How managers can build trust in strategic alliances: a meta-analysis on the central trust-building mechanisms

Trust is an important driver of superior alliance performance. Alliance managers are influential in this regard because trust requires active involvement, commitment and the dedicated support of the key actors involved in the strategic alliance. Despite the importance of trust for explaining alliance performance, little effort has been made to systematically investigate the mechanisms that managers can use to purposefully create trust in strategic alliances. We use Parkhe’s (1998b) theoretical framework to derive nine hypotheses that distinguish between process-based, characteristic-based and institutional-based trust-building mechanisms. Our meta-analysis of 64 empirical studies shows that trust is strongly related to alliance performance. Process-based mechanisms are more important for building trust than characteristic- and institutional-based mechanisms. The effects of prior ties and asset specificity are not as strong as expected and the impact of safeguards on trust is not well understood. Overall, theoretical trust research has outpaced empirical research by far and promising opportunities for future empirical research exist

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

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

Interorganizational Relationships Climate And Interorganizational Information Systems Success; A Supply Chain Perspective

During the last two decades, an increasing amount of attention has been paid by practitioners as well as academics to Interorganizational Information Systems (IOSs) design, deployment and use within supply chains. However, our understanding of the main factors that affect IOSs use and success is hardly complete. Through brief review of coordination mechanisms theory and its related theory such as transaction cost theory (TCT) and Resource Based View (RBV), the paper generates theoretical propositions and attempt to conceptualize a theoretical model which map the role of Interorganizational relationships (IORs) climate attributes in linking IOSs technology and supply success. The theoretical model encompasses two major causal relations: (1) a direct relation linking IOS use with Supply chain performance (IOS success) and (2) a moderating relation linking IOS success with IORs attributes. Else more, the paper attributes to IORs success climate a set of constructs drawn from the literature review, namely; interorganizational cooperation/ interorganizational coordination, interorganizational trust, interorganizational commitment, and interorganizational dependence

Interfirm Value Creation: Conceptualizing for the Success and Sustainability of Strategic Partnerships

To achieve and maintain sustainable interfirm values such as competitive advantage and customer satisfaction, the developments of interfirm relations are common in the business world. This paper investigates the antecedents, methods, and outcomes of interfirm value creation to ensure a successful and sustainable strategic partnership. We suggest interfirm value creation requires proper implementation of value creating methods such as information sharing, electronic collaboration, joint programs, joint cost management, etc. Also, value creating methods require a strategic relationship that is featured by interfirm trust and dependency, communication, commitment, etc. This paper provides a special focus on interfirm value creation in a vertical relationship within the supply chain, mentioning antecedents as preconditions and outcomes as consequences of interfirm value creation

The Role of Electronic Integration and Absorptive Capacity on Interorganizational Cost Management in Supply Chains

The need to remain competitive is driving firms to increasingly seek competitive advantages by collaborating more intensely with their partner firms. One aspect of collaboration between firms is interorganizational cost management, where the focus is on specifically managing costs from both a focal firm and a partner firm perspective. This study integrates literature from the information systems, managerial accounting, and operations management fields to create a multi- disciplinary view of interorganizational cost management (IOCM) as an IT-enabled organizational capability. We develop a research model that focuses on both the antecedents (electronic integration, absorptive capacity, and internal cost management) and the consequences (benefits) of IOCM. Our model is tested from a sample of managerial accountants who work in firms that are a part of a supply chain. The results show that IOCM leads to specific firm benefits for the focal firm, and that electronic integration and a firm’s absorptive capacity for IOCM are both direct antecedents to the IOCM capability

Adopting IOIS in asymmetrical partnerships. Evidence from asymmetric alliances between Tunisian and European companies

Previous research in inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) is usually organized around three themes: adoption of IOIS, its impact on governing economic transactions, and its organizational consequences (Robey et al., 2008). This article aims to study the factors affecting a specific type of IOIS adoption, the one, within asymmetric strategic alliances. Drawing on qualitative research involving ten cases of asymmetric alliances between Tunisian and European companies, the present study develops a set of testable propositions that sheds light on factors affecting the adoption of IOIS within asymmetric alliances. These mainly refer to the asymmetric alliance as well as a set of technological, organizational and environmental factors