Contingency Framework Research Articles

Strategically Prioritizing Type-Specific Innovations at the Stages of the Supply Chain Resilience Cycle: A Contingency Framework

Faced with various disruptions and crises, supply chain decision-makers are eager to enhance their supply chain resilience (SCRES), and they have realized that innovation could be a powerful tool for enhancing SCRES. This paper investigates the relationship between innovation and SCRES by analyzing the types of innovation at the SCRES stages. We contend that innovation positively impacts SCRES if investment in type-specific innovation is strategically planned and prioritized. The proposed research framework demonstrates this relationship and guides how to prioritize type-specific innovation at each stage of the SCRES cycle. This research builds a foundation for future research on the interrelationship between innovation and SCRES. It offers supply chain practitioners a roadmap for investing in type-specific innovation at each stage of the SCRES cycle.

The Role of Employee Ownership, Financial Participation, and Decision‐Making in Corporate Governance: A Multilevel Review and Research Agenda

ABSTRACTResearch Question/IssueThe allocation of return and control rights to employees has been somewhat overlooked in governance literature, but it has garnered interest from scholars across various fields. Our analysis of five decades of research integrates and juxtaposes theory and evidence from three independent yet intertwined domains: employee ownership, financial participation, and decision‐making. Our work synthesizes an extensive body of past and current findings and introduces a multilevel contingency framework to formulate novel theoretical, methodological, and contextual remedies.Research Findings/InsightsWe conducted a multilevel analysis of 184 articles published in reputable journals. Our results reveal complementary and substitutive relationships between employee financial participation and decision‐making and show that various contextual variables operating at different levels (i.e., individual, company and country) jointly impact employees behaviors and firm outcomes. Our findings help explain the mixed or ambiguous results of previous studies and offer novel theoretical and methodological pathways for future research.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsOur study invites scholars to further investigate the antecedents and consequences of employee ownership, financial participation and decision‐making. Specifically, we recommend adopting theories and methods that illuminate the complex nature of the employee ownership construct, develop a multilevel understanding of the phenomenon, and analyze the moderating effects of various contextual variables.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsInsights from our review can assist practitioners and policymakers in designing plans that allocate either one or both of ownership rights to employees, enhancing their understanding of the role and impact of diverse contextual factors operating at various levels.

Metagoverning the Co-Creation of Green Transitions: A Socio-Political Contingency Framework

Metagoverning the Co-Creation of Green Transitions: A Socio-Political Contingency Framework

The Leading Wine Cooperatives in Argentina and Europe: What Are the Strategic Choices to Penetrate the Distribution Channels in the United States and Canada?

This work focuses on understanding the different strategies adopted by wine cooperatives located in Argentina and the main E.U. wine countries for penetrating international distribution networks in the U.S. and Canadian markets. This study adopts a contingency framework integrating a stakeholder approach for the understanding of the logic behind a cooperative’s strategies to penetrate distribution networks (wholesalers, importers, and alcohol monopolies). This empirical study is based on the analysis of still and sparkling wine exports to the U.S. and Canadian markets, covering a period of approximately 54 months (2017–2021). The sample includes the analysis of more than 7000 containers shipped by the leading wine cooperatives in each individual country. The findings suggest the existence of heterogeneous choices in the distribution networks among wine cooperatives but also uniqueness related to the nature of the type of products marketed (still wines, sparkling wines, etc.) as well as the nature of the geographic origin of wine cooperatives. More precisely, the distribution of wine cooperatives in the U.S. and Canada shows different patterns. This investigation contributes to a better understanding of the behavior of wine cooperatives in marketing channels and to the literature on buyer-driven chains. It provides insights into the strategic choices of wine cooperatives and contributes to wine policies by providing insights on the modalities for the financing of the promotion of cooperative wines in non-E.U. countries.

Can crowdsourcing improve prediction accuracy in fashion retail buying?

Fashion retailers’ buyers must decide how much to buy of merchandise well before a selling season. This order quantity decision is always challenging due to limited historical data and high demand unpredictability arising from the novelty of fashion merchandise. Despite many attempts to solve this longstanding problem, industry reports consistently show that fashion buyers’ predictions of product salability and future sales are frequently inaccurate, leading to loss of profits for retailers. In this research, the authors take an “Empirics-First” approach to explore an alternative solution, crowdsourced forecasts from ordinary customers, and investigate whether crowdsourced forecasts would be more accurate than those of expert fashion buyers and if so, how should a crowd be formed in terms of size and composition? After conducting an online experiment, finding that forecasts by a “crowd” of ordinary customers are significantly more accurate than those of expert fashion buyers, the authors test a contingency framework in a second empirical study examining how crowd size and composition impact forecasting accuracy for products of varying fashionability. The results revealed that heterogeneity in a crowd is a key factor in prediction accuracy. Specifically, crowds with more variation in income and shopping frequency made notably accurate predictions. Another key finding of the study pertains to the required crowd size; increasing the size of a crowd at first sharply decreased the crowd's prediction error. However, after a certain point, there were diminishing returns in prediction accuracy. Given the interesting results, the paper concludes with guidelines for implementing crowdsourced forecasting by fashion retailers and directions for future research.

Exploring the role of hedonic emotions on attitudinal loyalty and EWOM: a contingency framework and propositions

ABSTRACT Hedonists actively pursue events that elicit emotional pleasure and enjoyment. This study investigates the complex role and importance of consumers’ hedonic emotions in post-purchase behaviors within the context of fine-dining experiences. Prior research has mainly neglected emotions in favor of cognitive responses. Given the high rate of customer turnover in the restaurant industry, further research is necessary to fully understand the topic. This study’s research methodology is based on a thorough analysis of scholarly existing literature, namely journal articles. It presents a review of methodological views, illustrates key trends and limitations in prior empirical research, and emphasizes the need to construct a research framework. To guide future empirical work, a conceptual framework for certain hedonic emotions, namely comfort, sentimentality, and stimulation, and their impact on attitudinal loyalty and the E-WOM relationship, is introduced. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to critically analyze and synthesize multiple dimensions of hedonic emotions in the context of fine-dining restaurant services. We also presented several research propositions concerning the moderating effects of experiential and psychological factors on domain linkages. This study can aid restaurant managers in choosing vital marketing and communication strategies to enhance the food service industry, particularly in fine dining establishments.

Entrepreneurial bricolage and innovation: the double-edged sword of knowledge diversity

ABSTRACT Innovation is crucial for firm growth but difficult to achieve, especially for resource-constrained firms. The extant literature suggests entrepreneurial bricolage is an adequate action for firms in a resource-constrained environment. Most studies argue that resource-constrained firms engaging in bricolage achieve innovation; however, some studies raise limitations and downsides of entrepreneurial bricolage. Empirical evidence of entrepreneurial bricolage’s impact has resulted in mixed results with no conclusive findings. This study proposes a contingency framework to clarify the impact of entrepreneurial bricolage on innovation exploratory and exploitative by examination of the moderating role of knowledge diversity referring to research on entrepreneurship and innovation management. Our analysis of 172 firms of the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan reveals resource-constrained firms utilising entrepreneurial bricolage simultaneously pursuing exploratory and exploitative innovation with two different conditions of high knowledge diversity. More specifically, knowledge diversity has a positive moderating effect on the influence of entrepreneurial bricolage on exploratory innovation, but it has a negative moderating effect on the influence of entrepreneurial bricolage on exploitative innovation. In addition, this study finds that entrepreneurial bricolage can help resource-constrained firms in generating new knowledge to explore and exploit opportunities from the available resources, but this can succeed only to a certain extent.

Trailblazing the path for marketing ethics: the profound influence of Shelby Hunt

ABSTRACT Shelby Hunt’s contributions to marketing ethics theory and research include major accomplishments and contributions. We reviewed the following areas of his research: the Hunt-Vitell Theory of Marketing Ethics; marketing ethics issues and problems faced by managers; and the ethical dimensions of The Resource-Advantage Theory of Competition. Articles used in testing Shelby’s theories are included in the discussion. The Ferrell and Gresham Contingency Framework for understanding ethical decision-making is compared to the Hunt-Vitell model. These models are seen as complementary and symbiotic. Personal observations and experiences with Shelby are shared to reflect upon his life as a scholar and friend. Finally, suggestions are made for future opportunities for research in marketing ethics.

Resolving entrepreneurial liabilities in African businesses: does gender diversity of ownership team matter?

ABSTRACT This study explores the role of gender diversity in enterprise ownership teams (EOTs) in addressing size and age (entrepreneurial) liabilities in African businesses. Using a contingency framework with organizational ecology theory as its base, gender diversity in EOTs is argued as a strategic action small businesses can use to ameliorate the constraints imposed by the entrepreneurial liabilities of newness and smallness. These hypotheses are tested using World Bank enterprise surveys in Africa across multiple industries. The study finds that gender diversity in EOTs presents small businesses with a competitive advantage to drive their performance. Gender diverse EOTs is found to be useful in relieving the constraints imposed by liability of size but not the liability age. The study contributes to the integrativists perspective of management by integrating the deterministic effects of business age as well as size and the voluntaristic effects of gender diversity using a contingency framework.

A Contingency Framework for the Performance Consequences of Team Boundary Management: A Meta-Analysis of 30 Years of Research

Research suggests that teams can greatly enhance their performance through boundary management, which comprises activities that establish, maintain, and regulate linkages with the surrounding environment. However, such performance gains do not materialize equally in all instances, and some teams struggle to benefit from boundary management. Integrating insights from social network and team-level resource allocation theories, we develop a contingency framework that considers the internal organization of a team's boundary management (i.e., the carrier, target, and type of such activities) as a key moderating factor that accounts for the varying effects. To test this framework, we use a meta-analytic approach that synthesizes >30 years of empirical research (i.e., 85 primary studies covering 10,848 teams). Our results show a positive main effect of team boundary management on team performance. Crucially, these performance benefits are more pronounced when the target of boundary management is extraorganizational rather than inside the home organization and when the type of boundary management activities is boundary spanning (e.g., coordination, representation, or information search) rather than boundary strengthening (e.g., buffering, guarding, or sentry activities). Moreover, boundary management is more effective when executed by formal team leaders rather than team members, and our results tentatively suggest that this may reflect differences in effectiveness between leaders and members in boundary strengthening, rather than boundary spanning. Overall, our findings advance theory on team boundary management by clarifying previously ambiguous findings and illustrating how teams can design their boundary management activities to be most effective.

Realizing operational and innovation benefits in buyer–supplier relationships: the role of close ties to the partner's partners

PurposeAs buyers and suppliers seek to create value, they face the challenge of creating an environment that promotes coordination and information sharing and discourages opportunism. While the literature suggested dyadic mechanisms to create such an environment, this study focuses on ties beyond the buyer–supplier dyad. Specifically, close connections to one's partner's partners (CPP) are crucial in the realization of benefits for buyers and suppliers.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from embeddedness theory and governance theory, the authors developed a contingency framework to examine when CPP are beneficial or counterproductive considering two dyadic attributes – relational capital (RC) and partner dependence. Analyses were conducted using data from a dyadic survey complemented with archival data on 106 buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs).FindingsThe study reveals that CPP both help and hurt in the realization of benefits. Stark asymmetries exist between the impact of CPP on the buyer and supplier sides. For buyers, CPP exert a direct positive effect on operational and innovation benefits. For suppliers, the effect of CPP on operational and innovation benefits is contingent on buyer dependence and RC – CPP serves as a substitute for buyer dependence and RC. There are no such contingency effects for buyers. Further analysis identifies situations for suppliers when CPP hurt the realization of benefits.Originality/valueThe study highlights the importance of CPP to foster efficiency and innovation within BSRs and illustrates how their impact varies across contingency conditions and across the parties within a dyad.

The Impact of Motivational Processes on Individual Performance

The paradox of motivation is explored. Emphasis is placed on a contingency framework evaluating which organizations are likely to benefit from motivational processes (i.e., intrinsic-extrinsic rewards) and which are more likely to pursue them. Drawing on the positive organizational behavior literature (social learning theory) and self-determination theory, we formulate a contingency that provides a platform for motivational processes: extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic motivation. In addition, we formulate three propositions that can be empirically tested. By focusing on individual productivity and performance coupled with individual motivation, we provide a model that can predict positive and negative effects of motivational processes. We suspect that motivational processes are paradoxically most used by organizations that are least prepared for motivational consequences (i.e., outside forces) to individual productivity and performance. We offer a new term for using the right amount of extrinsic-intrinsic rewards called the “Sweet Spot.”

ORGANISING DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES: THE CASE OF PRODUCT–SERVICE SYSTEMS

This study addresses the development of new integrated product–service systems (PSSs). Most empirical research on the organisation of development processes has focussed on new product development, new service development, software development and new business model development in isolation; however, the development of new, complex PSSs that require the integration of these development efforts has received limited research attention. We address this literature gap through a qualitative, in-depth study of five firms operating in the business-to-business context. The findings demonstrate that all new PSS development processes did not implement and use one specific process model. Instead, the organisation of new PSS development processes was contingent upon the type of services to be offered and the target business model. This study proposes a contingency framework for development processes that provides considerable guidance to managers searching for ways to facilitate the processes of developing new PSSs.

Do emerging market multinational corporations headquarter-subsidiary relationships foster subsidiary innovation and performance in developed markets?

This study investigates sources of innovation and performance for emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs). We develop a contingency framework that examines how internal administrative embeddedness (IAE) and internal knowledge embeddedness (IKE) shape EMNC overseas subsidiary innovation capabilities, and how these relationships are contingent on EMNC headquarter host country experience and subsidiary embeddedness with host-country business partners. Data were collected from a survey of 242 dyads composed of Chinese EMNC headquarters and overseas subsidiaries located in 30 developed countries. Secondary data were also collected for EMNC host country experience and subsidiary performance. The empirical results show that IAE negatively influences EMNC subsidiary innovation capability, and this negative relationship is stronger when subsidiary host-country embeddedness increases. The findings further reveal that IKE positively influences subsidiary innovation capability. This relationship becomes stronger as subsidiary host-country embeddedness and headquarter host country experience increase. We also find that subsidiary innovation capability mediates the relationship between HQ-subsidiary embeddedness and subsidiary performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Buddhist influence and the executive-employee pay gap: An institutional contingency framework

Although the connection between religion and ethical corporate behavior has been extensively studied, it is unclear whether the influence of Buddhism, an important normative institution, affects executive-employee pay gap. Drawing on institutional theory, this study examines how three institutional pillars (legal development, media coverage, and CEO overseas experience) moderate the relationship between Buddhist influence and executive-employee pay gap. Using a sample of 14,761 firm-year observations covering 2,193 listed firms in China, we found that the influence of Buddhism is negatively associated with the executive-employee pay gap. In addition, the negative effect is stronger when firms operate in regions with better legal development and when they have high media coverage but becomes weaker when executives have overseas experience. These findings confirm the mitigating effect of Buddhist influence on inter-class pay inequity and highlight the contingent role of institutions.

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the COVID‐19 disruption

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 disruption

Project Phase–Based Contingency Adjustment Framework for Infrastructure Renewal Projects

Given the importance of accurate contingency estimation to properly absorb cost fluctuations, there have been enormous efforts to identify risk factors and measure contingency in roadway projects. However, no study has proposed a contingency framework that reflects the linkage effects of factors through the project phases. To this end, this research develops a project phase-based contingency adjustment framework using a path analysis drawing on a dataset of 1,053 rehabilitation, reconstruction, and resurfacing (3R) roadway projects in Florida. In particular, our framework incorporates the sequential effects of factors through the lenses of project phases from planning and bidding and contract to construction and completion. The developed path model shows that individual factors may have direct and/or indirect impacts on project costs. The results of this study can be applied to better contingency and cost estimation and proper risk management in the preconstruction phases of roadway renewal projects.

When does control curb opportunistic behaviour: evidence from the construction industry

The subcontracting organizational arrangement has received limited attention in designing the control mechanism. This study has explored how managerial controls affect opportunistic behaviour and developed a contingency framework to investigate the moderating effect of subcontracting dispersion. By using survey data from 323 general contractors in the Chinese construction industry, this study reveals that both outcome control and clan control curb the occurrence of subcontractors’ opportunistic behaviours while behaviour control scarcely helps. Besides, subcontractor dispersion distinctively moderates these relationships. A high level of subcontractor dispersion amplifies the opportunism-curbing effect of outcome control, but attenuates that of clan control, which leads to more opportunistic behaviours. Only at a lower level of subcontractor dispersion will behaviour control mitigate subcontractors’ opportunistic behaviours. Our configurational analyses reveal the substitute and complementary relationship between different control modes with different levels of subcontracting dispersion. This study contributes to the literature on governing opportunism and managerial control. The findings guide managers of the general contractor to exploit appropriate managerial controls to curb opportunistic behaviours across different organizational designs.

Organizational Experience and Performance: A Systematic Review and Contingency Framework

Organizational Experience and Performance: A Systematic Review and Contingency Framework

Developing supply chain resilience through integration: An empirical study on an e‐commerce platform

AbstractThe outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic has disrupted supply chains and increased the uncertainties faced by firms. While firms are struggling to survive and recover from the pandemic, Chinese e‐commerce platforms have demonstrated resilient supply chains. We develop a framework that investigates the impacts of integration between an e‐commerce platform and suppliers on supply chain resilience and the moderating effect of the suppliers' product flexibility. An analysis of data from a Chinese e‐commerce platform using operational indicators finds that integration between the e‐commerce platform and suppliers in terms of information sharing, joint planning and logistics cooperation has positive impacts on supply chain resilience, while procurement automation has the opposite effect. Furthermore, product flexibility positively moderates the impacts of information sharing, joint planning and logistics cooperation. The results enhance current understandings of the factors that contribute to the development of supply chain resilience and reveal that the relationship between integration and resilience should be examined within a contingency framework. The findings also provide guidelines for managers taking measures to mitigate the negative influences of supply chain disruptions.