Factors influencing strategic alliance outcomes in a manufacturing supply chain: Role of alliance motives,interdependence, asset specificity and relational capital

Integration of various theories is essential to completely understand and explain strategic alliances in a supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework by integrating the features of transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, contingency theory, social exchange theory, and Kelley's personal relationship theory and test the framework through empirical research. The present study addresses the impact of strategic alliance motives, environment, asset specificity, perception of opportunistic behavior, interdependence between supply chain partners, and relational capital on strategic alliance outcomes. Besides, the study has also tested the role of relational capital as a central mediating construct. A sample of 2156 companies representing different industries in manufacturing in Malaysia was selected for the distribution of questionnaire. We tested the structural model using structural equation modeling (SEM). Based on the results, we conclude the following significant relationships: (1) strategic alliance motives and perception of opportunistic behavior on interdependence and relational capital, (2) interdependence on relational capital, (3) environment on strategic alliance motives, (4) relational capital on strategic alliance outcomes, and (4) the mediating role of relational capital. The current study adds significantly to the body of knowledge on strategic alliances and can help managers identify factors that influence the success of strategic alliances and provide a proper direction to develop robust and effective collaborative relationships between supply chain partners.     

Portfolio Diversification Benefits at Different Investment Horizons During the Arab Uprisings: Turkish Perspectives Based on MGARCH–DCC and Wavelet Approaches

This study is an initial attempt at investigating the extent to which portfolio diversification benefits at different investment horizons are available to a Turkish investor from investment in MENA countries exposed to the Arab spring based on MGARCH-DCC and Wavelet techniques on daily data spanning from 2005 to 2015. The findings tend to suggest that the Turkish investors may not benefit from investment in Egypt for almost all investment horizons but may have moderate benefits from Lebanon up to the investment horizons of 32–64 days and longer. However, Turkish investors may benefit from Oman excepting the longer investment horizons. In the long run, all stock holding periods exceeding 32 days have minimal benefits for portfolio diversification.     

Origins and Rationale for the African American Economic Summit

African American economists and related social scientists have an indispensible role to play in providing culturally-informed insight into the role of economic disadvantage in the current crisis in African American health, incarceration, wealth, housing, and education. The African American Economic Summit co-sponsored by the Institute of African American Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality at Duke University brought together over 30 experts who provided insights into the roots of the current economic status of African Americans, its broad impact on the quality of African American life, and possible remedial solutions. This volume reports on the deliberations in this first Summit.     

Productivity of Foreign and Domestic Firms in the Malaysian Manufacturing Industry*

The relative position of total factor productivity (TFP) of both foreign and domestic ?rms in the manufacturing industry in Malaysia is estimated for three‐ and ?ve‐digit level subsectors. It was found that the differences between foreign and domestic ?rms varied widely from sector to sector. However, for the manufacturing industry as a whole, TFP was approximately the same for foreign and domestic ?rms for the period 1994–1996.     

HR practices and turnover intention: the mediating roles of organizational commitment and organizational engagement in a selected region in Malaysia

This study examined the mediating effects of organizational commitment (OC) and organizational engagement (OE) on the relationship between human resource (HR) practices (career management, performance appraisal, compensation, person–job fit and job control) and turnover intention. A total of 457 employees working in various sectors in a selected region in Malaysia participated in this study. It was found that all the variables used to measure HR practices have significant effects on OC and OE. However, multiple regression analyses indicated that career management and job control did not have any significant influence on turnover intention. OC and OE were discovered to give partial mediating effects on the relationship between HR practices and turnover intention.     

Spatial Integration in the Broiler Market in Peninsular Malaysia

The broiler sector in Peninsular Malaysia is marked by many structural elements of imperfect competition, particularly increasing vertical integration. This study adopts the Enders and Granger (1998 Enders , W. , & Granger , C. W. J. ( 1998 ). Unit root tests and asymmetric adjustment with an example using the term structure of interest rates . Journal of Business and Economic Statistics , 16 ( 3 ), 304 – 311 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) threshold autoregressive model to analyze market integration and pricing efficiency in the broiler sector. Results indicate that market integration exists in the broiler sector in spite of the structural rigidities that are present. However, asymmetries in price transmission are evident between the central market and regional wholesale markets.     

Measuring Market Power in the Integrated Malaysian Poultry Industry: New Empirical Industrial Organization Approach

This article examines the level of competition that prevails in the Malaysian poultry markets by using the new empirical industrial organization methodology. We follow the Bresnahan (1982) and Lau (1982) oligopoly model, which allows the identification of market power using aggregated time-series data. The methodology involves the estimation of demand and supply equations for the identification of the parameters measuring the degree of market power. This study uses annual data from 1980–2010 to estimate the demand and supply equations of the poultry market in Malaysia. The estimation results show that the demand for chicken meat is inelastic (?0.124), indicating that consumers are not sensitive to price change. On the other hand, income is elastic at 3.636, implying that poultry meat is a luxury. The cross-price elasticity with respect to beef is ?2.405, rejecting beef as a substitute to chicken meat in Malaysia. The coefficient of conduct parameters for the three subperiods of 1980–1990, 1991–2004, and 2005–2010 measuring market power are 0.6740, 0.5540, and 0.5790, respectively. The results indicate imperfect competitive market in the poultry industry as more farmers opt to join poultry integrators.     

The development of FFMD Pyramid: Fuzzy Family_Marriage Deployment as decision support method to improve human resources performance

Improvement action to human resource (HR) in organization plays important role in determining the success of organization. Many studies have been done to discuss on how the organization may improve their HR performance. However, not many studies yet discuss the level of improvement that organization shall taken appropriately. Identification of organization’s priority level of improvement seems found to be a complicated work to do in most emerging organizations. High intangible and invisible variables and attributes contribute to unclear situations and perceptions in the organization itself. The complexity and limitation in tools and techniques, make each solution taken is less efficient and effective. Therefore, this study will discuss the development of Fuzzy Family_Marriage Deployment (FFMD) Pyramid. FFMD Pyramid is a new method for decision support in organization especially for HR by equally deploy dimension and variable of family and marriage to quality dimension and variable in organization then identify priorities by considering the deployment value (crisp value) and fuzzy value (non-crisp value) as decision support for organization to plan and decide proper improvement action with proper percentage (%) level of priority of improvement action. As result, a concise and simple pyramid shall present an informative yet effective and efficient to the decision maker to support their better decision especially with regard to the improvement action for HR performance. In addition, the Family_Marriage value that utilize in this study may bring about a new perspective that decision maker shall consider to support their decision process especially for the HR improvement action.     

Farmers,institutions and technology in agricultural change processes: outcomes from Adaptive Research on rice production in Sulawesi,Indonesia

International agricultural research centres use approaches which aim to create effective linkages between the practices of farmers, introduced technologies and the wider environment that affects farming. This paper argues that such new approaches require a different type of monitoring as a complement to conventional approaches that tend to favour a quantitative assessment of adoption and impact at the farm level. In this context, we examined monitoring data from an Adaptive Research (AR) project highlighting complementary qualitative analysis. Our emphasis is to capture the improvisational capacities of farmers and to reveal social and institutional constraints and opportunities in a broader innovation system. Our approach provided clear insights into how rice farmers adjusted their practices and how actors involved linked (or not) with others in the innovation system. We also demonstrated how institutions such as policies, religious rituals or service provider arrangements pose conditions that establish or constrain practices aligned with introduced technologies. A broader perspective in monitoring AR therefore provides important additional insights into the factors which shape outcomes in farming communities. To expand outcomes, AR projects should also pay attention to designing and testing new institutional arrangements that create enabling conditions for agricultural innovation.