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Article
Publication date: 5 June 2017

Jon Charterina, Imanol Basterretxea and Jon Landeta

This paper aims to discover the key elements for generating and protecting innovations based on the customer-supplier relationship in industrial sectors.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discover the key elements for generating and protecting innovations based on the customer-supplier relationship in industrial sectors.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory qualitative study was performed using semi-structured interviews with chief executive officers and innovation managers of 22 industrial firms and institutions from the machine-tool industry.

Findings

Key forms of knowledge must be shared by the two agents. Producers have to obtain in-depth knowledge about customers’ needs and customers need knowledge on producer’s absorptive capacity. Producers distinguish between three types of customers: reference customers, necessary for innovations with greatest scope, clientes amigos or test users, required to test innovations currently being developed, and traditional customers, associated with incremental innovations. The traditional means of protecting innovations is a detailed contract between customer and supplier; and patents are used for innovations of greater technological scope, as a form of defense against third-party patents and as a signaling element of absorptive capacity.

Originality/value

The paper draws on the direct experience of executives from companies whose innovation is based on a close relationship with customers to answer questions to which the literature has yet to provide definitive answers: What sort of information to be shared is relevant for the generation of innovations? Are all customers equal or are there profiles that contribute more effectively to the development of innovations? What attitude and mechanisms are most effective for protecting the knowledge and competitiveness generated through knowledge sharing?

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 32 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

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Article
Publication date: 3 June 2019

Imanol Basterretxea, Jon Charterina and Jon Landeta

This paper aims to investigate how the implementation of the inter-cooperation principle among Spanish machine-tool cooperatives helps them to coopete–collaborate with…

817

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how the implementation of the inter-cooperation principle among Spanish machine-tool cooperatives helps them to coopete–collaborate with competitors, in their innovation and internationalization processes and achieve collaborative advantages.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a multi-case approach based on interviews with 15 CEOs and research and development (R&D) managers, representing 14 Spanish machine tool firms and institutions. Eight of these organizations are worker-cooperatives.

Findings

Worker-cooperatives achieve advantages on innovation and internationalization via inter-cooperation (shared R&D units, joint sales offices, joint after-sale services, knowledge exchange and relocation of key R&D technicians and managers). Several mutual bonds and ties among cooperatives help to overcome the risk of opportunistic behaviour and knowledge leakage associated to coopetition. The obtained results give some clues explaining to what extent and under which conditions coopetitive strategies of cooperatives are transferable to other types of ownership arrangements across sectors.

Practical implications

Firms seeking cooperation with competitors in their R&D and internationalization processes can learn from the coopetitive arrangements analyzed in the paper.

Social implications

Findings can be valuable for sectoral associations and public bodies trying to promote coopetition and alliances between competitors as a means to benefit from collaborative advantages.

Originality/value

Focussing on an “ideal type” of co-operation–cooperative organizations – and having access to primary sources, the paper shows to what extent (and how) strong coopetitive structures and processes foster innovation and internationalization.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 34 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

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Article
Publication date: 3 November 2017

Jon Charterina, Jon Landeta and Imanol Basterretxea

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mediating role of contracts and trust on the generation of product innovations stemming from buyer-supplier knowledge-sharing (KS…

1120

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mediating role of contracts and trust on the generation of product innovations stemming from buyer-supplier knowledge-sharing (KS) among the members of the supply chain. Together with the individual effects of trust and contracts, their joint effect is examined in order to determine whether these are complementary or alternative mechanisms of safeguarding and control.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on a survey of 202 European machine tool firms acting as buyers and sellers, the authors propose and evaluate a structural equation model.

Findings

Results confirm that there is a positive relation between contracts and trust with respect to buyer-supplier KS, and of the latter with respect to innovation performance. They also show that firms in which both the levels of trust and contract use are high reinforce their product-innovation capability based on buyer-supplier interaction (complementarity thesis). However, results also show that, contrary to trust, contracts by themselves do not act as a stimulus for product innovation.

Research limitations/implications

Establishing contracts seems to be a highly recommended action in a buyer-supplier relationship focused on increasing innovation capacity. This does not go against engendering trust in a relationship. Both trust with a degree of formalization, in different ways, help to increase the effect of sharing valuable knowledge on innovation capacity.

Originality/value

To the authors’ best knowledge, no prior study has delved into differentiating the use of contracts and trust as mechanisms in mediating the effect originated from knowledge-sharing on product innovation performance with two different samples formed by buying and selling firms.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 21 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

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Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2011

Imanol Basterretxea and Eneka Albizu

The aim of this chapter is to ascertain the degree to which a training policy developed through corporate training centers is recognized as a source of competitive advantage for…

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to ascertain the degree to which a training policy developed through corporate training centers is recognized as a source of competitive advantage for attracting, developing, and retaining valuable staff. The fieldwork is based on a survey of Human Resource (HR) managers from 66 cooperatives of the Spanish Mondragon cooperative group. The empirical test carried out confirms that Mondragon's training policy, backed up by its corporate training centers, is perceived by HR managers as a tool that provides advantages to attract, develop, and retain valuable human resources. The results also suggest that those advantages are more moderate than has been cited in classic literature on Mondragon. The results of this study can be helpful for the growing number of companies choosing to create and reinforce corporate training centers. The link between training policy and the perceived ability to attract and retain valuable employees showed in this case can also be helpful for other companies that, as Mondragon, face limitations in wage policy. This chapter contributes to the literature on the educational fabric of Mondragon adding updated empirical evidence and incorporating the point of view of HR managers of the group's cooperatives. With respect to the contribution of this chapter to the literature on training policy, the chapter's findings, in particular those regarding the effect of training on worker attraction and retention, add empirical evidence to the few studies on the subject.

Details

Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-760-5

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Article
Publication date: 7 March 2016

Jon Charterina, Imanol Basterretxea and Jon Landeta

This paper aims to analyze the impact of three types of embedded ties, namely, specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, on the…

1276

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the impact of three types of embedded ties, namely, specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, on the innovation capacity of firms. It also examines the particularities of the machine-tool industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The evaluation of the embedded buyer-supplier ties is based on the potential sources of relational rents proposed by Dyer and Singh (1998). It also draws on Uzzi and Lancaster (2003) and Noordhoff et al. (2011), among others, to discuss the positive and negative aspects of embedded ties. Using data from a survey of 202 European machine-tool firms acting as buyers and sellers, the study proposes and evaluates a structural equation model.

Findings

Only knowledge-sharing routines exert a significant positive effect on product innovation performance. Neither an increase in idiosyncratic investments nor in complementary resources and capabilities enhances innovation performance. Moreover, knowledge-sharing routines mediate in the effect of idiosyncratic investments on innovation performance.

Research limitations/implications

The machine-tool industry has unique characteristics that make generalization difficult. There is also considerable difficulty associated with testing the interrelations among these embedded ties in greater depth in the long run. It is plausible to consider that these interrelations operate within a gradual process.

Originality/value

This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of embedded ties on innovativeness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous international empirical research has been published analyzing the mediation effects among specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, and their effects on the innovation capacity of firms.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Available. Content available
Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2011

Abstract

Details

Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-760-5

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Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2011

Jed DeVaro

Continuing in the tradition of earlier volumes in the series, the 12th edition of Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms interprets the themes…

Abstract

Continuing in the tradition of earlier volumes in the series, the 12th edition of Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms interprets the themes of the series quite broadly and, consequently, the following pages traverse a highly variegated terrain. I have marked this expansive landscape with four guideposts around which our discussion is organized, namely sections on job design and organizational performance (Part I); compensation, worker attitudes, and productivity (Part II); worker cooperatives and nonprofit organizations (Part III); and free trade and the ecological effects of alternative socio-economic systems (Part IV). The following essays exhibit a diversity of topics, data sources, modes of analysis, geographic contexts, and philosophies. The contributors are similarly diverse, hailing from seven countries, with representation both inside and outside of academia. It is my hope that, in addition to contributing to our knowledge of the broad subject at hand, the articles contained in this volume will inspire productive future work on the important questions addressed herein.

Details

Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-760-5

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