antecedents and outcomes of modular production in the brazilian automobile industry a grounded theory approach our paper focuses on how foreign automobile manufacturers in brazil have implemented and benefited from strategic modularization based on our case studies and in depth interviews we developed a theoretical framework to examine the antecedents and outcomes of strategic modularization our theoretical framework suggests that strategic modularization may help improve a firm s positional advantage by reducing the cost of managing tacit knowledge in addition the adoption of strategic modularization influences the nature of relationships with major suppliers further blurring the boundaries of the firm

does governance matter keiretsu alliances and asset specificity as sources of japanese competitive advantage this empirical study suggests that japanese competitive advantage in complex product industries is at least partly due to differences in value chain governance and interfirm asset co specialization comparative data are offered which indicate that u s firms rely largely on markets and hierarchies to facilitate exchange whereas japanese firms rely largely on hybrid governance or alliances the empirical findings suggest that japanese automotive firms value chains have been able to achieve a competitive advantage over their u s counterparts by effectively using hybrid alliance governance for three primary reasons 1 japanese automotive value chains are characterized by greater interfirm asset co specialization than u s chains in particular greater human asset co specialization between firms results in superior coordination information sharing and learning which is critical in complex product industries 2 hybrids alliances as employed by japanese automakers realize virtually all of the advan

global value chain governance a relational perspective global value chain gvc governance is an established field within international business research yet the relational aspects of gvcs have to date garnered less scholarly attention than have efficiency considerations this conceptual study s objective is to explore the relational dynamics of gvc governance using an internalization theory perspective and by linking gvc research with insights from the business network literature gvcs are argued to be a distinct form of asymmetrical networks associated with economizing and capability creation features as well as costs the orchestrating firm can thus enhance efficiency outcomes of the gvc using social mechanisms similar to those adopted by core actors in a business network in the study six such mechanisms were identified 1 selectivity 2 inclusion of non business intermediaries 3 joint strategizing 4 relational capital 5 multilateral feedback and 6 rules for equitable value distribution while safeguarding the gvc s efficiency the above social mechanisms are associated with challenges and limitations and therefore do not guarantee international competitive success however deployed in an integrative fashion these social mechanisms facilitate coordination thus economizing on bounded rationality reduce the hazards of imperfect effort by partners thus economizing on bounded reliability and foster innovation and new capability development

proximity strategies in outsourcing relations the role of geographical cultural and relational proximity in the european automotive industry several trends that affect the manufacturing of sophisticated goods increasing international fragmentation of production and lean and modular process technologies have increased the importance of proximity in the supply chain we use the case of the european automotive industry to simultaneously evaluate the relative importance of three dimensions geographical cultural and relational proximity using a rich and novel data set we find that carmakers value some aspects of each dimension independently in their sourcing strategy the estimates indicate which proximity measures provide the largest independent benefits but also that the positive effects the literature has attributed to some measures tend to reflect past relationships rather than predict new ones in particular co location and a low cultural distance should be interpreted as outcomes of a sourcing strategy not as predictors for sourcing success finally we investigate to what extent firms from different countries follow different strategies and which choices suppliers can make to boost their attractiveness as outsourcing partners

specialized supplier networks as a source of competitive advantage evidence from the auto industry this study examines the relationship between interfirm asset specificity and performance in the auto industry more specifically i examine the extent to which differences in supplier automaker asset specialization may explain performance differences between japanese automakers nissan and toyota and u s automakers chrysler ford general motors the findings indicate a positive relationship between supplier automaker specialization and performance in particular the data suggest a positive relationship between interfirm human asset cospecialization and both quality and new model cycle time moreover site specialization is found to be positively associated with lower inventory costs the findings suggest that in the auto industry a tightly integrated production network characterized by proximity and a high level of human cospecialization will outperform a loosely integrated production network characterized by low levels of interfirm specialization

agriculture in the global economy agriculture is diverse and full of contradictions the sector accounts for a griculture is diverse and full of contradictions the sector accounts for a comparatively small share of the global economy but remains central comparatively small share of the global economy but remains central to the lives of a great many people in 2012 of the world s 7 1 billion to the lives of a great many people in 2012 of the world s 7 1 billion people an estimated 1 3 billion 19 percent were directly engaged in farming people an estimated 1 3 billion 19 percent were directly engaged in farming but agriculture including the relatively small hunting fi shing and forestry sectors but agriculture including the relatively small hunting fi shing and forestry sectors represented just 2 8 percent of overall income world bank 2012 however in represented just 2 8 percent of overall income world bank 2012 however in today s middle and low income countries where most of the world s farmers are today s middle and low income countries where most of the world s farmers are to be found agriculture accounts for a much greater share of national income and to be found agriculture accounts for a much greater share of national income and employment for instance in india agriculture represents 18 percent of national employment for instance in india agriculture represents 18 percent of national income and 54 percent of employment income and 54 percent of employment 1

sourcing by design product complexity and the supply chain this paper focuses on the connection between product complexity and vertical integration using original empirical evidence from the auto industry a rich literature has addressed the choice between internal production and external sourcing of components in the auto industry more recent literature has developed the concept of product architecture as another choice variable that may be one of the important contributors to product complexity in this paper we connect these two important decisions and study them jointly we use the property rights approach to argue that complexity in product design and vertical integration of production are complements that in house production is more attractive when product complexity is high as firms seek to capture the benefits of their investment in the skills needed to coordinate development of complex designs we test this hypothesis with a simultaneous equations model applied to data from the luxury performance segment of the auto industry we find a significant and positive relationship between product complexity and vertical integration this has implications for optimal incentive structures within firms as well as for interpreting firm performance

from hybrids to hierarchies shareholder wealth effects of joint venture partner buyouts this study examines the parent firm performance implications of joint venture jv partner buyouts which involve the conversion of a hybrid governance structure to an internal unit within the firm s hierarchy transaction cost theory as developed and applied in the international literature and market entry research is extended to the post entry investment setting to isolate sources of value creation or dissipation from the governance changes effected by jv partner buyouts the evidence complements recent research on jv longevity and its determinants copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

explaining interfirm cooperation and performance toward a reconciliation of predictions from the resource based view and organizational economics interfirm cooperation and its performance implications are examined in the context of two widely cited theoretical approaches to organizations broadly speaking the resource based view suggests that firms seek to capitalize on and increase their capabilities and endowments whereas organizational economics asserts that firms focus on minimizing the costs of organizing although these perspectives agree on managers likely actions in many areas their predictions diverge when interfirm cooperation is considered we take a step toward reconciling these differences by positing that firms place resource based concerns in front of considerations from organizational economics when deciding whether or not to engage in interfirm cooperation we examined this prediction using data from 94 publicly held restaurant chains the results support our integrated view but also suggest that giving primacy to resource concerns detracts from the performance of some firms we derive several implications of these findings in an effort to guide subsequent inquiry copyright 1999 john wiley sons ltd

the evolving impact of combinatorial opportunities and exhaustion on innovation by business groups as market development increases the case of taiwan business groups are key sources of innovation in emerging market economies but we understand little about why innovativeness differs across groups and over time variation in the density of intragroup buyer supplier ties which are common structural linkages among group affiliates can help explain both cross sectional and temporal heterogeneity of group innovativeness we argue that greater buyer supplier density within a group initially creates combinatorial opportunities that contribute to group innovativeness but ultimately generates combinatorial exhaustion that constrains innovation combinatorial exhaustion will set in at lower levels of density as the market environment becomes more developed because the opportunity costs of local search increase the research introduces a dynamic argument to studies of business group innovation this paper was accepted by bruno cassiman business strategy

supply and demand functions for multiproduct u s cash grain farms biases caused by research and other policies this study presents new estimates of supply and demand elasticities for u s multiproduct cash grain farms and estimates of input and output bias effects caused by public and private crop research extension and farmers schooling the study also shows that the social rate of return to public crop research is large about 62 percent

supplier performance in vertical alliances the effects of self enforcing agreements and enforceable contracts the paper examines the significance of enforceability and adaptability in governing vertical alliances and their performance ramifications for suppliers literature on supplier relations suggests that suppliers are skeptical of close ties with their buyers helper 1991 helper and sako 1995 such skepticism persists in spite of the fact that buyers are writing longer enforceable contracts with fewer suppliers in this context the paper develops a transaction cost economics tce based model that distinguishes between the verifiable and nonverifiable aspects of governance attributes of safeguards incentive intensity and adaptability in explaining supplier performance variations the paper argues that the following factors prove valuable for suppliers 1 the adaptive and collaborative orientation fostered by the original equipment manufacturer s oem s credible commitment to the exchange and by information sharing on the part of the supplier 2 the presence of certain nonverifiable safeguards and 3 the incentives inherent in target pricing these assertions have been tested using data from the home appliance industry results indicate that information sharing together with 1 oem dependence and 2 target pricing does indeed enhance supplier performance also results suggest that while nonverifiable safeguards can help verifiable safeguards do not have a positive association with supplier interests under certain conditions then suppliers can venture into closer relationships with buyers and benefit

an econometric model of canadian monetary policy over the 1970s the last decade has witnessed the emergence of the bank of canada as a key participant in the arena of policy formation indeed the high profile of the governor and the bank has given rise to a considerable amount of discussion and debate over canadian monetary policy in both the popular media and academic journals i to a large extent this analysis has been essentially descriptive being based upon casual observations rather than a tightly formulated econometric model from the viewpoint of understanding the canadian economy over the 1970s there is a growing need to establish empirically the mechanisms of monetary policy in canada and to determine its impact upon such macroeconomic variables as real output the purpose of this paper is to specify and to estimate a simple model of canadian monetary policy over the seventies the model s focus is upon several prominent institutional details that are special to the operation of canadian monetary policy accordingly the model reflects the practice of the bank of canada in setting nominal interest rates and allowing the nominal money supply to be demand determined this modeling necessarily leads to an examination of the role and effects of the money targets adopted by the bank of canada since 1975

german inventory to sales ratios 1971 2005 an empirical analysis of business practice abstract the purpose of this study is to test empirically for the first time the general hypothesis that inventory to sales ratios have decreased over time in the german economy although inventory reduction has been a prevalent topic in the production and operations management literature there is a lack of empirically confirmed answers to questions they are as follows have inventories in german firms decreased overall during the past decades what sectors of german industry are leading lagging behind inventory reduction has inventory reduction developed differently for raw materials work in process or finished goods in which periods was marginal inventory reduction greatest to the best of our knowledge this empirical study is the first to broadly investigate inventory development from the 1970s until the present for a major european economy germany and will provide the first answers to the research questions stated above using aggregate industry level data provided by the deutsche bundesbank we show that inventory levels decreased overall in many sectors of german industry this reduction was mainly marked for raw materials and finished goods particularly for the second half of the time frame investigated

how much do your co opetitors capabilities matter in the face of technological change firms often lose their competitive advantage when a technological change renders their existing capabilities obsolete an important question that has received little or no attention is what happens to these firms competitive advantage when the technological change instead renders obsolete the capabilities of their co opetitors the suppliers customers and complementors whose very success may underpin that of the firm and with whom it must collaborate and compete this paper explores the effects on a firm of the impact of a technological change on its co opetitors it argues that a firm s post technological change performance decreases with the extent to which the technological change renders co opetitors capabilities obsolete it uses detailed data on the adoption of risc reduced instruction set computer technology by computer workstation makers to demonstrate the need to view resources as residing in a network and not in the firm alone copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

how supply competency affects fdi decisions some insights abstract foreign investment decisions by multinational enterprises are usually arrived by considering not just the firm specific factors but location specific factors are also of paramount importance using three supply factors specific to a country supply environment supply infrastructure absorptive capacity we construct a rating system representing the potential of a nation to attract foreign direct investment fdi we use the combinatorics and boolean based logical analysis of data lad method to capture the individual and combined impact of the supply factors on the fdi inflow the lad classification system is shown to be robust cross validating very well thereby allowing its use for prediction purposes and permitting the derivation of a rating system that can have various granularity levels by linking fdi potential with supply capability related factors the findings of this research contribute to future fdi decisions by firms as well as provide assistance and direction to strategic planners of countries that seek to enhance their attractiveness as fdi destinations as technology matures production processes start to lack differentiation and firms look to establish facilities globally to become more competitive this study enhances decision making process pinpointing areas for focused consideration

make buy or ally a transaction cost theory meta analysis since the publication of williamson s markets and hierarchies many empirical articles have investigated the tenets of transaction cost theory using meta analytic techniques we quantitatively syn

emerging themes in international business research this study is motivated by two research questions 1 which recent contributions have been driving the research agenda in international business 2 which emerging themes in the literature are likely to set the stage for future work to examine these questions the study examined scholarly work in international business over the time period 1996 2006 in six leading international business journals journal of international business studies management international review journal of world business international marketing review journal of international marketing and international business review next a delphi study of the most prolific authors in these journals over the same time period was conducted to delineate a future research agenda in international business addressing these two research questions provides us with a more complete understanding of the progress made to date in international business research and provides a glimpse of the future

reflections on agricultural r d productivity and the data constraint unfinished business unsettled issues sixty years ago t w schultz introduced the idea of the productivity residual to agricultural economics 1956 schultz s main message was that growth in conventional inputs accounted for little of the observed growth in agricultural output and that there was work to be done by agricultural economists to understand and ultimately eliminate this unexplained residual called productivity thus was launched the economics of agricultural productivity as a sub field within agricultural economics along with the economics of agricultural r d and innovation and related government policy much progress has been made in the decades since still critical issues remain unresolved this matters because agricultural innovation and productivity matter and so do the related policies that rest to some extent on our established understanding of the economic relationships in this paper i review some unsettled issues related to economic models and measures applied to agricultural r d and productivity and some unfinished business in terms of economic and policy questions that are not yet well answered before doing that i present some evidence on agricultural productivity and why it matters next with a nod to factology i present available productivity measures from the u s department of agriculture usda and international science and technology practice and policy instepp center and compare them in the context of translog cost function models in subsequent sections i use these and other data to develop new evidence related to two contentious questions a do farmers benefit from public agricultural r d b has u s agricultural productivity growth slowed in recent decades the answers are revealed within

commercial culture political culture and economic policy polarization the case of japan abstract in this paper we present a model of endogenous policy formation that captures crucial aspects of the japanese commercial and political culture we analyze the influence of certain cultural traits and show that cultural idiosyncrasies are important determinants of policy formation especially the complex interaction of the two types of cultures is shown to have significant consequences for the polarization of policy stances contrasting our model s behavior with the stylized facts of japanese politics we arrive at the conclusion that the model s behavior is compatible with the observed policy positions held by japanese politicians over the last 50 years

foreign direct investment and local linkages this paper analyses the pattern of local linkages in foreign direct investment fdi treating such local linkages as an investment in local relationships using taiwanese manufacturing firms investing abroad as the sample for our case study we find that the local linkage intensity of a foreign subsidiary differs by fdi location entry mode firm size and the nature of the production network in which an investor is embedded more local linkages will be pursued by an investor if it is in search of distinctive and inimitable resources as opposed to homogeneous and reproducible resources investment in local linkages always begins with the linkage that carries the lowest risk to the original business network for manufacturing firms the sequence of such linkages is workers components and parts subcontracting and finally sources of r d

effective interim collaboration how firms minimize transaction costs and maximise transaction value this study of automotive transaction relationships in the u s a and japan offers abta which indicate that transaction costs do not necessarily increase with an increase in reiation specijk investments we empirically examine the conditions under which transactors can simultaneously achieve the twin benejits of high asset specificity and low transaction costs this is possible because the dtfferent safeguards which can be employed to control opportunism have different set up costs and result in different transaction costs over dl erent time horizons we examine in detail the ractices of javanese firms which result in effective inteq n collaboration 1997 by john wiley sons ltd

the fee structure in franchising a property rights view abstract the paper offers a property rights explanation for the structure of royalties and initial fees in franchise relationships we argue that the structure of royalties and fees depends on the distribution of intangible assets between the franchisor and franchisee contrary to the agency theory our property rights approach predicts a positive relationship between royalties and fees this hypothesis was tested by using data from the austrian franchise sector

the influence of customer scope on supplier learning and performance in the japanese automobile industry most studies of japanese supplier automaker relationships have focused on the nature of the dyadic interfirm relationship and the performance of the assembler we examine the relationship from the point of view of the supplier and argue that a broad customer scope strategy i e number of customers leads to superior performance primarily because of learning opportunities in addressing these learning opportunities we draw attention to the important distinction between relation specific and re deployable knowledge and the complementary relationship between them our analysis of 125 japanese suppliers supports the key argument that less exclusive ties may be a superior strategy the argument has important implications for vertical integration and the structure of buyer supplier relations

can trustworthiness in a supply chain be signaled the relationship between a buyer and its suppliers often relies on factors beyond the terms of a contractual agreement buyers can therefore benefit from identifying trustworthy suppliers we argue that precontractual actions by a supplier for example making costly buyer specific investments without a long term contract can signal a supplier s trustworthiness we develop a theoretical model to reflect supplier trustworthiness and determine when a buyer can benefit from identifying trustworthy suppliers we show that costly relationship specific investments can serve as a signal of trustworthiness and that supply chain profits increase when trustworthy suppliers are able to identify themselves in this fashion we demonstrate the importance of the signaling mechanism using laboratory experiments the experimental results show that relationship specific investments lead to more collaborative transactions with buyers offering higher prices and suppliers returning higher quality products this results in

learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances building relational capital one of the main reasons that firms participate in alliances is to learn know how and capabilities from their alliance partners at the same time firms want to protect themselves from the opportunistic behavior of their partner to retain their own core proprietary assets most research has generally viewed the achievement of these objectives as mutually exclusive in contrast we provide empirical evidence using large sample survey data to show that when firms build relational capital in conjunction with an integrative approach to managing conflict they are able to achieve both objectives simultaneously relational capital based on mutual trust and interaction at the individual level between alliance partners creates a basis for learning and know how transfer across the exchange interface at the same time it curbs opportunistic behavior of alliance partners thus preventing the leakage of critical know how between them copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

network location and learning the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation this paper presents a dynamic firm level study of the role of network resources in determining alliance formation such resources inhere not so much within the firm but reside in the interfirm networks in which firms are placed data from extensive fieldwork show that by influencing the extent to which firms have access to information about potential partners such resources are an important catalyst for new alliances especially because alliances entail considerable hazards this study also assesses the importance of firms capabilities with alliance formation and material resources as determinants of their alliance decisions i test this dynamic framework and its hypotheses about the role of time varying network resources and firm capabilities with comprehensive longitudinal multi industry data on the formation of strategic alliances by a panel of firms between 1970 and 1989 the results confirm field observations that accumulated network resources arising from firm participation in the network of accumulated prior alliances are influential in firms decisions to enter into new alliances this study highlights the importance of network resources that firms derive from their embeddedness in networks for explaining their strategic behavior copyright 1999 john wiley sons ltd

the regional nature of japanese multinational business in the world s largest 500 firms there are 64 japanese multinational enterprises mnes with data on regional sales but only three operate globally whereas 57 of them average over 80 of their sales and foreign assets in their home region why is there such a strong intra regional dimension to their activities using empirical data and a new framework for analysing both downstream sales assets and upstream production assets we analyse why most large japanese firms appear to have firm specific advantages fsas that are based in their home region a structural contingency approach is applied to two case studies to explain how home region bound fsas constrained the ability of japanese mnes to implement internationalisation strategies

global account management in multinational corporations theory and evidence this paper uses two theoretical perspectives information processing and resource dependency to examine global account management the co ordination of activities involved in serving a single customer in multiple countries it is hypothesized that global account management structures allow the multinational corporation mnc to increase its information processing capacity as well as its bargaining power vis a vis the global customer using data on 106 global accounts in 16 mncs we find support for both perspectives individually furthermore evidence is presented for an interaction effect in which the effectiveness of structures for increasing information processing is conditional upon the presence of high customer dependence

is there a slowdown in agricultural productivity growth in south america this article estimates agricultural productivity growth in 10 south american countries in 1969 2009 with the objective of investigating if the slowdown being measured in other countries is present in the region results show that productivity growth accounts for half of the three fold increase in agricultural output during this period and that performance is sensitive to r d investments in the sector the slowdown found for the 1990s to 2000s in the u s and some european economies does not seem to be present yet in south america the region s total factor productivity tfp growth rate increased steadily from 1 07 during the 1970s to 2 29 during the 2000s given lags in adoption and the adaptive nature of innovations in these economies we have yet to see the potential effects in south american agriculture of decreases in r d in advanced economies

the gains from research into tradable commodities this paper develops a model for assessing the aggregate level and distribution of the benefits of reseach into tradable commodities it estimates gains to australia and to the rest of the world from research into the wool and wheat industries

the antecedents and performance implications of cooperative exchange norms our study investigates the antecedents and performance implications of cooperative exchange norms we argue that in early relationships the level of expected cooperative norms in an exchange is the result of a calculative process facilitated by transaction attributes joint transaction specific investments and observability the greater the level of these two exchange attributes the greater the level of cooperative exchange norms all else being equal we further argue that the realized level of cooperative exchange norms can deviate from the expected level because the development of such norms is the result of social processes that management cannot directly and fully control this gap between realized and expected norms affects exchange performance performance suffers when the realized level of cooperative exchange norms falls below the expected level but overshooting expectations lays a critical groundwork for repeat transactions the analysis of a survey of 182 collaborative r d alliances provides initial support for our theory

product development decisions a review of the literature this paper is a review of research in product development which we define as the transformation of a market opportunity into a product available for sale our review is broad encompassing work in the academic fields of marketing operations management and engineering design the value of this breadth is in conveying the shape of the entire research landscape we focus on product development projects within a single firm we also devote our attention to the development of physical goods although much of the work we describe applies to products of all kinds we look inside the black box of product development at the fundamentaldecisions that are made by intention or default in doing so we adopt the perspective of product development as a deliberate business process involving hundreds of decisions many of which can be usefully supported by knowledge and tools we contrast this approach to prior reviews of the literature which tend to examine the importance of environmental and contextual variables such as market growth rate the competitive environment or the level of top management support

how the data we make can unmake us annals of factology scrutiny we give to propositions derived from theory claims of statistical significance of a regression result or a bald assertion consider why do people still ranch and why lately have more ranchers started to write poetry about their lives new york times july 5 1992 if you were to make such a poetical claim you could expect to be asked for supporting data but to take an example of the other kind after you quote world bank gdp tables to show real income growth in developing countries slowing up in the 1980s your assertion that real income growth slowed in the 1980s is likely to be unchallenged this is wrong for the supine acceptance of data can cause scientific mischief of the worst kind believing we know things that aren t so the purposes of this paper are to show how the data agricultural economists use can mislead and to discuss what might be done about it

drivers of commitment and its impact on performance in cross cultural buyer seller relationships the importer s perspective much of the recent literature on interorganizational relations provides evidence that relationship commitment can produce significant benefits for firms somewhat surprisingly limited attention has been devoted to the role that commitment plays in international buyer seller associations merging findings from the international business and transaction cost economics literature we propose and test a model that explains how commitment develops and its impact on performance in cross cultural interorganizational relations a sample of 216 overseas distributor manufacturer relationships provides the empirical setting for this research the findings suggest that transaction specific investments by the importer and exporter opportunism affect importer commitment and that environmental volatility and cultural sensitivity are indirectly associated with commitment through opportunism most important the study reveals that an importer s commitment has a positive impact on its performance in the relationship however no relationship is established between environmental volatility and commitment the implications of the study are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research

global delivery models the role of talent speed and time zones in the global outsourcing industry global delivery models gdms are transforming the global it and business process outsourcing industry gdms are a new form of client specific investment promoting service integration with clients by combining client proximity with time zone spread for 24 7 service operations we investigate antecedents and contingencies of setting up gdm structures based on comprehensive data we show that providers are likely to establish gdm location configurations when clients value access to globally distributed talent and speed of service delivery in particular when services are highly commoditized findings imply that coordination across time zones increasingly affects international operations in business to business and born global industries

poverty human development and growth an emerging consensus this paper considers several issues relevant to the debate on the extent to which poverty or development progress in general should be measured by income or by a broader set of objectives issues covered here are practical implications of the two approaches for poverty reduction efforts the impact of growth on basic social indicators and how national achievement on social indicators is best measured sri lanka and pakistan countries often cited in this debate are used as examples

manufacturer governance of foreign distributor relationships do relational norms enhance competitiveness in the export market research on international marketing channels accentuates the importance of relational norms and trust building activities between buyers and sellers indeed cultural and country differences may limit the use and effectiveness of traditional tools such as market incentives and authoritative control that govern the relationship between an exporting manufacturer and its foreign distributor consequently exporting manufacturers need to emphasize relationships with their foreign distributors this research finds evidence that supports both direct and indirect effects between the manufacturer s use of governance via relational norms and its competitiveness in the export market the indirect effect results from the mediating role of trust a finding that makes a key contribution to the understanding of the role of relational governance in cross border relationships

the determinants of trust in supplier automaker relationships in the us japan and korea we examine the determinants of trust in 453 supplier automaker relationships in the us japan and korea we define trust and derive a model of its determinants drawing upon 1 an embeddedness relationship based perspective 2 a process based perspective and 3 an economic hostage based perspective our findings indicate strong support for the process based perspective in all countries embeddedness was only important in japan and the economic hostage based variable stock ownership was not important in any country

strategic alliance based sourcing and market performance evidence from foreign firms operating in china although foreign multinational firms from the triad regions increasingly use mainland china as both a sourcing and a marketing location no study has directly examined the sourcing strategy performance linkage using resource complementarity and resource dependence theory we extend the sourcing literature and apply these perspectives to an important transitional economy china these two theoretical perspectives suggest that product and uncertainty factors moderate the relationship between strategic alliance based sourcing sa sourcing of major components and market performance we find that at low levels of product innovativeness and technological uncertainty the use of sa sourcing is positively related to market performance however the effects of product differentiation and demand uncertainty on the sourcing performance relationship are insignificant journal of international business studies 2005 36 187 208 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400120