Partner Selection Process Research Articles

A new combined IF-DEMATEL and IF-ANP approach for CRM partner evaluation

Selection of the most suitable business partner is a strategic decision for outsourcing problems. This study aims to provide an effective evaluation approach for assessing alternative CRM partners. The choice of a suitable partner is a very complex decision, involving many conflicting objectives as well as complex considerations. Such decision processes involving several perspectives can be worked around by using Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques. MCDM can assist decision makers with reaching consensus with collective participation and objective decisions based on value judgments. This paper proposes a combined approach for effectively evaluating CRM partners that integrates Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS) with Group Decision Making (GDM). It consists of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (IF-ANP) for building and analyzing the criteria weights and Intuitionistic Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (IF-DEMATEL), a useful technique for managing uncertainties to identify interrelations between criteria. As the IFS describe powerfully vagueness and uncertainty, IFS can depict decision makers' evaluations with a structure which is more rich, allowing for a more accurate description of the decision making process. The scientific value of the paper stems from its ability to present a novel study that makes use of GDM based MCDM with combined IF-DEMATEL and IF-ANP approaches. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a combined IFS based DEMATEL-ANP framework for the first time and developing a novel evaluation model for a real industrial problem to improve the CRM partner selection process.

Reactive Versus Anticipative Decision Making in a Novel Gift-Giving Game

Evolutionary game theory focuses on the fitness differences between simple discrete or probabilistic strategies to explain the evolution of particular decision-making behavior within strategic situations. Although this approach has provided substantial insights into the presence of fairness or generosity in gift-giving games, it does not fully resolve the question of which cognitive mechanisms are required to produce the choices observed in experiments. One such mechanism that humans have acquired, is the capacity to anticipate. Prior work showed that forward-looking behavior, using a recurrent neural network to model the cognitive mechanism, are essential to produce the actions of human participants in behavioral experiments. In this paper, we evaluate whether this conclusion extends also to gift-giving games, more concretely, to a game that combines the dictator game with a partner selection process. The recurrent neural network model used here for dictators, allows them to reason about a best response to past actions of the receivers (reactive model) or to decide which action will lead to a more successful outcome in the future (anticipatory model). We show for both models the decision dynamics while training, as well as the average behavior. We find that the anticipatory model is the only one capable of accounting for changes in the context of the game, a behavior also observed in experiments, expanding previous conclusions to this more sophisticated game.

The evidence base for successful alliancing

Introduction: There is increasing recognition that collaborative and integrated working is needed to meet the challenges faced in UK health and care and other public funded services. Alliances and alliance contracts have generated interest as a possible tool that commissioners can use to drive collaboration. There are examples in healthcare from New Zealand and recent alliance developments in services in England.In adopting alliance methodologies for the context of public sector commissioning and provision it is imperative to consider the evidence for creating successful alliances. This literature review was undertaken to identify the key components.Theory/Methods: A literature search was conducted in the summer 2015 commencing with Google Scholar searches for variations on the word alliance and alliance contracts. The reference lists of papers identified and requests to specialists in alliancing yielded further materials.The literature was analysed to draw out the key components that influence successful outcomes in alliances.Results: The search revealed over 80 references relevant to performance in alliancing and alliance contracting.Alliances can take many forms and in the literature overall there is a dominant representation of project alliances as used for public service capital build projects (e.g. construction and infrastructure) and strategic alliances across industries often seen in the private sector. Next to these well-defined types of alliances variations have emerged to cater for particular needs.Alliance success is also broadly defined. Traditional economic measures and achievement of objectives are commonly used but other benefits are described including creation of new skills and capabilities, durable relationships and competitive advantage.Analysis to identify themes defined four interrelated dimensions to successful alliancing.a. Trust and loyalty between partiesTrust substitutes for hierarchical control. Partner selection and strategic, goal and incentive congruence are critical. Uncertainty about partner behaviour hinders the establishment of trust. Reducing the risk of partner opportunism requires attention to differences in economic benefits, cultural diversity and the time horizon for return on the investment for each partner.b. High quality decision making processesAlliances create a unique context for decision-making with unanimity and participatory processes. Appropriate governance arrangements are needed as well as trust and reciprocity between partners and the ability to employ various means to co-ordinate interactions and activities over time. Constraints are multiple decision making centres, uncertainty about partners, ambiguity about the evolution of the alliance and political and micropolitical actions.c. Alliance management capability and skillsThe multiparty context of alliances requires distinct skills for co-ordination of joint tasks, communication with sharing of relevant knowledge and information and a bonding process for social integration. Proactiveness and ability to modify the alliance activities over time are positive aspects. All these are self-reinforcing, building management effectiveness as experience grows. Challenges arise when there are divided authority structures, information asymmetries and underdeveloped personal relationships.d. Flexibility and dynamismAlliances are, by design, flexible and must evolve to accommodate contextual changes. The co-ordination, social norms, planning and capabilities must all reflect this and the leadership and management need to be able to function with ambiguity and uncertainty.Discussion: There was a wealth of material on performance in alliances and components of success from basic research, observational studies and enquiry and theoretical frameworks.The multitude of contexts, different meanings of alliances and definitions of success limits direct comparisons. However there are commonalities in findings and four themes emerge as critical for alliance success. These are trust and loyalty between parties, high quality decision making, alliance management capability and skills, flexibility and dynamism.The emphasis on partner selection, goal congruence and early relationship formative processes stands out. Specific focus needs to be given to creating trust, robust decision making, adequately resourced co-ordination and management and ensuring those in leadership and key management roles can operate with uncertainty and ambiguity so that they are able to flex and adapt as the alliance evolves.Conclusion: The interdependent four dimensions and the concepts within them provide those developing alliances in new environments with important lessons. Success does not happen by chance. Active management is required throughout the life cycle of an alliance to ensure there is a maximum chance of achieving success.We can now apply these findings to alliancing in health and care sectors. Although we focused on alliances specifically, they have relevance to all forms of collaborative and partnership working.

Opportunities and opportunism with high-status B2B partners in emerging economies

PurposeThis study examines the potential of foreign business-to-business (B2B) firms to select high-status local partners in emerging markets to achieve positive relationship outcomes. Because a domestic firm’s high status may also promote opportunism, the study also examines if the foreign B2B firms may mitigate such behavior through either or both transaction-specific investments (TSIs) and socialization.Design/methodology/approachThe research is conducted via a model that suggests a positive correlation between high local partner status and the focal relationship outcomes and the moderating effects of structural TSIs and social governance systems. The model was developed and empirically tested using data collected from 96 foreign firms operating in China.FindingsUsing multiple regressions, the findings suggest that foreign B2B firms are likely to achieve more beneficial relationship outcomes with high-status local partners. Standing alone, foreign B2B firms’ TSIs mitigate the positive relationship outcomes, whereas their socialization with the high-status partners enhances the beneficial outcomes. Most importantly, combining socialization with TSIs increases beneficial outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThis study adds to B2B marketing, status theory and the application of transaction cost economics (TCE) and social exchange theory to foreign-local B2B exchange relationships in emerging markets. The findings confirm the attractiveness of high status in emerging markets by exploring how the selection, formation and chosen B2B governance processes may lead to competing outcomes of opportunism or success. Future research will benefit from simultaneously securing data from both sides of the dyad.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests that foreign B2B firms consider high status as a key criterion in selecting local partners in emerging markets and the importance of managing high-status partners’ potential opportunism by effective governance mechanisms.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to apply and explore the workings of status theory in the foreign-local B2B partner selection process and relationship outcomes in emerging markets and thereby contributes to B2B marketing, status theory and both TCE and social exchange theories in the focal foreign-local B2B context.

Partner selection in green supply chains using PSO – a practical approach

Partner selection is crucial to green supply chain management as the focal firm is responsible for the environmental performance of the whole supply chain. The construction of appropriate selection criteria is an essential, but often neglected pre-requisite in the partner selection process. This paper proposes a three-stage model that combines Dempster–Shafer belief acceptability theory and particle swarm optimisation technique for the first time in this application. This enables optimisation of both effectiveness, in its consideration of the inter-dependence of a broad range of quantitative and qualitative selection criteria, and efficiency in its use of scarce resources during the criteria construction process to be achieved simultaneously. This also enables both operational and strategic attributes that can be selected at different levels of hierarchy criteria in different decision-making environments. The practical efficacy of the model is demonstrated by an application in Company ABC, a large Chinese electronic equipment and instrument manufacturer.

How Do Managers Evaluate International Joint Venture Partners?

Partner selection is a key aspect for the success of International Joint Ventures (IJVs). However, the role played by managers in the partner selection process is under-researched, and we contribut...

Towards a Theoretical Model for Strategic Alliance, and Partner Selection Among Small Medium Enterprises (SMES): A Research Agenda

Partner selection has been identified as a crucial stage in the formation of alliances and critical questions have been raised on the factors that influence different firms during the partner selection process and why a firm will choose one firm and not the other. A multidisciplinary theoretical perspective has been adopted in this paper in an effort to provide insights on how partner selection in alliances can be influence not only by contextual factors but also by top management teams. An integrative perspective is proposed and a conceptual framework suggested showing the link between strategic alliances, contextual factors and top management teams. In conceptualizing these constructs, it is proposed that macro-environmental factors and top management teams mediate the relationship between strategic choice and partner selection.

A patent portfolio-based approach for assessing potential R&D partners: An application of the Shapley value

We propose a patent portfolio-based approach for assessing potential R&D partners that can consider the inter-partner resource fit in the assessment process. The concept of an integrated patent portfolio is suggested and its value is designed to reflect the resource fit between potential R&D partners. The Shapley value is applied to assess the contribution of each potential partner to the value of the integrated patent portfolio. A case study of a lighting control system is presented to show the feasibility and advantages of our method. Overcoming the weakness of individual capability-focused evaluation of potential R&D partners, our method can better inform decision makers and experts in the partner selection process by enabling more comprehensive assessment of potential R&D partners.

A computing metaphor approach to customer experience based alliance partner recommendation

Purpose – In the service economy era, service value is created from the evaluation of customer experience and it is important to study alliance partner selection for improving service provision. Nevertheless, most of the existing alliance partner selection approaches concentrate on the functional aspects. The purpose of this paper is to provide a novel approach that is customer-centric and emphasizes the emotional aspect of service value. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a metaphor-based alliance partner recommendation mechanism (MAPRM) that employs the computing metaphor approach to recommend alliance partners for companies in an innovative way. The main ideas of metaphors are the comparison made between two unlike things that actually have something in common so as to attain innovative thinking. Findings – This study uses the scenario of regional tourism innovation to demonstrate the attempted contributions of MAPRM. The simulation evaluation results show that MAPRM can utilize knowledge and resources from companies to achieve specific alliance goals of satisfying desired customer experiences represented by images that can be analyzed and created based on customers’ feedback and their interactions with companies. Originality/value – MAPRM aims to assist companies to find appropriate alliance partners which offer potential innovation opportunities for service value provision. It is capable of facilitating the alliance partner selection process and assessing customers’ needs at the same time.

Partner selection in co-opetition: a three step model

Purpose– This paper aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the partner selection process, which anticipates a successful co-opetition partnership. Co-opetition partnerships refer to developing cooperation efforts between competitors. The scarcity of studies conducted in this field to date provides limited contribution for the understanding of the partner selection process in this, particularly, paradoxical concept.Design/methodology/approach– This study follows a methodology based on systematic combining for the qualitative analysis of four cases of domestic co-opetition in Portugal. A sample range of eight companies was selected for a series of semi-structured interviews. Testimonials were transcribed and data coded for content analysis.Findings– Results indicate that prior personal relationships between decision-makers are facilitators for the implementation of cooperation partnerships with competitors. Based on these findings, this paper proposes a three-step model to explain the process of partner selection for co-opetition partnerships. According to this model, after opting to commence a new coopetitive business alliance, the manager undergoes a first unconscious selection based on his/her own prior personal relationships, followed by a conscious and judicious selection based on specific criteria related to partner’s operational skills, resources, effectiveness and trust.Research limitations/implications– Given that the sample is entirely formed by companies from one single country, further research would benefit from the inclusion of other countries expressing different business contexts and cultural environments.Originality/value– The value of paper derives from the comprehensive realization of partner selection for domestic co-opetition as fundamentally a network-related process.

Intergenerational Transmission of Education in India: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey

The intergenerational transmission of education has been investigated extensively in social science research. The existing literature shows that none of the studies in India related the process of partner selection and differential fertility with the intergenerational transmission of education. Here, we examined the timing of marriage and childbearing along with the probability of partner selection, according to education of women and how these processes lead to heterogeneity in educational attainment of children. The educational attainment of children was estimated by fitting the estimated marriage probabilities and children ever born in the intergenerational transmission model. The results were replicated in different random samples to examine its validity. The study found that higher educated women marry late, have fewer children, and marry men with higher or equal education. Further, the results indicate that education of women is a more significant predictor than education of husband in reducing average number of children born to couples. The findings confirm that children attain higher education than their parents, and better educated mothers do not discriminate between their children to provide higher education. These findings reinforce the significance of government initiatives to provide incentives to families with higher educated girls to ensure better education of the next generation.

Evaluation of product development partners using an integrated AHP-VIKOR model

Purpose– Today, customers are generally perceived to be demanding higher quality and better performing products, in shorter and more predictable development cycle-times and at a lower cost. These market pressures drive firms to collaborate with possible partners in product development (PD) processes. However, the selection of a suitable partner for an effective PD is not an easy decision and is associated with complexity. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to effectively evaluate PD partners.Design/methodology/approach– The proposed evaluation procedure consists of several steps. First, based on a literature review and expert validation, the strategic main and sub-criteria of the PD partner selection process that companies consider the most important are identified. After constructing the evaluation criteria hierarchy, the criteria weights are calculated by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The VIKOR (a compromise ranking) method is used to obtain the final partner ranking results. A case study is given to demonstrate the potential of the methodology. In the last part of the study, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the influence of criteria weights on the decision making process.Findings– The PD partner evaluation model contains three main criteria, namely, partner, collaboration and PD-oriented criteria, with 13 sub-criteria. The market position, competency of the partner, compatibility, technical expertise and complementarity are found as the most considerable evaluation criteria for the ABC case company. Results of the sensitivity analysis from different cases demonstrate that the integrated AHP-VIKOR model is quite sensitive to the weights assigned to the evaluation criteria. This finding underlines the importance of forming a capable, qualified group of experts for the decision-making procedure. The results of the empirical study show that the proposed evaluation framework is practical for solving partner selection problems.Originality/value– Partner selection is critical to the success of a collaborative PD process. The main contribution of this paper is the definition and development of an effective evaluation framework to guide managers for suitable PD partner selection. In our knowledge, there exists no study in the literature that combines the established AHP VIKOR model for PD partner selection problem. This study can be useful to researchers to better understand PD partner selection problem theoretically, as well as to organizations in designing better satisfying PD partner evaluation systems.

Micro-Dynamics of Alliance Partner Selection Processes: The Case of Architecture

Temporary forms of organization, including consortia, are ideal for managing complex tasks in highly uncertain environments. Although selecting the right partners is critical in the formation of co...

Changing Times – Family Formation Processes among Turkish Immigrant Women and Their Danish Majority Peers

This article compares the family formation processes among young Turkish immigrant women in Denmark with those of their majority Danish peers. The study draws on biographical interviews and available statistics, both of which reveal marked differences between the two groups. The majority women's family formation processes consist of many uncoupled and reversible transitions, focusing on “gaining experience” until making the irreversible decision of having their first child. This birth often occurs before marriage in the Danish context, which subsequently institutionalizes the already formed family. In contrast, Turkish immigrant women's family formation processes consist of tightly clustered transitions, occurring in a normatively sanctioned order. While the timing of these transitions in the 1990s clearly resembled the processes found in Turkish villages, this timing has since changed. Greater participation in education in Denmark contributes both to young Turkish women increasingly postponing marriage and the partner selection processes changing considerably. While Turkish immigrant women are now getting married at older ages, some do so without changing the sequencing of other family formation transitions. Thus, marrying later possibly also means delaying their first sexual experience and moving away from the parental home. In other cases, Turkish immigrant women engage in pre-marital sex but often seek to conceal this from their surroundings.

Challenges Fostering Unwillingness to Form Strategic Alliances among Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Tanzania

For many years, strategic alliances have attracted the attention of researchers. The most researched area is the challenges facing the development and maintenance of strategic alliances. Most studies on alliance challenges have concentrated on strategic alliances among large firms in developed economies. Little research has been done on the link between these challenges and firms’ unwillingness to form strategic alliances. We therefore want to find whether the unwillingness to form strategic alliances among Medium-Sized Enterprises (MEs) from the manufacturing industry in least developed economies like Tanzania are fostered by the prevailing challenges facing strategic alliances. This study examines the views of manufacturing MEs on whether the challenges associated with developing and maintaining strategic alliances discourage them to form strategic alliances. We have adopted both cross-sectional survey design and multistage probability sampling technique to allow the participation of 398 out of 485 CEOs from three zones of Tanzania through questionnaires. A multiple regression analysis reveals the influence of the challenges associated with both cultural incompatibility and risks on firms’ unwillingness to form strategic alliances. We recommend that manufacturing MEs in Tanzania must design an effective plan on how to mitigate these challenges before partner selection process begins instead of becoming reluctant to strategic alliance formation due to prevailing challenges.

Emergency Dynamic Alliance Partner Selection Based on Adaptive Genetic Algorithm

Emergency mobilization alliance partner selection process is longitudinally choice of the value chain to achieve a task. Value of subtasks coefficient has been discussed. Depending on the difficulty of the problem and analytical perspective, the model of emergency mobilization alliance partner selection is given to maximize the overall effectiveness of the emergency mobilization. The choice of partner selection using adaptive genetic algorithm is made and the comparison with other methods has been analyzed.

Proactive Legal Involvement in Partner Selection Process

Using a partner selection process in the start of strategic alliances is not yet general practice. This is regarded as one of the reasons why many strategic alliances fail to be successful. The use of a structured partner selection process could be a way to build one’s alliance capability and create a better fit and higher alliance performance.In this paper, drawing from quantitative and qualitative research, we argue that alliances are more likely to increase alliance success when the partners pay particular attention to aspects with legal dimension within their partner selection process. Our key argument is that, as inter partner conflicts are the main reasons for alliance failure, by taking a legal perspective and providing adequate governance structure as instruments early on during the partner selection process, may diminish those conflicts and increase alliance success.Our findings from a quantitative study among alliance professionals suggest that the use of negotiation and standard governance is highly effective in helping firms to increase their alliance success. As our study indicates that including clear steps regarding legal aspects of alliance selection, we further explored the role ‘the law’ (contracts and lawyers) plays and may play in (to optimizing) a successful selection process. We not only show the added value of taking a legal perspective, we also suggest which and when legal elements may be organized in such a way that they support a successful partner selection process.

The overvaluing of expertise in discussion partner choice

Since the introduction of economic theory to political science, theorists have argued that discussion could serve as an effective information shortcut if individuals communicate with experts who have similar preferences. Previous experimental and survey studies have found mixed results for the efficacy of social communication, but they have not observed the process of discussion partner selection which is so central to the previous models. This paper presents the results of a group-based experiment that allows for discussion partner selection. We fail to find aggregate enlightenment through social communication: lesser informed subjects are helped by social communication, but better informed subjects are harmed. This result is caused in part because subjects are too willing to seek out more expert discussion partners who have different ex ante preferences.

Brides and young couples

Mate selection seems to be based to some extent on appearance and physique. Assortative mating suggests that romantic partners select each other based on their similarity in important characteristics. Two studies examined the similarity in physiques of members of romantic couples. Study 1 found that the physical measurements of brides-to-be were positively correlated with those of their fiancés, although the brides were lighter and shorter than their partners. The exception was that brides who lost weight before their wedding initially had body mass indexes (BMIs) very similar to their partners. Study 2 also found similarity in weight and BMI between university couple partners. Partners’ ratings of the participants’ physical attractiveness were higher than participants’ own self-ratings, particularly for females. Romantic couples were thus similar in physique and share the same (inaccurate) view of their partners’ height and weight. These findings support assortative mating and highlight the importance of weight in the partner selection process.

Abstract W P292: A Comparative Analysis of the Requirements for Certification of Stroke Programs, by Type and by Nationally Recognized Certifying Body

Background and Purpose: There are currently three main, nationally recognized organizations that certify facilities as primary or comprehensive stroke centers. One of these organizations also offers a “Stroke Ready” designation. While each of these organizations share many of the same requirements, there are likewise many unique requirements between certifying bodies with respect to the certification requirements, process, performance, and on-going expectations. All should be considered when choosing a partner for certification by organizations that are committed to achieving an appropriate level of certification as determined by clinical capabilities. Differences in core measure requirements and definitions, data collection expectations and re-certification cycles among other factors are often overlooked when stroke program leaders are identifying the best certification partner for their particular organization. This poster will detail the similarities and differences among the various stroke program certifying organizations and present a detailed methodology to assist program leaders with the partner selection process. Methods: The three stroke program certifying organizations were examined for review cycles, levels of certification offered, requirements related to hospital certifications, and reportable core measures. Other factors such as cost, the actual certification process, and other considerations that may impact the successful achievement of certification within a particular organization were also reviewed. Results/Conclusion: While there are many similarities in the stroke center certification requirements and processes among the three certifying organizations, there are also significant differences. In order to ensure that the end product of a journey to certification will align with a hospital’s values, budget, and vision for the stroke program, an evaluation process in advance of certifying body selection is essential. Awareness of the similarities and differences among the stroke certification organizations can facilitate a hospital’s decision-making process for pursuit of certification as a stroke ready center, primary stroke center or comprehensive stroke center