When challenges hinder: An investigation of buyer-imposed stressors on supplier flexibility

Working with buyers may drive business growth but can also induce supplier stress. Drawing on Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory, this study explored how buyer-imposed work stressors affect supplier flexibility. Employing a scenario-based experiment involving 338 managers, we found that the imposition of challenge stressors increases supplier flexibility when hindrance stressors are low. Conversely, when hindrance stressors are high, imposing challenge stressors reduces supplier flexibility. We also found that supplier bricolage negatively moderates the relationship between buyer-imposed challenge stressors and supplier flexibility. Specifically, we confirmed that suppliers with higher bricolage are less willing to provide flexibility in response to challenge stressors. For practitioners, our study not only identified the type of work stressors they should impose on suppliers to boost flexibility but also highlighted bricolage as an important moderating factor

Building subsidiary local responsiveness: (when) does the directionality of intrafirm knowledge transfers matter?

The present study focuses on effects of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities—knowledge transfer and reverse knowledge transfer—and absorptive capacity on local responsiveness. We also examine whether absorptive capacity, shared values, and psychological safety, representing constituents of the motivation-opportunity-ability model of behavior, moderate relationships of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities with responsiveness. Based on a sample of 173 Chinese subsidiaries, the results suggest knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity facilitate local responsiveness. Shared values moderates positively and absorptive capacity negatively, the relationship between knowledge transfer and responsiveness. Psychological safety strengthens the link between reverse knowledge transfer and local responsiveness

Green process innovation: Where we are and where we are going

Environmental pollution has worsened in the past few decades, and increasing pressure is being put on firms by different regulatory bodies, customer groups, NGOs and other media outlets to adopt green process innovations (GPcIs), which include clean technologies and end-of-pipe solutions. Although considerable studies have been published on GPcI, the literature is disjointed, and as such, a comprehensive understanding of the issues, challenges and gaps is lacking. A systematic literature review (SLR) involving 80 relevant studies was conducted to extract seven themes: strategic response, organisational learning, institutional pressures, structural issues, outcomes, barriers and methodological choices. The review thus highlights the various gaps in the GPcI literature and illuminates the pathways for future research by proposing a series of potential research questions. This study is of vital importance to business strategy as it provides a comprehensive framework to help firms understand the various contours of GPcI. Likewise, policymakers can use the findings of this study to fill in the loopholes in the existing regulations that firms are exploiting to circumvent taxes and other penalties by locating their operations to emerging economies with less stringent environmental regulations.publishedVersio

Market orientation, marketing capability, and new product performance: the moderating role of absorptive capacity

The recent marketing literature identifies market orientation and marketing capabilities as key concepts that firms should use to achieve their competitive advantages. Previous research also confirms cross effects of these dimensions in firms' performance. The present study extends the literature on this subject by introducing absorptive capacity (AC) as a moderator of the relationship among market orientation, the interaction of market orientation and marketing capability, and firms' new product performance. This study empirically examines the research model using survey data from 188 manufacturing firms in Sweden. The findings confirm previous studies that claim a positive relationship among market orientation, marketing capability, and new product performance. More importantly, the results indicate that AC positively moderates the relationship between market orientation and firms' new product performance. Furthermore, the findings suggest that experts should consider AC as a competitive factor in line with the complimentary effect of market orientation and marketing capability. This consideration would contribute to explain better firm-related performance, such as new product performance

The interplay of networking activities and internal knowledge actions for subsidiary influence within MNCs

Knowledge-based and network-based activities are known determinants of foreign subsidiary influence. We demonstrate that the interaction between these factors is essential in understanding how subsidiaries gain influence within an MNC. We test this using data on 184 foreign-owned subsidiaries in the UK. The results indicate that the possession of strategic resources (knowledge or embedded relations) increases subsidiary influence only when the knowledge is transferred back to headquarters. Importantly, the impact of subsidiary-headquarters embeddedness, external embeddedness and knowledge development on influence is mediated by the extent of reverse knowledge transfer. This mediating role sheds new light on the antecedents to subsidiary influence

How collaborative innovation networks affect new product performance: Product innovation capability, process innovation capability, and absorptive capacity

The current literature has investigated the direct relationship between collaborative innovation networks and new product performance, but the results are inconsistent. This research aims to explore the role of product and process innovation capabilities as two distinct mechanisms through which collaborative innovation networks improve new product performance. The study also examines the contingent effects of absorptive capacity on the relationship between collaborative innovation networks and the two innovation capability dimensions (i.e. product and process innovation). Survey data from 258 respondents from the Iranian high and medium technology manufacturing industries indicates the need for caution when developing collaborative innovation networks. We found that the effects of collaborative innovation networks on either product or process innovation capability are significant only in the presence of absorptive capacity. This finding suggests that the level of collaboration with different partners can enhance firms' innovation capabilities only if the focal firm's managers have developed the capacity to scan and acquire external knowledge. Our analyses further indicate that in the presence of absorptive capacity, only collaboration with research organizations and competitors have a positive effect on product innovation capability. In the case of process innovation capability, collaboration with research organizations and suppliers are the most important factors

The roles of institutional dependence and slack financial resources: Implications for the challenge–hindrance stressors framework in headquarters-subsidiary relationships

The present study addresses a lacuna in research on the effects of subsidiary job demands within headquarters–subsidiary relationships. Specifically, it examines the differential impacts of challenge demands and hindrance demands on subsidiary top-management-team’s work engagement, which in turn, predicts subsidiary operating revenue and local responsiveness performance. It also investigates whether institutional dependence and slack financial resources, representing the demands and resources from Job Demands–Resources model, moderate links between: challenge demands and work engagement; hindrance demands and work engagement; work engagement and operating revenue; and work engagement and local responsiveness. Based on a survey with 238 Chinese subsidiaries and a secondary dataset (i.e. OSIRIS) that objectively captures these subsidiaries’ operating revenue, the results confirm that challenge demands and hindrance demands are positively and negatively related to work engagement, respectively. Work engagement is positively linked to both operating revenue and local responsiveness. Institutional dependence strengthens the link between challenge demands and work engagement, but it weakens the association between work engagement and local responsiveness. Slack financial resources strengthens the challenge demands to work engagement, work engagement to operating revenue, and work engagement to local responsiveness linkages. Implications of these findings for theory development and managerial practice are discussed

A subsidiary’s influence within the federative MNC: The case of multinational KIBS firms

Building on network view and knowledge based view; this research investigates how relationships (with local actors, parent firm, and local actors), knowledge development, and reverse knowledge transfer impact on the extent to which a subsidiary can exert influence on strategic decisions of its MNC. The proposed model was tested with data on 184 subsidiaries activating in the KIBS sector in the United Kingdom. The results indicate that the extent of the subsidiary’s influence on strategic decisions of the MNC is significantly related to the extent to which the subsidiary contributes to the knowledge based of its parent firm. We also find that knowledge development and subsidiary-parent firm embeddedness can only indirectly augment the extent of subsidiary’s influence through facilitating reverse knowledge transfer. The association between external embeddedness and influence is also mediated by knowledge development and reverse knowledge transfer

Relationship learning and international customer involvement in new product design: The moderating roles of customer dependence and cultural distance

This study focuses on relationship learning and its implications for international customer involvement during the design stage of the new product development (NPD) process. It utilizes relationship learning capability perspective to investigate the linkages between relationship learning, international customer involvement, and suppliers' performance. We also investigate whether customer dependence and cultural distance moderate the association between (a) relationship learning and international customer involvement and (b) international customer involvement and supplier performance. Using 264 respondents from Chinese manufacturing firms that have international customers, this study identifies that international customer involvement partially mediates the link between relationship learning and supplier performance. Furthermore, customer dependence strengthens, and cultural distance weakens, the effect of relationship learning on international customer involvement. However, only cultural distance negatively moderates the relationship between international customer involvement and supplier performance