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

A multidimensional perspective on agile product innovation and factors affecting its performance

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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

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

Mediating effects in reverse knowledge transfer processes : the case of knowledge-intensive services in the U.K

Recent contributions highlight the importance of international knowledge transfer as a fundamental source of competitive advantage of MNCs. Due to the traditional assumption that parent firms are the prime source of knowledge, majority of studies have focused on knowledge transfer from headquarters to subsidiaries. However, the role of subsidiaries within MNCs has changed dramatically; many subsidiaries have gained a creative role by generating new resources depending on the comparative advantage of the location in which they operate, and through the process of reverse knowledge transfer, they subsequently contribute to the competence upgrading of the MNC. In reviewing the extant literature on MNC knowledge transfer and in particular reverse knowledge transfer, this research unleashes several gaps, notably in the understanding of factor affecting subsidiary knowledge development and reverse knowledge transfer within the service sector. Borrowing concepts from the knowledge-based and network views, a series of hypotheses were tested using the result of a web-based survey of the subsidiaries that were located in the UK, had a non-UK parent firm, and were active in the KIBS sector. Responses from 187 general managers, managing directors, or chief executives of subsidiaries confirm that those subsidiaries that develop and maintain business relationships with their internal (sister subsidiaries and headquarters) and external actors (customers, universities, suppliers, competitors) and have high level of autonomy are more capable of developing knowledge. With regards to determinants of reverse knowledge transfer, while subsidiary characteristics (knowledge development and willingness) and relationship characteristics (socialization mechanisms) are emerged as the main facilitators of reverse knowledge transfer, knowledge characteristics (tacitness and complexity) appeared as the main hindrances of this phenomenon. Moreover, the results indicate that, (a) socialisation mechanisms augment the extent of shared values and subsidiary-parent firm embeddedness and (b) willingness mediates the impacts of shared values and subsidiary-parent firm embeddedness on reverse knowledge transfer. The key contributions of this research are two-fold: firstly, it examines the process of reverse knowledge transfer and knowledge development exclusively within the KIBS sector. Secondly, it investigates the joint impacts of relationship characteristics, knowledge characteristics, and subsidiary (sender) characteristicson reverse knowledge transfer.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Pattern of Enhancing of Protection of the Victims of International Crimes in Africa

In criminal proceeding, the victim participation as a precondition of enforcement of law is very important. The comparative study of victims participation in various generations of criminal courts and their effectiveness from new developments of criminal justice specially the restorative justice, will help us to understand the approach of these courts towards victim participation in international criminal law. The end of cold war and aftermath developments in the regions like Rwanda and ex-Yugoslavia resulted to shaping international criminal tribunals. After making International Criminal Court some cases in Africa refer to ICC, and the proceed African cases in ICC result the unhappy of some African head of states. Meanwhile, the matter of reparations of damages to victims due to international crimes became very important. The experiences of restorative justice can be a good model for criminal justice and reparation of damages and victim participation in Africa. In this article the legal developments of protection of international crimes victims and the lessons that can be a model for protection of victims rights will examined

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

Relationships of stressors and opportunism in cross-border exchange partnership contexts: When and how monitoring matters

Transaction costs economics work has argued that monitoring procedures are needed to evaluate the extent to which overseas partners comply with their obligations. We posit that the transactional theory of stress can also inform on how to distinguish opportunists from non-opportunists. Synthesizing these two theories and using a three-study, multimethod design, we examine whether different types of stressors influence opportunism, and how and under what conditions such links are moderated by monitoring. Based on separate surveys of 209 Chinese subsidiaries’ and 232 Chinese suppliers’ cross-border intrafirm and interfirm partnerships with headquarters and buyers, respectively—in conjunction with an add-on experimental study conducted in the US—the results suggest challenge and hindrance stressors impact opportunism differently. The former exhibits a U-shaped, and the latter a positive, relationship with opportunism. We thus observe the importance of both the level and type of stress. Further, the international exchange context matters for monitoring’s efficacy. Monitoring steepens the U-shaped challenge stressors–opportunism relationship in intrafirm (not interfirm) partnerships. It however weakens the positive hindrance stressors–opportunism relationship in interfirm (not intrafirm) partnerships. The findings inform managers on when and how to use monitoring to control challenge and hindrance stressors’ links to opportunism in these contexts