Researchers analyze interorganizational problems one at a time, at one level of analysis, and a specific point in time. Yet, interorganizational problems certainly appear in groups of interrelated problems that are nested across multiple levels of analysis and evolve over time. Moreover, analyzing problems independently hinders the ability to assess their relative importance. This study establishes key problems of interorganizational collaboration and highlights their timing. A multiple-case study was realized in the tourism industry. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews, post-interview surveys, and secondary data allowed us to determine eight key interorganizational problems (interpersonal problems, lack of familiarity, cultural differences, roles and responsibilities problems, toxic work climate, inequity feeling, inappropriate governance, and passivity when problems arise). By using a multi-level and temporal analytical framework, our study contributes to the IOR literature in four ways: confirming problem nesting across levels of analysis, demonstrating greater problem diversity, highlighting relational problem dominance, and demonstrating lifecycle problem evolution.

This study examines three moderators—product life cycle, relationship duration, and guanxi—for their effects on the use of subtle coercive power in supplier–distributor dyads. Based on data from Computer, Communication, and Consumer Electronics (3C) distributors in northern Taiwan, these factors are shown to moderate the relationships between coercive influence strategies and two types of satisfaction. Specifically, if a product is in its mature stage and the firm has a short-duration relationship with its channel partners, the use of coercive actions strengthens the economic satisfaction of the channel members. A low level of guanxi with a supplier firm weakens the negative relationship between coercive strategies and both economic and social satisfaction. The findings of this study suggest that in channel management, punitive acts can achieve economic and social outcomes through informal interactions outside of exchange relationships.

The intent of the current research is to put forward a set of research areas for recognizing the implications of operational control in an international joint venture’s’ (IJV) sustenance and growth. Operational control is considered a significant factor in influencing an IJV’s performance. The current research considers the three categories of operational control, i.e., dominant control, shared control, and split control, and then reviews the dynamics of these controls in the creation and progression of an IJV. The research takes up the literature review approach using TCCM (Theory, Context, Characteristics, Methods) technique to find out future avenues of research in context to operational control and IJV. Four distinct clusters have been carved out of the existing literature, namely, IJV's control structures and unpredictability, dark side of control and implications on IJV, control choice and IJV efficiency and lastly, trust, control, and IJV competence. This research discovered the role of trust in increasing partners’ confidence in an IJV. The study also highlights the ownership structure and the influence of external environment in affecting the functioning of IJV. The article provides further details regarding the approaches by which executives can strategically position themselves to achieve the objectives of an IJV.

Building strong relationships is central to the development and maintenance of effective industrial channels. However, while the relationship marketing literature is vast, our understanding of how multidyadic industrial channels impact relationship marketing models is limited. As many OEM supplier relationships are formed via component supplier specification by its industrial buyer, where freedom to enter and exit a relationship is externally restricted, the current relationship marketing literature is somewhat limited in explaining these relationships. This study examines the underlying differences in relationship marketing across the cases of component supplier specification and non-component supplier specification. We discuss key relationship variable differences across cases within the phases of relationship development, and the extant relationship marketing literature. We then present a research agenda for advancing our understanding of multidyadic industrial channels.

Conventional wisdom suggests that market forces such as competitor aggressiveness and competitor innovativeness induce supply chain responsiveness. However, this assertion does not only lack empirical evidence but also the mechanisms that explain the supply chain responsiveness effects of market forces are under-theorized. Drawing on the contingency–capability perspective, this research develops and tests the argument that customer integration is a critical boundary-spanning capability that translates competitor aggressiveness and innovativeness into enhanced supply chain responsiveness. Empirical results based on survey data from 117 firms in Ghana reveal that both market forces are not directly related to supply chain responsiveness. Additional results, however, show that customer integration mediates the competitor aggressiveness and innovativeness-supply chain responsiveness relationships. In contributing to the limited knowledge of the determinants of responsive supply chains, this article shows that external environmental factors are essential but might be insufficient for accounting for the heterogeneity in supply chain responsiveness.

Interaction orientation is a key element in modern marketing practices because it emphasizes focusing on individual customers as opposed to emphasizing customer segments. However, the majority of the literature has examined its use only in a B2C context rather than in a B2B context. Interaction orientation is comprised of several components: customer concept, interaction response capacity and customer empowerment. To help improve our understanding of interaction orientation in a B2B context, we decompose the components and utilize PLS-SEM analysis to identify how each component influences satisfaction with export performance. We also investigate how the degree to which the exporter and importer have complementary capabilities influences the firm’s customer concept. Finally, we examine the moderating effect of exporter intensity on the relationship between the customer concept and satisfaction with export performance. Using a novel dataset based on a survey of 92 export managers in an emerging market, Romania, we find that the decomposed interaction orientation components have distinct effects on satisfaction with export performance. Specifically, we find that interaction response capacity positively influences customer empowerment, which in turn positively influences the customer concept. Moreover, the customer concept positively influences complementarity of capabilities, which is positively related to satisfaction with export performance. Our results further show that exporter intensity has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the customer concept and satisfaction with export intensity. The theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are also discussed.

Customer-perceived value is a key concept in inter-organizational relationships. As markets and business practices have evolved, there is growing need for an updated value conceptualization that acknowledges contemporary developments and reflects the state-of-the-art of research on business markets and inter-organizational relationships. The authors identify gaps in established conceptualizations of customer-perceived value in business markets. Then, drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm and theory of goal-directed behavior, they adapt and combine different value perspectives that suggest nine foundational premises (FPs), underlying how business customers perceive value. This assessment results in a typology of value concepts that differentiates between (1) individual and collective value, (2) expected and experienced value, and (3) transactional and relational value perceptions. Against this backdrop, this article offers a rich set of questions to guide continued research on value in business markets in general as well as on the complex interplay of the various value concepts.

Manufacturer returns, or buyback, have been increasingly observed in manufacturer-retailer channels. Using proprietary contract and sales data, this study empirically examines two key questions associated with buyback: (1) why does a manufacturer offer buyback to a retailer and (2) how are a manufacturer’s buyback decisions associated with its own and a downstream retailer’s marketing strategies? The existing research on the topic has been dominated by theoretical work. Instead, we use rich data to provide validations for the analytical models, as well as new insights above and beyond what is known from them. Our empirical findings suggest that buyback plays multiple critical roles simultaneously for a manufacturer, including risk-sharing role and informational role. Our results also show that whether a manufacturer offers buyback to the retailer is significantly associated with its own and the retailer’s pricing, promotion, and inventory decisions. Furthermore, the impacts vary across product categories that exhibit distinct characteristics.

Commitment is a core concept in the study of buyer-supplier relationships. Much of extant research on commitment in buyer-supplier relationships utilizes a global, unidimensional definition of commitment. In contrast, research on employees’ organizational commitment utilizes a three-facet model, separately considering continuance commitment, affective commitment, and normative commitment. A review of the literature suggests three gaps. First that multiple facets of commitment, particularly normative commitment have been relatively unexplored. Second, the vast majority of research examines a buyer’s commitment to a supplier and much less a supplier’s commitment to a buyer. Finally, commitment research in developing countries is limited. A three-facet model of commitment—with antecedents and outcomes of each—is developed. Data is collected from buyers and suppliers in Thailand, providing an in-built replication and two tests of each hypothesis. The results show support for the three-facet model and identify light and dark side outcomes from the different facets. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.