【主讲】香港城市大学副教授方玉林

【题目】管理合作公司间的制度距离：适应性组织间系统的角色

【时间】2013年10月16日（周三）16:00-17:30

【地点】清华经管公司伟伦楼453

【语言】英语

【主办】管理科学与工程系

【摘要】Firms collaborating with institutionally distant partners experience considerable challenge in sharing knowledge across institutional environments. While interorganizational systems (IOS) have beenintentionally deployed in those firms to bridge distance and facilitate knowledge sharing, we argue in this study that knowledge sharing as enabled by IOS, and its effect on joint performance between firms, can still be compromised by institutional distance, unless the IOS is made highly adaptable. Drawing on institutional theory, we suggest that institutional distance, particularly its normative and cognitive dimensions, not only reduces IOS-enabled knowledge sharing but also weakens the positive impact of IOS-enabled knowledge sharing on joint firm performance. We then propose a distinctive IOS construct, namely IOS adaptability, as a solution to the challenge of institutional distance, by extending boundary object theory to the institutional context. We suggest that IOS with high adaptability can mitigate this challenge by directly strengthening IOS-enabled knowledge sharing, and that this strengthening effect is even greater when institutional distance is high. Our hypotheses were tested through a field study that collected dyadic data from 141 distinct buyer/supplier channel relationships in four industries. The results from partial least squares (PLS) modeling provide general support for our hypotheses with regard to the cognitive dimension of institutional distance, but not with respect to the normative dimension. We discuss the implications for theory development and professional practice based on these findings.

Keywords: interorganizational systems, institutional distance, knowledge sharing, boundary object, adaptability, channel relationship, supply chains and networks