Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper studies the influence of the problem potential faced by households and the embeddedness of the household-supplier relation on the behavior of outsourcing suppliers, to be precise on (a) their efforts to convince households of their trustworthiness, and (b) opportunistic behavior. Trust problems are an important issue in household outsourcing, because suppliers often work unsupervised and alone in the private sphere of the household, and moreover, they take over tasks of special value to households. Outsourcing involves risks for the household that are not easily covered completely by (written) agreements. Although our theory applies to a variety of outsourcing alternatives, the varying levels of risk in home maintenance chores make it possible to study the influence of trust problems within comparable outsourcing transactions. Data were collected by a vignette experiment held among 83 home maintenance suppliers, with a total of 165 vignettes. To some extent, the problem potential increases supplier’s efforts to convince the household of his trustworthiness: a larger volume of the transaction increases time spent on a quotation, a binding and type revealing commitment. Suppliers are more likely to behave opportunistically when more complex jobs are involved. Network embeddedness is of influence on supplier behavior before and after the transaction is agreed upon, while dyadic embeddedness does not matter. Apparently, it is more important for suppliers to keep good relations with people who can spread negative information to others rather than investing in dyadic relations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate supplier-induced demand for return visits to emergency departments (ED).
Methods. Data from 36,166 ED visits in the 1992 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey were examined using multiple logistic regression.
Results. ED return visits were estimated to have occurred over six million times (6.7% of the national probability sample) and were less common among those with private coverage than those with no insurance coverage (OR=0.82, 95% CI=0.74, 0.91). Return visits were more likely than initial visits to be for non-urgent care (OR=2.77, CI=2.50, 3.04), and more likely to receive an ED return appointment (OR=2.98, CI=2.60, 3.40) or return recommendation (OR=1.37, CI=1.24, 1.51). The likelihood of an ED appointment or return recommendation was much higher when there was no alternative care referral for patients being discharged from the ED.
Conclusions. Return ED visits are more likely among patients without insurance and more likely to be for non-urgent care. ED personnel often take actions to induce return visits. These practices may reflect attempts by providers to enhance revenue and/or continuity of care.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Managing operations in multiple markets can be extremely complex given national differences in legal, cultural and ethical environments. A number of multinational firms have elected to implement either global or regional codes of ethics, with some minor modifications for specific country circumstances. Many codes of ethics also address the relationship between employees and suppliers due to the potential for moral lapses in this area. In this study a survey instrument is administered to 645 suppliers and 1129 employees of a large multinational firm in six Latin American subsidiary nations: Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Empirical results suggest that suppliers and employees have different awareness levels and views of the value of ethics codes. Moreover, national differences in ethical perceptions of various supplier-buyer activities are identified.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: After the 1990s, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) as multinational conglomerates have become more powerful than ever, exerting control over their suppliers, owing in part to the advanced machining and information technologies. Is this a revival of the traditional Marxian framework, or a “dual economy”? Conducting network analysis of supplier-prime buyer relations among over 8,300 firms in an industrial district, we found not only structural properties of ‘flexible specialization’ as a division of labor among dedicated small- and medium-sized suppliers but also an invisible “elite club” or cohesive core composed of extremely powerful OEMs plus their elite suppliers, employing analyses of cohesion and assortative correlation in the structural embedding. An overwhelming majority of the suppliers were not free from dependency upon the core in order to gain access to and social endorsement from the consumers, as substantiated by the overall power-law node links, against the claims of “flexible specialization.” The present study suggests a “dual economy” not on the basis of firm size as traditionally claimed, but of competition to be suppliers of prominent OEMs in the acyclically hierarchical network, from the relational approach of network integration mechanisms, as a latent but decisive explanatory variable.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The analysis of manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan has contributed significantly to the advancement of interorganizational theory. It has yielded broad evidence that long-term collaborative partnerships enable firms to exploit the incentive benefits of market-based exchange while reaping the learning and coordination benefits of internalization within a corporate hierarchy. In this paper, we go beyond the issues of trust and cooperation that have occupied much prior theory and research on supplier relations in considering another dimension along which collaborative agreements may be arrayed. We build on transaction and network theories respectively to propose two types of long-term collaborative ties: dyadic or bilateral governance and network embeddedness. A comparative analysis of collaborative relationships in product and process development between two Japanese TV manufacturing companies and their suppliers provides empirical evidence for the distinctive effect of network ties over dyadic relationships for collaborative knowledge-sharing.