This paper starts from the observation that firms are increasingly engaging in collaborations with their input suppliers, even as they are reducing the extent to which they are vertically integrated with those suppliers. This fact seems incompatible with traditional theories of the firm, which...

This paper provides a theoretical framework for understanding why high-involvement work practices are adopted more rapidly by some organizations than others. Drawing on evolutionary economics and innovation literature, we identify three key drivers: 1) the level of complementary human resource...

This paper uses case studies of shop-floor problem-solving at three automotive assembly plants to examine organizational influences on process quality improvement. Three complex quality problems - water leaks, paint defects, and electrical defects - were chosen because they are universally found...

This paper starts from the observation that firms are increasingly engaging in collaborations with their suppliers, even as they are reducing the extent to which they are vertically integrated with those suppliers. This fact seems incompatible with traditional theories of the firm, which argue...

Early research on inter-organizational trust drew on theories about social ties among individuals, for example, duration of ties and amount of interaction, yet these proved inadequate to explain the diverse arrangements arising in international business. Dyer and Chu's award-winning JIBS paper...

Using a unique international data set from a 1989–90 survey of 62 automotive assembly plants, the author tests two hypotheses: that innovative HR practices affect performance not individually but as interrelated elements in an internally consistent HR “bundle†or system; and...