Anna Shaojie Cui

The Influence of Competitive Intensity and Market Dynamism on Knowledge Management Capabilities of Multinational Corporation Subsidiaries

The authors use the environment–strategy–performance theoretical framework to examine the direct influence of the environmental market conditions of competitive intensity and market dynamism on knowledge management capabilities of multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries and resultant subsidiary performance. The results of a survey of the managers of Croatian subsidiaries of foreign MNCs indicate that though both competitive intensity and market dynamism individually influence knowledge management capabilities, when examined jointly, market dynamism is a more influential environmental market condition than competitive intensity. The authors also find a significant, positive relationship between a subsidiarys knowledge management capabilities and its performance. The findings indicate the importance of understanding local market conditions and developing proper strategic configurations for MNC subsidiaries.

Alliance Portfolio Resource Diversity and Firm Innovation

As interfirm collaboration plays an increasingly important role in firm innovation, many firms are engaged in multiple partnerships, forming portfolios of alliances. Research in marketing has predominantly focused on dyadic relationships without considering the important interdependencies among different alliances. This study takes a portfolio approach to examine the resource diversity of multiple alliance partners and its contribution to firm innovation. The authors argue that resource diversity in an alliance portfolio can only benefit innovation when resources and information are shared across alliances. They examine factors that may facilitate or inhibit information and resource sharing across alliances and thus influence the realization of any benefit of portfolio resource diversity. The model identifies various factors along three dimensions, including the composition of an alliance portfolio, alliance management, and the market environment, that moderate the relationship between alliance portfolio resource diversity and firm innovation. This study not only demonstrates the conditions for a firm to benefit from diverse partners but also highlights the importance of coordination among different alliances, suggesting a portfolio approach for alliance research.

Portfolio Dynamics and Alliance Termination: The Contingent Role of Resource Dissimilarity

This article takes a portfolio approach to examine how an alliances propensity of termination is influenced by its resource relationships with other alliances of the firm. Whereas previous research has suggested that similar partner resources in a portfolio create redundancy and that dissimilar resources are beneficial, this study argues that redundancy may be necessary to ensure stable access to resources and that synergies from dissimilar resources may be difficult to realize. Thus, under some conditions, resource dissimilarity may be less supportive of, or even detrimental to, the continuity of an alliance. The author identifies several conditional factors that change the role of resource dissimilarity. While relational connectedness between the focal partner and other partners of the firm is found to strengthen the supporting effect of resource dissimilarity on alliance continuity, vertical connectedness of alliance activities, formation of substituting alliances by the focal partner, and market uncertainty weaken the supporting effect of resource dissimilarity. The findings reveal alliance termination factors beyond dyadic interactions and provide important implications for managing interdependencies within an alliance portfolio to enhance alliance stability.

Co-Production of Prolonged, Complex, and Negative Services An Examination of Medication Adherence in Chronically Ill Individuals

This study examines customer coproduction in a prolonged, complex, and negative service context—medication adherence in chronically ill individuals. We integrate services and medical perspectives to develop a novel theoretical framework of adherence as a nested system of coproduction behaviors, characterized by temporal and scope dimensions. Utilizing a qualitative approach, our findings point to two key insights about coproduction in the customer sphere. First, the enactment and form of regular-restricted, intermittent-intermediate, and irregular-expansive coproduction behaviors are determined by the characteristics of the customer sphere—that is, coproduction is contextualized. Second, the coproduction system in the customer sphere is complex and the different levels are interdependent. Our research contributes to the emerging literature on service coproduction by elucidating the behaviors through which customers strive toward adherence. The identified coproduction framework holds important implications for providers of prolonged and complex services and future research directions.

An Assessment of the Use of Structural Equation Modeling in International Business Research

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a powerful multivariate statistical technique that requires careful application. The use of SEM in international business research has substantially increased recently, necessitating a critical evaluation of its use in the field. Through an analysis of 148 articles in the international business (IB) literature, we detail the state of current use of SEM in IB research and compare its use to the established best practices. In many instances, SEMs use in IB has been faulty, suggesting that authors may have drawn incorrect conclusions. To expand the IB fields knowledge base, methodological accuracy is essential. Based on our review of the techniques use in IB research coupled with the established practices in the social science literature, we provide practical suggestions for better applying SEM in the IB literature.

Market Uncertainty and Dynamic New Product Launch Strategies: A System Dynamics Model

New products are intrinsically associated with high level of market uncertainty, and product launches often fail because launch strategies formulated based upon prelaunch forecasts cannot accurately capture actual market conditions. While research generally recognizes the importance of flexibility in new product launch, it has rarely examined the dynamic adjustments after initial launch, largely due to the limitation of conventional methodologies in modeling dynamic feedbacks and interactions. This study develops a system dynamics model of new product launch that formalizes the adjustments of launch scale according to actual market conditions and the dynamic interactions among launch scale and various tactical elements of product launch, including advertising, distribution, pricing, manufacturing, and inventory management. This study makes a first attempt to bring systems dynamic modeling to new product launch research and illustrates a new approach to examine dynamic feedbacks in the new product launch process. The model developed in this study illustrates why and how dynamic approaches outperform static ones, and reveals important insights of the behavior of dynamic product launch strategies. The model can be used as a “flight simulator” in managerial training to help new product managers understand the dynamic interactions among different elements of new product launch.

The Learning Zone in New Product Development

New information is the fuel that allows organizations to innovate. Yet the generation of new information may yield little benefit if existing practices prevent the firm from integrating new insights effectively. This study provides evidence that existing knowledge has both an enhancement effect that improves the firms ability to benefit from new information, and an inhibition effect that lowers its motivation to learn. Firms that utilize a moderate level of existing knowledge benefit from new information more than firms that rely too little or too much upon existing knowledge. We call this optimal circumstance the “learning zone.” Furthermore, we find that the moderating effects of existing knowledge are stronger for new products of lower novelty that provide a similar learning context. In addition, as novelty increases, the prominence of the enhancement effect increases, whereas the inhibition effect becomes less prevalent. Highly novel products that are able to utilize existing knowledge are therefore most likely to benefit from new information. Existing technical knowledge is also found to inhibit the use of new information to a greater degree than market knowledge. The findings suggest that organizations should evaluate their reliance on existing knowledge and create a learning zone that provides the best condition for innovation.