Volkan Yeniaras and Ilker Kaya
While there is growing attention to the efficacy of business and political ties in emerging economies, there are not many studies explicitly examining the relations of business…
Abstract
Purpose
While there is growing attention to the efficacy of business and political ties in emerging economies, there are not many studies explicitly examining the relations of business and political ties to small and medium enterprises (SME) strategy formation in emerging economies outside of the East-Asian setting. This study attempts to refine the facilitating role of formal strategic planning (FSP) in the relation of business and political ties to financial firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling and conditional mediation analyses were used.
Findings
The authors show that while business ties are positively related to FSP, political ties are negatively associated with it. In addition, this study provides empirical evidence that FSP positively mediates the relation of business ties to financial performance. Conversely, there exists a negative indirect relationship between political ties and financial performance. This study shows that the demand uncertainty negatively moderates the relation of FSP to financial performance.
Originality/value
The findings offer noteworthy inferences for firm managers and policy makers, who should evaluate the benefits and costs carried by business and political ties.
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Volkan Yeniaras and Ilker Kaya
Drawing on the theoretical lens of the job demands-resources model, this study builds upon and tests a conceptual model that links customer prioritization, product complexity…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the theoretical lens of the job demands-resources model, this study builds upon and tests a conceptual model that links customer prioritization, product complexity, business ties, job stress and customer service performance. Conceptualizing customer prioritization and product complexity as job demands and business ties as personal job resources, this research explicates the mediating process by which customer prioritization and product complexity affect customer service performance through job stress and its boundary conditions. The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical framework in which business ties moderates the mediated relations of customer prioritization and product complexity to customer service performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling and a moderated mediation analysis were used on a unique multi-level, multi-respondent data set of 248 participants from 124 small and medium-sized enterprises in Turkey.
Findings
This study finds that both customer prioritization and product complexity increase job stress. In addition, this paper finds that business ties have a bitter-sweet nature as a personal resource and reverse the relation of customer prioritization to job stress while strengthening the negative direct relation of product complexity to job stress. Finally, this study finds that the indirect relation of customer prioritization to customer service performance through job stress is contingent on business ties. Specifically, this paper finds that high levels of business ties negate the indirect relation of customer prioritization to customer service performance while low levels of business ties exacerbate the negative effects of customer prioritization to customer service performance, channeled through job stress.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate the critical role that personal networks play in reducing job stress and enhancing customer service performance for small and medium-sized enterprises that adopt customer-centric strategies such as customer prioritization. Nevertheless, the results suggest that the managers need to cognizant of the undesirable consequences of business ties may have on job stress when boundary-spanners handle a wide range of products/services that are technically complex. Accordingly, this study recommends small and medium-size enterprise managers and owners should be cautious in resource allocation to establish informal, personal ties with suppliers, competitors, customers and other market collaborators.
Originality/value
This paper offers a deeper perspective of the relations of customer prioritization and product complexity to job stress and customer service performance. This study also specifies business ties as a personal coping resource, which decreases the undesirable consequences when used in small and medium enterprises that adopt customer-centric strategies.
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Volkan Yeniaras, Ilker Kaya and Nick Ashill
The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical and empirical understanding of how social ties affect innovation behavior and new product performance in Turkey, which is an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical and empirical understanding of how social ties affect innovation behavior and new product performance in Turkey, which is an emerging economy where high levels of economic and political uncertainties exist.The authors examine whether innovation behavior binds the political and business ties of the firm to new product performance. They also examine if these effects are contingent on variations in the institutional environment and market environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling and mediation analyses were used on a sample of 344 small- and medium-sized enterprises in Istanbul.
Findings
Business ties are positively related to exploratory innovation behavior and political ties hamper such behavior. The authors also show that government support hinders firms’ disruptive innovation while encouraging incremental innovation behavior. The authors further demonstrate that the positive and indirect relation of business ties to new product performance through exploratory and exploitative innovation is largely insensitive to changes in market and institutional environments. Political ties are negatively (positively) and indirectly related to new product performance through exploratory (exploitative) innovation.
Practical implications
Managers should choose the form of their personal interactions (political and/or business) based on the type of innovation that is being pursued. Additionally, managers should consider both the institutional environment and the market environment as important contingencies in their decision of whether to invest resources in developing social ties to build innovation behavior.
Originality/value
The authors offer a deeper perspective of how social ties in emerging economies affect new product performance by considering exploratory and exploitative innovation behavior as mediating mechanisms. These mediating effects are conditional on institutional and market environments.
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Volkan Yeniaras, Anthony Di Benedetto, Ilker Kaya and Mumin Dayan
Drawing on the literature on dynamic skills, this study builds upon and empirically tests a conceptual model that connects business and political ties, organizational unlearning…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the literature on dynamic skills, this study builds upon and empirically tests a conceptual model that connects business and political ties, organizational unlearning, organizational learning and firm performance. Specifically, this study suggests that business ties enable and political ties inhibit organizational unlearning (i.e. regenerative dynamic capability), which may, in turn, affect exploratory (i.e. renewing dynamic capability) and exploitative (i.e. incremental dynamic capability) innovation behaviors of the firm. Thus, the purpose of this study is to offer a theoretical framework in which organizational unlearning and learning act as mediating mechanisms between business and political ties and firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling and mediation analyzes were used on a sample of 302 small and medium-size enterprises in Turkey.
Findings
This study found that business ties enable organizational unlearning while political ties impede it. This study further demonstrates that business ties positively and political ties negatively relate to organizational learning through organizational unlearning. In addition, this study shows that political ties are mostly negatively and indirectly related to firm performance through organizational learning while business ties positively and indirectly relate to firm performance.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate the critical role that personal networks play in organizational learning and firm performance. This study provides evidence to the need to recognize and evaluate the potential and undesirable impacts of political ties on cultivating innovation skills and firm performance. In addition, this study recommends managers to embrace the significance of organizational unlearning in strategic renewal, particularly as it applies to building renewing and incremental dynamic skills for enhanced firm performance.
Originality/value
This study offers a deeper perspective of the dissected relations of social ties in emerging economies to firm performance by considering organizational unlearning and learning behaviors as mediating mechanisms.
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Gokhan Agac, Birdogan Baki and Ilker Murat Ar
The purpose of this study is to systematically review the existing literature on the blood supply chain (BSC) from a network design perspective and highlight the research gaps in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to systematically review the existing literature on the blood supply chain (BSC) from a network design perspective and highlight the research gaps in this area. Moreover, it also aims to pinpoint new research opportunities based on the recent innovative technologies for the BSC network design.
Design/methodology/approach
The study gives a comprehensive systematic review of the BSC network design studies until October 2021. This review was carried out in accordance with preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA). In the literature review, a total of 87 studies were analyzed under six main categories as model structure, application model, solution approach, problem type, the parties of the supply chain and innovative technologies.
Findings
The results of the study present the researchers’ tendencies and preferences when designing their BSC network models.
Research limitations/implications
The study presents a guide for researchers and practitioners on BSC from the point of view of network design and encourages adopting innovative technologies in their BSC network designs.
Originality/value
The study provides a comprehensive systematic review of related studies from the BSC network design perspective and explores research gaps in the collection and distribution processes. Furthermore, it addresses innovative research opportunities by using innovative technologies in the area of BSC network design.
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Gul Imamoglu, Ertugrul Ayyildiz, Nezir Aydin and Y. Ilker Topcu
Blood availability is critical for saving lives in various healthcare services. Ensuring blood availability can only be achieved through efficient management of the blood supply…
Abstract
Purpose
Blood availability is critical for saving lives in various healthcare services. Ensuring blood availability can only be achieved through efficient management of the blood supply chain (BSC). A key component of the BSC is bloodmobiles, which are responsible for a significant portion of blood donation collections. The most crucial factor affecting the efficacy of bloodmobiles is their location selection. Therefore, detailed decision analyses are essential for the location selection of bloodmobiles. This study proposes a comprehensive approach to bloodmobile location selection for resilient BSCs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study provides a novel integration of the spherical fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (SF-AHP) and spherical fuzzy complex proportional assessment (SF-COPRAS) methodologies. In this framework, the criteria are weighted using SF-AHP. The alternatives are then evaluated using SF-COPRAS, employing criteria weights obtained from SF-AHP without defuzzification.
Findings
The results show that supply conditions and resilience are the most important criteria for a bloodmobile location selection. Additionally, the validation analyses confirm the stability of the solution.
Practical implications
This study presents several managerial implications that can aid mid-level managers in the BSC during the decision-making process for bloodmobile location selection. The critical factors revealed, along with their importance in choosing bloodmobile locations, serve as a comprehensive guide. Additionally, the framework proposed in this study offers decision-makers (DMs) an effective method for ranking potential bloodmobile locations.
Originality/value
This study presents the first application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) for bloodmobile location selection. In this manner, several aspects of bloodmobile location selection are considered for the first time in the existing literature. Furthermore, from the methodological aspect, this study provides a novel SF-AHP-integrated SF-COPRAS methodology.
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Introduction: Data of companies in the Informatics index between 2008 and 2017 fiscal years were analyzed. In the analysis, the following ratios were used as traditional…
Abstract
Introduction: Data of companies in the Informatics index between 2008 and 2017 fiscal years were analyzed. In the analysis, the following ratios were used as traditional performance evaluation criteria: Return on assets, return on equity, earnings per share, price to earnings ratio, market to book value ratio, and return on sales rate. In addition, economic value added (EVA) was also used. The companies in the Informatics index are divided into sub-sectors according to by field of activity. These sub-sectors are software, communication, and hardware marketing.
Aim: To analyze the power of traditional performance evaluation methods to explain the market value added (MVA).
Method: Regression analysis and autocorrelation tests were used as research methods. These were done with IBM SPSS Statistics 25.
Findings: Models and rates that explain the MVA with the most meaningful results were calculated. These models and ratios are as follows: For the software sub-sector, a market to book value ratio was 77.8%; for the hardware marketing sub-sector, earnings per share was 65.4%; for the communication sub-sector, a market to book value ratio was 92.5%. Market to book value was the independent variable that describes the best MVA value of the two sub-sectors.
Originality of the Study: In this study, the average of the values of all companies in the BIST Informatics Index is not taken. By dividing into sub-sectors, value deterioration from the sector difference is prevented. It is stronger in terms of statistical science.
Implications: Researchers can look for and model the relationship between traditional evaluation criteria and EVA or other value-based evaluation criteria in the same index or other indices.
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Çağla Cergibozan and İlker Gölcük
The study aims to propose a decision-support system to determine the location of a regional disaster logistics warehouse. Emphasizing the importance of disaster logistics, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to propose a decision-support system to determine the location of a regional disaster logistics warehouse. Emphasizing the importance of disaster logistics, it considers the criteria to be evaluated for warehouse location selection. It is aimed to determine a warehouse location that will serve the disaster victims most efficiently in case of a disaster by making an application for the province of Izmir, where a massive earthquake hit in 2020.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a fuzzy best–worst method to evaluate the alternative locations for the warehouse. The method considers the linguistic evaluations of the decision-makers and provides an advantage in terms of comparison consistency. The alternatives were identified through interviews and discussions with a group of experts in the fields of humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations. The group consists of academics and a vice-governor, who had worked in Izmir. The results of a previously conducted questionnaire were also used in determining these locations.
Findings
It is shown how the method will be applied to this problem, and the most effective location for the disaster logistics warehouse in Izmir has been determined.
Originality/value
This study contributes to disaster preparedness and brings a solution to the organization of the logistics services in Izmir.
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Fatma Özdoğan, Gonzalo Lizarralde and Benjamin Herazo
In this paper, we explore the impact of land management practices on post-disaster housing, to draw lessons from the case of reconstruction in Türkiye.
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, we explore the impact of land management practices on post-disaster housing, to draw lessons from the case of reconstruction in Türkiye.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted two qualitative case studies of two reconstruction experiences following the 2020 Elazığ and İzmir earthquakes. We analyzed 70 articles, technical reports and press releases and then used a set of policy analysis tools to examine five policy documents in depth. Finally, we wanted to understand how key officers interpreted these policy documents, so we closely analyzed the transcripts of eight semi-structured interviews.
Findings
Türkiye’s legal framework comprises five main policies that concentrate power in the central government and are not tailored to post-disaster reconstruction. This framework facilitates the construction of rubber-stamped apartment buildings, which disregard cultural and social contexts and practices. The current reconstruction policy neglects alternative options like cooperative housing, which could better respond to communal needs and expectations. It also often leads to the loss of land rights among affected residents.
Research limitations/implications
We only analyzed decision-making processes in two case studies and based our study on a limited number of interviews. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize our results and apply them to other contexts. Further quantitative and qualitative work is necessary to conceptualize the links between land management and post-disaster housing reconstruction.
Practical implications
Our findings suggest a need for legislative frameworks specifically designed to address land management during post-disaster reconstruction. The concentration of power in central governments is problematic, thus it remains crucial to empower local authorities by reinforcing technical expertise and facilitating administrative autonomy.
Originality/value
This study offers unique insights into how power relations influence land management practices in post-disaster housing reconstruction. Examining the centralization of power and its impact on cultural and social practices identifies common forms of dispossession and points to key areas for policy improvement.
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Metehan Feridun Sorkun, Oznur Yurt and Juliana Hsuan
This study investigates the effects of service modularity on the perceived usefulness (PU) of e-learning programs through the perceived ease of use (PEoU) and service…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the effects of service modularity on the perceived usefulness (PU) of e-learning programs through the perceived ease of use (PEoU) and service customization.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling was used to test four hypotheses with survey data from 517 undergraduates in Turkey.
Findings
Results show that service modularity affects the PU of e-learning programs through the PEoU. Service customization negatively moderates the effect of service modularity on the PEoU, but positively moderates the effect of the PEoU on the PU of e-learning programs.
Practical implications
This study offers insights that support the decisions of policymakers and higher education institutions on how to design appealing e-learning programs cost-effectively.
Social implications
This study reveals the determinants of the PU of e-learning, which could support the democratization of access to higher education in emerging countries where barriers to higher education are relatively greater than in developed countries.
Originality/value
The concept of service modularity is explored in the e-learning context from the students' perspective. This study shows that the standardized interfaces across course modules increase the PU of e-learning programs by improving the ease of use. It also shows, interestingly, that service customization, enabled by modularity, is not always appreciated by service consumers, because of the potential extra effort demanded in communicating their unique needs to service providers.