Technological readiness and strategic interactive fit: Dynamic capabilities impacting logistics service competency and performance.

In today's business environment, retailers and manufacturers face increasing complexity when it comes to managing the supply chain. As complexity increases, these retailers and manufacturers often look to technology as a tool for assisting in managing supply chain flows. All too often, managers expect a given technology to improve effectiveness with little attention paid to the partner firm's readiness for technological implementation. This dissertation examines the firm readiness for technological implementation in supply chain dyads (retail-manufacturer pairs). Specifically, firm optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity are examined in relation to a firm's logistics service quality and overall market and financial performance.Based upon the theoretical model and empirical results, firm technological readiness matters for both retailers and manufacturers. The level of technological readiness has a significant and direct impact on a manufacturing firm's logistics service quality and a retailing firm's perception of the manufacturer's logistics service quality across nine dimensions. Additionally, firms with tighter strategic interactive fit---technological readiness, technological goals, and technological roles---may experience improvements in logistics service quality. Finally, the relationship between firm technological readiness and market and financial performance is mediated by a firm's logistics service quality

Logistics service orientation: An integrated strategy to build logistics service competency

While the importance of logistics service competency is widely acknowledged, more research is needed to investigate its antecedents. In this conceptual paper, we synthesize extant marketing and logistics/supply chain literature and propose a new concept - logistics service orientation, which consists of both logistics service’s internal and external market orientation. It is argued that a firm’s logistics service orientation has direct impacts on its logistics service performance. In addition, it is also proposed that this impact can be indirectly achieved through enhanced internal integration. This research contributes to existing knowledge by offering new insights on the development of logistics service competency

Understanding performance of joint ventures: Modeling the interactional strength of fit between partners

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing knowledge about joint ventures (JV) by modeling the interactional strength of fit between JV partners. The paper integrates different constructs from three theoretical perspectives most widely used in JV studies - trust and commitment from the relational perspective; opportunism and specific investments from the transaction cost perspective; and assesses the moderating role of fit from the contingency perspective. Design/methodology/approach - Quantitative data from JVs were collected using the survey method. Relationships in the moderated mediation model were tested using complex sets of hierarchical regression steps. Findings - Relational intentions of partners influence specific investments between the partners. The two together drive JV performance and their impact is moderated by the extent of fit between the partners. Thus, it is concluded that the strength of fit, as perceived by partners, influences the role of other constructs from the relational, transactional and contingency perspectives, which together can help us understand performance of JVs better. Research limitations/implications - An assessment of longitudinal view of the relational variables and subsequent performance can be captured in future. This research assesses fit based on compatibility, which assesses similarity as well as complementarity, primarily by way of harmony in different aspects. Future research could differentiate complementarity from similarity to further assess the impact of fit. Practical implications - The relational behavior of JV partners, or their rational approaches to resource seeking, will be optimally effective only when the fit between partner characteristics is high. While the relational or transactional approaches can evolve in JVs, the partners should assess the extent of fit before getting into a JV relationship. Originality/value - The research presents a holistic framework that draws from various theoretical perspectives. The results establish that contrary to its peripheral treatment in the literature, fit plays an important role and can modify the influence relational variables and specific investments can have on the performance of JVs