When Good Business Relationships Go Bad: A Quantitative Analysis of Dark Side Variables in Mature Supply Chain Relationships

This quantitative study examines the dark side effect of relationship variables on relationship financial performance and likelihood of relationship termination, moderated by relationship quality. The study tests propositions found in Social Exchange Theory. The cross-sectional survey was conducted with a population of logistics purchasers and providers. Three of ten hypotheses were supported; contributing evidence supporting the positive effect of relationship quality on the path between some relationship variables and performance, thereby corroborating Social Exchange Theory. The other hypotheses support the existence of the dark side effect of some relationship variables. Theoretically, this study strengthens the argument of Social Exchange Theory, while simultaneously supporting the earlier theoretical paths of Social Exchange Theory. Post-hoc testing illuminates the non-linear relationship of some of the independent variables, indicating the point of diminishing returns from earlier conceptualizations of Social Exchange Theory, and showing boundary conditions for the existing conceptualization of Social Exchange Theory

Ethics and taxation : a cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms

This paper investigates responses to tax related ethical issues facing busines

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Managing Global Product Development Teams: a mixed-methods study of (Knowledge) Governance Mechanisms

Multinational companies (MNCs) have ceased to concentrate their product development activities on their home countries. To deliver innovative products for global markets that meet local customer demands, MNCs increasingly rely on global teams which often combine global product expertise with local market insights. This dissertation seeks to enhance the understanding of managing such teams by exploring the governance mechanisms applied to manage global teams. More specifically, this dissertation (1) enquires about the governance mechanisms applied to govern global product development teams, (2) explores the impact these governance mechanisms have on product development performance, (3) identifies context factors for the governance and performance of global product development teams and (4) derives practical advice for managers of global product development. While this dissertation studies context factors of global product development, it explicitly keeps some of these context factors constant by focusing on global product development teams operating in German-based MNCs from the business-to-business sector. As product development is a knowledge-intense process, governing global product development teams involves governing global knowledge integration. The Knowledge Governance Approach (KGA) which addresses effective knowledge governance therefore provides the theoretic basis for this dissertation. Based on the propositions of the KGA and recent empiric findings on MNC knowledge governance, this dissertation provides a research framework with hypotheses on the links between (a) governance mechanisms, (b) individual absorptive capacity to share knowledge with a global product development team, (c) knowledge integration within a global product development team and (d) performance of global product development projects. Following a mixed-methods research approach, these hypotheses are tested based on qualitative information from interviews with 11 product development expert practitioners and quantitative information from 120 global product development projects. The interview responses are examined using qualitative content analysis in order to refine the research model and better understand the context of global product development teams in German-based MNCs. The enhanced research model is then tested using quantitative data gathered from managers of global product development projects via an online survey. Out of the 476 individuals invited to participate in the survey, 200 project managers replied (42% gross response rate) and provided 120 complete, usable cases (25% adjusted response rate). The cases are analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). This second generation multivariate analysis tool enables the researcher to assess relationships between latent variables which cannot be directly observed. The results indicate that German-based MNCs mostly apply hierarchical governance mechanisms such as top management attention and heavyweight team structures to govern product development teams. Standard process development processes are also commonly applied as a governance mechanism, whereas rewards and socialization-based mechanisms are applied less intensely. When assessing the effectiveness of global product development mechanisms, significant differences can be observed between companies from high-velocity markets which are characterized by faster innovation cycles and higher development spending as compared to companies from moderate-velocity markets which operate in rather mature industry environments: In moderate-velocity markets, heavyweight team structures, top management attention, standard product development processes and rewards, in descending order, prove to be the most effective governance mechanisms for global product development teams as these mechanisms have the highest total effect on project performance. Socialization-based governance is hardly relevant in these markets. On the contrary, companies from high-velocity markets receive the highest effect on product development performance from standard product development processes, socialization-based mechanisms and rewards. The impact of heavyweight team structures is negligible in high-velocity markets, and top management attention even harms development performance. Besides these important findings on the application of governance mechanisms by industry, this dissertation provides insights on the effects of physical, linguistic and cultural distance between the members of global product development teams, and assesses the impact of tacitness on governance mechanisms. This dissertation uses these findings to derive specific advice to managers of global product development in MNCs. It considers a wide range of context factors impacting the governance of global product development teams, thus answering the call for rigor and relevance in management research. Areas for further research based on this dissertation include an expansion of scope to MNCs from different home-countries, to MNCs in the consumer goods markets or to MNC functions other than product development. Given the increasing internationalization of value chains within and across (multinational) companies, this dissertation provides useful insights on governance mechanisms for managers and management scholars.Administración y Dirección de Empresa

Testing for the effects of organisational and individual cognitive-distance in small business and creative industries innovation partnerships

This thesis is concerned with understanding how the similarities, or differences, between small businesses working on transactional open-innovation projects might affect the dyadic performance. Specifically it explores whether varying degrees of difference, both at the organisational-level and at the individual personal-level, affects innovation performance and whether there is a ‘trade-off’ in innovation outcomes somewhere between high levels of similarity and difference. Empirical studies of similarity and difference have conflicting findings and most research into the particular condition of similarity and difference have taken place between multi-national businesses or in industries that have more formal innovation agendas, such as bio-technology or ICT. Additionally prior research has tended to evaluate a potential linear relationship between similarity variables and innovation performance. The study here draws on the Cognitive Theory of the Firm (Nooteboom, 2003) and its conceptual model of ‘cognitive distance’ which proposes that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the degree of difference in an innovation partnership and the innovation performance. It suggests a tipping point where performance improves up to a threshold and then begins to decline. The sample group is drawn from a cohort of small businesses based in the North-West of England taking part in an innovation voucher scheme designed to encourage linkages between small businesses and creative services suppliers. An analytical framework based on different measures and types of similarity is developed by reviewing a broad range of literature on innovation, open-innovation and small business innovation and these measures are used to assess innovation success against a range of six performance indicators. A major contribution of the research is the extension of the empirical domain for cognitive distance to the small and micro-business sector and further, the creation of a methodology which allows cognitive-distance to be directly measured, and performance assessed, at the level of the individuals within the innovation partnership. The relativity small sample group and the quite specific context requires the findings to be further corroborated but if results found here prove valid with other sample groups and within other contexts too, there may be implications in the future for how small firms might go about selecting their innovation partners

Exploring the Influence of Collaborative Capabilities on Focal Firm Product Outcomes ;the Mediating Role of Supplier Capabilities

As markets become more turbulent, dynamic, and competitive, and as customers become more sophisticated and demanding, the scope of capabilities and resources needed to meet customer needs, wants, and desires are less likely to be found in any one firm. Instead, firms must develop strong collaborative capabilities. Though the benefits of interfirm collaboration for focal firms (the firms responsible for the final offering) and suppliers are reasonably well understood, effectiveness and efficiency in collaboration remain elusive for many firms. It is likely that the collaborative capabilities of both focal firms and key suppliers contribute to effective collaboration, and that the collaborative capabilities of focal firms may influence the collaborative capabilities of suppliers, which in turn influence product-market outcomes. This dissertation proposes an integrative model drawing on three prominent streams in collaboration and supply chain research. In the proposed model, supplier collaborative capabilities mediate the association between focal-firm collaborative capabilities and operational product-market outcomes (closeness of the final offering to end-user needs and delivery performance). The model is founded in the knowledge-based and dynamic capabilities views of the firm, and tested empirically with data from a sample of managers from focal firms in industries producing relatively complex final products. Evidence is found of a relationship between focal-firm collaborative capabilities and supplier capabilities, and between supplier capabilities and product-market outcomes. This study contributes to scholarship and practice in interfirm collaboration by testing an integrative model drawn from three prominent streams of collaboration and supply chain research, by clarifying the dimensions of the collaborative communications construct and investigating its relationship with operational outcomes, by investigating the mediating role of supplier capabilities on product-market outcomes, and by extendi

The knowledge advantage (K-Adv): unleashing creativity and innovation

The K-Adv has been developed around the concept that it comprises an ICT enabling infrastructure that encompasses ICT hardware and software infrastructure facilities together with an enabling ICT support system; a leadership infrastructure support system that provides the vision for its implementation and the realisation capacity for the vision to be realised; and the necessary people infrastructure that includes the people capabilities and capacities supported by organisational processes that facilitates this resource to be mobilised