Relational stability and alliance performance in supply chain

Drawing on the theories of social exchange and goal interdependence, this paper examines the antecedents of relational stability in supply chain alliances and if the stability affects alliance performance in supply chain in the context of manufacturing firms. The results show that both relational commitment and trust of supplier have positive effects on relational stability in supply chain alliance, which in turn positively affects the alliance performance. These results have important implications for researchers investigating the effectiveness of supply chain alliances as well as practitioners seeking to improve alliance performance in supply chain.     

Modelling the effects of institutional support and international knowledge on competitive capabilities and international performance: Evidence from an emerging economy

This paper explores the process through which institutional support initiatives contribute to the international performance of firms from the small open economy of Malaysia. We examine both direct and indirect causal effects of institutional support (informational, training, trade mobility and financial aid-related support) on internationalization. We develop a model to address how institutional support initiatives affect the performance of export-oriented or so-called born global firms. From a survey of 250 firms from Malaysia, an emerging Southeast Asian market, we find that government support initiatives do not have significant impacts on firm performance unless examined based on processes of government support initiatives, international knowledge, commitment, competitive capabilities, and international performance. Government support initiatives play a critical role in export-oriented firms from small open economies (SMOPECs) in emerging markets by contributing to a number of contextual deficits that determine the international performance of a firm. This study provides guidelines for policy makers and business owners on how institutional support can facilitate the accumulation of knowledge about international markets, enhance commitment to exports and help firms gain competitive capabilities in the export market for greater success in international markets.     

新创企业品牌联合伙伴选择的计算实验研究

品牌联合是新创企业克服其成长劣势的有效策略之一。为提高新创企业选择品牌联合伙伴的成功率，基于复杂适应系统理论构建了新创企业品牌联合企业主体行为活动的基本模型和主体之间、主体与环境之间的交互模型；研究了外部竞争环境、合伙企业的企业类型、品牌资产、关系承诺和联合匹配性等特征对联合形成的影响。结果表明：在外部环境动态变化时，越来越多的新创企业会选择品牌联合策略，而其选择成熟企业还是新创企业作为联合伙伴，并不受外部环境变化的影响。在品牌联合系统中，作为核心的新创企业选择合伙企业时，其自身特征并不影响其是否采取联合策略；不管核心企业自身特征如何，均优先选择成熟企业作为联合伙伴；同时，合伙企业的关系承诺对联合伙伴选择的影响最显著，品牌资产次之，而联合匹配性影响不显著。候选企业在回应核心企业的联合请求时，其接受/拒绝联合的决策主要取决于核心企业对其评价的结果，其次是核心企业的品牌资产。研究结果对新创企业的管理实践具有重要的参考价值。     

Embedded Networks and Suboptimal Resource Matching in Alliance Formations

Interest has been growing in alliance networks, and research has demonstrated several advantages of embedded networks, including joint problem solving. How embedded networks function as social capital and promote alliance formation has also been explored. However, less is known about constraints that they impose on firms’ extensive search for partners. In this study, we advance our understanding of the downsides of embedded networks by proposing that embedded networks facilitate alliance formations, but they may also cause suboptimal resource matching in alliance formations. Specifically, we predict that, in alliances where initial resource matching is more important than ex post collaborative activities, suboptimal resource matching is more likely when firms ally with partners with which they have pre‐existing direct or indirect ties and that such alliances decrease firm‐level resource utilization performance in operations. Using codeshare alliance data from the global airline industry, we find support for our predictions.     

程序公平和分配公平对联盟承诺的影响:基于中国医院联盟的实证研究

研究了程序公平和分配公平对联盟承诺的影响,基于我国医院联盟的背景和问卷调查,利用因子分析、层级回归和调节回归验证了相关假设。实证结果表明:程序公平和分配公平能够提高组织对联盟的承诺;具有不同市场地位的组织由于组织特征、市场环境和联盟地位的差异,对不同类型的公平具有不同的反应。这一结论对现有程序公平主导的观点提出了挑战,深化了现有关于联盟公平的研究。     

研发联盟中的初始信任与控制战略:基于中国制药产业的研究

在技术存在高度不确定性的研究开发联盟中,信任与控制关系的处理方式是决定联盟绩效的关键因素。本研究以中国制药产业研发联盟为对象,对联盟达成前的初始信任与控制战略的关系进行了系统的考察,发现能力信任与过程控制、自我保护控制正相关;善意信任与结果控制、自我保护控制负相关;而技术不确定性对信任与控制战略的选择影响的相关性具有调节作用。     

Managing Multiple Facets of Risk in New Product Alliances*

The trend of forming alliances to develop new products continues; however, many of these new product alliances fail. As such we explore how key risk types intrinsic in new product alliances, performance, relational, and knowledge appropriation risks, influence alliance success. Further, we theorize that different alliance governance mechanisms can reduce the negative impact of risks on alliance success. To disentangle possible heterogeneous factors across firms that may affect the interplay of risk assessments and the use of governance mechanisms, we employ latent class regression analysis on survey data collected from 128 new product alliance firms and find support for a two‐regime solution. Longer alliance relationships and lower technological turbulence are factors for some firms (regime one), while the opposite are factors for other firms (regime two). These two regimes show different patterns in the interplay of risk assessments and governance for alliance success. Our theory and results support viewing risk as a multiple‐factor concept and by understanding the different impacts of the risk types in new product alliances and how governance mechanisms mitigate such effects, we aid managers' decision making regarding the balance of contractual versus normative governance in new product alliances. Understanding the heterogeneous factors inherent in these complex relationships enables managers to understand the conditions in which various governance mechanisms promote new product alliance success.     

组织支持感与工作投入的曲线关系及其边界条件

作为一种工作资源,组织支持感是员工工作投入的重要预测变量。但是,基于社会交换理论,组织支持感也可能增加员工角色外的投入、减少对工作角色的投入。在一定条件下,组织支持感与工作投入可能存在非线性的关系。采用302名证券行业员工问卷,考察组织支持感与工作投入的曲线关系,进一步探索情感承诺对该曲线关系的调节作用。在检验共同方法偏差的基础上,采用多项式回归对研究假设进行检验。研究结果表明,在控制员工的情感承诺后,组织支持感与工作投入呈显著U形曲线关系。情感承诺显著调节组织支持感与工作投入的曲线关系,即情感承诺高的员工,组织支持感与工作投入呈U形曲线关系;而情感承诺低的员工,组织支持感与工作投入呈显著线性关系。总体而言,研究结果进一步支持组织支持感对工作投入潜在的负面影响,尤其是具有高情感承诺的员工其感知到的组织支持只有超过一定水平后才会对工作投入产生积极的影响。     

How feedback about leadership potential impacts ambition,organizational commitment,and performance

In the present research we report results from two experimental studies that examine how feedback about leadership potential impacts leadership ambition, organizational commitment, and performance. Study 1 used an experimental vignette methodology that controls for prior performance. Results show that individuals who receive feedback that they have low potential to be a future leader have lower ambition and organizational commitment relative to those who receive feedback that they have high potential to be a future leader. Study 2 provides evidence of the causal behavioral effects of feedback about leadership potential using a real task effort environment. Results show that participants informed to be unlikely future leaders display lower performance in a subsequent task than participants informed to be likely future leaders. The findings from the two studies demonstrate that information about leadership potential affects subsequent ambition to become leaders as well as performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for the importance of followership, talent management, and leadership succession.     

Disentangling the effects of organizational controls on innovation

The strategy and innovation literatures argue that organizational competitiveness is contingent upon firms simultaneously pursuing both process and product innovations. A firm’s control system plays a fundamental role in this regard by managing, motivating, and coordinating employees’ behaviors for the development of its innovative capabilities. Research suggests that in order to develop successful innovation, management must use controls that align employees’ interests with those of the organization while simultaneously allowing employee autonomy to encourage creativity. These disparate functions lead to the control–autonomy dilemma. We argue that managers can address this dilemma by recognizing that the effect of controls on innovation outcomes depends, in part, on the controls’ enabling features and the type of commitment they inspire. Our findings show that employee development, which is the focus of input controls, has a direct effect on process innovation-related behaviors while specified goals, the emphasis of output controls, have a direct effect on product innovation-related behaviors. It is only through employees’ perceptions of managerial support that input controls increase product innovation-related behaviors and output controls increase process innovation-related behaviors.     

Working under a committed boss: A test of the relationship between supervisors' and subordinates' affective commitment

Based on the existing social influence literature, we predict that a supervisor's affective commitment to the organization may influence his or her subordinates' level of affective commitment, which subsequently affects their task performance and extra-role behavior. We further propose that the relationship between supervisors' and subordinates' affective commitment is moderated by subordinate individual power distance orientation. The results support our hypotheses using a sample of 111 full-time employees in Macau. We found positive relationships between supervisors' and subordinates' affective commitment, and between subordinates' affective commitment and their task and extra-role performance. Consistent with our prediction, the relationship between supervisors' and subordinates' affective commitment was stronger among subordinates possessing low power distance orientation.     

Strategic alliances for corporate sustainability innovation: The ‘how’ and ‘when’ of learning processes

Mounting sustainability pressures challenge established firms to engage with sustainability innovations, which are often introduced by startups. Research on alliance learning has established the potential of learning from startups to advance corporate innovation. Here, scholars have outlined alliance learning processes and outcomes and have distinguished learning about and learning from alliance partners as two key learning types. The saliency of learning from the operational alliance process is stressed. To date, however, no study has investigated alliance learning processes and outcomes for sustainability innovations. This is despite the fact that sustainability research suggests learning processes in the sustainability context have a distinct nature. This study addresses this research gap by analyzing the sustainability-specific learning processes and outcomes of a large European meat producer and wholesaler with a turnover of $2.7bn in the fiscal year 2019/2020. The firm formed alliances with nine startups for sustainable plant, insect-based and cell-based protein solutions. Our analysis (1) identifies three distinct characteristics of sustainability-related alliance learning processes and outcomes, and (2) specifies the temporal occurrence and outcomes of learning types in alliance learning phases. In contrast to findings of prior research, our study reveals that learning about alliance partners is of key importance throughout the whole sustainability-oriented alliance learning process. In addition, the findings highlight that alliance learning outcomes may support an established firm's contribution to the sustainability transformation of mass markets.     

Strategic Alliance Outcomes: a Transaction‐Cost Economics Perspective

Empirical research on strategic alliances has been limited because previous studies examined alliance outcomes, and the factors associated with them, from a single partner in a manufacturing alliance. Furthermore, many of these studies have been done from a transaction cost perspective and researchers have inferred opportunistic behavior, rather than directly measuring it and observing its actual relationship with alliance performance. Building on previous transaction cost theory and research, this study seeks to address these gaps by analyzing factors associated with both opportunistic behavior and alliance performance within a major service sector, namely the US healthcare industry. After controlling for asset specificity and alliance age, we found that partner trustworthiness and contractual safeguards were negatively related to opportunistic behavior. Furthermore, opportunistic behavior was negatively related to alliance performance, as hypothesized. Interestingly, mutual equity investments were found to be unrelated to opportunistic behavior, counter to transaction‐cost logic. These findings refine and extend the transaction‐cost economics perspective regarding our understanding of strategic alliance behavior and outcomes, and offer executives in service‐based industries some practical ideas for assuring favorable strategic alliance outcomes.     

A risk perception model of alliance structuring

The literature on the strategic alliance structuring process does not provide an adequate view of the role of decision-makers in that process, especially about how alliance partners form their structural preferences. Given the critical role of structure in alliance management, the decision-making process regarding the choice of an appropriate alliance structure deserves particular research attention. We propose a model of strategic alliance structuring that has managerial risk perception as its core. Our model consists of the following parts: the antecedents of risk perception, relational risk and performance risk, risk perception and structural preference, and the resolution of preferences. We suggest that the structural preferences of partners are based on their perceptions of relational risk and performance risk, and the overall objective is to minimize the total risk. We also develop a number of propositions as elaboration of the model to facilitate empirical research and the effective management of the structuring process.     

Technological alliance portfolio configuration and firm performance

Firms pursuing technological alliances to gain competitive advantages have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in today’s business environment. This article examines which technological alliance portfolio configuration is better for focal firm performance using a portfolio rather than a dyadic perspective. To assess technological alliance portfolio effects on Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, we adopted three explanatory variables—number of alliances, number of partners, and spanning structural holes. The growth rate of revenue and the growth rate of profit are used as dependent variables. We identify two characteristics of technological alliance portfolios from the two-step generalized method of moments estimates. First, we find that between two firms with the same number of alliances, the firm with the larger number of partners would have a better performance. This result is unlike those in previous studies because it distinguishes between the number of alliances and number of partners based on the network theory. Second, we find that spanning structural holes affects firm performance rather like a double-edge sword—it positively affects the growth rate of profit but negatively affects the growth rate of revenue of firms. In short, spanning structural holes is simultaneously beneficial for firm profitability and unfavorable for firm growth. This result differs from those of earlier studies because it shows that a firm spanning structural holes among alliance partners produces either a positive or a negative effect, suggesting that a firm should vary its strategy depending on whether it prioritizes profitability or growth.     

高新技术企业联盟导向、创业导向与企业绩效关系的实证研究

基于我国195家高新技术企业的问卷调查数据,实证分析了联盟导向和创业导向对企业绩效的影响,以及创业导向和环境动态性在联盟导向与企业绩效关系间的调节作用。研究结果表明:联盟导向和创业导向对企业绩效具有显著的正向影响;创业导向和市场动态性在联盟导向与企业绩效关系中起到正向调节作用;技术动态性在联盟导向与企业绩效的关系中起到负向调节作用。     

Influence of alliance portfolio diversity on innovation performance: the role of internal capabilities of value creation

In this study, we suggest a new perspective on the linkage between alliance portfolio diversity and innovation performance based on a contingency approach. Using a longitudinal data set on alliance portfolios and patents of 182 firms in the U.S. manufacturing industries, we examined that alliance portfolio diversity has a U-shaped relationship with firm-level innovation. Internal value creation capabilities in terms of routine and ability are found to moderate the relationship between alliance portfolio diversity and innovation performance: organizational search routine strengthens the relationship of alliance portfolio diversity and innovation performance while technological capabilities weaken and flip the relationship.

     

Enhancing organisational commitment through task significance: the moderating role of openness to experience

Researchers have extensively explored the factors influencing employees’ organisational commitment. However, few studies make an explicit distinction between different commitment types when exploring its determinants, and the scholarly attention to individual differences is also limited. In this paper, we confirm that developing managerial interventions to enhance task significance can be useful to promote organisational commitment, but this relationship is contingent on the commitment type and the employees’ openness to experience. We focus on two forms of organisational commitment: affective and continuance commitment. Our study shows that task significance is a better predictor of affective commitment than continuance commitment. We also find that increasing task significance is particularly good to promote more continuance commitment among employees with low levels of openness to experience. Based on data gathered from a sample of 403 employees working in Spanish firms, we find support for these ideas and develop practical implications.     

Improving the Progress of Research & Development (R&D) Projects by Selecting an Optimal Alliance Structure and Partner Type

This paper extends the study of alliance governance structure by examining what alliance structure, coordination mechanisms and partner type best enhance the likelihood of Research and Development (R&D) progress or performance. We specially focus on the coordination and interaction mechanism of alliances, through which we classify the alliance governance structures in order to reflect the more complex alliance types and contracts used in today's R&D. Using data from 255 biopharmaceuticals between the years 2000 and 2004, we found that, ceteris paribus, a moderate degree of inter‐partner interaction and a moderately complex (non‐equity‐based) alliance contract contributes more to a better R&D alliance performance than those structures that are too simple or too organizationally embedded (e.g. equity joint ventures), which possibly increase the risk of misalignment and miscommunication between allies. In addition, due to the reduced opportunism and the diverse resource (e.g. technology) pooled in the alliance, allying with diverse organizational partners such as non‐profit research institutes and universities is more likely to enhance the R&D performance. Our findings provide insightful strategic implications to practitioners in designing an appropriate alliance governance structure and choosing the right partner type for a successful R&D collaboration.     

The Impact of Alliance Management Capabilities on Alliance Attributes and Performance: A Literature Review

The literature on alliances has identified a variety of inter‐firm antecedents of performance, including information and knowledge sharing between partners, shared partner understanding, and a focus on collective objectives. Recent studies have focused on alliance management capabilities (AMC) – firms' abilities to capture, share, store and apply alliance management knowledge – as an important antecedent of performance. This paper reviews 90 studies on AMC and makes two important contributions to the literature. First, the review provides an overview of and classification scheme for the different types of AMC to better organise the diverse empirical findings that have been presented in the literature. The novel classification distinguishes between general and partner‐specific AMC and between AMC stored within the firm and within the alliance. Second, consistent with the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper offers a more detailed understanding of why AMC improve performance, by highlighting the intermediate impact of AMC on alliance attributes. In particular, the review demonstrates how the different categories of AMC influence alliances in terms of information and knowledge‐sharing between partners, shared partner understanding and the pursuit of collective goals. The review also demonstrates that these attributes improve performance. The authors note promising avenues for future empirical research that involve combining the classification scheme with research on the impact of AMC on alliance attributes and performance.