“Do as I Do and Not as I Say”: Exploring Price‐Oriented Maverick Buying During Supplier Selection

This article empirically examines the occurrence of price‐oriented maverick buying (MB) during supplier selection, in a direct purchasing process context. Drawing on agency theory, maverick buying, and total cost of ownership (TCO) literature, the statistically significant existence of price‐oriented MB is investigated and the purchasing manager (PM)‐related factors that influence such noncompliant behavior are determined. A discrete choice experiment is designed to simulate a TCO‐based supplier selection process in which an established purchasing framework agreement stipulates PMs not necessarily be price‐oriented (i.e., select suppliers primarily based on lowest price), and then models PM choice behavior in the supplier selection process (SSP), utilizing a conditional logit model (CLM) to determine PM compliance to the established purchasing framework agreement and identify if price‐oriented MB exists. Statistical tests utilizing comprehensive primary and secondary data are then conducted to determine if correlational relationships exist between PM‐related factors and PM price‐orientation. Results indicate that three PM‐related factors bear a significant correlational relationship to PM price‐orientation.     

Linking Objectives to Actions: A Decision Support Approach Based on Cause–Effect Linkages

The process of translating objectives into actions is a difficult task. This difficulty is due to the wide range of possibilities and the lack of structured information. Managers must take into account relevant information and generate a range of options before a decision is reached. So far, little is available to guide managers in translating a set of objectives into actions. This paper presents a three‐stage action‐planning process to address this gap. The process, supported by a software tool, takes managers through the stages of model building, action generation, and action evaluation and selection. A case study illustrates the application of the process. The paper concludes by discussing the implication of this work for managers and academics.     

Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of CIO Strategic Decision‐Making Authority: An Empirical Study*

Despite the strategic importance of information technology (IT) to contemporary firms, chief information officers (CIO) often still have varying degrees of strategic decision‐making authority. In this study, we apply the theory of managerial discretion to define CIO strategic decision‐making authority and argue that the CIO's level of strategic decision‐making authority directly influences IT's contribution to organization performance. We also draw on the power and politics perspective in the strategic decision‐making literature to identify the direct antecedents to the CIO's strategic decision‐making authority. A theoretical model is presented and empirically tested using survey data collected from a cross‐industry sample of 174 matched pairs of CIOs and top business executives through structural equation modeling. The results suggest that organizational climate, organizational support for IT, the CIO's structural power, the CIO's level of strategic effectiveness, and a strong partnership between the CIO and top management team directly influence the CIO's level of strategic decision‐making authority within the organization. The results also suggest that the CIO's strategic decision‐making authority in the organization directly influences the contribution of IT to firm performance and that effective CIOs have a greater influence on IT's contribution when provided with strategic decision‐making authority.     

Measuring Modularity‐Based Manufacturing Practices and Their Impact on Mass Customization Capability: A Customer‐Driven Perspective

As uncertainty in markets and technology intensifies, more companies are adopting modular product and process architectures to cope with increasing demands for individually customized products. Modularity‐based manufacturing is the application of unit standardization or substitution principles to create modular components and processes that can be configured into a wide range of end products to meet specific customer needs. This study defines modularity‐based manufacturing practices (MBMP), develops a valid and reliable instrument to measure MBMP, builds a framework that relates customer closeness, MBMP, and mass customization capability, and tests structural relationships within this framework using LISREL. Based on 303 responses from members of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, statistically significant and positive relationships were found among customer closeness, modularity‐based manufacturing practices, and mass customization capability. Managerial implications of the empirical findings of this study and future research directions are also discussed.     

Fostering Risk Taking in Research and Development: The Importance of a Project's Terminal Value

Large firms face a conflict in managing a portfolio of high-risk projects. When an ongoing project is thought to have a low likelihood of success, project team members take risks to improve its chances of success. However, upper-level managers who allocate resources tend to withhold resources from a project with a low likelihood of success in favor of others in the portfolio that look more promising. Because this paucity of resources influences project team members to avoid risk, the total effect of success likelihood on risk taking is conflicted. The influence on risk taking of a project's terminal value—defined as the value that remains in the firm in the event of project failure—is unequivocally positive, because both senior management resource allocation and project team risk-taking propensity are encouraged by terminal value. Thus, firms can override the ambivalent effect of likelihood of success on project decision making by focusing attention on a project's terminal value.     

Internal Infrastructural Impacts on RFID Perceptions and Commitment: Knowledge,Operational Procedures,and Information‐Processing Standards

For many firms, radio frequency identification (RFID) suggests not only a new alternative to existing tracking methods but also a means to a range of previously cost‐prohibitive internal control and supply chain coordination innovations. In any event, and even in light of possible external pressures to adopt, the full potential of RFID for an individual firm must ultimately be viewed in consideration with the infrastructural capabilities of that firm. Furthermore, because adoption decisions are fundamentally based on managerial perceptions, it is critical to consider how certain forms of infrastructure provide the necessary transparency into other infrastructural characteristics to augment such decisions. We use multisource survey data in this work to consider several elements that contribute to this infrastructure and subsequently to perceptions of RFID benefit and actual commitment to adoption. Results demonstrate that the complementary effects of these infrastructural capabilities significantly impact both perceptions of and commitments to RFID.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the End‐User Computing Satisfaction Instrument: Replication within an ERP Domain*

Over the past decade, organizations have made significant investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The realization of benefits from these investments depends on supporting effective use of information technology (IT) and satisfying IT users. User satisfaction with information systems is one of the most important determinants of the success of those systems. Drawing upon a sample of 407 end users of ERP systems and working within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), this study examines the structure and dimensionality, and reliability and validity of the end‐user computing satisfaction (EUCS) instrument posited by Doll and Torkzadeh (1988) . In response to Klenke's (1992) motion to cross‐validate management information system (MIS) instruments and to retest the end user computing satisfaction instrument using new data, this study's results, consistent with previous findings, confirm that the EUCS instrument maintains its psychometric stability when applied to users of enterprise resource planning application software. Implications of these results for practice and research are provided.