The predictive value of behavioural characteristics on the succes of strategic alliances

An increasing number of companies are setting up strategic alliances with suppliers and customers. However, the majority of these alliances do not succeed. Our aim is to understand how different behavioural characteristics are associated with alliance success. We hypothesise that alliance attributes, communication behaviour, and alliance management are predictors of cost benefits and service benefits. Furthermore, we found that while alliance attributes are related with both cost and service benefits, communication behaviour and alliance management are only associated with service and cost benefits, respectively. We also see that alliance attributes explain most of the variance of supply chain success and are thus better predictors of alliance success than other behavioural characteristics. Furthermore, we provide insight into the way managers can build up supply chain performance by setting up strategic alliances

Supply chain integration and performance: empirical essays in a manufacturing context

It is a well-accepted notion that to respond to competitive attacks firms need the necessary resources to do so. However, the presence of resources may not be a sufficient condition to enhance competitive responsiveness. Following a managerial decision-making approach, the present paper investigates how the availability of resources affects decision makers' assessment of a competitor's new product and their subsequent reaction to it. This study posits that competitive reaction follows from a decision maker's assessment of a competitive action. This assessment contains a motivation dimension and an ability dimension. The effect of three types of resources—financial, marketing, and technological—are examined. A quasi-experiment with the Markstrat business game as an empirical setting provided 339 questionnaires containing information on 29 different new product introductions. The motivation and ability dimensions are confirmed as important antecedents explaining reaction behavior. The results show that resources possess a dual, and opposing, role in influencing competitive reaction to new products. On the one hand, resources enhance decision makers' belief that they are able to react effectively to competitive attacks, but the presence of resources also makes them less motivated to react. The paper introduces two explanations for this: the liability-of-wealth hypothesis and the strong-competitor hypothesis. The addition of competitor orientation as a moderator allows us to discern between the two competing rationales for the existence of a negative effect of resources on the expected likelihood of success of a competitive new product introduction, supporting the liability-of-wealth hypothesis. The paper demonstrates the key role of competitor orientation and formulates implications from that

Supply chain information flow strategies: an empirical taxonomy

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify different information flow strategies to enhance integration in strategic alliances and studies these strategies with respect to contextual factors and the impact on performance. Design/methodology/approach - The paper examines empirical data gathered from 56 manufacturing companies, describing 112 supply chain relationships. An empirical taxonomy is created based on cluster analysis. Findings - Based on a parsimonious description of inter-firm information flows in the literature and this paper's empirical findings, three types of alliances are identified: Silent; Communicative; and IT intensive. While Silent alliances have the poorest overall performance, substantial similarities are found between Communicative and IT intensive alliances. In particular, the analysis suggests that IT intensive alliances, albeit performing better on operational capabilities, are not performing better on relationship satisfaction compared to Communicative alliances. Additional analyses indicate that partners of an IT intensive alliance are substantially more interdependent and larger in size. Research limitations/implications - This research presents a taxonomy of information flow strategies in a supply chain context. This research is not describing causality, since the data are not longitudinal in nature. Practical implications - Managers need to selectively invest in IT according to an overall supply chain integration strategy, which also takes softer, less technological forms of integration into consideration. Originality/value - This research provides insight into inter-firm information flows from a contingency perspective, recognizing heterogeneity of firms and supply chain practices

Case study: creating a sustainable supply chain for North Sea Shrimps: Follow the mainstream to Morocco, or create a local supply chain?

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Supply chain integration and performance: Empirical essays in a manufacturing context

It is a well-accepted notion that to respond to competitive attacks firms need the necessary resources to do so. However, the presence of resources may not be a sufficient condition to enhance competitive responsiveness. Following a managerial decision-making approach, the present paper investigates how the availability of resources affects decision makers' assessment of a competitor's new product and their subsequent reaction to it. This study posits that competitive reaction follows from a decision maker's assessment of a competitive action. This assessment contains a motivation dimension and an ability dimension. The effect of three types of resources—financial, marketing, and technological—are examined. A quasi-experiment with the Markstrat business game as an empirical setting provided 339 questionnaires containing information on 29 different new product introductions. The motivation and ability dimensions are confirmed as important antecedents explaining reaction behavior. The results show that resources possess a dual, and opposing, role in influencing competitive reaction to new products. On the one hand, resources enhance decision makers' belief that they are able to react effectively to competitive attacks, but the presence of resources also makes them less motivated to react. The paper introduces two explanations for this: the liability-of-wealth hypothesis and the strong-competitor hypothesis. The addition of competitor orientation as a moderator allows us to discern between the two competing rationales for the existence of a negative effect of resources on the expected likelihood of success of a competitive new product introduction, supporting the liability-of-wealth hypothesis. The paper demonstrates the key role of competitor orientation and formulates implications from that

Critical success factors simplified: implementing the powerful drivers of dramatic business improvement

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The effect of carbon neutral operations on shareholders wealth

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe