Inter-organizational Management Research Articles

Models of Inter-Organizational Logistics Management in Slovenia

Throughout the history, the transportation of goods and related logistics have played an important role in human development and existence. This pertains to numerous interlinked processes, whose management is often linked to social system, international linkages, development of industry, market and market specifics. In modern times, the management of these processes is increasingly bound to globalization of production and market, moving of production to countries with cheaper labour force, environmental protection. The present Slovenian economy depends to a large extent on economies and corporate relations of the European Union and the world. Such inter-connectedness demands frequent transportation of semi-finished and finished goods. By providing timely delivery of goods, transportation consequently enables inter-organizational linkages and individual production, economic, market and other processes. Organizational and inter-organizational management of transport logistics demands profound understanding of transport flows, freight forwarding expertise and knowledge of transport, tax, environmental and other related regulations. Adequate knowledge and mastering of cultural, linguistic, national and other differences is important as well. The presented analysis and evaluation form the basis of the construction of inter-organizational model of logistics management in Slovenia.

Customer value propositions as interorganizational management accounting to support customer collaboration

New technology-based firms aim to create commercially successful products and services based on new technology. For example a startup company may be founded to commercialize a particular technology developed by a university. One of the key challenges is to identify which products and services are valuable for customers. However, the relevant knowledge is typically dispersed across the technology firm and potential customers. This study explores how, in this context, interorganizational management accounting may support companies to collaborate and integrate knowledge. First, drawing on business marketing literature, a customer value proposition is conceptualized as a form of interorganizational management accounting. Second, several case studies demonstrate how calculations of customer value were made by new technology-based firms, and they show that these firms had implemented particular offering changes that were informed by specific insights obtained from their calculations of customer value. Third, the study offers a theoretical lens for understanding the potential role of customer value propositions as integrating devices for managing knowledge across boundaries.

The impact of inter-organizational management control systems on performance: A retrospective case study of an automotive supplier relationship

This study investigates whether appropriate management control system (MCS) design of supplier relationships is associated with good performance. Although MCSs are found to be contingent on situational characteristics, it remains unclear whether this contingency fit contributes to performance. To illustrate the validity and dynamics of the fit-performance association, we perform a retrospective case study of an exemplary automotive manufacturer–supplier relationship that changed considerably during the course of production. Case findings show that a MCS contingency misfit is associated with poor performance. This misfit is only temporal, however, as the manufacturer can adapt the MCS to fit the changed supplier relationship and regain performance. Furthermore, our case demonstrates the importance of informal control on supplier management, as formal controls appeared unable to overcome operational difficulties. In this respect, the case also shows the manufacturer׳s active role in establishing trust building and social pressure by choosing a suitable supplier plant manager. The resulting leap of trust indicates that trust does not always need to be built gradually. Finally, our case reveals that relying on informal controls – in particular trust building – requires the manufacturer to be well aware of its use. Otherwise, the importance of increasing informal control will be underestimated when risks increase or trust is damaged, and valuable time will be lost.

Inter-Organizational Communities of Practice for Improved Organizational Performance

This paper presents a new framework for understanding inter-organizational CoPs which have received less attention than they deserve from knowledge managers. The impetus for this paper is an action research project titled “Knowledge to Innovation in Solid Waste Management at Local authorities in Sri Lanka” which was carried out during the Jan 2008-June 2011 period. Observing the presence of a latent community of practitioners (CoPs) within the solid waste managers in question, efforts were made to further develop this community, resulting in improvements in the solid waste management (SWM) sector as a whole and the professional development of community members. However, there were no significant effects on the performance of individual local authorities. The purpose of the study is to situate our observations in the inter-organizational knowledge management literature to illuminate the subject of inter-organizational CoPs for improved organizational performance. A survey on the knowledge management literature published during the period 2000-2013 with communities as a keyword forms the basis of the paper. The literature search lends support to the observation that the form and function of inter-organizational CoPs are shaped by four interest groups - community members, community leaders, line managers and inter-organizational entities. Knowledge managers need to be cognizant of the different groups’ interests when using inter-organizational CoPs for organizational management.

Effect of firm characteristics, supplier relationships and techniques used on Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM): an empirical investigation on French industrial firms

Recent years have witnessed a focus on managing risks in supply chains. On the one hand, there are many cases where events like natural disasters, strikes and terrorism have significantly influenced the performance of organisational supply chains and in turn their competitiveness. And on the other hand, operational activities and strategic decisions of the firms (concerning, for e.g. supply, procurement, production, delivery, commercialisation, demand management, planning, etc.) can be different than expected and so create uncertainties. Uncertainties, whether they are external or internal, impact organisations leading to increased supply chain risk. Realising the potential implications of these situations on supply chain competitiveness, an attempt has been made to define risks and their sources and to identify the management that can help reduce the negative impact of risks on supply chains. In this paper, a framework for supply chain risk management (SCRM) is proposed and is applied using the data collected from 164 French companies, in manufacturing sector. The literature review, theoretical framework and empirical research undertaken in this work have led to identifying critical success management for SCRM. The focus of this paper is the inter-organisational management of supply chain risk: the collaborative relationship (with industrial and supply partners) can be considered as an efficient way to make SCRM. The paper finishes with a summary of the findings and conclusions, along with suggestions for future research projects.

Comparison Between Studies of Management Accounting and Supply Chain Management Using Text Mining : Toward Enhancement of Inter-Organizational Management Accounting

Comparison Between Studies of Management Accounting and Supply Chain Management Using Text Mining : Toward Enhancement of Inter-Organizational Management Accounting

Inter-organizational management and coordination in Danish health care

The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 5.120 (2020 JCR, received in June 2021)The IJIC 20th Anniversary Issue was published in 2021.

Inter-organizational Knowledge Management Within an NGO Community: A Pilot Study of a Unique Knowledge Sharing Structure

Knowledge management principles have traditionally been derived from for-profit organizations but are increasingly being utilized to support the success of non-profits organizations (NPOs). This pilot study examines the knowledge needs of a group of Alberta-based NPOs linked by a hub organization whose purpose is to facilitate knowledge sharing within this community.Les principes de gestion des connaissances sont habituellement issus des organisations à but lucratif, mais sont de plus en plus utilisés pour accroître le succès des organisations à but non lucratif (OBNL). Cette étude pilote examine les besoins en savoir d’OBNL albertaines regroupées sous une même organisation mère dont le but est la diffusion du savoir dans la collectivité.

A Mobile Agent Based Approach for Business Processes Automation

The paper addresses specification and development of large and complex management systems for business process based on a multi agent systems approach. A methodology for obtaining workflow specifications is presented; it is based on conceiving the management system as a mobile agent system in which mobile agents guide the workflow processes within the organization. The specification includes the work environment, the agent behavior, the process plans, the tasks, the resources, and the interaction protocols. The obtained descriptions are modular and hierarchal leading to clear and compact structuring of the distributed software. The design methodology includes a guideline for Java based coding. Finally, key issues for extending the agent based method to address inter-organizational workflow management are overviewed.

European Pork Chains : the Role of Stakeholders in Diversification of Quality Management Systems

The paper presents the results of the diagnose concerning the characteristics of pork chains in 6 European Union countries: France, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands, Germany and Hungary. The aim of the paper is to present the differences and fragmentary character of the chains in the pork sector in Europe and diversification of demand for pork products in rapidly developing European markets. Determination of presence of differences in the quality management systems in 6 chosen European countries, i.e. France, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands, Germany and Hungary is the main hypothesis of the paper. Three of those differences apply to specialised pork chains (Spain, The Netherlands and Hungary) while the other three the regional pork chains (France, Greece and Germany). The nature of those chains results from the differences in utilisation of public and private quality management systems and the differences between inter-organisational quality management systems within the chains of supplies strengthening quality cohesion and safety between the links of the chain. The comparison of them allows formulating conclusions for reconstruction of the pork chains in Poland.

Exploring Relevance of Reliability in Interorganizational Information Systems and Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Exploring Relevance of Reliability in Interorganizational Information Systems and Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Information management and knowledge sharing in supply chains operating in Brazil

This article seeks to answer the following research question: how do enterprises within an automotive supply chain manage inter-organisational information and share knowledge? To this end, this study offers an analysis of the state of the inter-organisational information management and knowledge sharing in a supply chain in the Brazilian automotive sector. The research follows a qualitative approach. The study revisits models by Davenport (1997) and Dyer and Nobeoka (2000) aimed to incorporate particularities from the supply chain analysis by conducting a case study in the Brazilian automotive sector. Information exchanged and knowledge shared within the automotive chain is basically operational in nature and the phenomena occur at layers: unilaterally, bilaterally and multilaterally. Power and technology are elements that need to be balanced to achieve the effective management of inter-organisational information management and knowledge sharing. This paper highlights the relation between information management and knowledge sharing in an automotive supply chain.

Environmental and social responsibility in supply chains: The practise of choice and inter-organisational management

The general concern for the state of the environment sets requirements on strategies developed by companies to curb environmental and social impacts of their activities. One of the most notable changes in the way companies work with sustainability issues is the shift of the focus from own operations to improving the performance of supply chains. This paper aims to analyse the practise of corporate responsibility in the supply chain through the lens of two distinct but related fields of research: Global Value Chain analysis and Supply Chain Management. Using data from two empirical studies that were designed to study the practise of Swedish buyers in addressing social and environmental issues in their respective supply chains, we demonstrate that both fields offer vital insights about how companies can and do exercise environmental and social responsibility in their respective supply chains. We suggest that one can better integrate these two perspectives on governance in the supply chain by acknowledging that responsibility in the supply chain can both be exercised through choice and through inter-organisational management. We discuss role of certification schemes in this context and provide recommendations for future research.

Managing interaction for learning and value creation in exchange relationships

Firms create value by establishing and maintaining appropriate exchange relationships. However, beyond the generally recognized importance of trust and commitment, there is a lack of specific cues as to how such value creation can be managed. In an attempt to gain more insight this study examines the success formulas in three different types of interactions in exchange relationships. The purpose is to investigate how different types of interactions can be managed so that buyer firms make important contributions to the development of their suppliers' capabilities. The study empirically examines how inter-organizational management facilitates value creation in three different types of interactions in exchange relationships: unilateral learning, unilateral development, and bilateral learning. This study uses a partial least squares analysis (PLS) to analyze survey data from 142 exchange relationships in the seafood industry. The main contribution to the literature is the assessment of how various types of inter-organizational management promote value-creation initiatives (such as information supply and coaching), and ultimately, value creation.

Ontology-Based Interorganizational Knowledge Management in Sustainable Construction Project

Due to the great negative impact, the construction industry needs to undergo a paradigm shift from traditional construction to sustainable construction. To reach the goal of sustainable development, the construction industry needs to intensify its efforts to move to a knowledge intensive mode. Based on the analysis of e-Cognos and the concept of ontology, this paper proposes that e-Cognos ontology can be applied in the development of sustainable construction process ontology, which is a key part of knowledge management system (KMS). Following this, the application process of ontology-based KMS is analyzed using IDEF0 modeling method. Finally, this paper analyzes interorganizational collaboration model in sustainable project.

The Viable System Model and inter-organizations

To work against threats and to obtain new possibilities, new forms of interorganizational collaborations are formed. The management literature deals mainly with one single organization although aspects of collaborative processes are discussed. In this article problems with inter-organizational management and decision-making are discussed. In this article the possibilities and the limits of using the Viable System Model (VSM) for diagnosing and design of inter-organizations are discussed. The conclusion is that VSM seems to be promising but further evaluation must be performed. Organizational learning and negotiation support systems are approaches that should be used in inter-organizational management.

A Review of Survey Research in Inter-Organizational Management Control:

A Review of Survey Research in Inter-Organizational Management Control:

Semantic Web Service Based Framework for Inter-Organizational Business Process Management

To support business and engineering collaboration in the diversified and global markets, enterprises are trying hard to continuously align their actual business processes to response customers’ demands. In this context, a flexible framework for inter-organizational process management is proposed, in which ontologies and semantic web service technologies are used throughout process modeling, implementation and execution. Heterogeneous manufacturing resources are encapsulated as uniform semantic web services, called manufacturing services, which are published, located and combined into executable processes. By means of formally definition of service capacity and as the mediation, business logic and implementation techniques is loosely coupling relationship, so enterprises can collaborate without prior relationship established and adjust their processes on demand.

A Methodology for Inter-Organizational Emergency Management Continuity Planning

This paper extends emergency management literature by developing a methodology for emergency management continuity planning (EmCP). In particular, the methodology focuses on inter-organizational continuous and coordinated planning among emergency management organizations. The authors draw on Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland & Scholes, 1999; Checkland, 2000), using it as a base for better understanding of EmCP. Barriers that must be overcome before the methodology can be introduced and established, as well as potential benefits, are also discussed.

African critical studies

Neo-liberal reforms in Sub-Saharan African countries, under pressure from international donors, have increased the number of mixed-type inter-organisational relationships in their public sectors. However, existing accounting studies often ignore the role of institutional environments and institutionally embedded agents in shaping these relationships. This is an important omission in Sub-Saharan Africa given its institutional complexity. This paper reports a case study of a national public pension fund in a Sub-Saharan African country which invests in real estate developments through mixed-type inter-organisational relationships. We show how it develops new inter-organisational management controls by selectively coupling its private sector and public sector logics at the organisational level, while at the individual level institutionally embedded organisational actors, drawing on social identities which enact societal-level logics, can impede (and possibly subvert) these controls. For this purpose, we develop a conceptual framework by drawing on the institutional logics perspective, and especially microfoundations provided by Thornton and her colleagues, which recognises institutional logics at various levels and highlights the importance of social identity and embedded agency. We argue that, rather than implementing the ‘best practices’ from developed countries, research should look for African solutions which build on and adapt traditional institutional logics and practices.