Trust transfer and partner selection in interfirm relationships

Despite third parties being important conduits of trust, little is known about the mechanisms and conditions relevant to their influence on trust formation and partner selection in interfirm relationships. In this study, we experimentally examine how varying levels of third-party information shape the trust that buyer managers have in a potential supplier firm, and how this trust affects subsequent selection decisions. In addition, we investigate when this information is most influential, by accounting for the moderating impact of the focal firm’s own prior experience. As expected, both neutral and favorable third-party information are able to elicit trust, yet with different effects on competence and goodwill trusting beliefs. These trusting beliefs, in turn, are positively associated with the likelihood of the supplier to be selected. Notably, we find third-party effects over and above the effects resulting from own prior experience. Overall, by investigating differences with regard to the origin and content of information and the specific type of trust, this study advances a more nuanced understanding of the partner selection process

Imitation of Management Practices in Supply Networks: Relational and Environmental Effects

This study investigates the imitative use of management practices across a multitier supply network. Although imitation may take the form of any management practice, operationally, we focus on whether the buyer’s control practices used with first-tier suppliers results in similar control practices being used by these first-tier suppliers with the second-tier suppliers. Drawing on institutional theory, we identify relational context (i.e., affective commitment) and environmental context (i.e., environmental uncertainty) as two important factors influencing the extent to which such imitation takes place. Using unique survey data of vertically linked supply chain triads, we generally find support for the occurrence of imitation and more so in cases of high affective commitment. The results regarding environmental uncertainty further reveal selectivity in imitative behavior, calling attention to the level of deliberateness in imitation decisions in supply networks. Besides contributing to theory on imitative behaviors in the supply chain, this study also generates practical implications on the spread of management practices across multiple tiers

Contracting outsourced services with collaborative key performance indicators

While service outsourcing may benefit from the application of performance‐based contracts (PBCs), the implementation of such contracts is usually challenging. Service performance is often not only dependent on supplier effort but also on the behavior of the buying firm. Existing research on performance‐based contracting provides very limited understanding on how this challenge may be overcome. This article describes a design science research project that develops a novel approach to buyer–supplier contracting, using collaborative key performance indicators (KPIs). Collaborative KPIs evaluate and reward not only the supplier contribution to customer performance but also the customer's behavior to enable this. In this way, performance‐based contracting can also be applied to settings where supplier and customer activities are interdependent, while traditional contracting theories suggest that output controls are not effective under such conditions. In the collaborative KPI contracting process, indicators measure both supplier and customer (buying firm) performance and promote collaboration by being defined through a collaborative process and by focusing on end‐of‐process indicators. The article discusses the original case setting of a telecommunication service provider experiencing critical problems in outsourcing IT services. The initial intervention implementing this contracting approach produced substantial improvements, both in performance and in the relationship between buyer and supplier. Subsequently, the approach was tested and evaluated in two other settings, resulting in a set of actionable propositions on the efficacy of collaborative KPI contracting. Our study demonstrates how defining, monitoring, and incentivizing the performance of specific processes at the buying firm can help alleviate the limitations of traditional performance‐based contracting when the supplier's liability for service performance is difficult to verify

Ziende blind. Over het waarom van crises en hoe ze te vermijden

With this contribution the authors want to indicate why organizational crisis emerge and what aspects can contribute to their detection and prevention. They argue that crisis detection and prevention necessitates a multilayered and multidisciplinary approach. More in particular they focus on the interaction between a product vision and a process vision on crisis preparedness. In this they elaborate on the role of procedures and the way organizations can cope with this by means of sensemaking, double loop learning and practical drift.

The withered "greening" of british politics: A study of the ecology party

Britain appears to be largely removed from the new political tide of ‘green’ parties that is currently sweeping other West European countries. This article will put forward some explanations for this ‘stillborn’ character of ‘green’ party politics in Britain. A detailed scrutiny of the history of the Ecology Party will be provided. It will be argued that the relative weakness of the Party is mainly due to its’failure to attract the support of ‘new social movements’. Particular attention will be paid to the British political system’s ability to deal with middle-class protest movements by a mixture of issue suppression and group integration. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the UK Political Studies Association Conference, Southampton, 3–5 April 1984. Final amendments made in February 1985 do not take into account subsequent developments. In September 1985 the Ecology Party was re-named the Green Party