This paper compiles the findings of an international study which primary objective was to investigate the relationships between Internet utilization in business-tobusiness relationships, collaborative efforts and their impact over supplier and customeroriented processes performance. It highlights the Internet as an important enhancer of collaboration in supply chains and addresses the effects o...

Businesses often benefit by forming alliances with other firms but risk becoming dependent on their partners. We discuss two situations in which dependence may create serious problems: fi rst. if a partner shuts down and. second. if a partner forms a relationship with a new partner. We examine collaborative relationships fo rmed by businesses operating in the U.S. hospital software systems indu...

It is recognised that business-to-business relationships involve individuals interacting over time. For companies whose relationships are a source of concern (they may perceive that they could enable a greater competitive advantage to be leveraged, or may consider that they are the reasons for poor performance), any attempts to manage their relationships will involve manipulation of those inter...

A firm’s competitive advantage can be created through developing and maintaining long-term effective relationships with customers. To achieve successful long-term business relationships, partners need to develop and maintain a high degree of relationship quality. Although the importance and benefits of high quality relationships are widely recognised, little research has been undertaken to exam...

This conceptual paper addresses the needs associated with entry into, and relationship nurturing in, suitable business networks, and suggests possible roles for using a distributed Group Support System to facilitate development and entry in a cross-cultural environment for particular organisational groups. The basic characteristics of cross-cultural relationships, the group support technology a...

Modern organisations are increasingly moving from traditional monolithic business systems to environments where more and more tasks are outsourced to third party providers. Therefore, processes must operate in an open and dynamic environment in which the management of time plays a crucial role. Handling time, however, remains a challenging issue yet to be fully addressed. Traditional processing...

The purpose of the study is to identify whether certain factors have an impact on the success of organizations in the IT distribution channel to adopt and promote e-business strategic models to their end-user customers. Two reseller organizations participated in an in-depth set of surveys around e-business sales and distribution of IT products and services. A set of working research hypotheses ...

Electronic marketplaces are evolving in both business to business, and business to consumer contexts. Although the initial hype surrounding all types of marketplaces appears to overstate their short-term impact, established companies across all types of industrial sectors are entering into collaborative, industry-wide initiatives to agree on common technical and trading standards to improve the...

With the growing need for ubiquitous connectivity, it is essential to develop business models which better fit noncommercial wireless communications services, particularly Wireless Community Networks (WCNs). Developing these business models for WCNs is challenging due to their public-private hybrid nature, lack of strong commercial incentives, high uncertainty, and the high complexity of the re...