What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

We propose a refined theory of basic individual values intended to provide greater heuristic and explanatory power than the original theory of 10 values (Schwartz, 1992). The refined theory more accurately expresses the central assumption of the original theory that research has largely ignored: Values form a circular motivational continuum. The theory defines and orders 19 values on the continuum based on their compatible and conflicting motivations, expression of self-protection versus growth, and personal versus social focus. We assess the theory with a new instrument in 15 samples from 10 countries (N 6,059). Confirmatory factor and multidimensional scaling analyses support discrimination of the 19 values, confirming the refined theory. Multidimensional scaling analyses largely support the predicted motivational order of the values. Analyses of predictive validity demonstrate that the refined values theory provides greater and more precise insight into the value underpinnings of beliefs. Each value correlates uniquely with external variables.

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Refining the theory of basic individual values.

Research in closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) has grown rapidly over the last 10 years. The authors offer a critical review of influential CLSC research that takes a business economics perspective. Much of the research was inspired by practice-driven thoughtpieces, and this helped to keep research focused on relevant issues. However, CLSC research has several assumptions, such as perfect substitution between new and remanufactured products that risk becoming institutionalized. There is a strong need to carefully examine current industrial practice so that research remains focused on relevant problems. Deeper understanding of consumer perceptions of remanufactured products, product diffusion, and valuation of returned products are needed for the field to continue to add insights into developing sustainable economies.

Production and Operations Management

The importance of social capital for sustainable development, is by now well recognized. Anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, and economists have in their own ways, demonstrated the critical role of institutions, networks, and their supporting norms and values, for the success of development interventions. This success often hinges on accurate assessments of social capital in target communities. But the nature, and impact of social capital - the institutions, relationships, attitudes, and values that govern interactions among people - are not easily quantified. "Understanding and Measuring Social Capital" provides a conceptual review, and measurement tools, in a form readily available for development practitioners. The book discusses the respective value of quantitative, and qualitative approaches to the analysis of social capital, illustrating the discussion with examples, and case studies from many countries. It also presents the Social Capital Assessment Tool, which combines quantitative, and qualitative instruments to measure social capital at the level of household, community, and organization, drawing on multidisciplinary, empirical experiences, an application which can provide project managers with valuable baseline, and monitoring information about social capital in its different dimensions.

Understanding and Measuring Social Capital: A Multidisciplinary Tool for Practitioners

This book explains the transitions in twentieth-century industrial leadership from Britain to the United States and, most recently, to Japan, in terms of the changing business investment strategies and organizational structures in these nations. The author criticizes economists for failing to understand these historical changes. The book shows that this intellectual failure is not inherent in the discipline of economics; there are important traditions in economic thought that the mainstream of the economics profession has simply ignored.

Business Organization and the Myth of the Market Economy

Companies increasingly depend upon the knowledge of supply chain partners to deliver superior value to customers with ever shifting preferences. This transference requires absorptive capacity (AC), which allows an organization to identify external knowledge and convert it into value for the firm. Based on an approach of dynamic capabilities, AC encompasses three related learning processes: exploration, assimilation, and exploitation. Within the particular context of buyer�supplier relationships (BSR), the aim of this research is to examine AC, one of its most relevant antecedents � organizational compatibility � and its outcomes. Two samples of 153 and 199 companies, operating as key suppliers of two focal buyers, a European multinational retail chain and an American multinational spare parts distributor, respectively, constitute the empirical base of the study. Results derived from structural equation modeling and, more precisely, multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and a formal test of mediation, strongly indicate for both samples that AC mediates between organizational compatibility on the one hand and innovation and efficiency performance on the other hand. Results also indicate that the mediating effect of AC related to innovation increases with demand uncertainty. This paper thus suggests that managers must be aware that the selection of supply chain partners based on their compatibility alone is not enough. AC is necessary to achieve sustainable performance improvement.

Absorptive capacity in buyer-supplier relationships: empirical evidence of its mediating role

Purpose – There are two major objectives in the research. First, the authors investigate the impact of knowledge integration in terms of joint decision-making and joint sense-making, on relational performance, including operational efficiency and innovation. Second, the authors examine the key antecedents that might facilitate knowledge integration: strategic supply management and trust. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper expands and tests theory drawing upon survey data from 133 buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs). The authors employed a two-step process of analysis to evaluate first the measurement model and then the structural model. The measurement model test built upon confirmatory factor analysis, while the structural model quality test built upon path analysis. Findings – The results suggest that both integrative mechanisms, joint decision making and joint sense making, affect performance although in different ways. This study also finds that while trus...

Building knowledge integration in buyer-supplier relationships: The critical role of strategic supply management and trust

This paper addresses the question if it is meaningful to group basic values from the values model of Schwartz, which is a vital component of the European Social Survey (ESS), and presents an alternative approach. The suggestion to group values is raised in several studies led by Eldad Davidov, which more precisely conclude that only four of the original ten values can be studied as such (Hedonism, Stimulation, Self-direction, and Security), whereas the remaining six values have to be grouped in three pairs in order to solve the problem of a lack of discriminant validity. This paper indicates that the grouping was necessary because of the choice strategy of items for the ESS. The items chosen for the different values are chosen in such a way that the correlation within the value is relatively low and sometimes the correlations with items of other values is higher. We show this in three steps: the first one based on a German-study, looking for the correlation between the values in the original Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ). Secondly, the ESS selection from this wider set of items is used to show that this choice leads to much higher correlations between the values. Thirdly, an analysis with an alternative choice from the same PVQ set of items is done to show that this high correlation is not necessary. In this way we show that the high correlation between the values in the ESS is due to the selection of the items in the ESS and is not intrinsic to the values studied.

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Do we have to combine Values in the Schwartz' Human Values Scale? A Comment on the Davidov Studies

Logistics clusters: The impact of further agglomeration, training and firm size on collaboration and value added services

Companies increasingly regard relationships with other companies as a source of competitive advantage. Relationships constitute a context in which the firm may learn and build absorptive capacity. ...

Desirée Knoppen

Papers

Absorptive capacity in buyer-supplier relationships: empirical evidence of its mediating role

Building knowledge integration in buyer-supplier relationships: The critical role of strategic supply management and trust

Do we have to combine Values in the Schwartz' Human Values Scale? A Comment on the Davidov Studies

Logistics clusters: The impact of further agglomeration, training and firm size on collaboration and value added services

Innovations in a relational context: Mechanisms to connect learning processes of absorptive capacity