系统进行价值分析和缺点介绍,试图指导企业根据自身情况来进行跨组织系统的选择.     

Multi-factor Risk-return Relationships

This paper derives three multi-factor risk-return relationships each of which employs macro-economic variables in presenting the underlying factors that influence security returns. The first relationship holds if the underlying portfolio lies on the expected return-standard deviation efficient frontier, the second is valid when the underlying portfolio lies inside the efficient frontier and the third characterises security markets in which no arbitrage opportunities are present. An attempt is also made to appraise critically previous multi-factor risk-return relationships which rely on an expected return-standard deviation approach.