Search results

This paper seeks to explore how Indian buying firms practise an open book (OB) policy in supplier relationships in three industries, i.e. the vehicle industry, the construction industry and the information technology industry. It also aims to study determinants of open book practices.

Application of the OB policy is operationalised as the nature of open book practices, the extent and stage of data disclosed, the form of data disclosed, the direction of data disclosed, the attitude towards cost data disclosed, and the purpose and conditions of data disclosed. Determinants of the open book policy comprise characteristics of the exchange, the product, the buyer, the supplier and the supply market. Qualitative data were collected in the form of 22 interviews with representatives of three buying organisations and several of their suppliers in order to build three case studies.

The results suggest that the OB policy is used by buyers for diverse purposes ranging from strategic to operational, for example value engineering at the product development stage, to ensure supplier margins, for self improvements and cost reductions, and country entry decisions. Similarly, the data shared ranged from narrow to wide in scope and scale. Suppliers' attitudes ranged from fairly neutral to very negative towards open books. Power asymmetries, the number of alternative suppliers, product performance characteristics and value, incentives offered, and buyer efforts were found to influence OB practices.

Experiences gained from employing an OB policy in vehicle manufacturing suggests that firms in other industries can better leverage the use of open books for joint problem solving, equitable profit sharing and supplier selection.

The paper highlights that an OB policy can have broader applicability than recognised by many past studies and indicates that it can serve purposes of strategic decision‐making. It can also be an integrated part of a buyer's risk reduction strategy. Further, the study provides specific recommendations for Indian companies with regard to the application of an open book policy.

This paper aims to expand the emerging field of symbolic green consumer behavior (GCB) by investigating the impact of anticipated conspicuousness of the consumption situation on consumers’ choice of organic products. In addition, the paper also explores whether self-monitoring ability and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) influence GCB in situations of anticipated high conspicuousness.

Two experiments test the study’s hypotheses.

The results of both experiments show that the anticipation of conspicuousness has a significant effect on GCB. Moreover, in Experiment 2, this effect is moderated by consumers’ level of ATSCI but not by their self-monitoring ability.

Because ATSCI significantly interacts with green consumption because of the anticipation of a conspicuous setting, although self-monitoring ability does not, we conclude that social identification is an important determinant of green consumption.

Marketers who focus on building green brands could consider designing conspicuous consumption situations to increase GCB.

Policymakers could enact change by making the environmental unfriendliness of non-eco-friendly products visible to the public and thus increase the potential for GCB.

The results validate the emerging understanding that green products are consumed for self-enhancement, but also expand the literature by highlighting that a key motivating factor of GCB is the desire to fit in.

The literature on activity‐based costing (ABC) that deals with the allocation of indirect purchasing costs primarily draws on a transactional approach to purchasing. This presents a problem, since a large share of purchasing takes place within relationships. The purpose of this paper is to point out complexities in applying ABC to indirect purchasing costs, when purchasing takes place within long‐term relationships. The interaction model is used as a framework.

A case study is conducted on a first‐tier supplier in the Swedish automotive industry to illustrate real‐life purchasing practices and to point out subsequent difficulties in applying ABC principles. This firm is selected because efforts have simultaneously been undertaken to employ supplier relationship management (SRM) and to implement costing techniques. About 23 interviews were conducted and approximately 31 hours of interview data were collected.

The case shows that many functions tend to be involved in exchange within long‐term relationships. This generates additional purchasing‐related costs not previously recognized in the costing literature. It also leads to difficulties in allocating these costs.

Complexities when implementing ABC are presented, concerning: allocation of costs relating to SRM; allocation of costs pertaining both to transactions and to relationships; less apparent cost drivers due to involvement of many functions in exchanges; and cost allocation over time.

Investigates the issue of retail buying by focusing on the process rather than on any specific point in time. Considers the use of information and information technology (IT) during the buying process, building on case studies from three European countries. Analyses how buying processes in food retailing are structured in different buying contexts; what information is utilised in the process; and how IT is utilised throughout the buying process. Reveals that in all the case studies the activities of the retail buying process were quite similar. It was mainly the same sequence of activities that was performed (even though there were some differences related to what parts of the process the retailers emphasised). Concludes that it was not possible to detect any real process innovation but rather everybody follows basically the same routine processes.

This paper is focused on the elaboration of a comprehensive model for the analysis and understanding of strategic networks/alliances, by using the classic: structure‐conduct‐performance‐paradigm. The intention in developing such a comprehensive model is to identify factors and/or elements, which may be considered more relevant than other factors, in the creation and maintenance of strategic networks/alliances. With the model it should be possible to describe that the performance of the joint actions, such as general success of the network cooperation, the profits achieved by individual companies, or the appreciation perceived by the individual, are functions of conduct, such as interaction, exchange of knowledge and adaptation. These factors are in turn governed by structural phenomena, which are discussed in the paper. Different dimensions, levels of aggregation as well as sequences of cause and effects in the process of creating and managing strategic networks/alliances, is included and discussed in the paper.

Major incidents in road tunnels remain a collaborative challenge for the emergency services (fire and rescue service, police and ambulance), emergency dispatch centres (EDCs) and infrastructure owners. The aim of this paper is to investigate how collaborative partners to the ambulance services perceive the rescue effort and to identify factors that may influence its efficiency.

Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with 19 participants who were infrastructure owners or had operational or tactical responsibilities with the emergency services or EDCs in two regions in Sweden with multiple road tunnels. The collected data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Three main categories described efficiency factors during and after an incident: (1) coordinating the initial information (using a shared terminology), (2) achieving situational awareness (identifying those persons in need) and (3) lessons (not) learnt (lack of joint tactical plans and exercises). The emerging theme was access, assess and evaluate.

The findings suggest that establishing national policies and collaborative forums might yield more efficiently managed rescue efforts in road tunnel incidents in Sweden and other countries with similar organisational structures.

This study offers new insights on interoperability during responses to complex underground incidents.

A previous paper by the authors drew on existing research on e‐business and the smaller firm, developed a conceptual model and a set of research propositions. This paper analyses a series of qualitative, in‐depth interviews of owner/managers of smaller firms in central Scotland in order to test the research propositions. Results indicate that industry and sectoral factors play an important role in the level of e‐business development achieved. In many cases the customer determines the need for e‐business adoption, rather than any internally planned programme of adoption. Other important factors include the degree of entrepreneurial orientation of the key decision maker and the ability to exploit appropriate competencies. Recommendations for encouragement of e‐business development are made and suggestions for future research are included.

Previous IMP research has shown that innovation benefits tend to gravitate across organisational, company and legal borders. However, OECD and EU policy assume that innovation investments will create benefits in close spatial relation to where these were made. The overall purpose of this paper is to consider how opportunities and obstacles of innovation appear from the perspective of: a national policy actor, its regional mediators and a policy supported and research-based firm engaged in innovation. A specific interest is directed to what interactive aspects that are considered by these actors; in the using, producing and developing settings.

Influenced by the research question and theoretical point of departure the authors investigate what type of interfaces our focal actors recognise in the using, producing and developing settings. A total of 41 face-to-face and phone interviews focusing on each actor’s approach were conducted; 23 interviews in order to investigate the “policy side” of innovation attempts, while 18 interviews have been performed in order to understand a single business actor’s innovation approach.

The study shows that both the national policy agency and the regional policy mediators primarily operate within a developing setting, and furthermore, applies a rather peculiar interpretation of proximity. As long as the developing setting of the innovation journey is in focus, with the task to transfer academic knowledge advances to commercial actors, the proximity aspect is rather easy to fulfil. However, as soon as the producing and using settings of the innovation is taken into consideration, the innovation, if it survives, will gravitate to a producing setting where it can contribute to investments in place.

The study investigates the opportunities and obstacles of innovation; the spatial aspects included, and how these are considered by: a national policy agency, a regional mediator and a policy-supported innovating firm, in order to juxtapose the policy doctrine with the experience of the business actors such policy wishes to support.

The game plan firms must navigate in the quest of competitive advantage which is changing quickly. More and more firms acknowledge that future prosperity depends on achieving the joint goals of economic, environmental and social sustainability. This understanding has resulted in both firms and actors on the financial markets enhancing their focus on environmental, social and governance dimensions in their respective decision-making processes. In this chapter, the focus is on one key component of the changing game plan, the European Union’s (EU) Sustainable Finance Platform that envisions investors as a key driver of firms’ sustainability transformation. Based on survey data from Swedish listed firms, we discuss implications and outcomes of the Platform. Our results show that investors play an important role in setting the rules of the gameplan for firms. However, not to the extent that it meets the ambitions of the policymakers. This suggests either that the Platform will fail to meet its aims or that firms should expect further significant changes to the gameplan in the future.