Untangling the trust–control nexus in international buyer–supplier exchange relationships: An investigation of the changing world regarding relationship length

Control and trust are the primary governance mechanisms buying organizations rely upon to organize and maintain their collaborative exchange relationships with foreign suppliers. But the question of how control and trust interrelate and should be pursued seems entangled and practical advice remains largely elusive. Based on empirical data on 212 recently- and long-established buyer-supplier exchange relationships in the textile industry, we test the relationship between three practices of interorganizational control (output, process, and normative controls), two dimensions of interorganizational trust (competence and goodwill trust), and relationship performance. Using structural equation modelling, we demonstrate the value of controls for building and validating trust to depend as much on the specific control practice deployed and dimension of trust observed, as on the temporal stage of the exchange relationship. Moreover, we reveal distinct performance effects of the different control practices and dimensions of trust. Herewith, this study allows for a comprehensive understanding of the trust-control nexus in collaborative exchange relationships between buyers and their foreign suppliers. Addressing managers, we reveal how normative controls can be used to build trust and promote performance at the start of the relationship, whereas output controls need time to reach their full potential. Process controls, in turn, are found to have adverse effects.     

Customers’ Capital Market Information Quality and Suppliers’ Performance

We empirically examine the association between downstream firms’, i.e., customers’ capital market information quality, and the operating performance of upstream firms, i.e., suppliers. Customers’ capital market information quality is measured by the customers’ provision of earnings forecasts, the customers’ reported earnings quality, and the customers’ coverage by financial analysts and credit rating agencies. We hypothesize and find a positive association between customers’ capital market information quality and suppliers’ operating performance measured by the DuPont profitability ratios. The association is stronger for suppliers with higher sales volatility, no order backlogs, customers who are less dependent on their input, and shorter business relation with customers. Collectively, the results suggest that the quality of information provided by the customers to the capital market has a spillover effect in the input market, i.e., helps the suppliers improve their performance.     

权力、信任对冲突解决机制及其伙伴关系持续影响研究

在对以往供应链伙伴关系和冲突进行理论回顾和归纳的基础上,探索了供需企业间的权力运用、信任与合作、冲突以及回避性冲突解决之间的关系,并进一步分析了各种冲突解决机制对伙伴关系持续的影响.研究结果表明,协调性权力和信任有助于合作性冲突解决,从而推动伙伴关系的发展,而强制性权力的运用只会增强竞争性冲突解决和回避冲突解决,从而损坏供需双方之间的伙伴关系.     

The effects of suppliers’ trust on manufacturers’ innovation capability: an analysis of direct versus indirect relationships

The study offers an alternative explanation for the role of trust in economic exchange, answering the critical research questions of how and under what conditions suppliers’ trust affects manufacturers’ innovation capability. The study adopts a transaction value approach suggesting combining strategy and organisational economic literature to fully investigate the processes through which joint value is generated and developed by interacting partners. Using survey data from a sample of 235 supplier–manufacturer relationships, we find broad support for the model hypotheses. The results confirm the mediating role of asset specificity and knowledge sharing as procedural dimensions in the relation between suppliers’ trust and manufacturers’ innovation capability. However, the direct path between trust and innovation capability was not confirmed. The study provides theoretical and practical implications for firms seeking to translate inter-firm trust into innovation-based competitive advantage.     

Trust,partner selection and innovation outcome in collaborative new product development

A key feature of collaboration in general and collaboration for innovation in particular is the existence of trust. Trust is important because it reduces the costs and risks involved in collaboration, while also increasing the overall performance. This article explores the role that trust plays during the selection of suppliers in new product development (NPD), and the outcome that reliance on trust has on the innovation effort. The research involves a case study of two organisations following contrasting approaches to NPD sourcing, but both relying on collaborative, long-term relationships. In both cases, we find goodwill trust as the key variable explaining the reliance on collaboration. We also find that over-reliance on goodwill trust and geographical proximity in selecting NPD suppliers leads to an emphasis on incremental innovation which hampers the ability of both organisations to engage in radical NPD.     

Has SFAS 142 improved the usefulness of goodwill impairment loss and goodwill balances for investors?

Due to the concerns about the annual SFAS 142 impairment test, the FASB has recently added a project to its technical agenda to evaluate potential alternatives for measurement of goodwill. Motivated by the FASB’s consideration of a change in goodwill accounting, I examine the impact of SFAS 142 on the usefulness of goodwill write-offs and goodwill balances. I find that goodwill write-offs and goodwill balances are more strongly associated with stock returns and stock prices respectively after SFAS 142 than before SFAS 142. Furthermore, in the post-SFAS 142 period, I find that the association between stock prices and goodwill is lower for firms that avoid the recognition of the existing goodwill impairments, and that goodwill write-offs are more negatively associated with stock returns for firms where managers have more discretion over the impairment testing process. Overall, the findings suggest that despite the concerns of critics over the reliability of fair value estimates of goodwill, (1) SFAS 142 has improved the usefulness of goodwill numbers from investor perspective, and (2) investors see through the differences in reliability of reported goodwill numbers. These results have implications for standard-setting as the FASB considers new alternatives for goodwill accounting.     

Determinants of Relationship Quality in Importer–Exporter Relationships

Despite significant evidence pointing to the key role of relationship quality in solidifying commercial relationships, limited attention has been paid to its determinants in an international context. In an attempt to fill this research gap, our study examines the impact of asset specificity, role performance and cultural sensitivity on the quality of the relationships between importers and their foreign suppliers. It is based on a mailed survey involving 292 importing firms. Relationship quality is presented as a higher‐order concept that results in lower conflict and greater trust, commitment and satisfaction. The results indicate that asset specificity, role performance and cultural sensitivity play a significant positive role in building sound relationship quality. Several managerial implications are extracted from the study, as well as suggestions for future research.     

高层管理团队内部社会资本、团队冲突和决策效果的关系——研究综述与理论分析框架

反映在结构因素、关系因素和认知因素三个维度上的高管团队内部社会资本为决策信息的交换和共享提供了机会、意愿和能力,有利于团队内部形成建设性的冲突模式,促进决策效果的提高.本文以团队冲突为中介变量,建立了高管团队内部社会资本与决策效果的关系的理论框架,提出了研究命题,并对企业高管团队内部社会资本的培育提出建议.     

The Interplay Between Employee and Firm Customer Orientation: Substitution Effect and the Contingency Role of Performance‐Related Rewards

This paper identifies and explains a potential tension between a firm's emphasis on customer orientation (CO) and the extent to which employees value CO as a success factor for individual performance. Based on self‐determination theory and CO implementation research, the authors propose that firm CO may represent both autonomous and controlled motivations for CO, but that employees’ CO is more strongly linked to individual performance when employees experience solely autonomous motivation. Hence, the authors expect a substitution effect whereby the link between employees’ CO and their performance is weaker when firm CO is high. Furthermore, the authors examine a boundary condition for the previous hypothesis and propose that performance‐contingent rewards have a positive effect on the internalization of the extrinsic motivation stemming from firm CO. Two multilevel studies with 979 employees and 201 top management team members from 132 firms support these hypotheses. Against previous research, these findings offer a new perspective on the effectiveness of CO initiatives, propose employees’ motivational states as the theoretical explanation for the heterogeneity in the link between employee CO and performance, and reappraise the role of performance‐contingent rewards in CO research. Managerial implications for the effective implementation of customer‐oriented initiatives within firms are provided.     

动态环境下联盟竞合、治理机制与创新绩效的关系研究

本文从竞合视角审视联盟组合,结合动态关系观探讨有效的联盟治理机制,揭示了联盟组合中竞合关系(横向竞合、纵向竞合)、治理机制(契约治理、关系治理)和创新绩效之间的关系,并考察了动态环境特征(技术波动、竞争强度)的二次调节作用。在不同的竞合关系中,由于合作和竞争的强度不同,契约治理与关系治理机制的作用也存在差异,同时,治理机制与创新绩效之间的关系也受到两种不同环境动态性特征的影响。研究结果显示,在纵向竞合中,运用关系治理比运用契约治理能更好地提升创新绩效,技术波动正向调节契约治理、关系治理与创新绩效间的关系。在横向竞合中,运用契约治理比运用关系治理有效,竞争强度加强了契约治理对创新绩效的影响,即关系治理在波动的环境中更有效,契约治理在竞争的环境中更有效。本文为企业开展研发联盟组合管理提供了新的视角和管理对策。     

The impact of organisational politics and trust in the top management team on strategic decision implementation success: A middle-manager's perspective

The implementation of strategic decisions is a complex and demanding process that requires an open and lateral communication of free-flowing information to make sense of and champion a firm's intended changes. For the process to be effective, middle managers need to operate within an environment that nurtures a pro-social mindset and helps to cope with stressors caused by the possibility of harm done by the intended changes to their vested interests. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, we argue that organisational politics represent an organisational demand, which may hinder the implementation of strategic decisions. To cope with this demand, implementers recruit organisational resources (i.e. trust in the top management team) that may moderate the negative effects of dysfunctional politics. To test our hypotheses, we drew on a sample of 228 middle managers from 114 private Greek firms with more than 100 employees across various industries. We found that when organisational politics were high during the implementation process, implementation success diminished. However, their negative impact was reduced when trust in the top management team was high. Conversely, when organisational politics were low, middle managers reported a higher implementation success regardless of how highly the top management team was trusted. Our study is the first to test the influence of organisational politics on the success of the implementation process from a middle manager's perspective. In addition, we show that implementation success can be viewed through a demands-resources lens, which provides a meaningful contribution to research on strategy implementation.     

Investment in Shared Suppliers: Effect of Learning,Spillover, and Competition

We investigate the optimal strategies for firms to invest in their suppliers when the benefits of such investments can spillover to other firms who also source from the same suppliers. We consider two Bayesian firms that can invest in improving the quality of their shared supplier; the firms do not have complete information on the true quality of the supplier, but they update their beliefs based on the supplier's performance. We formulate the problem as an investment game and obtain Markov perfect equilibria characterized by the investment thresholds of both firms. The equilibrium investment strategies of the two firms are characterized by a region of preemption and a region of war of attrition. We also examine how the interplay between spillover, competition, and returns from the investment at shared suppliers affect the investment threshold and the time to the leader's investment, and identify the conditions under which competition delays or hastens the first investment in a shared supplier.     

Trustworthiness as an economic asset

The evaluation of trust in economic decision making remains on the periphery of mainstream economic analysis and teaching. Yet business managers use trustworthiness in daily exchanges to create competitive advantages for their firms. An exploratory empirical test of Barney and Hansen’s three levels of trust (weak, semistrong, and strong) and Lewicki and Bunker’s portfolio of governance mechanisms revealed that strong-form trust exists in day-to-day business relationships along with other governance mechanisms. Identity-based transactions were more prevalent than were weak trust market exchanges in important economic transactions.     

中层管理者多重角色行为对企业绩效影响的实证研究

中层管理者是企业管理中重要的一个环节.本文关注中层管理者多重角色行为对企业绩效的影响.首先,将中层管理者的多重角色划分为企业家、执行者、辅导者与协调者四个维度;其次,通过结构方程模型,实证性的验证了中层管理者多重角色行为模型及各个角色维度对组织财务绩效与运营绩效的不同影响.结论表明中层管理者企业家角色行为仅对企业财务绩效具有积极影响,其余三个角色行为仅对企业运营绩效具有积极影响.最后,分析讨论研究结论,并给出相应的对策和建议.     

银行贷款、商业信用融资及我国上市公司的公司治理

本文讨论了银行贷款以及商业信用融资对我国上市公司公司治理的影响.通过对1995到2000年间上市公司CEO更换的研究,我们得到两个结论:第一,在经营业绩为负的公司中,银行贷款与强制性CEO更换存在负向关系,而商业信用融资与强制性CEO更换存在正向关系;第二,在盈利能力一般的公司中,商业信用融资与强制性CEO更换仍为正向关系,但银行贷款与强制性CEO更换却不存在明显的关系.以上结果表明,商业信用融资在CEO强制性更换中起到了积极的作用,改善了上市公司的公司治理,而银行贷款却没有起到相应的作用,甚至有负面的作用.     

Agency conflict in diversified business groups and performance of affiliated firms in India: Contingent effect of external constraint and internal governance

This study examines how diversification in Indian business groups creates multiple forms of agency problems and has performance implications for group-affiliated firms. Departing from prior literature which emphasizes the principal–principal agency conflict in business groups, we argue that business group diversification leads to dual agency problems between controlling and minority shareholders (principal–principal) and shareholders and managers (principal–agent) in affiliated firms. Both these agency problems arise in diversified business groups through cross-subsidization of affiliated firms by inefficient capital investment, continuing presence of affiliated firms in declining industries, tunneling of resources from profitable affiliated firms, lack of attention by business group headquarters to affiliated firms, and affiliated firm managers' sense of perceived security, which negatively impacts affiliated firms’ performance. These agency issues are reduced with the increase in product market competition from exposure to international markets and through concentrated promoter ownership in the affiliated firms. Our hypothesized model finds empirical support in a sample of 828 business group–affiliated firms in India.     

Impairment or amortization of goodwill? An analysis of CFO perceptions of goodwill accounting

Given the ongoing controversy around the accounting treatment of goodwill and the search by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for improvements to goodwill accounting, this study surveys a global sample of 352 chief financial officers (CFOs) to understand their perceptions of adopting a goodwill impairment-only approach compared to an amortization model. More than half of the respondents agree that alternative accounting treatments of impairment testing might provide more useful information. However, almost two thirds still prefer goodwill impairment testing to the amortization process. Theoretically, the study shows that the impairment-only model preference is associated with characteristics on an individual, firm and country level. The results indicate that more expert CFOs and overall CFO perceptions of firms’ economic conditions and the role of external auditors affect preference for the goodwill accounting model. Further, there is evidence that dominant ownership structures and accounting culture affect CFO preferences. The study investigates several areas in which regulators and standard setters can intervene, thereby contributing to the debate on whether to reintroduce the amortization of goodwill.     

控股股东、代理问题与关联交易:对中国上市公司的实证研究

本文分析控股股东是否通过关联交易,转移上市公司资源、侵占小股东利益.对中国上市公司1999-2001年的关联交易的实证检验结果发现:由控股股东控制的公司,其关联交易显著高于无控股股东控制的公司;控股股东担任高级管理者的公司,其关联交易显著高于控股股东不担任高级管理者的公司;控股股东持股比例和控股股东在董事会中的席位比例越高,关联交易越多,这意味着控股股东确实能够借助关联交易转移公司资源、侵占小股东利益.