Interorganizational Communication Research Articles

Effects of divergent communication schemes in new product development alliances

Purpose – Firms build new product development alliances to cope with the demands of continuous and rapid new product development. Such alliances allow surplus access to complementary capabilities and knowledge. However, the successful use of specialization advantages requires coordination and effective communication between alliance partners. Communication is vital to alliance success, as it allows a timely flow of information and resources across partners and supports the coordination within the alliance. The aim of this study is to research how divergent communication schemes influence firms’ new product development performance in alliances. Design/methodology/approach – A paper-and-pencil survey about firms’ collaborative new product development performance in the German medical device industry was conducted. Results are derived from a survey of n = 184 new product development alliances in the medical device industry. To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling (SEM) using the Mplus 7.0 software was applied. Findings – The empirical results indicate that divergent communication schemes enhance product innovativeness and speed to market in new product development alliances. The development of new insights and solutions through joint sensemaking builds the theoretical fundament for the supportive effects of divergent communication schemes. Divergent communication schemes go hand in hand with ambiguity, that is, the source of joint dialogues and discussion through which alliance partners refine and adapt their different perspectives and interpretations. However, the supportive effect of divergent communication schemes on speed to market declines with increasing collaboration intensity. Research limitations/implications – The assessment of divergent communication schemes and new product development performance of the dyadic relationships in this survey is only based on one respondent. Furthermore, the study’s focus on a specific industry sector, albeit one fitting particularly well to the research question, may further limit the generalizability of the empirical findings. Future research should thus strive to take both firms of the dyadic relationship into account and moreover attempt to investigate mediating effects such as joint sensemaking or creativity. Practical implications – The results indicate that alliance managers should become aware that different ways of communication are not per se dysfunctional. To achieve beneficial effects, they should enhance dialogues and constructive discussions through which the alliance partners develop novel insights and solutions on the fundament of occurring misunderstandings that root in divergent communication schemes. Regular meetings and conferences as well as inter-organizational teams should be applied because they stimulate joint dialogues and discussions in alliances. These instruments also enable learning processes and the development of trust that are both crucial for sensemaking processes in alliances. Originality/value – Prior research has stressed the importance of interorganizational communication for the success of alliances. However, little is known about the effect of divergent communication schemes in alliances. This study shows theoretically and empirically that divergent communication schemes can improve new product development performance in alliances. The supportive effect of divergent communication schemes is contrary to the argumentation that communication problems and misinterpretations hamper alliance success.

Factors influencing practical training quality in Iranian agricultural higher education

ABSTRACTThis paper presents an analysis of the factors influencing the practical training quality of agricultural higher education programmes from the senior students’ perspective. The study was conducted in two public universities located in the north-west of Iran using a cross-sectional survey and structured interviews with a randomised sample of 254 agricultural senior students. The students reported that they received low-quality practical training throughout their agricultural courses. In order for there to be an improvement in the quality of practical training, three elements are essential: active participation of academic staff, effective inter-organisational communication with private and public institutions, and active participation of students in the curriculum. Establishing a strong linkage between universities and relevant institutions could provide the required facilities and an effective learning environment for the students through internship opportunities outside universities and would prepare them for the labour market.

Retailer use of a professional social media network: Insights from franchising

The adoption and use of a professional social media network by franchise chains is the focus of this paper. We draw on resource-based theory, institutional economic theories of incentives and externalities and multidisciplinary literatures on franchising, innovation adoption and interorganizational communication to link (i) franchisor characteristics and partnering strategies to the adoption and use of a professional social media network and (ii) the extent of use of this network by a franchisor to the number of followers of its network page. Hypotheses are empirically assessed using data on 500 US franchise chains from Entrepreneur’s Annual Franchise 500 for 2011, content analysis of LinkedIn pages for 317 franchise chains in 2011 and number of followers in 2015. One key finding is that franchisor adoption of LinkedIn is positively influenced by franchise chain size, franchising fees and franchisor marketing communications and negatively affected by franchise concept complexity. A second important finding is that, among franchisors who adopt LinkedIn, the extent of use of LinkedIn is positively impacted by franchise chain size, franchising fees and negatively affected by franchise chain age. A third notable finding is that the number of followers of a franchisor’s LinkedIn page in the short term is positively impacted by the extent of information about franchise chain and recruitment. A fourth key finding is that the number of followers in the longer term (2015) is positively impacted by whether the franchisor had a presence on LinkedIn in 2011 and, for these franchisors, by the number of followers in 2011.

Understanding the Diverse Forms of Nonprofit Collaborations: A Case Study of Communities in Schools of North Texas and its Partner Organizations

The purpose of this study is to understand and categorize the diverse forms of collaborations, and explore the challenges of cross sector collaborations. To achieve these purposes, we analyze documentation of 132 collaborative partnerships of Communities in School of North Texas (CISNT), and conduct interviews with select partners of CISNT. Our results suggest that the nature of collaborations vary. Partnerships tend to be informal and resource sharing. The findings further indicate that nonprofits face challenges in the collaborative process including management of accountability and interorganizational communication.

English

The purpose of this study is to measure the inter-organizational communication of alliances, and to explain the relationships among communication (communication willingness, commitment, behavior, and quality), alliance performance, and alliance stability. In data from 314 firms in China, communication willingness (β= .232), communication behavior (β= .305), and communication quality (β= .174) had a significant effect on alliance performance, while communication willingness (β=.232), communication commitment (β= .158), communication behavior (β= .134), and communication quality (β= .333) affected alliance stability. Limitations and future research directions were also discussed. Key words: Inter-organizational communication, alliance performance, alliance stability.

An analysis of business phenomena and austerity narratives in the arts sector from a new materialist perspective

The paper adopts a lens of new materialism to analyse narratives of managers in the arts sector in response to the master narrative of austerity and proposed ‘solutions’ using business models (including accounting). It explores the complex trajectories of the master narrative through the analysis of a diverse range of funding and arts organisations. Accounting, business models and austerity reveal rhizomatic characteristics as they diverge from their origin and are implicated in uncertainty about the future and a variety of unintended consequences. Accounting is depicted by many interviewees as not fulfilling many of its promises, thus creating uncertainty regarding its effectiveness. The new materialist approach offers insights into the nature and scale of uncertainty and pays attention to affect and emotion in interviewee responses, fostering an empathetic approach to social analysis. Three implications of new materialism relating to accountability, individual responsibility and inter-organisational communication are highlighted.

Analyzing Inter-Organization Communication between Customer and Supplier of Subsidized Paddy Fertilizer

Inter-Organization Communication (IOC) is a commonly used communication discipline to communicatebetween and among organizations. This paper aimed to investigate elements of IOC theories of communicationmanagement used between a local farmer union (PPK) and subsidised fertilizer suppliers based on theperspectives of the PPK. This study employed a quantitative method through a survey using questionnaireswhich were distributed to a total of 192 representatives of 63 PPKs from granary areas. The findings revealedtwo essential indicators to support inter-organizational communication; communication willingness andcommunication commitment. This study will be useful for both scholars and practitioners in furtherunderstanding the current situation of communication in subsidized fertilizer industry in Malaysia. Further studyon another variables in IOC and the relationship between components/variables involved would be beneficial onexpanding knowledge of inter-organizational communication.

Brokering Trust: The Construction of Transnational Family Business Networks, 1980-2010

Abstract Family capitalism became considerably empowered over the three decades prior to the great recession in 2008. This article argues that the construction of transnational family business networks through the coordinated action of individuals and institutions was crucial to the overall legitimization of family capitalism. The rise of a family business institutional infrastructure in the United States and its creative translation into the European context are first described and then analysed in the light of organizational communication theory. Building on the communication as constitutive of organizations view (CCO) and on Casson’s studies on the economics of trust, the article shows that interpersonal and inter-organizational trust and communication played a key role in the institutionalization of family business on both sides of the Atlantic. Consultants and the other drivers of this fascinating process acted primarily as trust brokers, helping to reduce transaction and information costs and bridge the gap between business owners, external professionals, and society. Finally, the story of the family business movement confirms that elites can easily manage cultural differences to engage in transnational networking. However, structural differences between US and European networks suggest that national institutional settings strongly influence communication among interest groups and its organizational outcome.

An evaluation of coordination relationships during earthquake emergency rescue using entropy theory.

Emergency rescue after an earthquake is complex work which requires the participation of relief and social organizations. Studying earthquake emergency coordination efficiency can not only help rescue organizations to define their own rescue missions, but also strengthens inter-organizational communication and collaboration tasks, improves the efficiency of emergency rescue, and reduces loss. In this paper, collaborative entropy is introduced to study earthquake emergency rescue operations. To study the emergency rescue coordination relationship, collaborative matrices and collaborative entropy functions are established between emergency relief work and relief organizations, and the collaborative efficiency of the emergency rescue elements is determined based on this entropy function. Finally, the Lushan earthquake is used as an example to evaluate earthquake emergency rescue coordination efficiency.

The effects of knowledge interaction for business innovation

The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of knowledge interaction on different types of business innovation. We first identified three indicators that reflect on the quality of the interaction between customers and technological knowledge, and then classified business innovations as product innovation, problem‐solving innovation, or general innovation capability. Hypotheses about the impact of different qualities of knowledge interaction on business innovations were tested by collecting data from 178 high‐technology firms in Taiwan. The results revealed that product innovation requires both wide‐ranging and deep interaction between customers and technological knowledge, that problem‐solving innovation requires either wide‐ranging or deeper interaction between customers and technological knowledge, and that wide‐ranging knowledge interaction is the most important driver for building general innovation capability. The research results enhance our understanding of knowledge interaction, with a special focus on the content and quality of the knowledge interactions within an enterprise. It also helps business managers in allocating resources and facilitating interorganizational communications for different situations related to innovation.

Understanding communication and coordination among government and service organisations after a disaster.

The purpose of this study is to discover how coordination and communication between the government and service organisations responsible for the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina contributed to the poor outcomes for the communities impacted by the storm. Two hypotheses were tested in this study: communication was positively correlated with the degree of coordination immediately following Katrina; and miscommunication was negatively correlated with the degree of coordination after the storm. Quantitative content analysis of media reports was used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses. Both communication and miscommunication were found to be positively correlated with coordination. The results of this study suggest that increasing interorganisational communication and establishing clearly defined roles for organisations must be a high priority in revamping organisational protocol on disaster response if any new approach is to be successful.

Enhancing Buyer-Supplier Collaboration through Daily Conversations at Shopfloor Level

Interorganizational communication enhances buyer-supplier collaboration and may provide both partners competitive advantage. Existing studies document the antecedents as well as the benefits of eff...

Means to enable Enterprise Interoperation: CIMOSA Object Capability Profiles and CIMOSA Collaboration View

Collaboration between enterprises has moved from regional and national environments to a global one. This has tremendously increased the need for information exchange between collaborating partners. However, non-compatible (heterogeneous) ICT environments and inconsistent semantic and syntax of information to be exchanged are very often barriers in the interoperation process. Nevertheless, the relevant semantic information is usually collected in enterprise models. This information, amended by the corresponding syntax, can be collected in Object Capability Profiles that describe the required and provided information to be exchanged by the partners. An even more elaborate solution could be a new model view that collects all information needed to support intra- and inter-enterprise information exchanges. The authors first propose the exploration of object capability profiles for inter-organisational communication or interoperation applied to CIMOSA and the related international standard CEN/ISO 19440. Object Capability Profiles of objects potentially involved in information exchange will identify both semantic and syntax of the information to be exchanged. Comparison between required and provided information will detect any mismatch between the two and would allow automatic or manual corrections. In addition, collaboration aspects are proposed to be modelled in a specific modelling view called Collaboration View. After recalling elements of the CIMOSA modelling language, the paper presents a proposal for both the Object Capability Profiling and the Collaboration View. A simplified illustrative example demonstrates the applicability of the two proposals.

Adopting an information security management system in a co-opetition strategy context

This paper aims to present the ISO/IEC 27001 Standard under the implementation of co-opetition strategy, based on the manual of ISO/IEC 27001. In that case, the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ (PDCA) model is applied to information security management system processes, in combination with co-opetition’s ‘value net’ framework so as to highlight the significance of protecting information assets and assuring integrity and safety in a co-opetitive environment. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to discuss whether the adoption of ISO/IEC 27001 will improve inter-organisational communication among competitors and will contribute to the development of a more efficient information security management system within and beyond organisations.

Klasterių politika Lietuvoje. Medicinos įmonių ir įstaigų klasterizacija

Clusters as a specific form of inter-organizational communication, developing a new approach to the economy and economic development, create new economic roles of business, government and non-governmental institutions, result in new communication structures in business and government, business and associated institutions. The objective of the paper is to analyze the cluster policy in Lithuania and to evaluate the effectiveness of its implementation through the medical cluster formation and development perspective.The task of the paper was to review the cluster concept prevailing in scientific literature, analyze the Lithuanian cluster policies and implementation measures, investigate the barriers of formation of clusters, evaluate the clusterization process and realities of medical companies and institutions. The object of the research is clusters policy in Lithuania.Conclusions. There is no uniform definition of a cluster in the scientific literature. The concept of clusters is treated differently, because there is no single cluster theory, there are only a number of different theories and reasoning, which try to base the logic of clusters. However, in most cases, the cluster is identified as a critical mass of companies and organizations that have achieved an outstanding success in certain areas of business, focused in a defined territory. The main reasons can be identified as hindering the clustering processes: 1) barriers arising due to market imperfections, 2) systemic imperfections arising from the policy and indirect effect of the authorities to the market operators, and 3) inadequate government action. Cluster policy as an independent competition policy is relatively new. Lithuania has no separate programming document for clustering issues so far. There is no unified cluster policy in Lithuania. Therefore, it can be stated that Lithuania is still in its target cluster policy formation stage.It is proposed to develop a unified and streamlined Lithuanian cluster policy programming document. The paper highlights the importance of continuity of ongoing national and EU structural funds incentives for the development of clustering processes. It is recommended to inform businesses about the benefits and opportunities of clustering, to publicize successful Lithuanian cluster activities and results.

Empirical Study on Emergency Inter-Organizational Information Communication Barriers for Expressway Emergency

Based on a typical Expressway emergency case the 12.5 black powder explosion on Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, this article built an expressway emergency inter-organizational communication network and then analyzed the communication barriers with Network Analysis Approach. The study finds that in hierarchical structures level, Expressway enterprise lack of communication with the local government; the subgroups that have business contact with Expressway enterprise in normal condition are difficult to share information in emergency with the subgroups that has no business relationship with expressway enterprise; the subgroups that have no business relationship with Expressway enterprise in normal condition are of great disparity in communication intensity internally and it is easy to cause over load for the core organization in communication; in the contrast, the subgroup that has business contact with expressway enterprise normally, the internal communication structure is more reasonable.

Collaboration for Innovation in Tourism Organizations

Collaboration for innovation is a key contributor to successful innovations in the tourism industry. Research, however, has not fully understood how tourism organizations with less than 10 employees (also known as micro organizations) can foster collaboration for innovation. This study contributes to tourism research by successfully testing the effect of innovation formality, interorganizational communication, and leadership support on collaboration for innovation at destination marketing organizations with less than 10 employees. It was found that leadership support for both innovation and collaboration is the most important driver to collaborate with partners in the innovation process. Interorganizational communication and innovation formality were driven by leadership support but did not have a strong direct effect on collaboration for innovation. This suggests that micro destination marketing organizations need to identify and invest in leadership rather than develop or rely on organizational processes that are useful in large organizations.

Analyzing relational sources of power at the interorganizational communication system

Based on the critical theory of communication, managing stakeholder relations is significant to achieve more democratic decisions that reconcile diverse interests of various stakeholders. However, power inequalities among stakeholders might inhibit to achieve finely balanced decisions. More interestingly, these inequalities might emerge from the nature of communication among organizations. Conceptualizing interorganizational relations (IORs) as the relations of an organization with its stakeholders, the current study attempts to analyze the relational sources of power. Following a graph theoretical methodology, the frequency of interaction and trust were analyzed as the relational sources of power on a sample of 76 logistics firms. The findings of the study reveal that an organization’s frequency of interaction and level of trustworthiness affect its power over other organizations.

Developing Electronic Cooperation Tools: A Case From Norwegian Health Care

BackgroundMany countries aim to create electronic cooperational tools in health care, but the progress is rather slow.ObjectiveThe study aimed to uncover how the authoritys’ financing policies influence the development of electronic cooperational tools within public health care.MethodsAn interpretative approach was used in this study. We performed 30 semistructured interviews with vendors, policy makers, and public authorities. Additionally, we conducted an extensive documentation study and participated in 18 workshops concerning information and communication technology (ICT) in Norwegian health care.ResultsWe found that the interorganizational communication in sectors like health care, that have undergone an independent development of their internal information infrastructure would find it difficult to create electronic services that interconnect the organizations because such connections would affect all interconnected organizations within the heterogenic structure. The organizations would, to a large extent, depend on new functionality in existing information systems. Electronic patient records play a central role in all parts of the health care sector and therefore dependence is established to the information systems and theirs vendors. The Norwegian government authorities, which run more than 80% of the Norwegian health care, have not taken extraordinary steps to compensate for this dependency–the government's political philosophy is that each health care institution should pay for further electronic patient record development. However, cooperational tools are complex due to the number of players involved and the way they are intertwined with the overall workflow. The customers are not able to buy new functionalities on the drawing table, while the electronic patient record vendors are not willing to take the economic risk in developing cooperational tools. Thus, the market mechanisms in the domain are challenged. We also found that public projects that were only financed for the first steps of project management could partially explain why many initiatives did not get past the initial planning and specification stages, but were stopped before further development could be made. Vendors were often unwilling to provide further own contribution without guaranteed return.ConclusionsWe propose that the authorities take a coordinating role and provide financial help for development of electronic cooperational tools for health because the regular market mechanisms are insufficient to push these developments to the market. It is, however, critical that the role of users be considered, and for users to decide which developments should go forward.

Integrating a framework for conducting public health systems research into statewide operations-based exercises to improve emergency preparedness

BackgroundDue to the uncommon nature of large-scale disasters and emergencies, public health practitioners often turn to simulated emergencies, known as “exercises”, for preparedness assessment and improvement. Under the right conditions, exercises can also be used to conduct original public health systems research. This paper describes the integration of a research framework into a statewide operations-based exercise program in California as a systems-based approach for studying public health emergency preparedness and response.MethodsWe developed a research framework based on the premise that operations-based exercises conducted by medical and public health agencies can be described using epidemiologic concepts. Using this framework, we conducted a survey of key local and regional medical and health agencies throughout California following the 2010 Statewide Medical and Health Exercise. The survey evaluated: (1) the emergency preparedness capabilities activated and functions performed in response to the emergency scenario, and (2) the major challenges to inter-organizational communications and information management.ResultsThirty-five local health departments (LHDs), 24 local emergency medical services (EMS) agencies, 121 hospitals, and 5 Regional Disaster Medical and Health Coordinators/Specialists (RDMHC) responded to our survey, representing 57%, 77%, 26% and 83%, respectively, of target agencies in California. We found two sets of response capabilities were activated during the 2010 Statewide Exercise: a set of core capabilities that were common across all agencies, and a set of agency-specific capabilities that were more common among certain agency types. With respect to one response capability in particular, inter-organizational information sharing, we found that the majority of respondents’ comments were related to the complete or partial failure of communications equipment or systems.ConclusionsUsing the 2010 Statewide Exercise in California as an opportunity to develop our research framework, we characterized several aspects of the public health and medical system’s response to a standardized emergency scenario. From a research perspective, this study provides a potential new framework for conducting exercise-based research. From a practitioner’s perspective, our results provide a starting point for preparedness professionals’ dialogue about expected and actual organizational roles, responsibilities, and resource capacities within the public health system. Additionally, the identification of specific challenges to inter-organizational communications and information management offer specific areas for intervention.