Examining the Impact of Interorganizational Systems on Process Efficiency and Sourcing Leverage in Buyer–Supplier Dyads

Manufacturing firms are increasingly seeking cost and other competitive advantages by tightly coupling and managing their relationship with suppliers. Among other mechanisms, interorganizational systems (IOS) that facilitate boundary‐spanning activities of a firm enable them to effectively manage different types of buyer–supplier relationships. This study integrates literature from the operations and information systems fields to create a joint perspective in understanding the linkages between the nature of the IOS, buyer–supplier relationships, and manufacturing performance at the dyadic level. External integration, breadth, and initiation are used to capture IOS functionality, and their effect on process efficiency and sourcing leverage is examined. The study also explores the differences in how manufacturing firms use IOS when operating under varying levels of competitive intensity and product standardization. In order to test the research models and related hypothesis, empirical data on buyer–supplier dyads is collected from manufacturing firms. The results show that only higher levels of external integration that go beyond simple procurement systems, as well as who initiates the IOS, allow manufacturing firms to enhance process efficiency. In contrast, IOS breadth and IOS initiation enable manufacturing firms to enhance sourcing leverage over their suppliers. In addition, firms making standardized products in highly competitive environments tend to achieve higher process efficiencies and have higher levels of external integration. The study shows how specific IOS decisions allow manufacturing firms to better manage their dependence on the supplier for resources and thereby select system functionalities that are consistent with their own operating environments and the desired supply chain design.     

The keiretsu in Asia: Implications for multilevel theories of competitive advantage

Much of our understanding of competitive advantage draws upon the experience of Western firms. Massive Japanese investment in an effort to replicate keiretsu (interfirm) networks in Asia since the 1980s presents fertile grounds to shed new light on the sources of competitive advantage. Building on such an experience, this article develops a multilevel perspective focusing on how competitive advantage is preserved and strengthened for firms, networks, and nations involved. Its hallmark is careful attention to levels of analysis by (a) spelling out the attendant assumption of homogeneity among keiretsu member firms, (b) explaining the basis of such an assumption, (c) exploring alternative assumptions, and (d) drawing upon diverse subtopics within the strategy literature.     

The role of guanxi in buyer–supplier relationships in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises – a resource-based perspective

This paper examines the role of guanxi (personal relationships or connections) in buyer–supplier relationships in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), through exploratory research that gained access to companies actually using guanxi. The resource-based view provided a systematic approach for analysing the role of guanxi in terms of its potential to be a source of sustained competitive advantage. Business guanxi connections were identified as possessing the potential to be considered an organisational resource. This study identified several valuable attributes of guanxi at the organisational level. However, the guanxi-based advantage can only be sustained under certain conditions. SMEs should create an organisational environment that encourages their employees to actively establish and maintain guanxi connections within the company and beyond. However, companies in China need to recognise that firms that possess superior technological skills or capabilities have a stronger bargaining power, as they are able to deliver quality at competitive prices over the long run.     

制度环境、公司治理对企业竞争优势的影响研究——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

如何通过外部制度和内部制度的安排延续企业的竞争优势,是制度变迁背景下中国企业面临的核心问题.本文以2002年-2005年的中国上市公司为样本,基于国内地区差距,实证分析了制度环境和公司治理时企业竞争优势的影响.回归结果发现,政府支持市场化程度、经济法律环境水平、股权集中度、股权竞争度、董事会独立性、专业委员会设置程度以及股东参与决策程度与企业竞争优势显著正相关.研究结果表明,好的制度环境与有效的公司治理能提高企业的竞争优势;企业持续竞争优势的源泉应包含以政府为主体的宏观层次的制度竞争和以企业为主体的微观层次的公司治理竞争.     

A Competitive Model of Customization with Lead‐Time Effects

In this article, we study the competitive interactions between a firm producing standard products and a firm producing custom products. Consumers with heterogeneous preferences choose between n standard products, which may not meet their preferences exactly but are available immediately, and a custom product, available only after a certain lead time l. Standard products incur a variety cost that increases with n and custom products incur a lead time cost that is decreasing in the lead time l. We consider a two‐stage game wherein at stage 1, the standard product firm chooses the variety and the custom firm chooses the lead time and then both firms set prices simultaneously. We characterize the subgame‐perfect Nash equilibrium of the game. We find that both firms can coexist in equilibrium, either sharing the market as local monopolists or in a price‐competitive mode. The standard product firm may offer significant or minimal variety depending on the equilibrium outcome. We provide several interesting insights on the variety, lead time, and prices of the products offered and on the impact of problem parameters on the equilibrium outcomes. For instance, we show that the profit margin and price of the custom product are likely to be higher than that of standard products in equilibrium under certain conditions. Also, custom firms are more likely to survive and succeed in product markets with larger potential market sizes. Another interesting insight is that increased consumer sensitivity to product fit may result in lower lead time for the custom product.     

Chinese expatriate management in emerging markets: A competitive advantage perspective

Recent research draws attention to the large number of expatriates sent abroad by Chinese multinational corporations (CMNCs), especially to emerging markets. It is generally assumed that their large number, and any competitive advantage this generates, relate predominantly to their low cost, compared to other MNCs' expatriates and/or locally available labour. Our research uses an integrative perspective drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), international human resource management (IHRM) and “country of origin” literature and extensive case-study research on 27 CMNCs in 12 emerging markets. This reveals that the competitive advantage created by Chinese expatriates is closely related to the use of expatriates at both managerial and operational levels. It is achieved through human resource management that exploits their relatively lower cost, higher productivity and hardship tolerance (compared to host or third country counterparts) and their knowledge/resource reconfiguration capability, through a centralised and collective expatriation management system. These together enhance CMNCs' competitive advantage through not only offering cost effective and differentiated products but also transferring the reconfiguration knowledge. This study enhances understanding of the competitiveness of emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) by showing how the competencies, combination and management of their expatriates create a distinct source of competitive advantage. It also advances IHRM research on expatriates by investigating their use from a competitive advantage perspective.     

技术管理与技术能力匹配对产品创新的内在影响机制

 产品创新是企业获取和保持竞争优势的重要手段。虽然在产品创新过程中技术管理和技术能力都具有重要作用，但是单纯依靠技术管理或技术能力不能维持企业产品创新的持续发展，能使企业获得持续竞争优势的因素还在于技术管理与技术能力之间的匹配效应。        基于匹配理论和知识基础观，分析技术管理-人员能力匹配、技术管理-设备能力匹配、技术管理-信息能力匹配和技术管理-组织能力匹配在产品创新中的作用，识别技术管理与技术能力匹配对产品创新绩效的直接影响和间接影响，构建技术管理与技术能力匹配对产品创新的影响机制模型。采取大样本问卷调查，收集122家装备制造业企业数据，运用多元线性回归分析对提出的假设进行实证检验。        研究结果表明，技术管理-人员能力匹配和技术管理-设备能力匹配都对产品创新绩效产生正向影响，相对于技术管理-设备能力匹配，技术管理-人员能力匹配对产品创新绩效的影响更大。技术管理-信息能力匹配和技术管理-组织能力匹配在技术管理-人员能力匹配和技术管理-设备能力匹配影响产品创新绩效的过程中起正向的调节作用。        研究结果发现了技术管理与技术能力匹配对产品创新的重要影响，为产品创新的理论研究提供了新视角；深化了对产品创新实现路径的理论认识，为技术管理和技术能力如何向产品创新绩效转化的理论研究提供了微观知识基础；识别了发挥技术管理与技术能力匹配作用的内在条件，从权变视角拓展了匹配理论的研究。同时，也为企业正确处理技术管理与技术能力间的关系、提升产品创新绩效提供了理论指导。     

From Temporary Competitive Advantage to Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Both industrial organization theory (IO) and the resource‐based view of the firm (RBV) have advanced our understanding of the antecedents of competitive advantage but few have attempted to verify the outcome variables of competitive advantage and the persistence of such outcome variables. Here by integrating both IO and RBV perspectives in the analysis of competitive advantage at the firm level, our study clarifies a conceptual distinction between two types of competitive advantage ? temporary competitive advantage and sustainable competitive advantage ? and explores how firms transform temporary competitive advantage into sustainable competitive advantage. Testing of the developed hypotheses, based on a survey of 165 firms from Taiwan's information and communication technology industry, suggests that firms with a stronger market position can only attain a better outcome of temporary competitive advantage whereas firms possessing a superior position in technological resources or capabilities can attain a better outcome of sustainable competitive advantage. More importantly, firms can leverage a temporary competitive advantage as an outcome of market position to improving their technological resource and capability position, which in turn can enhance their sustainable competitive advantage.     

Internal and External Integration for Product Development: The Contingency Effects of Uncertainty,Equivocality, and Platform Strategy

Effective product development requires firms to unify internal and external participants. As companies attempt to create this integrated environment, two important questions emerge. Does a high level of internal integration lead to a higher level of external integration? In the context of product development, this study considers whether internal integration in the form of concurrent engineering practices affects the level of external integration as manifested by customer integration, supplier product integration, and supplier process integration. External integration, in turn, may influence competitive capabilities, namely product innovation performance and quality performance. Second, using contingency theory, do certain contextual variables moderate the linkages between integration strategy (external and internal) and performance? Specifically, this study considers whether uncertainty, equivocality, and platform development strategy change the relationships among internal integration, external integration, and competitive capabilities. Data collected from 244 manufacturing firms across several industries were used to test these research questions. The results indicate that both internal and external integration positively influence product innovation and quality and ultimately, profitability. With respect to contingency effects, the results indicate that equivocality moderates the relationships between integration and performance.     

技术能力如何转化为竞争优势：组织动态能力观点

技术创业型公司拥有雄厚的技术能力,然而并不表明这些公司也具备相当的竞争优势.技术能力转化为竞争优势的过程中受到组织动态能力(知识整合能力)影响.技术创业型公司的组织动态能力包括两个方面的具体知识整合能力,即来自市场/客户的需求信息与组织技术能力之间的知识整合能力以及公司内部不同职能部门之间的知识整合能力.技术创业型公司组织动态能力过程是影响技术能力转化为竞争优势的关键过程.本文通过对三家典型的技术创业型公司案例研究来解释有关理论假设.     

Realizing Benefits from Enterprise Resource Planning: Does Strategic Focus Matter?

A key driver of the recent wave of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations was the assumption that the integration of business information would provide firms with a competitive advantage, yet concrete business benefits have been uneven across adopting firms. A possible explanation is that although the resource‐based view holds that competitive advantage is derived from inimitable resources, ERP software has become a commodity. Socio‐technical theory suggests that internal organizational resources based on a foundation of ERP technology may be the true drivers of ERP benefits. A firm's strategic configuration is posited to influence the portfolio of organizational competencies available to leverage the benefits of integrated business information, and a number of hypotheses are developed based on the notion that firms with different strategic objectives will realize different operational benefits from the adoption of ERP systems. Survey data from North American manufacturing firms that have implemented ERP systems demonstrate that ERP adopters seeking operational performance improvements are likely to realize these benefits. On the other hand, those seeking external market and supply chain performance improvements must first establish a foundation of internal operational performance improvements before customer satisfaction and supply chain benefits can be realized.     

Knowledge Creation within Industrial Systems

Intangible resources are the source of competitive advantage in theknowledge economy. Knowledge and intellectual capital within firms havegathered worldwide attention; theories and methods for knowledgecreation management have been developed for organizations and alliances.Economic reality shows the importance of industrial districts becausesocial systems in districts provide dynamic contexts of multifacetedrelationships. These dynamic contexts or district ba (Japanesefor place) enable firms to create and harness knowledge that resides innetwork relationships.The paper develops a theoretical frame of four kinds of district ba thatsupport four knowledge processes. Organizational networks within andbetween different district ba are conceptualized. The creationof knowledge within district ba is used to analyze differentlevels of interaction between firms in the same or different districtsand in the same or different industries. The case study of the JETROlocal-to-local program between Ishikawa prefecture in Japan and Como andVarese in Italy is used to illustrate the theoretical concepts. Districtba are used to analyze the knowledge creation dynamics withinand between districts and to identify possible strategies for districtgovernance.     

Technological learning,knowledge management,firm growth and performance: an introductory essay

The uncertainty, dynamism and volatility of the new competitive landscape are altering the fundamental nature of competition as the 21st century begins. In this exciting competitive era, technological learning plays a vital role in the firm’s competitive success. This role is significant because increasingly, technological learning is linked to the firm’s ability to develop, maintain and exploit dynamic core competencies. Dynamic core competencies are the foundation for competitive advantages. Although difficult to accomplish, firms try to establish competitive advantages that can be sustained for some period of time. Being able to develop, maintain and exploit competitive advantages is critical to the creation of firm value. This introductory article for the Special Issue explores the importance of technological learning and the management of knowledge for firm growth and performance. Additionally, we present a context that frames the issues examined and the contributions made by the papers included in the special issue.     

European management: An emerging competitive advantage of European nations

This article extends the debate begun in the June 1992 issue of EMJ when the authors first criticized Michael Porter's explanatory framework in his Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990), over the role of national culture on the competitive advantage of nations. In this paper, Frans van den Bosch and Arno van Prooijen stress that Europe is a locus of competitive advantage if one is prepared to pay attention to the possibility of ‘European Management’ as a potential asset of European firms. In this connection, the transnationalization of European firms is of importance.     

Supply Chain Integration,Product Modularity,and Market Valuation: Evidence from the Solar Energy Industry

Supply chain integration is increasingly seen as a method to obtain flexibility and, consequently, to provide competitive advantage for firms within a supply chain. Product modularity, either in concert with or independent of such integration, can also produce flexibility for firms within a supply chain. In this proof‐of‐concept research, we explore whether the supply chain network affects each constituent firm's market valuation and how decisions regarding the level of supply chain integration and the usage of product modularity are associated with the value of the supply chain. We develop a method to identify and measure the supply chain's effect on each constituent firm's market valuation. Results indicate that greater integration is associated with a higher supply chain valuation, whereas increasing aggregated product modularity across the supply chain relates to a lower supply chain value. However, when combined, the interaction of aggregated product modularity and supply chain integration is positively associated with the supply chain's valuation.     

Supplier integration,operational capability and firm performance: an investigation in an emerging economy environment

Abstract

The literature on supplier integration’s (SI) impact on firm performance is intertwined with mixed findings in terms of definitional differences, study context, specific integration components, and the types of relationships examined. This study contributes to the supplier integration and firm performance (SI-FP) literature by investigating how and when supplier integration influences firm performance. Drawing on the relational view, the resource-based view, and the Dynamics Capability theories, we suggest that improvements in firm performance from the supplier integration perspective are dependent on gains in operational capabilities. We test this dependency with survey data from firms in Ghana, a developing economy. The results show positive significant relationships between supplier integration and competitive operational capabilities and between supplier integration and firm performance. Our results highlight the importance for managers in developing economies and elsewhere to improve their firms’ operational capabilities and competitiveness by investing in supplier integration. We also discuss implications of these findings for research.     

The Path‐Dependent Nature of R&D Search: Implications for (and from) Competition

We formalize R&D as a search process for technology improvements across different technological domains. Technology improvements from a specific domain draw upon a common knowledge base, and as such they share technological content. Moreover, different domains may rely on similar scientific principles, and therefore, knowledge about the technology improvements by one domain might be transferable to another. We analyze how such a technological relatedness shapes the direction of R&D search when knowledge generated from past search efforts disseminates to rival firms. We show that firms optimally diversify their search efforts, even toward domains that are riskier and less promising on expectation. This is amplified for higher competition intensity, i.e., higher cross‐product substitutability. Our work also suggests that different sources of learning about the domains may have opposite effects on the direction of search. Higher ability to infer the potential of an explored domain prompts the clustering of searches, whereas the ability to learn across domains prompts diversification. Finally, we discuss the technological landscape properties that prompt firms to engage in a sequential R&D search, instead of a parallel competitive search.     

Technology roadmapping for technology-based product-service integration: A case study

Today, since a single product is no longer sufficient to cope with the dynamic market environment, firms are trying to provide the integrated offering of products and services. However, despite the importance and utility of product-service integration, a limited approach has been conducted regarding the planning of the strategic management of integrated offering. To deal with this issue, this paper firstly suggests the concept and typology of technological interface in product-service integration. Based on the technological interface, a generic structure of product-service integrated roadmap is developed. Extended from the generic structure, this paper finally proposes the typological configurations of integrated roadmap according to the technological interface and investigates the usage, characteristics, and roadmapping processes.     

The competitive advantage potential of vertical integration

There is a widely held belief that backward vertical integration provides firms with the potential for a low-cost competitive advantage, and forward vertical integration provides them with the potential for a differentiation advantage. This study builds theory that underpins that belief, and then tests the theory using a sample of large firms. While our findings do not support the relationship between backward vertical integration and low cost, they do provide strong support for arguments linking forward vertical integration with differentiation-based competitive advantage.     

The role of QMS in the relationship between innovation climate and performance

The emergence of new global competitors, the convergence of high-technology industries and the increasing speed and cost of technological development promises an increasingly uncertain environment for organisations, making adaptation to changes in the environment a central theme in the study of the organisation for both organisation theory and strategic management. This study thus seeks principally to verify that, while innovation and quality management (QM) alone do not possess the qualities required to provide organisations with sustainable competitive advantages, the bundle of innovation and QM together with other resources and competencies will allow organisations to obtain a competitive advantage and adapt to their environment. The results show that the factors determining innovation – such as resistance to change, cohesion and workload pressures – have repercussions for the firms’ capacity to adapt to their environmentand that a QM context facilitates this adaptation. Finally, we can conclude that a climate of support for innovation is positively related to the organisation’s performance.