Prashant Srivastava

Environment, Management Attitude, and Organizational Learning in Alliances

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for organizational learning in an alliance‐based context. An interaction effect of environmental turbulence on the relationship between top management attitude towards learning and organizational learning is proposed.Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins with the notion that alliances provide an opportunity for organizations to learn from one another. The paper describes three basic tenets of organizational learning. It then proposes how top management attitude will affect these. It also proposes that these relationships will be affected by the environment in which the organizations are operating.Findings – The proposed framework makes clear that, for organizational learning to take place, both top management attitude toward learning and environmental turbulence will affect the way organizational learning takes place.Practical implications – The paper proposes an important relationship between top management attitude, environmental tur...

Aligning Supply Chain Relational Strategy with the Market Environment: Implications for Operational Performance

This study melds the relational view and the environment-strategy-performance perspective to develop a theoretical framework and hypotheses specifying how supply chain partnership strategy as a response to competitive intensity and product complexity may influence operational performance. Empirical findings support the conventional wisdom relating collaboration and operational performance. For firms in industries that market complex products, the study finds evidence of a direct relationship with all three supply chain strategy factors, that is, resource specificity, resource complementarity, and collaboration. Interestingly, competitive intensity is positively associated with resource specificity, but is negatively associated with the need for resource complementarities. The findings provide an initial strategic response framework for appropriately aligning supply chain strategy with market context factors to achieve operational performance improvements.

Evaluating the Relationship of Firm Strategic Orientations and New Product Development Program Performance

This research investigates relationships among organizational strategic orientations, namely, entrepreneurial, technological, and proactive market orientations and their effects on new product development (NPD) program performance. Employing a sample of 183 U.S. technology-based companies, the study evaluates three possible models and shows positive effects of technological and proactive market orientations on entrepreneurial orientation. Results also show a positive effect of entrepreneurial orientation on NPD program performance. This study explains the importance of various strategic orientations and underscores the importance of converting firm strategic orientations into NPD program performance.

Introducing the Health Coach at a Primary Care Practice: Impact on Quality and Cost (Part 1)

Abstract The cost of healthcare in U.S. is a poor value proposition. One of the primary goals of the healthcare reform act is to reduce cost while improving healthcare quality. We believe that adding a health coach will help in achieving this goal. The health coach is a medical professional who supports both the physician and the patient by meeting previously established goals. This research presents and analyzes the key roles of a health coach in a primary care practice.

The Role of the Salesperson in Building Trust and Collaboration in Buyer-Seller Relationships

In this article, the impact of the antecedents of trust including the buyer’s perception of equity with the salesperson and salesperson’s benevolence on development of trust in a buyer-salesperson relationship is examined. The moderating roles of supply risks on this association are also examined in the context of established business-to-business buyer-salesperson relationships. Further, a positive relationship between the buying firm’s trust in a supplier’s salesperson and the development of trust in that supplier is hypothesized. Also, it is hypothesized that this development of trust within the supply chain relationship will ultimately lead to collaboration within the supply chain. The theoretical and practical ramifications of these findings and future avenues of research are also discussed.

Teaching Consumer Analytics in Advertising and IMC Courses: Opportunities and Challenges

Advertising effectiveness has always been difficult to measure due to its complicated impact on the bottom line. The emergence of new channels of communication such as social media, mobile and search has further complicated matters. At the same time, marketers are facing increasing pressure to measure and improve return on investment. In this context, the proper use of customer analytics to gain insights and increase efficiency is crucial. While the industry expects students to enter the workforce with adequate training in analytics, students choosing advertising and marketing majors exhibit high levels of aversion to math and statistics. In order to bridge this gap between student aversion and industry expectation, advertising and IMC courses need to incorporate customer analytics concepts into the curriculum. In this article we discuss various consumer analytics elements that can be incorporated into advertising and IMC curriculum and suggest some resources that can aid the teaching of analytics. In addition, we also discuss some of the challenges in teaching analytics and provide a few suggestions to overcome these challenges.

Performance impact of supply chain partnership strategy-environment co-alignment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enhance understanding on supply chain partnership strategy-environment context co-alignment and its relationship with performance. Using the environment-strategy-performance view framework and the supporting relational perspective, the study develops a model and hypotheses to understand how supply chain partnership strategy as a response to co-align with operating context elements may impact operational and overall firm performance. Additionally, the study investigates the interrelationships among partnership strategy elements. Design/methodology/approach Data for testing the hypothesized relationships in the conceptual model was collected through a survey of managers in the Hoover’s database of US manufacturing firms. The survey sample included 115 responses from a wide variety of manufacturing forms. Findings Findings support the conventional wisdom relating collaboration to operational and financial performance. While product complexity associates with the “building block” resources, resource complementarity and resource specificity, technological turbulence relates significantly with only resource specificity. Interestingly, competitive intensity associates differentially with the resources – positive with resource specificity and negatively with resource complementarity. The results also reveal mediating influences of resource specificity and collaboration. Research limitations/implications The research findings have to be considered in context. The moderate size, wide industry/firm diversity and robust research design notwithstanding, and the cross-firm nature can potentially obscure causal linkages. Besides, more comprehensive insights could be obtained by modeling the co-alignment of strategy with other factors in the operating context such as industry munificence, and market unpredictability. Practical implications Firms derive operational and financial performance benefits from close collaboration with partners since the operational enhancements from such relationships have customer service implications. Besides, the synergistic interrelationships among strategic partnership resources and their eventual impact on operational and financial performance is highlighted suggesting that firms develop a proper mix of unique and complementing set of resources and leverage them through collaborative behaviors. Importantly, the results provide a framework for managers to understand the criticality of aligning their resources with contextual elements to realize enhanced operational efficiencies, customer service, and financial benefits. Originality/value Much of the evidence on the rent generation capabilities in supply chain partnerships is still anecdotal and extant empirical research lacks adequate explanation. Thus this study offers an initial strategic response framework for an appropriate co-alignment of partnership resources with environmental context factors to realize operational benefits and overall financial performance. The framework answers the critical question: does a supply chain partnership strategy that matches “fit” or co-aligns with its critical operating environment context realize better performance? Additionally, it unravels the interrelationships among strategic partnership resources.

Introducing the health coach at a primary care practice: a pilot study (part 2).

Abstract It is well known that the cost of healthcare in the United States is a poor value proposition. One of the primary goals of the healthcare reform act is to reduce cost while improving healthcare quality. The authors believe that adding a health coach helps to achieve this goal. In part I, the authors discuss the role of a health coach in the healthcare field. They present the findings from a pilot study at a primary care practice managing diabetes of patients using a health coach. The findings from the study suggest that adding a health coach helps in cost savings as well as improved health for the patients.

Radical Innovation, Technological Orientation, and New Product Development Performance

Innovations and new product development are the lifeblood of any firm. For firms active in markets characterized by competition, new product development (NPD) is essential because it contributes to firm survival as well as to competitiveness, and growth. New product development “can influence the competitive success, adaptation, and renewal of organizations” (Brown and Eisenhardt 1995, p. 344). New product development is a critical means by which product managers diversify, adapt, and even reinvent their firms to match evolving market and technical conditions. Also, new developments and changes occurring in the market force firms to develop more effective and competitive cultural orientations. High performance due to the adopted orientation results in sustainable competitive advantage and a powerful organizational culture (Zhou et al. 2005). This research investigates relationships among radical innovation, market turbulence, and technological orientation, and their effects on NPD program performance. Employing a sample of 183 U.S. technology based companies, the study uses partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships.