Inter-organizational relationships and knowledge sharing through the relationship and institutional orientations in supply chains
Highlights
► Relationship and institutional orientation manage relational risk and in turn achieve knowledge sharing. ► Relational risk will weaken knowledge sharing. Relationship and institutional orientation can restrain this encroachment. ► This paper highlights relationship and institutional orientation from the relational and institutional views of partners.
Introduction
Knowledge and learning have increasingly become key determinants of enhancing competitive advantages in supply chains (Cheng et al., 2008, Panteli and Sockalingam, 2005). For a supply chain to be successful, manufacturing firms need to focus on knowledge management to facilitate effective sharing among collaborative members (Desouza, 2003). To improve supply chain coordination and product quality, firms often demand that their partners, including subcontractors or suppliers, implement common processes, which usually requires the sharing of knowledge. Inter-organizational knowledge sharing within a supply chain has become a common practice, because it contributes vitally to sustaining the competitive advantage of the supply chain as a whole.
To achieve the advantages of knowledge sharing, it is strategic important to understand those factors that affect the partners’ behavior of knowledge sharing. Existing research has focused on modeling all the factors under investigation as precursors or independent variables that directly affect the behaviors of inter-organizational knowledge sharing, as shown in Table 1. Research on inter-organizational knowledge sharing, have examined resource commitment (Wagner & Bukó, 2005), justice (Liu, Huang, Luo, & Zhao, 2012), and ambidextrous management and ontological commitment (Im & Rai, 2008), among other factors to respond to market changes (e.g., Myers & Cheung, 2008). Little has examined the inter-relationship between relational governance and risk management that affect knowledge sharing and these relationships, despite being an important issue in inter-organizational research (Lee and Johnson, 2010, Szczepański and Światowiec-Szczepańska, 2012). It is generally believed that the knowledge sharing is greater when parties have a close relationship (Hartley and Benington, 2006, Kim et al., 2012, Panteli and Sockalingam, 2005, Wang and Wei, 2007). With collaborations between manufacturing firms and their partners, a base of jointly held knowledge can be created and maintained through knowledge sharing, thus enhancing mutual understanding and expectations (Larsson, Bengtsson, Henriksson, & Sparks, 1998).
Relational governance is a major perspective from relational or social capital which is important for the maintenance of good relationships in supply chains (Cousins et al., 2006, Kale et al., 2000, Liu et al., 2009). Business relationships are built, maintained, and enhanced to achieve corporate goals. In inter-organizational relationships, different types of relationships are formed, based on the type of collaboration, from close collaborative product development to simple buy-and-sell interaction. Consequently, when firms develop inter-organizational relationships, they are confronted with a relational risk (Delerue, 2005, Ratnasingam, 2007). Both partners in a relationship strive to gain value and control probable risks, which require some degree of trust, commitment, and flexibility in the relationship (Lewin & Sager, 2009). It implies their governance value by relying on common positive and shared expectations through the relational exchange in inter-organizational network. Resource-based view (RBV), political economy perspective, institutional theory and relational risk perspective concentrate on the specific relational resources perspective, inter-organizational linkages, social environment and relational risk, which can be measured based on the value gained through relationships, among other factors. Because partners that create superior governance value and manage relational risk are fundamental to firms’ long-term survival and success in supply chains, firms will commit themselves to establishing, developing, and maintaining relationships with such partners (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Our main research question is “What are the impacts of relational governance on relational risk and inter-organizational knowledge sharing?”
In this study, we first examine how the relationship orientation and institutional orientation of a company affects its attitude toward sharing knowledge with supply chain partners. Then, we look into how relational risk mediated the influence of relationship orientation and institutional orientation on inter-organizational knowledge sharing. To verify this research model, we conduct an empirical study on manufacturing firms and their partners in Taiwan's supply chains.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a brief review of relational governance and inter-organizational knowledge sharing in supply chains, and Section 3 presents the research model and hypothesis development. The data collection method and research design are described in Section 4, and the study findings are presented in Section 5. Finally, Section 6 provides a discussion of the results, and Section 7 concludes the paper and offers directions for future research.
Section snippets
Relational governance and risk management in inter-organizational knowledge sharing
Inter-organizational knowledge sharing in supply chains involves activities of transferring or disseminating valuable knowledge from manufacturing firms to their partners. By taking the valuable knowledge available and sharing it with partners in supply chains, such as subcontractors or suppliers, manufacturing firms can develop new capabilities and opportunities for effective actions (Cheng et al., 2008), reengineer reduction processes (Vachon, 2007), and build best practices (Zhu & Sarkis,
Theoretical framework and hypothesis development
Fig. 1 shows the conceptual model with the factors affecting knowledge sharing and one mediating factor as mediating effect to relationship orientation and institutional orientation on knowledge sharing. The model comprises five research hypotheses to be tested. The arrows indicate the hypothesized relationships, and the minus signs indicate negative relationships, respectively.
Research method
To develop the survey instrument, a pool of items was identified from the literature in order to measure the constructs of the research model. Data from a survey sample were collected to assess the instrument's validity and reliability, and to test the hypothesized relationships of the research model.
Data analysis and results findings
Structural equation modeling (SEM) with LISREL 8.54 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993) was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships of the research model. SEM aims to examine the interrelated relationships among a set of posited constructs simultaneously, each construct is measured by one or more observed items (measures). It involves the analysis of two models: a measurement (or factor analysis) and a structural model. The measurement model specifies the relationships between the observed
Discussion
Conforming to the hypothesis, relationship orientation has the positive influence on inter-organizational knowledge sharing. This finding is consistent with Larson (1991) and Mohr and Sohi (1995). In Taiwan's supply chains, this factor plays the most significant role in effecting knowledge sharing. Relationship orientation can help relationship formation and leads to closer interaction between partners. Thus, the members among supply chain should ensure that collaborative relationships are well
Conclusions and future research
To the best of our knowledge, this empirical research is among the earliest studies attempting to address the issues of relational governance and risk management to improve knowledge sharing in the context of supply chains. To address this important issue in supply chains, a research model is developed in this study for the investigation of factors influencing inter-organizational knowledge sharing. The contributions of the paper to the literature are described as follows. First, this study
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan, ROC, under Contract NSC 99-2410-H-224-010-MY3.
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