Oliver Schilke

Alliance Management Capability: An Investigation of the Construct and Its Measurement

This research conceptualizes and operationalizes alliance management capability. The authors develop alliance management capability as a second-order construct to capture the degree to which organizations possess relevant management routines that enable them to effectively manage their portfolio of strategic alliances. In addition to identifying and measuring specific organizational routines as critical dimensions of alliance management capability, the authors advance knowledge on the performance effects of dedicated alliance structures and alliance experience based on survey data from 204 firms. Their primary contribution is a theoretically sound alliance management capability measure that is reflected by five underlying routines: interorganizational coordination, alliance portfolio coordination, interorganizational learning, alliance proactiveness, and alliance transformation. One of the key findings is that alliance management capability has a positive impact on alliance portfolio performance and mediates the performance effects of dedicated alliance structures and alliance experience.

When Does International Marketing Standardization Matter to Firm Performance

The topic of standardization of international marketing programs represents an important issue faced by managers of global firms and has attracted significant research attention. Although previous research has established that standardization enhances performance outcomes, more recent theorizing suggests that this may not always be the case. However, empirical investigators have paid little systematic attention to moderating conditions. The major purpose of this article is to investigate the organizational factors that moderate the standardization–performance relationship and, thus, to explore the types of firm for which standardization is particularly beneficial. The authors examine survey data from 489 firms, and their results indicate that the standardization–performance link is significantly stronger for large firms with a homogeneous product offering, high levels of global market penetration, a cost leadership strategy, and strong coordination capabilities. The authors conclude that managers evaluating the adequacy of a standardization strategy should consider the list of contingencies advanced in this research.

What Drives Key Informant Accuracy

In an effort to establish and enhance the accuracy of key informant data, organizational survey studies are increasingly relying on triangulation techniques by including supplemental data sources that complement information acquired from key informants. Despite the growing popularity of triangulation, little guidance exists as to when and how it should be conducted. Addressing this gap, the authors develop hypotheses linking a comprehensive set of study characteristics at the construct, informant, organizational, and industry levels to key informant accuracy. Two studies test these hypotheses. The first study is a meta-analysis of triangulation applications. Using data from 127 studies published in six major marketing and management journals, the authors identify antecedents to key informant reliability. The second study, using eight multi-informant data sets, analyzes antecedents to key informant validity. The results from these studies inform survey researchers as to which conditions particularly call for the use of triangulation. The authors conclude by offering guidelines on when and how to employ triangulation techniques.

A cross-level process theory of trust development in interorganizational relationships

Most research on trust in interorganizational relationships focuses on a single level of analysis, typically the individual or organizational level, and treats trust as a fairly static phenomenon. To stimulate more cross-level research, we propose a theoretical model that explains how trust in interorganizational relationships is related across various levels of analysis. At the same time, our model emphasizes the dynamic aspect of trust by examining how trust develops throughout consecutive relationship stages. Drawing from several programs of research, we identify the mechanisms that drive the progression of trust across levels as the interorganizational relationship unfolds. Starting with the boundary spanner as the key individual at the beginning of a new collaboration, we specify how trust gradually becomes part of the fabric of organizational action. By integrating micro and macro approaches over time, the proposed model contributes to a better understanding of how trust evolves in interorganizational relationships.

Close, But No Cigar The Bimodal Rewards to Prize-Seeking

This article examines the economic effects of prizes with implications for the diversity of market positions, especially in cultural fields. Many prizes have three notable features that together yield an emergent reward structure: (1) consumers treat prizes as judgment devices when making purchase decisions, (2) prizes introduce sharp discontinuities between winners and also-rans, and (3) appealing to prize juries requires costly sacrifices of mass audience appeal. When all three conditions obtain, winning a prize is valuable, but seeking it is costly, so trying and failing yields the worst outcome—a logic we characterize as a Tullock lottery. We test the model with analyses of Oscar nominations and Hollywood films from 1985 through 2009. We create an innovative measure of prize-seeking, or “Oscar appeal,” on the basis of similarity to recent nominees in terms of such things as genre, plot keywords, and release date. We then show that Oscar appeal has no effect on profitability. However, this zero-order relationship conceals that returns to strong Oscar appeals are bimodal, with super-normal returns for nominees and large losses for snubs. We then argue that the effect of judgment devices on fields depends on how they structure and refract information.

Power decreases trust in social exchange.

Significance Trust is pivotal to the functioning of society. This work tests competing predictions about how having low vs. high power may impact people’s tendency to place trust in others. Using different experimental paradigms and measures and confirming predictions based on motivated cognition theory, we show that people low in power are significantly more trusting than more powerful people and that this effect can be explained by the constructs of hope and perceived benevolence. Our findings make important contributions to the literatures on trust, power, and motivated cognition. How does lacking vs. possessing power in a social exchange affect people’s trust in their exchange partner? An answer to this question has broad implications for a number of exchange settings in which dependence plays an important role. Here, we report on a series of experiments in which we manipulated participants’ power position in terms of structural dependence and observed their trust perceptions and behaviors. Over a variety of different experimental paradigms and measures, we find that more powerful actors place less trust in others than less powerful actors do. Our results contradict predictions by rational actor models, which assume that low-power individuals are able to anticipate that a more powerful exchange partner will place little value on the relationship with them, thus tends to behave opportunistically, and consequently cannot be trusted. Conversely, our results support predictions by motivated cognition theory, which posits that low-power individuals want their exchange partner to be trustworthy and then act according to that desire. Mediation analyses show that, consistent with the motivated cognition account, having low power increases individuals’ hope and, in turn, their perceptions of their exchange partners’ benevolence, which ultimately leads them to trust.

Distribution Channel Choice of New Entrepreneurial Ventures

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of distribution channel choices of new entrepreneurial ventures (NEVs). First, factors that influence NEVs’ choice of distribution channels are examined. Second, performance consequences of those choices are investigated. A research model drawing from transaction cost economics as well as customer relationship and strategy literature is developed. Data collected from 330 NEVs are used to test the proposed model. The results show that the identified antecedents explain a large part of the variance in NEVs’ channel choice. Moreover, NEVs that accomplish a fit between their distribution channel system and transaction cost–, product–, strategy–, and competition–related variables tend to perform better. Findings are discussed in light of the specific characteristics of NEVs.

Consumer acceptance of service bundles: An empirical investigation in the context of broadband triple play

Although offering bundled services promises firms potential synergies in supply and increased revenues, the realized benefits of such a strategy are highly contingent on consumer acceptance of the bundles. Borrowing from TAM, Information Integration Theory, and the customer value concept, we developed a comprehensive model for consumer acceptance of service bundles, which is divided into four general construct types: service characteristics, usefulness/ease of use, attitude, and behavioral intention. Twelve hypotheses were derived and empirically tested in the context of broadband triple play, the bundled offering of broadband Internet access, Internet telephony, and Internet TV. Based on questionnaire responses from 214 study participants and using PLS for analysis, we found overall support for our research model. We concluded by discussing the academic and managerial value of our research, both in terms of advanced knowledge of service bundle acceptance and the adoption of triple play.

Effect of relationship experience on trust recovery following a breach

Significance Will people be more likely to forgive a breach of trust in an earlier or later stage of an interpersonal relationship? The present article reports behavioral and neurophysiological experiments that speak to this important question. Results show that trust recovery is facilitated with increasing relationship experience. Differential activation in the controlled social cognition system (C-system) and the automatic social cognition system (X-system) indicate that decision making is less controlled and more automatic following a later as opposed to an earlier trust breach. These findings have important implications for the study of trust recovery after a breach, as well as the neuroscience of trust. A violation of trust can have quite different consequences, depending on the nature of the relationship in which the trust breach occurs. In this article, we identify a key relationship characteristic that affects trust recovery: the extent of relationship experience before the trust breach. Across two experiments, this investigation establishes the behavioral effect that greater relationship experience before a trust breach fosters trust recovery. A neuroimaging experiment provides initial evidence that this behavioral effect is possible because of differential activation of two brain systems: while decision making after early trust breaches engages structures of a controlled social cognition system (C-system), specifically the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral frontal cortex, decision making after later trust breaches engages structures of an automatic social cognition system (X-system), specifically the lateral temporal cortex. The present findings make contributions to both social psychological theory and the neurophysiology of trust.

Product Differentiation by Aesthetic and Creative Design: A Psychological and Neural Framework of Design Thinking

As firms increasingly use design to successfully differentiate their products from competitors, the concept of design thinking has lately received raised attention among practitioners. Many consider design thinking to fundamentally change the way firms will strive to innovate. Design thinking can be thought of as a methodology for innovation that systematically integrates human, business, and technical factors in problem-forming, problem-solving, and design. As initiatives for design thinking grow significantly, we need to better understand how design thinking helps to foster creativity of designers and product managers and how it supports firms’ goal of creating aesthetically appealing products. Despite the relevance of the concept of design thinking, its underlying mechanisms have been poorly understood. The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on the processes of design thinking by integrating extant literature from psychology and neuroscience. In particular, this research focuses on aesthetics and creativity as crucial processes of design thinking. Subsequently, a definition of design thinking is offered, which is accompanied by a psychological and neural framework of design thinking.