What happened with the grandiose plans? Strategic plans and network realities in B2B interaction

Earlier version submitted as paper at 25th IMP Conference 2009 Euromed Management, Marseilles, France April 1st 2009, Resubmitted June 29th, 2009. Final version published by Elsevier; available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/Research concerned with business relationships and organizational levels, respectively, has addressed companies' difficulties in realizing their strategies. Studies of business relationships explain this through actions and reactions among business partners. Organizational studies note gaps between strategic and operational organizational levels in perceptions and goals. This paper combines these perspectives to obtain new insights into why company strategies may not materialize. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how actor bonds on various organizational levels in business relationships affect strategy realization. The paper shows that actors on similar organizational levels representing different companies may actually share more understandings and activities than actors within the same company. The paper contributes to research on dyadic business relationships by highlighting differences in perspectives on various organizational levels, adds insights into research studying organizations by including a business-relationship aspect, and increases understanding of why strategic plans sometimes fail to succeed

Brand management in mergers and acquisitions: emerging market multinationals venturing into advanced economies

Purpose: This paper focuses on emerging market firms that internationalize into advanced economies by means of acquisitions. This paper aims to describe and discuss brand management in post-acquisition integration from a multi-level perspective and identify how brand management strategy can be constructed. The paper takes into account the influences of country image, corporate brand and brand portfolio to obtain a granular view in managing brand after such acquisitions. Design/Methodology/Approach: A multiple case study approach is adopted. By using case studies and storytelling qualitative research methods, our empirical setting consists of Chinese firms’ acquisitions in Germany. Findings: We identified three mechanisms for brand management in post-acquisition integration of emerging market firms, namely transferring, dynamically redeploying and categorizing that underpin the interconnection and combined influence of country image on the national level, corporate brand on the organizational level and brand portfolio on the product level. Practical implications: Brand has been viewed as a strategic asset in Chinese cross-border acquisitions. Brand management is a dynamic process that involves learning and interaction between the acquirer and target. Our research offers a practical guideline for both acquirers and targets in managing brand amid emerging market firms’ acquisition in advanced economies. Originality/Value: Our findings shed important light on brand management strategy in Chinese overseas acquisitions in particular, and emerging market firms venturing into advanced economies in general. The interlinking of country, company and product levels presents new ideas to brand literature, and the setting with Chinese firms acquiring German companies constitutes an important contribution to understand how firms from emerging economies may pursue branding strategies different to present knowledge from advanced economy firms

Customers driving a firm's responsible innovation response for grand challenges : A co-active issue-selling perspective

Grand challenges vary across industries and call for firms to craft a responsible innovation response to effectively address them. However, key questions concerning why firms embrace responsible innovation and the process by which they respond to grand challenges have yet to be fully answered. We integrate an issue-selling theoretical lens and the customer role from an innovation perspective to theorize about the different influencing motives that customers exert on their corresponding supplying firm to craft a more responsible innovation response to grand challenges. Based on qualitative data collected in almost a 10-year period from multiple respondents across eight customer firms and two supplying firms, we identify three core motives—regulatory, business opportunity, and socio-environmental motives—that propel customers to influence supplying firms to craft different forms of responsible innovation responses. Our research also reveals three vital socio-human capital pathways—human capital, socio-behavioral, and relationship—which, in turn, foster a co-active engagement in addressing grand challenges innovatively and responsibly. In so doing, this research advances novel theorizing on co-active engagement in responsible innovation where the customer acts as the primary champion and the supplier as the implementer. We discuss the important implications for customers and other stakeholders.© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Product Innovation Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Product Development & Management Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Nominated procurement and the indirect control of nominated sub-suppliers: evidence from the Sri Lankan apparel supply chain

This article describes and discusses nominated procurement as a means through which buyers select sub-suppliers to achieve sustainability compliance upstream in emerging economies' supply chains. Hence, it critically examines the ways buyers articulate nominated procurement and the unfolding supply chain consequences. Based on in-depth interviews and fieldwork in the Sri Lankan apparel supply chain, the findings indicate that buyers accomplish sustainability compliance among their sub-suppliers while prioritizing their own business agenda. In doing so, however, buyers perpetuate “suboptimal compliance” of raw material suppliers and “sandwiching” of direct suppliers as harmful consequences on the supply chain. These consequences link theoretically with commercial, geographical, compliance and extended-compliance pressure. This article contributes to the advancement of the Sustainable Supply Chain Management literature by theorizing about nominated procurement, direct and indirect pressure, and pointing to the supply chain consequences beyond achievements in sustainability compliance

Tetramic acid based alkaloids from Aspergillus amoenus Roberg strain UP197-antibiotic properties and new pyranterreones

The fungus Aspergillus amoenus Roberg strain UP197 was shown to produce antibacterial tetramic acid based alkaloids. Two new compounds, pyranterreone I and J (1 and 2), were isolated and characterized, in addition to the known compounds cordylactam, 7-hydroxycordylactam, pyranterreone C, D, F and G. Neither the pyranterreones nor the cordylacctams had previously been tested for antimicrobial activity. Thus, all isolated compounds were tested against a panel of clinically important bacteria and fungi. Pyranterreone C was active against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) between 1 and 8 mu g/mL, whereas the MICs for all other compounds were >32 mu g/mL. Pyranoterreone C was cytotoxic towards HepG2 cells, and since pyranterreone C reacted rapidly with the nucleophile cysteine, it is likely that the observed antibacterial activity is due to the chemical reactivity rather than enzymatic affinity, making it unsuitable for development as an antibacterial drug

Copycats among underdogs - echoing the sharing economy business model

The sharing economy has gained traction in several industry sectors by establishing ever-new platforms, with digital intermediation and peer-to-peer exchanges at the heart of the business model. Most research on the sharing economy concerns the phenomenon level or focuses on the operations of single platforms. This paper connects various sharing economy platforms by asking: How has the sharing economy spread to new platforms? The purpose of the paper is to explain the pattern of spread of the sharing economy business model. Findings point out a seamless, unobtrusive pattern echoing characteristics of the sharing economy business model across distant sectors to avoid competition while reproducing activities in ever-new resource settings. The paper continues the exploration of the sharing economy related to industrial marketing through moving from the individual platforms to the way they lead to new ones while acknowledging how the innovative model for new platforms is highly based on mandates created through acknowledging oneself as a role model successor. Such a spread mechanism redefines innovation newness, adaptation and diffusion, and raises new insights to understand how current business landscapes would be under the possible transition into a new logic of operations

Smart cities

Purpose The smart city idea refers to new ways of organising city functions and urban life, which are believed to move production and consumption from global to local, manufacturing from competitive to collaborative, and business from a shareholder to a multiple-stakeholder point of view. Most previous research has focussed on the societal level of smart cities, while less seems to be known about the management of business as part of smart cities. The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on the state of the art of management research on smart cities. The following research question is addressed: How has previous research captured the management of organisations in smart cities? Design/methodology/approach A literature review using the search term “smart city/cities” in research on business, management, and operational management was conducted for the purpose of capturing previous research. Findings were coded based on main ideas, central concepts, and theories, thematic content of the articles related to the main ideas underpinning smart cities (digitalization, urbanisation, and sustainability as antecedents, and local, collaborative and multiple-stakeholder manufacturing as indicators), and units of analysis. Findings The paper points to how most studies on the management of organisations as part of smart cities focus on sustainability and how digitalisation enables new businesses. Collaborative efforts are emphasised and the theoretical framing is fragmented. Issues related to the organising of business is also not problematised and the business network approach could, as discussed in the paper, provide valuable insights related to the collaborative efforts of organisations and the multiple-stakeholder perspective. Originality/value The paper is the first to capture and present an overview of previous research on the management of business as part of smart cities. Research on smart cities has focussed on the policy and societal levels, and so far there is a lack of problematisation on how organisations may act, and potentially change their way of acting, should smart cities become a reality. </jats:sec

Infection with Panton-Valentine Leukocidin–Positive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus t034

Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)–positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), sequence type 398 is believed to be of animal origin. We report 2 cases of infection due to PVL–positive MRSA, spa type t034, in patients in Sweden who had had no animal contact

Familial aggregation of schizophrenia: The moderating effect of age at onset, parental immigration, paternal age and season of birth

An abundance of evidence has firmly established the familial aggregation of schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to examine how age at onset, parental characteristics and season of birth modify the familiality in schizophrenia