Partner Selection Decision Research Articles

International Trade Partner Selection Model and Its Influencing Factors Based on Machine Learning

Iinternational trade partner selection model and its influencing factors based on machine learning represents a significant advancement in global business strategies. By harnessing the capabilities of machine learning algorithms, this model analyzes a multitude of variables such as market trends, economic indicators, and partner attributes to identify optimal trade partners for businesses. Factors such as geographical proximity, market stability, and cultural compatibility are incorporated into the model to provide data-driven insights into partner selection decisions. This paper investigates the application of Stacked Random Field Machine Learning (SRF-ML) in the domain of international trade partner selection. The selection of suitable trade partners is a crucial aspect of global trade operations, influencing the efficiency and success of business ventures. Traditional approaches to partner selection often rely on subjective assessments or simplistic models, which may overlook important factors and lead to suboptimal decisions. In contrast, SRF-ML offers a powerful framework for analyzing complex datasets and making informed predictions about partner suitability. Through the integration of multiple layers of random field models, SRF-ML can effectively capture intricate relationships between various attributes and provide more accurate assessments of partner compatibility. In this paper explore the performance of SRF-ML models across different datasets and scenarios, considering factors such as market size, economic stability, and logistical capability. The results demonstrate the superior performance of SRF-ML compared to traditional machine learning approaches, highlighting its potential to revolutionize partner selection processes in the realm of international trade. The results demonstrate the superior performance of SRF-ML compared to traditional machine learning approaches, with accuracy improvements ranging from 5% to 10%. By leveraging advanced feature sets and model configurations, SRF-ML enables decision-makers to make more informed and strategic decisions, ultimately enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of global trade operations.

Research on Supply Chain Decision-making Considering Fairness Concerns and Green Technology Innovation

A supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer is constructed. On this basis, the Stackelberg game between the upper and lower levels of the supply chain is adopted, Consider the balance between manufacturers and retailers in the development of green technology innovation under the concern of fairness. The research shows that green technology innovation has a significant positive impact on the whole supply chain system. Retailers' fair concern behavior will have a certain negative impact on the whole supply chain system and increase the potential conflict among the members of the supply chain. Enterprises need to actively incorporate environmental protection into supply chain management and partner selection decisions, and should not ignore the negative impact of fairness concerns on team cooperation.

Momentum, Imitation and Partner Selection in Nascent and Mature Product Markets

AbstractDetermining which partners to ally with is a key strategic decision for managers. Many studies suggest that firms select alliance partners by rationally evaluating their quality, but it is possible that information asymmetry and managers’ limited cognitive capacity actually drive firms to adopt behavioural strategies like momentum and imitation to make decisions. This study examines how momentum and imitation affect firms’ selection of partners in nascent and mature product markets. We suggest that the absolute, relative and interactive impacts of momentum and imitation on alliance partner selection decisions change as a product market evolves from its nascent stage to maturity. Evidence from 13,071 partner selection decisions initiated by Chinese fund firms largely supports these predictions. Specifically, as a nascent product market moves towards maturity, the effect of momentum on partner selection decisions becomes weaker, while that of imitation grows stronger. However, momentum is more influential than imitation in both nascent and mature product markets. Momentum diminishes the effect of imitation on partner selection decisions in nascent and mature product markets, but this substitute effect is weaker in mature product markets than in nascent ones.

Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me: The Long‐Term Impact of Arthur Andersen's Demise on Partners' Audit Quality*

ABSTRACTAlthough recent evidence suggests that individual audit partners explain a substantial portion of the variation in audit quality proxies, much less is known about what determines an audit partner's quality. Psychology and behavioral economics theories hold that an individual's experiences can have enduring impacts on subsequent behavior. We examine whether auditors' direct exposure to Arthur Andersen's collapse has a long‐term impact on the quality of their audits. Our evidence implies that audit partners who directly experienced Andersen's demise impose stricter monitoring evident in their clients exhibiting a lower propensity for misstatements and small profits, and paying higher audit fees. Importantly, these findings reconcile with research in finance and economics implying that firsthand experiences matter more to subsequent behavior than general economic conditions or secondhand or thirdhand experiences. Collectively, the results shed light on one facet of how partners' audit quality evolves over time. Our findings suggest that major failures associated with the audit firm in which an auditor works can ultimately result in these affected individuals later delivering higher audit quality, which should benefit audit committees in partner selection decisions and audit firms in designing partner assignment policies.

Innovative cooperation among small medium-sized enterprises: from the perspective of multi-department symbiosis

Synergetic innovation has become an important way of technological innovation for small medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, this study constructs several research models with synergetic innovation mechanism and synergetic innovation network as moderating variables according to different forms of synergetic innovation networks, so as to verify the stability of the structural equation model to a certain extent. At the same time, for synergetic innovation mechanism and different forms of synergetic innovation network composed of two regulating variables in synergetic innovation model and synergies between possible adjustment effects are discussed in this paper. The results help small and medium-sized enterprises in synergetic innovation, cooperative innovation mechanism and partner selection decisions, which in turn eventually make the enterprise innovation ability get promoted, and achieve long-term high quality development.

Racial Inequality in Employee Selections: The Effect of Employment and Diversity Practices

Organizational practices have been shown to contribute to the reproduction of social inequality, i.e., unequal opportunities and outcomes based on social group membership. However, little is known about how organizations can effectively help overcome patterns of social inequality. We address this gap by integrating insights from the social inequality and the diversity literatures. We examine the relationship between organizational employment and diversity practices and selection decisions, which are primary gatekeeping mechanisms that enable or restrict access to organizational positions. We hypothesize that minorities are more likely to be selected through internal promotion than external hiring decisions and in organizations that foster inter-group interaction through mentoring. Moreover, we hypothesize that diversity managers moderate the relationship between employment practice and selection decisions. We test our hypotheses on a data set of more than 41,000 partner selection decisions in US Law Firms between 2007 and 2017. We contribute to the literature on social inequality in organizations by showing how different organizational employment practices affect access to elite positions and to the diversity practices literature by better explaining which practices can effectively help mitigate the negative consequences of stereotyping on access to elite positions for minorities.

Investigation of Freight Agents’ Interaction Considering Partner Selection and Joint Decision Making

Freight transportation plays an increasingly important role in sustainable development. However, freight travel demand has not been understood comprehensively, due to its unique features: freight activities are the result of collaboration among freight agents. It distinguishes freight transportation from passenger transportation, in which travel decisions are made mostly by individuals. Specifically, two processes in the collaboration can be observed: partner selection and joint decision making. Using the supplier-customer collaboration as an example, partner selection is a process for suppliers and customers to evaluate their potential partners and select the best one. Joint decision making allows suppliers and customers to seek common interests and make compromises. As a traditional travel demand model cannot model the two processes effectively, this research develops an innovative econometric model, spatial matching model, to bridge the gap. The proposed model is specified based on freight agents’ behavioral, estimated by Bayesian MCMC methods, and demonstrated by numerical examples. The proposed model and estimation methods can recover the coefficient values in the econometric models, and establish the relationship between the influential factors and the observed matching behavior. The analysis improves the understanding of freight travel demand in a behavioral-consistent manner and enriches the body of freight demand modeling literature.

Partner Selection: Decision-Making as Experienced by Engaged and Married Couples

Determining who to marry can be one of the most meaningful and daunting decisions an individual can make during their lifetime. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of couples as they moved through varied partner selection decisions to become engaged and/or married to each other. Capturing the couples’ voice moves beyond individual partner preferences and attraction tendencies by inquiring how individuals use these variables to make complex partner selection decisions within the context of the relationship. A qualitative approach is used and thematic analysis is employed to analyze the data. Interviews with five engaged or married couples revealed that as part of the relationship deepening process, pivotal illuminating moments allowed subconscious partner preferences and expectations to surface. Couples enter a process to discern partner and relationship preferences and expectations and use external feedback from family and friends as a checks-and-balances function. Couples can utilize this information to make more informed partner selection decisions. Educators, clergy, and mental health professionals can supplement the content in pre-marital education curriculums and enhance couple interventions.

Firm-nonprofit collaboration: Explaining the rationale behind firms’ cross-sector partner choices

Cross-sector partnerships between firms and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are emerging at an unprecedented rate to address sustainability issues. Extant research on cross-sector partnerships explains the firms' motivations to engage in partnerships but little is known about what drives the firms' partner choice. We build on firm-firm alliance research, differentiating between network-reinforcing and network-broadening strategies for finding partners. Based on a qualitative study with 33 experts from 17 frontrunner companies and 14 partnering NPOs, as well as secondary data, we assess the trade-offs between these two strategies and explore firms’ partner search and selection decisions. We advance cross-sector partnership research by proposing three drivers to explain why firms in our sample preferred to reinforce (rather than to broaden) their networks when forming additional cross-sector partnerships for sustainability. Moreover, we propose two conditions to explain why frontrunner firms often rely on opportunity-driven (rather than search-driven) partnership formation. These insights shed light on the type of formation strategy used in the context of cross-sector partnerships for sustainability.

A hybrid technique for partner selection in virtual enterprises

Globally, businesses are increasingly depending on other businesses’ competencies to meet the increasing demands from customers. Enterprises collaborate with a view of sharing their expertise, costs and risks. Many studies have examined this subject with only a few proposing techniques that can facilitate decision-makers’ abilities to filter out inefficient partners among the many that show interest to be part of the consortium, prior to the selection process. Also, few techniques are available that can aid the selection process when the selection criteria are voluminous and uncertain in nature. Research dealing with this subject focusing on the construction industry is hardly available. A Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FAHP-TOPSIS) technique, a hybrid of FAHP and F-TOPSIS, is designed to address this problem. This technique is embedded to Data Envelopment Analysis used to filter out inefficient partners at initial stages. FAHP determines decision criteria weights, while F-TOPSIS evaluates the unfiltered partners. A comparison analysis of FAHP-TOPSIS with FAHP and F-TOPSIS in the same case, show similar results confirming their robustness. However, FAHP-TOPSIS gives the most consistent outcomes. It is proposed that FAHP-TOPSIS can be used on a wide range of partner selection decision problems.

Partner Selection and Alliance Portfolio Performance in Emerging Markets

Repeatedly allying with previous partners or following peers’ decisions are two strategies of firms to reduce uncertainty in their alliance partner selection decisions. However, whether or not these two strategies lead to superior alliance portfolio performance is open to question. Leveraging data collected from 566 fund product distribution alliances initiated by 62 fund companies in a five-year period (2007-2011), we found adopting these two strategies does not benefit alliance portfolio performance. Partner repeatedness, which reflects to what extent that a firm relies on its previous alliance experience, cannot improve alliance portfolio performance significantly. Social value of current partners, which reflects the extent that a firm relies on peers’ choices in partner selection, even imposes a negative effect. The study also examines how firms’ linkages to governments change performance consequence of the two partner selection strategies. As a category of formal government-firm linkage, state ownership enhances the positive effect of partner repeatedness on alliance portfolio performance, while it strengthens the negative effect of partner social value. As a category of informal linkage, CEOs’ political ties weaken the positive effect of partner repeatedness on alliance portfolio performance but cannot significantly alleviate the negative effect of social value of current partners.

P2‐042: DECIDING TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE SECONDARY PREVENTION TRIAL: THE PARTICIPANT PERSPECTIVE

Multiple Alzheimer's disease (AD) secondary prevention trials are currently underway to evaluate promising therapies. Trial eligibility often requires prospective participants to be cognitively unimpaired, learn something about their AD risk, and enroll with a study partner. Little is known about how individuals make enrollment decisions, such as their motivations, perceptions of risk, and reactions to being ineligible. Moreover, it is unknown how they select study partners and how, if at all, they include study partners in enrollment decisions. Data are collected as part of the Study of Knowledge and Reactions to ApoE Testing (SOKRATES 2). SOKRATES 2 participants are cognitively unimpaired adults aged 60–75 who learned their Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype as part of screening and eligibility for the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative's Generation Program trials, which are testing treatments to prevent the onset of cognitive and functional declines related to AD in individuals at increased genetic risk. The sample was recruited to be balanced on age, gender, and ApoE genotype. Interviews were conducted with 70 individuals following ApoE disclosure. Initial interviews were conducted 3 months post-disclosure. Follow-up interviews—conducted 12-months after the initial interview—are currently underway. The follow-up structured interview guide includes questions about study partner selection and trial-related decision making. All interviews are being recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in NVivo 12.0. The University of Pennsylvania IRB approved this study. Results show that the majority of individuals reached the decision to participate alone and did not engage others, including their potential study partner, in trial-related decision-making. Common reasons for participating include desire for personal medical benefit, AD family history, and advancing science for others’ benefit. Although there are risks associated with the Generation Studies’ experimental treatments and procedures, participants did not consider participation particularly risky. Individuals ultimately ineligible to participate reported experiencing disappointment and, in some instances, resentment and anger. Understanding how individuals decide whether or not to participate in AD secondary prevention trials, whom they engage in trial-related decision making, and how they feel if they are not eligible is important for designing recruitment and engagement strategies.

Uncertainty Versus Learning: A Network Appraoch for Corporate Strategic Partner Selection

Uncertainty and learning play important twin roles in interorganizational partner selection decisions. Research reveals that companies try to reduce uncertainty by engaging in repeated ties with partners who are familiar, who are tied to common third partners, who are similar along relevant strategic or organizational dimensions, or with partners controlling complementary resources. Because organizations learn from their own experience and from the experience of their partners, one way to understand global network structures is to analyze how uncertainty and learning jointly affect the propensity of individual organizations to build local network ties. This paper combines theory and empirical evidence to develop an analytical framework examining the dynamic relationship between uncertainty, organizational learning, and the formation of interorganizational network ties. I report clear evidence that organizational uncertainty increases the likelihood that companies will engage in corporate acquisition activities. I also find that organizational learning and past experience play important roles in acquisition partners? selection, i.e., the greater the cumulative number of acquisition events in which a company has been involved in previously, the higher the likelihood that it will engage in further acquisition events in the future. Finally, I demonstrate that an organization?s past experience in corporate acquisitions affects its choice of network partner.

Inertia, uncertainty, and exploratory partner selection

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the following research question in partner selection decisions in business-to-business strategic partnerships/collaborations literature: How do inertia and uncertainty affect partner selection? Explicitly, the paper analyzes how inertia of previous alliance selection routines and uncertainty of entire market movement shape firms’ preferences regarding exploratory partner selection (i.e. selecting new partners who never collaborate with the focal firm).Design/methodology/approachGrounded on inter-firm partnerships, partner selection and network theory literature, the study empirically tests a fine-grained sample of 511 open-end funds initiated by 61 fund management firms in China. To do so, it runs Tobit regression for main analysis and applies a variety of sensitivity analyses to check the robustness.FindingsResults show that inertia in previous partner selection has a negative effect on exploration. Importantly, these inertial forces impact domestic firms but not international firms. Market uncertainty also affects exploratory partner selection: short-term market uncertainty encourages exploration, whereas long-term uncertainty inhibits it. These effects also depend on firms’ type: long-term market uncertainty has a negative effect on exploration for international firms but not for domestic firms. Both types of firms exhibit a stronger tendency toward exploration when they encounter short-term uncertainty. However, this inclination is stronger in international firms.Originality/valueEarlier research has examined how inertia affects exploitation but largely overlooked its effect on exploration. A critical examination of firm and environment level factors provides a deeper understanding of why and when firms have inconsistent preferences for specific partner selection strategies. Thus, this study offers a unique perspective for understanding firms’ exploratory partner selection by focusing on two important characteristics of focal firms: one internal (inertia) and one external (market uncertainty) in nature.

A Conjoint Experiment for Partner Selection in Coopetition

We analyze partner selection decisions in coopetition for innovation. We study how much risk (related to competition) small and large firms are willing to accept to realize the potential benefits of cooperating with a competitor. We use a choice-based conjoint analysis to examine the importance of and trade-off between seven attributes associated with competitors as partners. We show that the level of competition is the most important attribute for small and large firms. SMEs are willing to partner with a competitor if that partnership can reduce costs and the time-to-market, while large firms place more value on the learning opportunities.

Deriving and Assessing Strategic Priorities for Outsourcing Partner Selection in Pharmaceutical R&D: an Approach Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Based on 34 Experts’ Responses From Korean Pharmaceutical Industry

Despite an increasing proportion of activities along the pharmaceutical R&D value chain being outsourced, little attention has been devoted to examine the factors affecting the outsourcing partner selection process. This paper aims to suggest priorities of influencing factors for maximizing the efficiency in governing outsourcing arrangements. This paper adopts the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based on 34 experts’ responses from Korean pharmaceutical industry to rank a set of different criteria substantial for establishing a new outsourcing relationship. A total of 14 sub-criteria (encompassing a range of task-related and partner-related issues) were identified and used to construct the AHP model. Two different outsourcing scenarios were considered: (1) outsourcing of R&D activities in the early stages of drug discovery and (2) outsourcing of regulatory affairs tasks. In case of R&D outsourcing, the criterion “Cost-saving potentials” was the most dominant factor affecting the partner selection decision followed by “Commitment” and “Partner compatibility.” In case of outsourcing regulatory affairs task, “Reputation” and “Specialized expertise” were perceived as significant selection criteria. The study facilitates the process of assessing factors that have a major impact on the outsourcing partner selection. It further contributes to building consensus within the organization and can serve as a reference point for learning about challenges encountered in outsourcing decision. The findings can also provide lessons for other research-intensive industries that have not yet developed their outsourcing activities to the same extent.

What more can we learn from R&D alliances? A review and research agenda

R&D cooperation has become a core aspect of the innovation strategy of R&D-performing organisations over the last three decades. Globalization has increased the imperative to organise these cross-border, inter-firm agreements efficiently, and this has led to a cross-fertilisation of ideas from a variety of fields, including international business, management, geography and, more recently, psychology. The aim of this paper is to review and synthesise this literature to identify new directions for research. The breadth of the academic discussion has evolved towards a general consensus on governance choice decisions, motives for collaboration, partner selection decisions and performance implications. Despite having achieved some degree of clarity on these issues, the growing complexity and international nature of these alliances requires a multidisciplinary approach, both in relation to the theories to apply, as well as in the type of data needed.

The Network Dynamics of Status: Assimilation and Selection

Using longitudinal data that we have collected on friendship and advice relations in a cohort of MBA students, we examine how status affects the dynamics of network ties among peers. Estimates of Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs) suggest that status is a consequence of network ties because over time the level of status attributed to individual students by other students tends to the average level of status attributed to their network partners—a phenomenon we call status assimilation. Status is also an antecedent to network ties because it affects partner selection decisions, giving rise to distinct forms of social attachment. We find that both network-based processes of status assimilation, as well as status-based processes of social selection, are present, but they vary subtly yet significantly across network domains. Students tend to the average level of status of their friends, but not to that of their advisors. High-status students are more active in the friendship network, but more popular in the advice network. We find evidence of performance homophily rather than status homophily: students with similar grades are more likely to exchange friendship and advice ties. High-status students tend to be more central in the advice network, but status attributions spill over through friendship, rather than advice relations. The study documents how the relation between social status and social networks varies both over time, as well as across network domains. The study also demonstrates the importance of accounting for multiplexity—the tendency of a network to operate through another.

Randomised controlled trial of a sexual risk reduction intervention for STI prevention among men who have sex with men in the USA

ObjectivesNovel interventions to address sexual risk taking and slow rates of STIs are urgently needed, in particular among black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the USA. Serosorting,...

International Supplier Partner Selection- Using an MADM Models

The paper concentrates mainly on international supplier partner selection problem and demonstrates how the MADM models, particularly TOPSIS method can be effectively used for partner selection decision in foreign market (especially Iran and Sweden companies). The result showed that, the Swedens best suppliers are not necessarily the most appropriate partner for Iranian companies because the importance of effective criteria is not the same for two countries.