Typology and Portfolio of Net-enabled Organizational Capabilities and Competitive Advantages: The Case Study of Travel and Hospitality Industry

Electronic business (e-business) is evolving from its technological tool towards a strategic role, supporting new business strategies. Prior studies explained e-business value creation from net-enabled organizational capabilities perspective, and delivered many insights at firm level with individual-level analysis of capability. In this paper, we posit that competitive advantages under e-business environment will be dependent upon the deployment of multiple types of net-enabled organizational capabilities and their appropriate portfolios. Further, we use Wade and Hulland (2004)’s capabilities taxonomies and multiple cases-based data in Chinese travel and hospitality industry to understand the effect of appropriate portfolios of net-enabled organizational capabilities on competitive advantages

Leveraging Alliance Networks through Information Technology: Evidence from Panel Regressions

Despite the expectation that Information Technology (IT) is valuable in managing and leveraging multiple alliance relationships and the resultant alliance networks, a paucity in theoretical and empirical examination persists in the literature. Employing social network analysis (SNA), we examined whether IT investment moderates the effect exerted by a firm’s structural properties in alliance networks (direct partners, indirect partners, and structural holes) on its performance. Drawing upon previous research on dynamic capabilities and the knowledge-based view of the firm, we propose a conceptual model and discuss a potential underlying mechanism. Our empirical analysis of 306 U.S. public firms, which provide 971 observations during an 8-year span from 1998 to 2005, suggests that IT investment helps firms to (1) manage the burden of increasing complexity in coordinating multiple alliances, and (2) overcome the relative informational disadvantage resulted from their limited access to indirect partners and structural holes

Leveraging Open-standard Interorganizational Information Systems for Process Adaptability and Alignment: An Empirical Analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the value creation mechanisms of open-standard inter-organizational information system (OSIOS), which is a key technology to achieve Industry 4.0. Specifically, this study investigates how the internal assimilation and external diffusion of OSIOS help manufactures facilitate process adaptability and alignment in supply chain network.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument was designed and administrated to collect data for this research. Using three-stage least squares estimation, the authors empirically tested a number of hypothesized relationships based on a sample of 308 manufacturing firms in China.FindingsThe results of the study show that OSIOS can perform as value creation mechanisms to enable process adaptability and alignment. In addition, the impact of OSIOS internal assimilation is inversely U-shaped where the positive effect on process adaptability will become negative after an extremum point is reached.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights on how OSIOS can improve supply chain integration and thus promote the achievement of industry 4.0. By revealing a U-shaped relationship between OSIOS assimilation and process adaptability, this study fills previous research gap by advancing the understanding on the value creation mechanisms of information systems deployment

The Role of Knowledge Management in the Relationship between IT Capability and Interorganizational Performance: An Empirical Investigation

Knowledge management capability (KMC) represents an important link between IT and individual firm performance. We investigate this link in an interorganizational (IO) context—an increasingly important and yet substantially underresearched area. Based on reviewing and integrating the literature, we develop and test a comprehensive empirical conceptualization of KMC that includes knowledge creation, transfer, retention, and application. We collected survey data from supply management professionals at one partner firm (either customer or supplier) in an IO relationship. We tested our research hypotheses using structural equation modeling. We found that partner firms’ KMC was positively associated with IO performance. We also found that IO information technology (IOIT) infrastructure capabilities facilitated KMC through the strength of IO relational capability. Partner interdependence was positively associated with IO relational capability and with KMC. Taking a knowledge management (KM) perspective, our research shows that IT requires relational capability and KMC to bring performance gains to IO partnerships. These insights have theoretical importance for understanding IT-enabled knowledge management in IO settings and practical significance for firms to effectively use their IOIT infrastructure

Understanding Outsourcing Commitment—An Integrated Model Combining The Resoruce-Based View And Knowledge Management

The understanding on how a service provider’s (SP) process capabilities, in terms of aligning and adapting resources to deliver value to its service recipient (SR) in business process outsourcing (BPO), affect its commitment is limited. To address this, building on a strategic perspective and related theories such as the resource-based view and knowledge management, we develop a theoretical model and test it empirically. Specifically, we posit that a SP’s process capabilities, in terms of process alignment, offering flexibility, and partnering flexibility, positively affect its SR’s commitment and the above relationships is negatively moderated by the SR’s behavior control. Besides, we also examine the influence of interaction effect between antecedents of process capabilities on commitment, such as how does process alignment interact with its partnering flexibility and offering flexibility to affect commitment. Finally, we assess whether process capabilities are influenced by the SR’s absorptive capacity and the SP’s task-knowledge coordination. We test our model using survey data collected from 183 firms, supporting most proposed hypotheses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of how to increase the value offered to a SR by levering resources, in terms of process capabilities and knowledge management

Understanding Software-as-a-Service Performance - A Dynamic Capability Perspective

How to increase a client’s capability through outsourcing remains a problem. This papers draws on strategic management literature and the relational view to develop a theoretical model that explains the relationships between collaboration, agility, and outsourcing performance in software-as-a-service (SaaS) context. Collaboration are characterized as knowledge sharing and process alignment between a supplier and its client, agility as a supplier’s sensing agility and responding agility. This study also investigates the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the relationships between agility and performance. The proposed hypotheses are largely supported by the empirical data from 215 firms. The results show that SaaS performance is affected by both sensing agility and responding ability, which, in turn, are impacted by collaboration between a supplier and its client. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results

Knowledge Transfer within relationship portfolios: The Creation of Knowledge Recombination Rents

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to clarify the underdeveloped conceptualization of a particular type network rents, defined as knowledge recombination rents, related to the possibility for a firm to transfer and recombine knowledge within and across its portfolio of inter-organizational relationships. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a contingency approach, we develop a comprehensive model with propositions drawn from an original synthesis of the extant literature on the management of inter-organizational relationships. Findings: We summarize the most important internal and external variables that explain how knowledge recombination rents arise within a firm’s portfolio of inter-organizational relationships. We create a seven-proposition model that considers: an “internal fit”, related to internal contingencies of the firm, specifically life stage and its strategy; an “external fit”, related to external contingencies of the network of the firm, specifically past experience and current portfolio structure. Research limitations/implications: The model is theory-driven. Future research is needed to empirically validate the propositions, especially in different industries and contexts. Practical implications: Our model, beyond the fact of being theoretically sounded, is also completely practical oriented. Indeed, we developed a comprehensive model articulated in seven propositions which relationship managers can easily use to analyze and manage their portfolios of inter-organizational relationships. Originality/value: Our model allows us to assert that the value of an inter-organizational relationship is not fixed nor just related to the single dyadic interaction; rather before engaging with a relationship is crucial to ponder possible benefits and harms. This is the central element in our contribution that develops an easy-to-use and comprehensive model based on best practices

Capabilities and skills to orchestrate innovation networks

Purpose – This study aims to present a theoretical analysis on the capabilities (at the organizational) andskills (at the individual level) of the hub organization (orchestrator) in an innovation network.Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted literature reviews on the orchestration ofinnovation networks; and networking capabilities.Findings – This study presents a theoretical model and a research agenda.Originality/value – In interorganizational relations, a central actor can stand out the role of intentionally creating,extracting and distributing value in the network, generating gains for all members. Literature recognizes this set ofintentional and deliberate actions as the “orchestration” of resources in the network. Despite the increasing interestregarding the theme, the phases and specific capabilities for orchestration still lack further investigation