8/9/10 - Capabilities for cooperating and networking

Question 1

What is an organizational capability?

Answer 1

“a set of skills and proficiencies needed to achieve a goal”

“a high level routine (or collection of routines)”

“‘routine’ - behavior that is learned, highly patterned, repetitious, or quasi-repetitious, founded in part in tacit knowledge - and the specificity of objectives”

Question 2

What is an organizational capability?

Types of capabilities

Answer 2

Innovation dynamic
Ad hoc
Operational

Question 3

What is an organizational capability?

Types of capabilities

Innovation dynamic

Answer 3

“the firm’s ability to integrate, build and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments”

“the capacity of an organization to purposefully create, extend or modify its resource base”

Question 4

What is an organizational capability?

Types of capabilities

Ad hoc

Answer 4

“organizations often have to cope with problems they are not well prepared for. They may be pushed into “firefighting mode”, a high-paced, contingent, opportunistic and perhaps creative search for satisfactory alternative behaviors”

Question 5

What is an organizational capability?

Types of capabilities

Operational

Answer 5

“operational effectiveness ‘means performing similar activities better than rivals perform them’”

Question 6

Elements of an organizational capability

Answer 6

Capability:

• Resources
• Processes
• Outcomes

Efficiency can be measured

Question 7

Elements of an organizational capability

Resources

Answer 7

• tangible assets

- intangible assets

Question 8

Elements of an organizational capability

Processes

Answer 8

• activities

- resource transformation

Question 9

Elements of an organizational capability

Outcomes

Answer 9

• “soft” objectives

- “hard” indicators

Question 10

Elements of an organizational capability

How to measure efficiency?

Answer 10

Input/€

Input/Output

€/Output

Question 11

Collaborations need a relationship manager

What is a relationship manager?

Answer 11

A relationship manager is a person who develops actively and intensively the interaction process between firms.

This person performs important activities based on special qualifications

Matches, brings together, communicates, evaluates, selects, understands, builds bridges, translates, clarifies

Question 12

Relationship managers have three qualifications

Answer 12

Social competence
Relationships
Network knowledge

Question 13

Relationship managers have three qualifications

Social competence

Answer 13

• communication skills, extraversion, conflict management skills, empathy, emotional stability, the ability to motivate, responsibility, flexibility, adaptability, self-reflectively, and sense of justice are essential to motivate relevant actors, to cooperate with them, to resolve conflict situations, and to be able to carry responsibility

Question 14

Relationship managers have three qualifications

Relationships

Answer 14

• needs an extensive and well-balanced set of good personal relationships with actors of the partner organizations and relevant third parties, who control significant resources
• a person who has such person-specific relationship portfolio is able to search for, bring together, and influence actors, who are relevant for the business relationship, even beyond organizational boundaries

Question 15

Relationship managers have three qualifications

Network knowledge

Answer 15

• specific knowledge regarding the goals of the actors, behavior, expectations, and competencies, as well as their bonds and communication relationships with significant third parties
• in addition, the organizational structures, strategies, decision processes, and resources of the partner organizations and of relevant third parties (e.g. customers, suppliers and competitors) should be known

Question 16

Where are the relationship managers in the organization?

Answer 16

Relationship manager supplier:

• CEO 42,4%
• Sales director 38,8%
• Sales person 12,9%

Relationship manager customer:

• CEO 36%
• Production director 22,7%
• Purchasing director 18,7%
• Purchaser 9,3%

Question 17

Relationship managers improve relationship quality

Answer 17

Regarding adaptation, customer’s trust and customer’s commitment it is best to have a Relationship manager team

Question 18

Relationship managers increase relationship value

Answer 18

Regarding sales functions (direct) and network functions (indirect) as well as overall relationship value it is best to have a relationship manager team

Question 19

Impact of relationship managers depends on relationship distance

Answer 19

• correlation between the relationship advancement by a relationship promoter of the supplier and the relationship effectiveness is stronger in international customer relationships than in national relationships
• > the role of a relationship promoter is especially important in international customer relationships
• > diverse languages and dissimilar cultures create serious barriers to building and maintaining effective supplier-customer relationships
• > in international settings relational exchange processes often are complicated by lack of trust and commitment on the side of the partners

Question 20

Network capability as a set of processes

What processes are there?

Answer 20

Relationship-specific

• Initiation
• Exchange
• Coordination

Cross-relational

• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Controlling

Question 21

Network capability as a set of processes

Relationship-specific

Initiation

Answer 21

Starting activities of a relationship

-> identify potential partners and convince them to collaborate

Question 22

Network capability as a set of processes

Relationship-specific

Exchange

Answer 22

All sorts of transfers between the two companies

-> e.g. products, services, money, information, know-how and personnel

Question 23

Network capability as a set of processes

Relationship-specific

Coordination

Answer 23

Needed to be in tune with the other company - to synchronize the activities of both companies
-> coordination includes the establishment and use of formal roles and procedures and the utilization of constructive conflict resolution mechanisms

Question 24

Network capability as a set of processes

Cross-relational

Planning

Answer 24

Planning activities refer to the definition of a desirable state in the future

Question 25

Network capability as a set of processes Cross-relational Organizing

Answer 25

Organizing activities enables the realization of the plans developed

Question 26

Network capability as a set of processes Cross-relational Staffing

Answer 26

Staffing activities deal with the allocation of personnel to specific relationships and allocate responsibilities to those persons

Question 27

Network capability as a set of processes Cross-relational Controlling

Answer 27

Controlling activities are seen as the last management activity but also must be seen as the beginning of repeating the management process

Question 28

Network capability as skilled Human Resources Which skills are there?

Answer 28

Specialist skills Social skills -> both specialist and social qualifications are needed because inter organizational relationships are built around interpersonal exchanges (social qualifications) but are based on economic and technological objectives (specialist qualifications)

Question 29

Network capability as skilled Human Resources Specialist skills

Answer 29

Technical skills - important for understanding the partners, their needs, and their requirements Economic skills - required to define inputs and set prices Skills in legal matters - mainly relevant to set up contracts but can be even more important in areas where partners did not agree on formal contract Network knowledge - includes information about other companies, their personnel and resources, which is important to unterstand the development of the network Experiential knowledge - received through interactions with external partners that can be used to anticipate and evaluate critical situations and to select appropriate action

Question 30

Network capability as skilled Human Resources Social qualification / skills

Answer 30

Social qualification is the extent to which a person is able to exhibit autonomous, prudent, and useful behavior in social settings

Question 31

Elements of a company's network competence The ability to develop, explore and exploit business relationships Measuring network competence

Answer 31

A company's network competence can be measured as a two-folded construct: - on one hand personal qualifications (specialist and social qualifications) can be measured that enable the group of people in the company to act properly - on the other hand the intensity of tase execution on behalf of the company can be observed -> Network competence offers the company the potential to effectively use inter organizational relationships

Question 32

Elements of a company's network competence The ability to develop, explore and exploit business relationships Definition of network competence

Answer 32

Network competence is defined as the degree of network management task execution and the degree of network management qualification possessed by the people handling a company's relationship

Question 33

Antecedents of network capability What antecedents are there?

Answer 33

Access to resources Network-oriented human resource management Integration of communication structure Openness of corporate culture

Question 34

Antecedents of network capability Access to resources

Answer 34

Availability of internal resources -> internal management resources that are necessary for handling interactions with external partners e. g. financial resources, physical resources, informal resources - > budgets, meeting rooms, access to information

Question 35

Antecedents of network capability Network-oriented Human resource management

Answer 35

The process of personnel selection can be network-oriented in the sense that networking abilities and networking experiences will be explicitly a part of the job description, and the selection process itself - > network orientation in the described sense would lead to a higher network competence as qualified personnel will be found and attracted to work for the company within the career selection process - > Do we hire the right people? Incentives (incentivise the right behavior), people with social skills, do we train our people right?

Question 36

Antecedents of network capability Integration of communication structure

Answer 36

Communication structure = information exchange between different departments within the company The degree of interaction is called integration of communication structure A high integration of the communication structure makes information available to the people dealing with relationships

Question 37

Antecedents of network capability Openness of corporate culture

Answer 37

Openness of culture = emphasizing flexibility, spontaneity, and individuality (as typical characteristics of hierarchy structure) An open culture will ensure entrepreneurial spirit within the company