• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.87-100
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• 2013

As the external knowledge networks of firms have become more and more important to their product and service innovations, many global leading companies such as P & G, IBM, and Samsung Electronics have formulated and implemented their open innovation strategy. This study attempts to empirically analyze the effects of CEOs' supports for external knowledge networks, external knowledge network-oriented cultures and inter-organizational knowledge management systems as the major antecedents to external knowledge networks by using the data based on organizational members' perceptions about them. Based on 847 samples collected from employees in three companies in the medical, the construction and the IT service industries, this study performed a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis about the effects of the antecedents to the external knowledge networks on product and service innovations through Partial Least Squares (PLS). The empirical findings of this study show that CEOs' supports for external knowledge network positively influence product and service innovations, partially mediated by external knowledge network-oriented cultures and inter-organizational knowledge management systems. And they also show that external knowledge network-oriented cultures and inter-organizational knowledge management systems have a positive effect on product and service innovations, respectively, partially mediated by external knowledge networks. With these new findings, academic and practical implications are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2015

This paper proposes relational capability as a main driver of constructing inter-organizational collaboration networks. Based on social network theory and relational view literature, three components of relational capability are constructed and implemented by an agent-based model. The components include organizational capability, structural capability, and trust between a partner and a focal firm. These three components are updated by two micro mechanisms: structural mechanism and relational mechanism. Structural mechanism is a feedback loop in which the relational capability increases structural capability and vice versa. Relational mechanism is a learning-by-doing process in which a focal firm experiences success or failure of collaboration and the experience increases or decreases cumulative trust in a partner firm. Result of agent-based simulation shows that a collaboration network emerges through interactions of firm's relational capabilities and the characteristics of emerged networks vary with the contribution of structural capability and trust to relational capability. Specifically, in case structural capability contributes more to relational capability, the average degree centrality and collaboration proportion increases as time passes and enters into an equilibrium state. In that case, almost every firms participated in the network collaborates each other so that the emerged network becomes highly cohesive. In case trust contributes more to relational capability, the results are reversed. In an equilibrium state, the balance of contribution between structural capability and trust makes an emerged network larger and maximizes average degree centrality of the network.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.19-37
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• 2018

Knowledge transfer among employees integrates individual knowledge scattered within a firm, thus increases organizational effectiveness. In particular, the role of knowledge broker, which enables knowledge sharing across multiple teams or subunits, is critical for the success of knowledge management. This study classified the types of knowledge broker that facilitates knowledge flows among team, and examined the influences of various intra- and inter-team social networks. Survey responses from 128 employees of four R&D teams were gathered and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling. The results of analysis showed that all types of inter-team networks(i.e., emotional closeness network, frequency of interaction network, and perceived expertise network) had significant influences on related knowledge brokerage behaviors. In case of intra-team networks, only the emotional closeness network showed significant influence. These results proved the necessity of managing various types of intra- and inter-team networks to encourage knowledge brokerage behaviors within a firm.

• Proceedings of the Korea Association of Information Systems Conference
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.463-470
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• 2005

In a rapidly changing business environment, the improvement of managerial techniques through IT utilization brings about remarkable increases in profitability and redesign of work process for better performances. IT innovation by electronic instruments such as ICT e-business provides accelerates forming inter-organizational information network and helps them benchmark the best practices of advanced organizations. A new shift of paradigm by e-business across all enterprises has turned the traditional aspects of inter-organizational competition and relationship into a form of collaboration. Collaboration enables business activities in parallel position among companies and facilitates cooperation between partner enterprises. Lately, the concept of 'Synchronization' is emerging beyond dimension of cooperation between networks, and the most concepts related to it are converging into 'Collaboration Networks'. This research observes a virtual organization as a form of collaborative networks, and measures the degree of virtualization of Korean collaborative organizations.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.59-92
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• 2012

With accumulated research evidence, there is little doubt that leadership behavior is related to a wide variety of positive individual and organizational outcomes. Indeed, leadership behavior has been empirically linked to increased employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, extra effort, turnover intention, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall employee performance. Although leadership behavior has been linked to a number of positive organizational outcomes, research regarding the antecedents of such behavior is limited. Especially there is little research dealing with the antecedents of inter-organizational leadership behavior. This study interests in inter-organizational ethical leadership among marketing channel members. In both the mass media and the academic association, there has been a surge in interest in the ethical and unethical behavior of leaders. Although the corporate scandals in recent years may explain much of the mass media and popular focus, academics' interest has been limited by evidence that ethical leadership behavior is associated with both positive and negative inter-organizational processes and performances. This study tried to contribute to this body of knowledge by examining antecedents of ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is defined "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making." Ethical leaders not only inform individuals of the behefits of ethical behavior and the cost of inappropriate behavior, such leaders also set clear standards and use rewards and fair and balanced punishment to hold followers accountable for their ethical conduct. Despite the assume importance and prominence of ethical leadership among organizations, there are still many questions relating to its antecedents and consequences. One is whether the likelihood of an leading organization being perceived as an ethical leader among other following organizations in marketing channels can be predicted using its characteristics and inter-organizational relationship maintenance skills. Identifying trait and skill antecedents will aid in the development of strategies for selecting and developing ethical leaders and determining the best means to reinforce ethical behaviors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of three categorized variables on ethical leadership of channel leader. To be concrete, this study develops a model of the antecedents of three conceptually distinct forms of channel leader characteristics, such as organizational traits, inter-organizational relationship maintenance strategies, and supplier management strategies, and tests the hypothesized differential effects on ethical leadership of marketing channel leaders. The reason why this study deals with discount store channel is that there is very strong inter-dependence between a discount store and its suppliers. Their strong inter-dependence makes their relationship as the relationship between a leader and suppliers and creates an atmosphere that leadership occur without difficulty. The research model is as follows. For the purpose of empirical testing, 295 respondents of suppliers of discount store channel in Korea were surveyed. The procedures included scale reliability, and discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than .70. This study conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. All items loaded significantly on their respective constructs(with the lowest t-value being 15.2), providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted(AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than .70. The AVE of each construct was greater than .50. This study tested research model using Partial Least Square(PLS). The estimation of the structural equation model revealed an acceptable fit of the model to the data($r^2$=.851). Thus, This study concluded that the model fit was considered acceptable. The results of PLS are as follows. The results indicated that conscientiousness, openness, conflict management, social networks, training, fair reward had positive effects on ethical leadership of channel leaders. On the other hand, emotional insecure had negative effect and agreeableness, assurance, and inter-organizational communication had no significant effect on supply chain leadership.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.110-122
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• 2010

The emergence of the field of organizational buying behavior in the mid-1960’s with the publication of Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing (1967) set the stage for a new paradigm of thinking about how business was conducted in markets other than those serving ultimate consumers. Whether it is "industrial marketing" or "business-to-business marketing" (B-to-B), organizational buying behavior remains the core differentiating characteristic of this domain of marketing. This paper explores the impact of several dynamic factors that have influenced how organizations relate to one another in a rapidly increasing interdependence, which in turn can impact organizational buying behavior. The paper also raises the question of whether or not the major conceptual models of organizational buying behavior in an interdependent world are still relevant to guide research and managerial thinking, in this dynamic business environment. The paper is structured to explore three questions related to organizational interdependencies: 1. What are the factors and trends driving the emergence of organizational interdependencies? 2. Will the major conceptual models of organizational buying behavior that have developed over the past half century be applicable in a world of interdependent organizations? 3. What are the implications of organizational interdependencies on the research and practice of organizational buying behavior? Consideration of the factors and trends driving organizational interdependencies revealed five critical drivers in the relationships among organizations that can impact their purchasing behavior: Accelerating Globalization, Flattening Networks of Organizations, Disrupting Value Chains, Intensifying Government Involvement, and Continuously Fragmenting Customer Needs. These five interlinked drivers of interdependency and their underlying technological advances can alter the relationships within and among organizations that buy products and services to remain competitive in their markets. Viewed in the context of a customer driven marketing strategy, these forces affect three levels of strategy development: (1) evolving customer needs, (2) the resulting product/service/solution offerings to meet these needs, and (3) the organization competencies and processes required to develop and implement the offerings to meet needs. The five drivers of interdependency among organizations do not necessarily operate independently in their impact on how organizations buy. They can interact with each other and become even more potent in their impact on organizational buying behavior. For example, accelerating globalization may influence the emergence of additional networks that further disrupt traditional value chain relationships, thereby changing how organizations purchase products and services. Increased government involvement in business operations in one country may increase costs of doing business and therefore drive firms to seek low cost sources in emerging markets in other countries. This can reduce employment opportunitiesn one country and increase them in another, further accelerating the pace of globalization. The second major question in the paper is what impact these drivers of interdependencies have had on the core conceptual models of organizational buying behavior. Consider the three enduring conceptual models developed in the Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing and Organizational Buying Behavior books: the organizational buying process, the buying center, and the buying situation. A review of these core models of organizational buying behavior, as originally conceptualized, shows they are still valid and not likely to change with the increasingly intense drivers of interdependency among organizations. What will change however is the way in which buyers and sellers interact under conditions of interdependency. For example, increased interdependencies can lead to increased opportunities for collaboration as well as conflict between buying and selling organizations, thereby changing aspects of the buying process. In addition, the importance of communication processes between and among organizations will increase as the role of trust becomes an important criterion for a successful buying relationship. The third question in the paper explored consequences and implications of these interdependencies on organizational buying behavior for practice and research. The following are considered in the paper: the need to increase understanding of network influences on organizational buying behavior, the need to increase understanding of the role of trust and value among organizational participants, the need to improve understanding of how to manage organizational buying in networked environments, the need to increase understanding of customer needs in the value network, and the need to increase understanding of the impact of emerging new business models on organizational buying behavior. In many ways, these needs deriving from increased organizational interdependencies are an extension of the conceptual tradition in organizational buying behavior. In 1977, Nicosia and Wind suggested a focus on inter-organizational over intra-organizational perspectives, a trend that has received considerable momentum since the 1990's. Likewise for managers to survive in an increasingly interdependent world, they will need to better understand the complexities of how organizations relate to one another. The transition from an inter-organizational to an interdependent perspective has begun, and must continue so as to develop an improved understanding of these important relationships. A shift to such an interdependent network perspective may require many academicians and practitioners to fundamentally challenge and change the mental models underlying their business and organizational buying behavior models. The focus can no longer be only on the dyadic relations of the buying organization and the selling organization but should involve all the related members of the network, including the network of customers, developers, and other suppliers and intermediaries. Consider for example the numerous partner networks initiated by SAP which involves over 9000 companies and over a million participants. This evolving, complex, and uncertain reality of interdependencies and dynamic networks requires reconsideration of how purchase decisions are made; as a result they should be the focus of the next phase of research and theory building among academics and the focus of practical models and experiments undertaken by practitioners. The hope is that such research will take place, not in the isolation of the ivory tower, nor in the confines of the business world, but rather, by increased collaboration of academics and practitioners. In conclusion, the consideration of increased interdependence among organizations revealed the continued relevance of the fundamental models of organizational buying behavior. However to increase the value of these models in an interdependent world, academics and practitioners should improve their understanding of (1) network influences, (2) how to better manage these influences, (3) the role of trust and value among organizational participants, (4) the evolution of customer needs in the value network, and (5) the impact of emerging new business models on organizational buying behavior. To accomplish this, greater collaboration between industry and academia is needed to advance our understanding of organizational buying behavior in an interdependent world.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1006-1015
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• 2015

This study proposed a model to examine the interorganizational relationship factors on the technology diffusion in supply chain networks whereby a firm's adoption decision is influenced by information from physical and social proximity with others as well as its own attributes. To test several hypotheses developed in this context, this paper analyzed the data set of US consumer packaged goods companies adopting an inventory tracking technology in a retail supply chain and found that a potential adopter's decision is largely influenced by the social proximity with prior adopters in a network over time, while a firm's likelihood of adoption at the initial period is mainly determined by its own attributes.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.279-290
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• 2020

Informal networks between individuals are widely seen as important in East Asian business systems. However, while the performance implications of guanxi in China have been extensively studied, much less is known on how informal networks may influence business outcomes in other East Asian countries. We examine informal networks in inter-organizational research collaborations in South Korea by studying the role of pre-existing social ties and relational orientation in new product development (NPD) collaborations and university-industry research (UIR) collaborations. We conduct an interview-based, in-depth case analysis of five NPD collaborations and five UIR collaborations. Pre-existing social ties and relational orientation are prevalent in both types of research collaborations. However, they have different consequences for collaboration outcomes. Pre-existing social ties strongly vary in their types and strength, and negatively affect collaboration outcomes unless they result in the selection of competent and motivated partners. Relational orientation manifests itself in a task-related and social exchange between collaboration partners, which contributes to outcomes such as knowledge acquisition and business performance. Korean collaboration managers should rely only on pre-existing social ties that are well-aligned with task-related requirements when initiating and conducting research collaborations. However, the creation of strong relationships between collaboration team members of partnering organizations should be encouraged.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.139-166
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• 2010

The supply chain management (SCM) systems have emerged as strong managerial tools for manufacturing firms in enhancing competitive strength. Despite of large investments in the SCM systems, many companies are not fully realizing the promised benefits from the systems. A review of literature on adoption, implementation and success factor of IOS (inter-organization systems), EDI (electronic data interchange) systems, shows that this issue has been examined from multiple theoretic perspectives. And many researchers have attempted to identify the factors which influence the success of system implementation. However, the existing studies have two drawbacks in revealing the determinants of systems implementation success. First, previous researches raise questions as to the appropriateness of research subjects selected. Most SCM systems are operating in the form of private industrial networks, where the participants of the systems consist of two distinct groups: focus companies and vendors. The focus companies are the primary actors in developing and operating the systems, while vendors are passive participants which are connected to the system in order to supply raw materials and parts to the focus companies. Under the circumstance, there are three ways in selecting the research subjects; focus companies only, vendors only, or two parties grouped together. It is hard to find researches that use the focus companies exclusively as the subjects probably due to the insufficient sample size for statistic analysis. Most researches have been conducted using the data collected from both groups. We argue that the SCM success factors cannot be correctly indentified in this case. The focus companies and the vendors are in different positions in many areas regarding the system implementation: firm size, managerial resources, bargaining power, organizational maturity, and etc. There are no obvious reasons to believe that the success factors of the two groups are identical. Grouping the two groups also raises questions on measuring the system success. The benefits from utilizing the systems may not be commonly distributed to the two groups. One group's benefits might be realized at the expenses of the other group considering the situation where vendors participating in SCM systems are under continuous pressures from the focus companies with respect to prices, quality, and delivery time. Therefore, by combining the system outcomes of both groups we cannot measure the system benefits obtained by each group correctly. Second, the measures of system success adopted in the previous researches have shortcoming in measuring the SCM success. User satisfaction, system utilization, and user attitudes toward the systems are most commonly used success measures in the existing studies. These measures have been developed as proxy variables in the studies of decision support systems (DSS) where the contribution of the systems to the organization performance is very difficult to measure. Unlike the DSS, the SCM systems have more specific goals, such as cost saving, inventory reduction, quality improvement, rapid time, and higher customer service. We maintain that more specific measures can be developed instead of proxy variables in order to measure the system benefits correctly. The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of SCM systems success in the perspective of vendor companies. In developing the research model, we have focused on selecting the success factors appropriate for the vendors through reviewing past researches and on developing more accurate success measures. The variables can be classified into following: technological, organizational, and environmental factors on the basis of TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework. The model consists of three independent variables (competition intensity, top management support, and information system maturity), one mediating variable (collaboration), one moderating variable (government support), and a dependent variable (system success). The systems success measures have been developed to reflect the operational benefits of the SCM systems; improvement in planning and analysis capabilities, faster throughput, cost reduction, task integration, and improved product and customer service. The model has been validated using the survey data collected from 122 vendors participating in the SCM systems in Korea. To test for mediation, one should estimate the hierarchical regression analysis on the collaboration. And moderating effect analysis should estimate the moderated multiple regression, examines the effect of the government support. The result shows that information system maturity and top management support are the most important determinants of SCM system success. Supply chain technologies that standardize data formats and enhance information sharing may be adopted by supply chain leader organization because of the influence of focal company in the private industrial networks in order to streamline transactions and improve inter-organization communication. Specially, the need to develop and sustain an information system maturity will provide the focus and purpose to successfully overcome information system obstacles and resistance to innovation diffusion within the supply chain network organization. The support of top management will help focus efforts toward the realization of inter-organizational benefits and lend credibility to functional managers responsible for its implementation. The active involvement, vision, and direction of high level executives provide the impetus needed to sustain the implementation of SCM. The quality of collaboration relationships also is positively related to outcome variable. Collaboration variable is found to have a mediation effect between on influencing factors and implementation success. Higher levels of inter-organizational collaboration behaviors such as shared planning and flexibility in coordinating activities were found to be strongly linked to the vendors trust in the supply chain network. Government support moderates the effect of the IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support on collaboration and implementation success of SCM. In general, the vendor companies face substantially greater risks in SCM implementation than the larger companies do because of severe constraints on financial and human resources and limited education on SCM systems. Besides resources, Vendors generally lack computer experience and do not have sufficient internal SCM expertise. For these reasons, government supports may establish requirements for firms doing business with the government or provide incentives to adopt, implementation SCM or practices. Government support provides significant improvements in implementation success of SCM when IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support and collaboration are low. The environmental characteristic of competition intensity has no direct effect on vendor perspective of SCM system success. But, vendors facing above average competition intensity will have a greater need for changing technology. This suggests that companies trying to implement SCM systems should set up compatible supply chain networks and a high-quality collaboration relationship for implementation and performance.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.151-164
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• 2009

Strategic alliances developed as formalized inter-organizational relationships are core vehicles to share information, resources and knowledge. The structural characteristics of strategic network constructed by strategic alliances have been important agenda in strategic management discipline. This paper has two folds in analysing the strategic network formulated by project level alliances in Korean construction industry. First, we investigate the strategic network using the tools and methods of social network analysis, such as centrality, cohesion, structural equivalence, and power law. Second, the performance of firms within networks are analysed longitudinally with panel data analysis. We have found that the strategic networks in this industry has scale-free characteristics, where the degree distribution fits the power law, and the vertically equivalent structure is clear. We also present that the performance of firms are continuously affected by the degree centrality of firms in this network for the last 10 years.