Vertical Partnerships Research Articles

Carbon neutrality: Operations management research opportunities

AbstractClimate change, primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), is a pressing environmental and societal concern. Carbon neutrality, or net zero, involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the most common GHG, and then balancing residual emissions through removing or offsetting. Particularly difficult challenges have emerged for firms seeking to reduce emissions from Scope 1 (internal operations) and Scope 3 (supply chain). Incremental changes are very unlikely to meet the objective of carbon neutrality. Synthesizing a framework that draws together both the means of achieving carbon neutrality and the scope of change helps to clarify opportunities for research by operations management scholars. Companies must assess and apply promising technologies, form new strategic relationships, and adopt novel practices while taking into account costs, risks, implications for stakeholders, and, most importantly, business sustainability. Research on carbon neutrality is encouraged to move beyond isolated discussions focused on specific tactics and embrace a more, though not fully, holistic examination. Research opportunities abound in both theoretical and empirical domains, such as exploring tradeoffs between different tactics, balancing portfolios, and investigating the strategic deployment of initiatives over time. As a research community, we are critically positioned to develop integrative insights at multiple levels, from individual processes to horizontal and vertical partnerships and ultimately to large‐scale systemic realignment and change.

Vertical Partnerships Between OEM And First Tier: Lessons From Automotive Component Companies In Greater Jakarta-Indonesia

Research Aims: This research aimed to investigate vertical partnerships between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and first-tier automotive component firms based on the relationships between technology transfer, technical exchange, government role and supplier performance in the Greater Jakarta area. Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 65 respondent firms participated, comprising 6 OEMs and 59 first-tier firms. The research included site visits and interviews with companies based on questionnaires completed by representative individuals from middle management upward with responsibility for assessing product quality (purposive sampling). The questionnaire results were measured using Partial Least Squares Path Modelling (PLS-PM). Research Findings: The results highlighted significant relationships between government role and technology transfer (p-value = 0.00), government role and supplier performance improvement (p-value = 0.017), and technical exchange and supplier performance improvement (p-value = 0.077). However, no significant relationship was found between technology transfer and supplier performance improvement (p-value = 0.353). Theoretical Contribution/Originality: Understanding the vertical relations between OEMs and first-tier automotive component firms in Indonesia. Managerial Implications in the South East Asian Context: Solid relationships between OEMs and first-tier companies in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia are especially triggered by the increasing tendency for local component use (TKDN/Domestic Component Level). Research limitation & Implications: The research examined vertical relationships between OEMs and first-tier firms, notably between technology transfer and supplier performance improvement, technical exchange and supplier performance improvement, government role and technology transfer, and government and supplier performance improvement.

Fleeting neutrality: The inadequacies of the ex-ante net neutrality regulations in India

The paper seeks to address the economic and fundamental inadequacies of ex-ante net neutrality regulations in India. The current net neutrality regulations consider the internet service provider (ISP) market in a two-sided spectrum of content and application providers (CAPs) and end-users. However, the rapidly growing internet space has undergone numerous developments in recent years, giving rise to complexities such as vertical partnerships between the ISPs, CAPs and OTT service providers, the use of content delivery networks (CDNs) for the last mile, deployment of 5G on mobile devices, etc. The main hypothesis is that the ex-ante net neutrality regulations lack the tools to combat modern problems with their antiquated approach and measures. Accordingly, to analyse this proposition, the paper considers the existent literature on the fundamental aspects of net neutrality norms, and juxtaposes the economic and empirical findings from a post‐net neutrality regulation stance. The findings reveal that net neutrality measures that prohibit paid-prioritisation and zero-rating services lead to economic inefficiencies. Further, the restrictive net neutrality measures hamper investment and innovation in the market and fall short in dealing with vertical integration and the use of CDNs. Hence, to promote competition and protect net neutrality, especially in the lower layers of the ISP market, the paper recommends measures such as digital dynamism and transparency rules and studies the role of ex-post competition regulations in aiding net neutrality.

Community-Based Tourism Transformation: What Does The Local Community Need?

Tourism is a promising development sector. It has strong potentials for improving local community life quality by alleviating poverty, broadening information access, improving facilities and infrastructure, opening new and diversifying employment. Thus, today tourism is recognized as one of key sectors in development possessing multiplier effects on other sectors and contributing to other development goals attainment. This encourages many communities to initiate and run their local-scale tourism at their kampung. The development of these community-based tourisms need to be strengthened by community capacity to develop their tourism into more sustainable and competitive destinations. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic potentially threatens tourism existence and sustainability, especially if the communities do not rapidly respond by improving their tourism capacities. This study aims to explore several factors needed by local community to foster tourism transformation. The study is concentrated on examining WPP Dalegan and Dalegan community tourism transformation needs. The data are collected through community dialog incorporated with community service program. The study identifies three primary transformation elements for fostering WPP tourism improvement. The first factor is transformational and collective community leader who provides empowerment, climate and chance for Dalegan community to participate and orients to community social changes. The second factor is Dalegan community capacity building. Dalegan tourism transformation rests on its local community to learn together and improve the quality of their tourism services and products. The third factor is development facilitation. To successfully transform, Dalegan community needs to expand their networking, build horizontal and vertical partnerships.

I need you, but do I love you? Strong ties and innovation in supplier–customer relations

Research on supplier–customer relationships has attracted a great deal of attention, as such relationships can positively impact firms’ knowledge acquisition and innovation. Within this stream of research, strong ties with customers have been explored with attention to their beneficial and detrimental effects, presenting a paradox to be addressed. To contribute to this debate, we suggest focusing on how tie strength is measured, and accordingly, we return to the seminal definition of tie strength by Granovetter (1973), who defines it as a combination of behavioural and affective components. We acknowledge that the two components have different characteristics and dynamics, which urges us to unbundle the two components and measure their separate impacts on knowledge acquisition and innovation. To further investigate the role of tie strength in innovation, we hypothesize and test the mediating role of knowledge acquisition. We test our hypothesis in vertical partnerships between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in a high-tech cluster and their key customers. We show that the unbundled components of strong ties have a direct positive impact on the knowledge acquisition of high-tech SMEs and an indirect positive impact on innovation, with knowledge acquisition mediating the effect. Our study contributes to the debate on the paradox of tie strength in supplier–customer relations by providing and empirically testing a research approach that might complement the previous approaches and by shedding light on the important role of the affective component of tie strength in knowledge acquisition and innovation.

Strategic partner evaluation criteria for logistics service provider networks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to establish criteria for evaluating strategic partners in a network of logistics service providers (LSPs) to show how analytical network process (ANP) can be used to identify the weights of these criteria on a case-specific basis, and to investigate whether the ANP model can be used as a starting point to evaluate strategic partners for other LSP networks.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review of vertical cooperation, the authors develop an overview of criteria for the evaluation of partners in a network of LSPs. The authors then apply ANP at LSP1 to validate the criteria, identify weights for these criteria and to validate model outcomes. Furthermore, the authors investigate whether the ANP model developed for LSP1 can be applied to another LSP with similar characteristics (LSP2). In-depth interviews are used to draw conclusions on the modeling approach and the model outcomes.FindingsThe research shows that evaluation criteria for partners in vertical partnerships between shippers and LSPs are applicable to LSP partners in horizontal partnership networks. The ANP model with criteria weights provides a good starting point for LSPs to customize the evaluation framework according to their specific needs or operating environments.Originality/valueLimited research is available on evaluating LSP partners in horizontal partnerships. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to bring forward horizontal LSP partner evaluation criteria to develop an ANP model for LSP partner evaluation and to apply this to two cases, and to provide a starting point for evaluating partners in similar horizontal LSP networks.

Identifying the Factor that Promotes Vertical Partner-ships: Empirical Evidence from Tier-1 and Tier-2 Compa-nies in Jabodetabek-Indonesia

Indonesian automotive sector played an important role to Indonesian GDPs; it contributes 28% in manufacturing composition. The goal of this research is to examine the vertical partnership between tier-1 and tier-2 automotive component companies in Jabodetabek, Indonesia, as concerns technology transfer, technical exchange, government role, and supplier performance. 93 companies, consisting of 59 tier-1 companies and 34 tier-2 companies became respondents in this study. The research was conducted by visiting sites and interviewing companies, based on Likert-scale questionnaires. Interviewees were persons at the middle management level or higher who understood or were responsible for measuring product quality (purposive sampling). The results of questionnaires were proceeded and analyzed by Structural Equation Model Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) path modeling using smart-PLS 3.2.7 software. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the government’s role and technology transfer, as well as between technology transfer and supplier performance improvement. However, there was no significant relationship between government role and supplier performance improvement, nor between technical exchange and supplier performance improvement.

University libraries

A proposta desse artigo é analisar na literatura dos últimos cinco anos, o que se discute sobre inovação no contexto das bibliotecas universitárias. Para tal, pesquisou-se em base de dados nacionais e internacionais de 2014 a 2018 artigos que continham no título, nos resumos ou nas palavras chaves os termos: Inovação, Bibliotecas, Bibliotecas Universitárias, Desenvolvimento de novos serviços, Serviços e produtos informacionais, Nativos digitais. Os objetivos foram caracterizar as teorias em torno do processo de inovação, entender a evolução do conceito de inovação em diversos contextos da sociedade e no Brasil e finalizar com uma revisão em torno do processo de inovação no âmbito dos serviços informacionais, em especial os ofertados nas Bibliotecas Universitárias. Percebe- se que no Brasil, mesmo o processo sendo lento, as Bibliotecas Universitárias estão investindo em novos serviços focando a mudança de postura dos seus usuários. Muitas bibliotecas por exemplo, já oferecem espaços colaborativos de estudo, para além dos individuais, estabelecem parcerias verticais com empresas de tecnologias de informação e centros culturais, de modo a atenderem as atuais necessidades da geração formada pelos nativos digitais.

The Destination Experience Through Stopover Tourism – Bucharest Case Study

Over the years, the evolution of the air transport sector has determined important changes in the tourism industry. One of the consequences of the liberalization of air transport has been the development of the “hub-and-spoke” system, used by traditional airlines in order to be more efficient in a highly competitive environment. As air traffic significantly developed worldwide, “hubs” became highly connected places concentrating an increasing number of transit passengers. At the same time, the liberalization of the airline industry has stimulated both airline and airport competition, therefore, vertical partnerships have become an interesting option for airlines, as well as airports. Moreover, considering that transiting traffic represents a potential tourism market, tourism organizations have also started to get involved in the process. “Stopover tourism” is a new type of tourism based on the partnership between airlines, airports and tourism organizations, with the purpose to turn transiting passengers into stayover tourists. This paper focuses on building a better understanding of how “stopover tourism” type programs can enhance tourism development, identifying the characteristics of this form of tourism and the measures that need to be taken by the authorities in order to encourage its development and investigates the possibility of implementing it in Romania. In order to achieve these objectives, the research was conducted using analysis of secondary data included in several scientific journals and publication, as well as primary data collection, through qualitative research, having as interviewees, experts from the airline industry and from tourism organizations in Romania.

Contracting out public transport services to vertical partnerships

This paper studies the organisational structure of contracting out transportation operations to a vertical partnership between local authorities and a vertically integrated monopoly. Pricing decisions are delegated to the partnership operating in the downstream market as a socially concerned firm that maximises a weighted sum of social welfare and profits. The price for essential input required to produce each unit of the transportation service is determined by the monopoly in the upstream market for rolling stock and crew leasing. A forward ownership interest in the vertical partnership held by the monopoly yields a partial rebate of the downstream margin. In turn, the local authorities can extract the upstream monopoly rent via a franchise fee which can be determined ex post. Our theoretical model predicts that local authorities with a relatively high share in the partnership should decrease the net transfer from the budget by increasing the franchise fees if the upstream profit margins are high. The empirical evidence for the impact of the ownership structure on contractual regime is found in the panel data for 25 suburban passenger companies in Russia in 2011–2015, where partial cost recovery and inappropriate compensation plays the role of pseudo-franchising contracts.

The double helix effect: Catch-up and local-foreign co-evolution in the Indian and Chinese automotive industries

The rapid development of emerging market firms and their foray into global value chains has attracted significant attention. In this perspectives paper, we draw on case studies from the automotive industries in India and China, to describe the coevolution of domestic firms and advanced economy multinational enterprises (AMNE) entrants. We first show that domestic firms that used catch-up strategies such as capability upgradation, investments into internal R&D and globalization through mergers & acquisitions have managed to succeed in local markets as well as climb into global value chains. We next illustrate that the strategy adopted by the most successful AMNEs involves combining the formation of vertical partnerships with local sub-assembly suppliers and horizontal collaborations with local network orchestrators. Simultaneously weaving together embeddedness in these two cortical sides of the local business eco-system on the one hand and within its global corporate value chain networks on the other – generates a “double helix” effect, whereby its local and global capabilities reinforce each other. The double helix improves cost competitiveness and pushes the product innovative envelope in both local and global markets.

International and local NGO supply chain collaboration

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the key drivers and challenges to supply chain collaboration in the humanitarian sector; to appraise the relationships between international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and local non-governmental organizations (LNGOs) during disaster relief; and to explore the humanitarian context in regard to supply chain collaboration.Design/methodology/approachLiterature from both the commercial and humanitarian sectors is discussed in the context of vertical partnerships. A Jordanian study spanning a network of 26 international and LNGOs is explored via semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe research provides valuable insights on the challenges facing LNGOs and INGOs when developing partnerships. Contextual factors, including host governmental policies and the social-economic setting of a disaster directly affect the motivations for supply chain collaboration between LNGOs and INGOs.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is built on interviewees with 30 humanitarian professionals working in one country during an extended crisis. The majority of the empirical data are only from one actor’s perspective, thus further research into dyadic and network relationships is required. Approaches to addressing the diverse cultural and decision-making perspectives of LNGOs and INGOs warrant further investigation.Practical implicationsRecognizing the motives and challenges to vertical partnerships between LNGOs and INGOs will assist the managers, both at the strategic and operational levels, to find solutions and evolve strategies to build effective partnerships. Compromise and consideration for partner’s drivers and cultural views are essential for effective joint humanitarian relief initiatives.Originality/valueThis paper extends supply chain collaboration to a humanitarian context. Overcoming the challenges facing collaborative efforts and complementary nature of the drivers provide a means to achieve effective partnerships. Despite the uniqueness of the humanitarian context, such as the secondary nature of cost and dynamic demand, the core principles of collaboration still hold.

The Organization of International Trade

This paper discusses how international trade is organized from export to trans-boundary transport to import. All evidence suggests that the transport sector is independent, may exercise market power and features strong economies of scale. We develop a model of a transport industry that operates under imperfect competition and economies of scale and two generic trade models in which export and import activities are either organized at arm’s length or in a vertical partnership. Using a large dataset of maritime transport costs, tariffs and export prices, we test the model predictions and find that economies of scale beat market power: a decline in the tariff implies a decline in freight rates. Furthermore, our results are consistent only with international trade being organized in vertical partnerships because a tariff increase does not lead to a decrease in export prices.

Marks & Spencer and the Decline of the British Textile Industry, 1950–2000

From the end of World War II, British clothing retailers—most notably, Marks & Spencer (M&S)—increasingly dominated the domestic textile industry, to some extent arresting its decline. This article uses financial and archival evidence to examine the distribution of costs and benefits in the M&S vertical network. It shows that these benefits became less tangible for textile firms from around 1985, in the context of lower-cost overseas competition. We chart the visible and invisible evolution of network management, demonstrating that retailer-producer collaboration evolved from a bilateral vertical partnership model to a hybrid version that retained partnerships with leading suppliers and an emphasis on domestic sourcing, but also facilitated offshore production. Since 1945, staple domestic industries in Western economies have been replaced with global production networks. In the United Kingdom, the cotton textile industry, and then the textile industry in general, declined in the face of increasing overseas competition. Survival strategies were based on restructuring and concentration. During a period of rapid transformation after 1960, cotton was absorbed into vertically structured textile conglomerates. Still, the decline continued, and as protection was phased out, fabric and apparel manufacturing faced similar threats, although rates of decline and strategic response depended on relative position in the vertical production chain. An alternative survival strategy based on vertical partnerships was led by retailers, particularly the dominant clothing retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S).

Building Participation in Large-scale Conservation: Lessons from Belize and Panama

Motivated by biogeography and a desire for alignment with the funding priorities of donors, the twenty-first century has seen big international NGOs shifting towards a large-scale conservation approach. This shift has meant that even before stakeholders at the national and local scale are involved, conservation programmes often have their objectives defined and funding allocated. This paper uses the experiences of Conservation International's Marine Management Area Science (MMAS) programme in Belize and Panama to explore how to build participation at the national and local scale while working within the bounds of the current conservation paradigm. Qualitative data about MMAS was gathered through a multi-sited ethnographic research process, utilising document review, direct observation, and semi-structured interviews with 82 informants in Belize, Panama, and the United States of America. Results indicate that while a large-scale approach to conservation disadvantages early national and local stakeholder participation, this effect can be mediated through focusing engagement efforts, paying attention to context, building horizontal and vertical partnerships, and using deliberative processes that promote learning. While explicit consideration of geopolitics and local complexity alongside biogeography in the planning phase of a large-scale conservation programme is ideal, actions taken by programme managers during implementation can still have a substantial impact on conservation outcomes.

Typology and Effects of Co-opetition in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Evidence from the Chinese Home Appliance Industry. 供应链关系中竞合分类及其影响：来自中国家电业的实证研究

Building on the co-opetition perspective, this study takes a unified approach to examine relationship benefits and transaction costs in buyer–supplier relationships. We argue that buyer–supplier vertical dyads fall into one of four distinct co-opetition types based on their respective degrees of cooperation and competition. Each co-opetition situation then corresponds to unique levels of relationship benefits and transaction costs. A sample of 225 supplier–buyer dyads from the Chinese home appliance industry confirms that competition has a positive effect on transaction costs and a negative effect on relationship benefits, while cooperation stimulates greater relationship benefits but affects transaction costs mainly at low competition levels. The results advance prior research on buyer–supplier relationships and co-opetition and offer valuable avenues for future research. 摘要 基于竞合的观点，本文采用了一个整合的模型对供应链关系中的关系收益和交易成本进行了研究。本文认为，依据双方合作和竞争程度的不同，买卖双方间的交易关系可以划分为四种不同的竞合关系类型，且每种竞合类型分别对应不同的关系收益和交易成本水平。利用来自中国家电行业225对买卖双方的配对样本，本文发现，买卖双方间的竞争对交易成本有正向作用，对关系收益有负面影响；而双方间的合作会促进关系收益的提高，但只在竞争水平较低时，合作才会对交易成本产生影响。本文研究发展了以往关于买卖双方关系和竞合的相关文献，并指明了有价值的未来研究发展方向。

Does Justice Atmosphere Matter in Buyer-Supplier Knowledge Transfers?

This study explores and compares the roles of transactional and relational mechanisms in improving the quality (specifically, quantity and credibility) of knowledge transferred between buyers and suppliers in vertical partnerships. It also investigates how the effectiveness of governance mechanisms is affected by changes in the procedural justice atmosphere. Following an analysis of 225 paired distributors (i.e., buyers) and manufacturers (i.e., suppliers) in China, the results of hierarchical regressions indicate that transactional and relational mechanisms are both important in driving knowledge transfers in buyer¨Csupplier dyads in emerging markets. However, the impact of various transactional and relational mechanisms on the quantity and credibility of a partner¡¯s knowledge transfer is significantly different, and the impact of governance mechanisms on partners¡¯ knowledge transfer is contingent on the procedural justice atmosphere. These findings contribute new insights to the management literature as well as practices relevant to the linkages between governance mechanisms and knowledge transfers in vertical partnerships.

A Model of Supplier Dissidence in Flexible Vertical Partnerships

In the age of outsourcing, flexibility becomes a watchword for competitiveness. OEMs operating in a build-to-order environment face considerable external fluctuations that they pass down their supply chains. Consequently, lower-tier suppliers who contribute to a manufacturer's efficiency and success face a difficult situation. This study explores the supplier's viewpoint. Its focus is on the premise that being highly flexible is not always in the supplier's interest: a supplier must know when to refuse certain relational demands imposed on him by all-powerful buyers and know when to become a dissident. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to propose a conceptual model identifying the sources of supplier dissidence with regard to customer's requirements for increased levels of flexibility.

Evaluation of downstream integration in the US pharmaceutical industry

PurposeThis paper aims to review the vertical or quasi‐vertical integration that characterized the pharmaceutical industry in the mid‐1990s. The acquisitions and vertical partnerships that linked pharmacy benefits managers and drug manufacturers modified the structure of the market at that time. What were the motivations of those agreements? Did they induce any distortion on competition in the drug market? And why did they fail to achieve their desired strategic advantages?Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses established theoretical perspectives, such as the resource‐based view and the theory of contestable markets, as the basis for a descriptive analysis, documenting strategic decisions of vertical integration using supporting literature in marketing and strategy.FindingsVertical integration did not obtain the intended results (e.g. acquisition of competitive advantages). This perspective provides a framework to examine vertical integration strategies, applicable to other industries.Originality/valueThe paper reviews the objectives of vertical integration strategies of US drug firms in the 1990s and their hidden agendas.

From relationships to partnerships—new forms of cooperation between buyer and seller

An increased focus on operational performance and the reliance on fewer suppliers by industrial customers call for a higher quality of buyer–seller relationships. This article elaborates on economic explanations for value generated partnerships and describes the distinctive qualities of partnerships as something more than ordinary customer relationships. Particular attention is paid to the managerial implications and pitfalls awaiting companies when pursuing a partnership approach and a definition of vertical partnerships is provided.