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Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.

This paper aims to explain the effects of national and organizational cultures of boundary spanners on their choices of using three archetype power-based behaviors – dominance, egalitarian and submissive – with supply chain partners. Improved outcomes for global supply chain (GSC) partners are anticipated due to the ways that cultural intelligence affects these culturally guided decisions.

Drawing on multiple streams of literature and focusing on boundary spanners in GSCs, the authors build a conceptual framework that highlights cultural antecedents of predispositions toward power-based behaviors and explains the moderating role of cultural intelligence of boundary spanners on behaviors performed.

The authors propose that boundary spanners’ national and organizational cultural values influence predispositions toward applying and accepting power-based behaviors. They also discuss how cultural intelligence moderates the relationship between culturally determined predispositions and power-based behaviors applied by partners. The cultural intelligence of boundary spanners is argued to have a pivotal role in making power-based decisions, resulting in healthier cross-cultural buyer–supplier relationships.

This paper is the first paper to advance an understanding of the cultural antecedents of boundary spanners’ power-based behaviors that are exercised and interpreted by partners in GSCs. Furthermore, the potential role of cultural intelligence in inter-organizational power dynamics and power-based partner behaviors in supply chains has not previously been discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the climate for co‐operation, from both the supplier and buyer perspectives, for its impact on co‐operative activities. Climate encompasses the constructs of cross functional barriers, participation by the respondent in strategic customer/supply decisions and expectation of the continuity of the relationship, competitive pressure and institutionalized beliefs about co‐operation in the firm's industry.

The design of the study is based on a cross‐sectional mail‐based survey of 89 buyer and supplier dyads, involving 178 manufacturing companies. First, the psychometric properties of the proposed constructs were assessed. Then the relationships among the proposed constructs were tested by structural equation modeling for the supplier and then the buyer samples.

Both parties' co‐operative behaviors were strongly influenced by the expected continuity of the relationship. Suppliers differed from buyers in that they were influenced by institutional beliefs about co‐operation. Involvement in decision making positively affected shared planning activities for the suppliers whereas it affected relationship flexibility for the buyers. Lastly, buyers in contrast to suppliers were influenced by competitive pressure.

As a cross‐sectional study about complex inter‐firm relationships, the research does not directly capture relationship effects over time. The paper also does not address how climate affects the formulation and implementation of dysfunctional buyer‐supplier relationships.

Buyers and suppliers should be aware that there are significant similarities and differences in how their partners respond to the context in which they operate. This knowledge is important in understanding what drives the other party's behavior in the formal and informal negotiations and problem solving that characterize an ongoing relationship.

The research uses dyadic data to understand both sides of the buyer supplier relationship. It introduces constructs such as institutional belief and cross‐functional barriers and functional involvement in strategic planning as components of a new concept called co‐operative climate. This concept is found to be relevant to both buyer and supplier perspectives.

The productivity and quality of working life of operations within a firm with multiple operating units can be improved by the diffusion of incremental improvements from one unit to another. The opportunities and problems experienced by one large multi‐unit firm in diffusing employee innovations between units are examined. It was found that incremental or Minor Technical Improvements (MTIs) do diffuse between units. Improved communication and increased under standing of the innovation process by management may increase the amount of MTI diffusion. The costs and benefits of MTI type innovation and diffusion are explored. Opportunities for more research into the diffusion of MTIs in other multi‐unit firms are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the literature on learning in the context of boundary spanning innovation in supply chains. A two-dimensional framework is proposed: the learning stage (exploration, assimilation, exploitation) and the learning facet (structural, cultural, psychological and policy). Supply chain management (SCM) practices are examined in light of this framework and propositions for further empirical research are developed.

In total, 60 empirical papers from the major journals on supply chain relationships published over an 11-year time span (2000-2010) were systematically analyzed.

The paper reveals a comprehensive set of best practices and identifies four gaps for future research. First, assimilation and exploitation are largely ignored as mediating learning stages between exploration and performance. Second, knowledge brokers and reputation management are key mechanisms that foster assimilation. Third, the iteration from exploitation back to exploration is critical though underdeveloped in efficiency seeking supply chains. Fourth, the literature stresses structural mechanisms of learning, at the expense of a more holistic view of structural, cultural, psychological and policy mechanisms.

The search could be extended to other journals that report on joint learning and innovation.

The framework provides guidelines for practitioners to develop learning capabilities and leverage the knowledge from supply chain partners in order to continuously or radically improve boundary spanning processes and products.

The study is multi-disciplinary; it applies a model developed by learning scholars to the field of SCM.

Looks at the OECD’s Ottawa meeting and the issues of must import such as speech commerce, censorship and communications. Gives a different view on core issues, getting into meetings and conference materials. Concludes e‐commerce is an all‐enveloping term, which international bodies use to explain more than just the normal terms it usually would apply to.

Natural disaster stories narrate unsettling natural events and proffer scripts for social action in the face of unforeseen and overwhelming circumstances. The purpose of this study is to investigate stories of natural disasters recounted for New Zealand school children in the School Journal during its first 100 years of publication.

Content analysis is used to categorise the disaster event and to identify two distinct periods of disaster stories – imperial and national. Textual analysis of indicative stories from each period centres on the construction of social scripts for child readers.

In the imperial period tales of individual heroism and self‐sacrifice predominate, while the national period is characterised by stories of ordinary families, community solidarity and survival. Through this investigation of natural disaster stories for children, the paper identifies the shifting models of heroic identity offered to New Zealand children through educational texts.

This study adds to the existing literature on the School Journal and to the broader study of the history of imperialist and nationalist education in New Zealand. In these times of increased disaster awareness it also draws attention to the significance of disaster narratives in offering social scripts for children to draw on in the event of an actual disaster experience.

In this paper, the authors describe a geographical information system (GIS)‐based software system for managing and integrating multi‐facility warehousing and production systems that are distributed within a relatively large geographical area. The development of the software system is motivated by a unique warehousing environment at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The arsenal scenario is characterized by a novel set of highly limiting warehouse constraints. Although motivated by this unique problem, the software system has been designed to maximize technology transfer capability into diverse general warehouse settings. The paper presents motivation, describes features, and demonstrates the efficacy of operations using the software system. The system is verified and validated in a case study setting. It is demonstrated that the GIS platform offers unique capabilities that enhance problem solutions. In conclusion, the paper offers a contribution to the literature by presenting the use of GIS as an integration strategy in an exciting new area of application.

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