Resource Dependence Perspective Research Articles

Resource Exchange in Urban Governance

An explanatory framework based on the classic resource dependency perspective is used to explain a broad variety of urban government-interest group interactions that are not fully explained by current urban governance theories. A case study of Dutch urban immigrant integration shows that one must combine considerations of information and intermediation capacity to explain why Dutch urban governments interact with immigrant organizations, in addition to common findings about institutional heritage. Their information and intermediation capacity allows local governments to get in touch quickly with immigrant groups during periods that potentially threaten the social order and public safety and creates incentives to maintain grants and keep in touch, whereas contributions of such groups to effective implementation are at least doubted.

Environmental Uncertainty and Strategic Supply Management: A Resource Dependence Perspective and Performance Implications

SUMMARYEnvironmental uncertainty plays a crucial role in the implementation of strategic supply management initiatives. The current study adopts the resource dependence theory to explain the direct effect of supply chain uncertainties on strategic supply management, operationalized as a second‐order construct comprising strategic purchasing, long‐term relationship orientation, interfirm communication, cross‐organizational teams and supplier integration. Using structural equation modeling, the 200‐firm sample provided evidence that strategic supply management is driven by supply and technology uncertainty. Demand uncertainty, on the other hand, was not found to have a significant impact on strategic supply management. Findings further support the link between strategic supply management and the performance of both buying and supplying firms.

The governance of going private transactions

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to explore the board of directors in leveraged buyouts (LBOs) as a distinct source of value creation and to conceptually investigate the going‐private transaction via LBO as a response to deficient governance structures as well as the post‐buyout board restructuring.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides a review of the literature on LBOs boards, and relies on agency theory and the resource dependence perspective to develop testable propositions. The work suggests that the board as a particular source of efficiency gains in LBOs warrants further empirical research.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper gives strong credence to the argument that boards represent a unique source of value creation in LBOs. Previous agency‐theoretic work is complemented by focusing on the monitoring function of the board, but resource dependence theory introduced to suggest the importance of a strategic service and support function. The work is conceptual in nature and thus requires subsequent empirical testing to verify assertions set forth in this study.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that incentives of managerial equity participation and the discipline of debt are gradually losing their distinctiveness in today's buyout industry. To compete in an increasingly crowded environment, LBO specialists need to identify new sources of value to generate attractive returns for their investors.Originality/valueThe paper extends the existing LBO literature by introducing resource dependent as a complementary framework. Given that the traditional LBO literature examines the discipline of debt and managerial ownership that explain their efficiencies, the role of LBO boards as a distinct value creation mechanism in buyouts is introduced.

Legitimating behaviors and firm emergence: a resource dependence perspective

This study makes an attempt to understand some of the reasons why some nascent firms make the transition to new operational firms (a process called “firm emergence”) while others do not. Because of liabilities-of-newness, nascent firms face the daunting task of acquiring legitimacy from their immediate audience in order to emerge as new operational firm. This study claims and finds empirical evidence that through certain legitimating behaviors nascent firms can acquire legitimacy from their immediate audience and thus succeed in becoming new operational firms. The study will put forward more general propositions for future testing, and will draw implications for practitioners and entrepreneurship scholars.

Strategic Issues and Local Constraints in Transnational Compensation Strategies:: An Analysis of Cultural, Institutional and Political Influences

In response to globalisation, increasing numbers of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have implemented transnational corporate strategies characterised by global standardisation as well as local responsiveness. If human resource management (HRM) is to provide a support function, it is suggested that these strategic developments should be reflected in the compensation strategies of the MNEs. The authors apply a resource dependence perspective to analyse power relations in MNEs. Political influences, in addition to cultural and institutional influences, may impact the balance between global standardisation and local responsiveness within the transnational compensation strategy. This theory-based analysis is applied to the case of a transnational compensation strategy implemented by a pharmaceutical MNE. The result of these theoretical and empirical considerations is a framework of critical resources being responsible for different power relations in MNEs.

Internal and External Sources of Organizational Change: Corporate Form and the Banking Industry

How do internal and external constraints impact the likelihood that organizations enact organizational change? Resource dependence theory argues that organizational change is a response to internal and external constraints. However, the interaction of these constraints remains theoretically and empirically underconsidered. Using longitudinal data from the U.S. banking industry, I examine this question from a resource dependence perspective and I also incorporate explanations from transaction cost economics, organizational ecology, and institutional theoretical perspectives. I find that external constraints limit the impact of internal constraints on organizational change. I explore how this finding fits within resource dependence theory.

INTEGRATING MULTIPLE THEORIES OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: A MULTI-COUNTRY EMPIRICAL STUDY.

In this paper we integrate agency, resource dependence, institutional and stakeholder perspectives of corporate governance, to suggest that each theory holds good in a different regulatory and competitive environmental context. Our hypotheses deal with the impacts of such varied environments on both the absolute and relative corporate governance standards of firms, in a country. We find support for seven of our eight hypotheses in an empirical analysis based on 418 firms and 12 countries. Our findings indicate that in some environments regulatory processes have a greater role to play, thereby establishing the importance of institutional and stakeholder theories of corporate governance, in such contexts. While we did not find a main effect for the competitive environment on the absolute corporate governance standards of firms, the competitive environment interacted with the regulatory environment to have a significant effect, demonstrating thereby the importance of agency and resource dependence theories. The interaction of the regulatory and competitive environment also had significant effect on the relative corporate governance standards of firms. Implications for policy makers, and practitioners are discussed, and directions for future research are elaborated upon.

The strategies that bind: NGO coalitions and their influence

Abstract This article examines NGOs as strategic organizations that form coalitions in order to influence other actors, particularly international financial institutions. It has three primary aims: to examine NGOs as strategic organizations; to look at a particular type of NGO network, the coalition, which unlike a network involves more value and commitment; and to assess the factors that contribute to their strategies such as changes to the NGO environment. To do this, the resource dependency perspective is utilized to evaluate the influence of various resources (funding, legitimacy and information) on NGOs’ organizational strategy. Oxfam International, the NGO Working Group on the World Bank, and the Bretton Woods Project are three NGO coalitions examined. I conclude that there are differences between NGO networks and coalitions and that the coalitions strategically act and react to changing resources in their environments.

The dynamics of multilateral allying: a process perspective on airline alliances

The paper argues that the development of airline alliances depends on airlines’ resource configurations and is furthermore a function of environmental constraints forcing particular types of airlines into certain choices; of conscious, rational strategy devising; and of the degree to which alliance membership it gains institutional legitimacy. Because the phenomenon under study can be understood as both social and technical, the study uses a dual theoretical approach. On one hand, the positioning of airlines in the alliance environment is examined using a resource dependence perspective. The mitigation of power imbalances in a formal network of firms, the benefits and dangers of specialisation and the management of interdependencies between partners will be discussed. The second perspective taken is that of institutional theory. Based mainly on interviews with senior airline management, the aim is to understand the institutionalisation of alliances, or how managerial perceptions drive the building of alliances. The paper concludes with the discussion of a model depicting the factors that influence the development of multilateral alliances between autonomous, but interdependent firms, accounting for both centripetal forces, pushing toward tighter member integration, and centrifugal forces, pushing for looser coupling.

Organization-Environment Relationships

The article discusses lessons for executive directors in human service organizations, for managing organization-environment relationships. The first section reviews the three main theories of organization-environment relations: ecological theories, institutional theories, and adaptation theories (with emphasis on the political-economy and resource-dependency perspectives). Following this presentation, the article discusses the lessons derived from each of the theoretical approaches for executive directors in human service organizations. Emphasis is placed on several types of organizational behavior: passive and reactive organizational behavior, accepting environmental constraints; strategic behavior that conforms to the demands of the government and funding sources; and, alternatively, proactive strategies as expressed in new initiatives and attempts to identify threats and opportunities that will change the power-dependence relations between the organization and its environment. As regards the lessons for executive directors in human service organizations, given the rapid changes in their environments, it is important for them to develop an external organizational orientation and manage the environment just as they manage the organization's internal environment. In this way, they attain the legitimacy and resources needed for the organization's survival.

Determinants of ASP choice: an integrated perspective

With the rise in the availability of scalable network technologies and resources, Application Service Providers (ASPs) have become increasingly more feasible sources for obtaining IS services. ASP research represents an opportunity to integrate previous research on outsourcing, applied in the area of ASP choice. Historically, outsourcing research has adopted many theoretical perspectives, including transaction cost, resource-based, resource-dependence, and knowledge-based. We apply these perspectives in the ASP context. When obtaining IS services through an ASP, factors other than cost and those explained by the resource-based and resource-dependent perspectives can become paramount. The knowledge-based perspective enables us to examine knowledge risk and integration requirements. Drawing upon past research and an exploratory study conducted with 35 respondents in 11 firms, an integrated, theoretical model is proposed, which combines the transaction cost, resource-based, resource dependency and knowledge-based perspectives. The model is used to explain the antecedent conditions useful for making decisions on IT sourcing through ASPs.

Boards of Directors and Firm Performance: Integrating Agency and Resource Dependence Perspectives

Boards of directors serve two important functions for organizations: monitoring management on behalf of shareholders and providing resources. Agency theorists assert that effective monitoring is a function of a board's incentives, whereas resource dependence theorists contend that the provision of resources is a function of board capital. We combine the two perspectives and argue that board capital affects both board monitoring and the provision of resources and that board incentives moderate these relationships.

Boards of Directors and Firm Performance: Integrating Agency and Resource Dependence Perspectives

Boards of Directors and Firm Performance: Integrating Agency and Resource Dependence Perspectives

Social Network Ties and Strategic Renewal: Promotion of Strategic Initiatives by Middle-Level Actors

Social Network Ties and Strategic Renewal: Promotion of Strategic Initiatives by Middle-Level Actors

Externalizing employment: flexible staffing arrangements in US organizations

Flexible staffing arrangements (such as temporary, contract, and part-time work) enable organizations to externalize administrative control or limit the duration of employment. We examine the prevalence and correlates of such arrangements using a recent large, representative survey of US establishments. We first develop a typology of flexible staffing arrangements and discuss reasons why organizations may adopt them. We then present measures of these flexible staffing arrangements and describe their distribution among US establishments. Finally, we examine hypotheses about the types of employers that are more or less likely to use the various types of flexible staffing arrangements, finding support for both cost-reduction and resource dependence perspectives. The use of flexible arrangements is more common in large establishments, in seasonal industries, and in establishments with highly female workforces.

Factors associated with interagency coordination in a child mental health service system demonstration.

Understanding the determinants of coordination between agencies in children's mental health service systems is important for program planning and evaluation. This article reports on the findings of a multiple regression analysis that examined factors associated with coordination between 63 agencies during a child mental health service demonstration. Greater coordination of activities was significantly associated with dyads that (a) helped each other attain individual agency goals (p<.001), (b) were influential in shaping mental health policy and programs (p<.01), (c) maintained resource linkages over time (p<.001), and (d) operated in the same service sector (p=.01). From a resource dependency perspective, findings suggest that coordination is facilitated when interorganizational relationships fulfill both the internal agency needs for goal attainment and the external needs for exerting control over the larger policy and program environment.

The dynamics of inter-organizational ties during crises: empirical evidence and computational analysis

Organizations often rely on social networks in order to garner resources for survival, in particular when faced with a crisis. From a resource dependence perspective, this paper addresses two issues regarding the dynamics of inter-organizational ties during crisis situations: (a) what is the usual process organizations use, and (b) how efficient is such a process? Two real world crisis cases show that, in a crisis situation, organizations tend to follow a cascade process in which they rely on stronger ties first until there is additional resource needs before activating weaker ties. This process can go on until all the resource needs are met and the stable stage is reached. Results from a computational model simulating such a cascade process and a contrast process, the sequential/random process, show that organizations following the cascade process can exhibit much higher efficiency, though there is a decreasing effect as the severity of the crisis increases. This study has not only illustrated the real world process of organizational ties during crises empirically but also provided theoretical rationales for such inter-organizational dynamics.

E‐business success at Intel: an organization ecology and resource dependence perspective

Electronic business (e‐business) today plays a major role in the world economic growth, thanks to the rapid advance in information technology. Recent estimates from Forester Research show that by 2003 the value of e‐commerce of US and Europe will reach US$3 trillion, the number of households in the USA that have PCs will reach 64 million, those that have access to the Internet will reach 60 million, and the number of mobile phones will reach 69 million. There are many spectacular successful e‐businesses but there are also numerous failures. Presents a study of e‐business success at Intel Corp. Intel reached $1 billion value in e‐business in its first month of deployment in July 1998. For the year of 2000, Intel’s profits climbed to $10.5 billion to become the fifth most profitable company in the USA, up from the eighth rank last year. Concludes with lessons learned and success factors.

Governance and Strategic Leadership in Entrepreneurial Firms

Corporate governance has been a central focus of strategic management research, particularly the associations among governance structures, strategic leaders, and firm performance. Extant research, however, provides little evidence of systematic relationships in these areas. There are a series of theoretical/conceptual rationales suggesting that such relationships might be more pronounced in entrepreneurial firms. Accordingly, we provide an overview and synthesis of the entrepreneurship literature addressing the intersection of governance and strategic leadership with firm performance. The strongest relationships reflected in this literature are consistent with a resource dependence perspective of the firm. We conclude with several suggestions for advancing research in this important domain.

Governance and Strategic Leadership in Entrepreneurial Firms

Corporate governance has been a central focus of strategic management research, particularly the associations among governance structures, strategic leaders, and firm performance. Extant research, however, provides little evidence of systematic relationships in these areas. There are a series of theoretical/conceptual rationales suggesting that such relationships might be more pronounced in entrepreneurial firms. Accordingly, we provide an overview and synthesis of the entrepreneurship literature addressing the intersection of governance and strategic leadership with firm performance. The strongest relationships reflected in this literature are consistent with a resource dependence perspective of the firm. We conclude with several suggestions for advancing research in this important domain.