Using the force of partner attraction

Company performance is increasingly affected by a range of external factors embedded in a complex network of action controlled by other companies’ in its environment. A well managed company, it’s argued, is one that is aware of these external factors, and one who in response seeks to implement tactics maximizing own influence and control over them. Information gathering and model building are tactics normally used in this effort. However, in this article we discuss a third tactic, the tactic of attraction in dyadic relationships. Founded on the theory of social exchange and based on literature reviews on long-term-orientation in relationships and relationship value we develop a conceptual model highlighting the components of attraction in business to business relationships. First we demonstrate how the force of attraction can be understood as partners expected relationship value and how expected relationship value in turn is strengthened or weakened by partner- comfortability and dependability. Then we show how partners perceived attraction towards an industrial company can be managed using a combination of structural- and behavioral adjustments. Key words: Inter-organizational relationships; Relationship Management; Relationship-value; Attraction

Evidence from China

Sustainable work behavior is an important issue for operations managers – it has implications for most outcomes of OM. This research explores the antecedents of sustainable work behavior. It revisits and extends the sociotechnical model developed by Brown et al. (2000) on predicting safe behavior. Employee characteristics and general attitudes towards safety and work condition are included in the extended model. A survey was handed out to 654 employees in Chinese factories. This research contributes by demonstrating how employee- characteristics and general attitudes towards safety and work condition influence their sustainable work behavior. A new definition of sustainable work behavior is proposed

A network management perspective

The aim of this research is to explore the managerial role of category managers in purchasing. A network management perspective is adopted. A case based research methodology is applied, and three category managers managing a diverse set of component and service categories in a global production firm is observed while providing accounts of their progress and results in meetings. We conclude that the network management classification scheme originally developed by Harland and Knight (2001) and Knight and Harland (2005) is a valuable and fertile theoretical framework for the analysis of the role of the category manager in purchasing

Supplier incentives to invest in buyer promoted sustainability activities in the supply chain

Using a combined conceptual and single case-based research methodology, we explore the process connecting a buyers attempt to transfer its sustainability requirements with its suppliers’ willingness to participate. We conclude that buyer promoted sustainability practices in the supply chain can be understood as multiple decision problems. The case illustrate how accounting devices play major roles in resolving these decision problems, and how decision criteria apparently unconnected to the sustainability issue affect the outcome of the sustainability transferral process in the supply chain

Understanding the Factors that Enable and Inhibit Value Creation in Buyer-Supplier Relationship within the Outsourcing of IT Services

This study contributes to literature on value creation in buyer-supplier relationships as well as literature on IT service provision. It makes a first attempt at building a comprehensive model of the factors that enable and inhibit value creation within buyersupplier relationships. A distinction is made between value drivers with a direct influence on value creation, operational- and strategic performance, and moderating contextual factors that may enable or inhibit value creation from taking place. Initial application of the model to an IT service provision context is provided. Further case based and survey based applications are needed to develop and validate the suggested model

Actor‐Network Theory – A Novel Approach to Supply Chain Management Theory Development

Supply chain management (SCM) researchers often conduct research using theoretical approaches and ontological assumptions adopted from other areas of management. These approaches and assumptions are valid for some aspects of SCM, but may also neglect or be unsuited to other questions and concerns that are distinctive to the SCM domain. Actor-network theory (ANT) provides an alternative perspective that addresses some of the blind-spots of established approaches. We begin by describing the main theoretical assumptions and the dominant ontological position of ANT, in terms of three principles: relationality, heterogeneity, and performativity. We then show how adopting these principles allows an alternative conceptualization of the supply chain and of SCM itself, and discuss the methodological implications of adopting these principles for research in SCM. ANT-inspired research can make four major contributions to the development of new SCM theory. First, ANT can provide new theoretical insights into the dynamic and fragile character of supply chains, specifically regarding how SCM systems and devices are implemented, constructed, and transformed in practice. Second, ANT can enable the development of SCM theory that leads to a better understanding of how people in SCM roles really act when managing in the supply chain space. Third, the question of what and who manages the supply chain can be explored in radically new ways. Finally, ANT can provide a complementary perspective on power in the supply chain, serving as a good lens for researchers interested in exploring the politics of representing, interpreting, and stabilizing SCM practices and systems

Diffusion In The Face Of Failure: The Evolution Of A Management Innovation

Recent work has questioned the institutional model of management innovation by highlighting interactions between the field-level actors engaged in diffusing innovations and implementation of the innovation at organization level. Focusing on the adaptation of management innovations to their context, rather than their creation, we review this work and use it to analyse the global diffusion of resource planning (RP), counter posing this case with the widely studied example of total quality management. Both of these innovations experienced a high level of failure when implemented by organizations. Total quality management's diffusion was characterized by a ‘boom and bust’ cycle. RP, however, has continued to spread globally in the form of its variants: MRP, MRPII and ERP. Our analysis seeks to account for the long-run diffusion of RP through a processual model which highlights the interplay between RP's discursive framing at field level, the affordances of the innovation itself and its adaptation within organizations. This demonstrates how objectifying RP in software not only helped to spread the innovation but also allowed field-level actors to differentiate its development as a successful innovation from the many failures experienced by organizations attempting to adapt it