Henry Adobor

Trust as sensemaking: the microdynamics of trust in interfirm alliances

Although contracts are an important part of any interorganizational relationship, it is generally accepted that informal understanding, based on trust, may prove even more powerful than contracts in assuring a successful relationship. This study presents an empirical test of a theory of trust creation in economic exchange. The paper explores the theoretical proposition that trust creation may be viewed as a process of sensemaking in which small cues are enlarged through the incremental accumulation of evidence. Interview and questionnaire data obtained on strategic partnerships from chief executive officers and senior management in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical equipment manufacturing companies in North America showed that trust building in partnerships may be a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in which initial expectations positively impact behavior and trust building. The results also show that there may be some optimal level of expectations. Both too low and too high an expectation were counterproductive to trust building.

Management simulations: determining their effectiveness

Purpose – The overall purpose of this research is to increase understanding of the factors that promote the effective use of simulations in management education.Design/methodology/approach – This study uses data from 49 teams of respondents performing a management simulation exercise to achieve the research purpose. Respondents took part in the simulation in teams and were required to manage a business in the global athletic industry. Respondents completed a 21‐item instrument designed to assess individual learning. Learning was factor‐analyzed and three factors derived that correspond to problem‐solving skills, teamwork and seeing oneself as a manager. Measures were developed to assess team dynamic factors (emotional and task conflict), the user‐friendliness and realism of the simulation.Findings – The study showed that the nature of the simulation and team dynamics affected learning and performance. First, the extent to which users perceived the simulation as reflective of real life situations was posit...

Optimal trust? Uncertainty as a determinant and limit to trust in inter‐firm alliances

Purpose – This study seeks to investigate a nonlinear relationship between the uncertainty associated with an economic exchange and trust.Design/methodology/approach – This study uses data from 191 respondents representing middle and senior management in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in the USA and Canada to achieve the research purpose. Respondents completed a questionnaire designed to assess their firms attitude towards their counterpart. A select number of executives were also interviewed. Measures were developed to assess inter‐firm trust, relational intensity and uncertainty.Findings – The study showed that a certain amount of uncertainty is necessary for trust to emerge. Beyond some threshold, however, increases in uncertainty led to a reduction in trust. This midrange proposition suggests that there may be an optimal level of trust.Research limitations/implications – First, the findings show that a focus on the structural aspects of exchange can yield additional understandings of t...

Bridge leadership: a case study of leadership in a bridging organization

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine leadership in an intermediary organization whose mission is to facilitate collaboration between large corporations and their smaller suppliers, a bridging organization.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach using a single case revelatory method was adopted. Data were collected from a bridge leader as well as 20 executives of companies involved in the collaboration.Findings – The analysis revealed that the successful bridge leader tended: to build personal relations and goodwill as a way of creating personal obligations on the part of the stakeholders he led; championed the cause of the stakeholders and made their mission his/her own; created opportunities for individual and collective goal achievement; relied on symbolic behavior and ceremonies to reify the bridge mission; and engaged in frequent communication with a liberal use of humor and playfulness to make goals embraceable by the stakeholders in the collaboration.Research limitations...

High performance management of shared‐managed joint venture teams: contextual and socio‐dynamic factors

Evidence from joint venture research points to the vital role of the group of individuals who manage the administration of the venture. Venture managers face challenges that may not be present in top management teams within the hierarchy of a firm. Despite substantial research on joint ventures, understanding of this unique management group remains rudimentary. This article focuses on management processes in shared‐managed joint ventures. It suggests that the evolution and effectiveness of the management team in joint ventures may be facilitated by certain key contextual and individual level factors. Looking at venture management as an inter‐organizational group of people composed of members representing parent organizations whose behavior is regulated by a common set of expectations can give clues to the special nature of joint venture management tasks. The individuals nominated to the team as well as some key performance‐facilitating contextual factors may affect team effectiveness. Research and practical implications are offered.

Alliances as collaborative regimes

Purpose – The management and strategy literature continues to show that many companies now rely on alliances for their long‐term success. This paper seeks to explain why some industries have an over‐representation of inter‐firm strategic alliances, relative to others.Design/methodology/approach – A theory of group behavior is used to show that an inter‐organizational phenomenon, notably the interaction of convergent expectations, including shared patterns of behavior, beliefs and mindsets, are partially responsible for the disproportionate use of alliances in some industries relative to others. The theory of group behavior presented draws mainly on conceptual ideas from regime and new institutional theory.Findings – The framework suggests that the presence of industry‐embedded factors, including shared mindsets, creates the conditions that transform the strategic interests and behavior of individual firms into a macro phenomenon that diffuses across an industry. Industry developed shared mindsets in turn ...

Supply chain resilience: a dynamic and multidimensional approach

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework on resilience types in supply chain networks.,Using a complex adaptive systems perspective as an organizing framework, the paper explores three forms of resilience: engineering, ecological and evolutionary and their antecedents and links these to four phases of supply chain resilience (SCRES): readiness, response, recovery, growth and renewal.,Resilient supply chains need all three forms of resilience. Efficiency and system optimization approaches may promote quick recovery after a disruption. However, system-level response requires adaptive capabilities and transformational behaviors may be needed to move supply chains to new fitness levels after a disruption. The three resilience types discussed are not mutually exclusive, but rather complement each other and there are synergies and tradeoffs among these resilience types.,The empirical validation of the theoretical propositions will open up new vistas for supply chain research. Possibilities exist for analyzing and assessing SCRES in multiple and more comprehensive ways.,The findings of the research can help managers refine their approaches to managing supply chain networks. A more balanced approach to supply chain management can reduce the risks and vulnerabilities associated with supply chain disruptions.,This study is unique as it conceptualizes SCRES in multiple ways, thereby extending our understanding of supply chain stability.

The effect of pre‐existing financial indicators on investor valuation of strategic alliances

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the line of research on the ex ante valuation of the economic payoff from strategic alliances. The paper links a firms related pre‐alliance situation to an alliance announcement, to predict how investors value the alliance.Design/methodology/approach – The researchers collected data on marketing alliances in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Using an empirical model, three hypotheses predicting how investors value alliances in the light of their knowledge of how the firm is doing before the alliance announcement were tested.Findings – The findings indicate that investors assign higher value to marketing alliances for firms with lower inventory liquidity and product demand. Investors, in fact, rewarded firms with weak pre‐alliance positions, indicating that the alliance was perceived as a useful strategy to turnaround the weak situation.Research limitations/implications – As is common with other event study research, the study is unable to pr...