Institutional Readiness and Small to Medium-Sized Enterprise Alliance Formation

Interplay between Networking Capability and Hospital Performance in Indonesia's Medical Tourism Sector

Medical tourism is an industry that is currently developing, but research that focuses on the analysis of supply and institutions as a unit in Indonesia is sparse. This research aims to investigate the variables of digital transformation and resource integration that influence hospital performance, considering the expansion of hospitals' capacities for networking in medical tourism. A structural equation model is used to evaluate the hypothesis. According to our findings, digital transformation and resource integration both have a beneficial effect on networking capabilities. On the other hand, the implementation of digital transformation does not improve hospital performance. Digital transformation has a good link with hospital performance but has no statistically significant effect on hospital performance. In the meantime, the capabilities of resource integration and networking have a positive effect on the overall operation of hospitals. In a similar vein, the ecosystem of medical tourism helps to improve the connection between a hospital's networking capabilities and its overall performance. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will serve as a reference for those in the policymaking and healthcare industries to develop medical tourism.

A substitute for poor institutions? Interorganizational affiliations in the alliance formation process

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how the home country institutional development influences the alliance formation process.

Design/methodology/approach

A network of strategic alliances between 95 airlines over a 5-year period is analyzed with stochastic actor-oriented models [i.e. Simulation investigation for empirical network analysis (SIENA)]. Robustness analyses use a subsample of these airlines over a period of 10 years.

Findings

The results demonstrate that the membership in a firm group and a high share of state ownership are more beneficial for the number of alliances if the firm originates from a country with low institutional development.

Practical implications

Firms from less developed countries can use affiliations (e.g. to firm groups or the government) as signals to attract international alliance partners.

Social implications

Policymakers from less developed countries should support the development of (local) firm groups to stimulate interorganizational cooperation.

Originality/value

Firms form alliances based on two aspects: preferences for alliance partners and attractiveness to potential partners. Prior studies outlined that institutional development affects the preferences of firms for alliance partners. This study demonstrates how the institutional development influences the attractiveness to potential partners.

DETERMINANTS OF PROPENSITY VS. INTENSITY OF INNOVATION CO-OPERATION FOR SMEs

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), innovation co-operation represents a promising avenue to get around limitations and increase their innovation capacity. But under which conditions are firms more susceptible to engage in such ventures? The purpose of this research paper is to further our understanding of the factors contributing to innovation co-operation for manufacturing SMEs from the firm’s perspective. Following an online and telephone survey with SME managers ([Formula: see text]), we studied the presence or absence of innovation co-operation. We subsequently investigated the intensity of innovation co-operation with market partners (clients, competitors, consultants, and suppliers) and research partners (laboratories, post-secondary education institutions, technology transfer centers, and universities), addressing gaps in a literature dominated by binary analysis. Our empirical analyses suggest that innovation co-operation is promoted by several key determinants. However, it highlights there are many important differences in the determinants of propensity vs. intensity of innovation co-operation.

Environmental uncertainty affects inter-organisational partner selection: The mediating role of cost and strategy in alliance motivations among SMEs

This paper investigate the degree to which environment uncertainty affects inter-organisational alliance partner selection in small to medium-sized enterprises and blends the resource-based view in a multiple-mediator model in which different dimensions of alliance motivation (cost and strategy) act as mediating mechanisms that transmit the positive effects of environment uncertainty to partner selection criteria. Four hypotheses are developed and then tested on a survey data sample of 108 firms in the Taiwanese steel industry. Our research findings show the mediating effects of alliance motivation cost and strategy and understanding how environment uncertainty impacts alliance motivation (cost and strategy) within small to medium-sized enterprises.