Supply Chain Governance: A Case of Cross Dock Management in the Automotive Industry

This research examines the ability of transaction cost economics and resource-based view constructs to explain a firm's decision to either develop a service capability internally or purchase the same service externally. This research objective is accomplished via the examination of two case studies that demonstrate two contrasting approaches to the provision of cross dock services in the automotive industry. The results of the research provide evidence that the firm boundary decision is sensitive to personal management perceptions of the underlying service, and thus, can be influenced as much by decidedly subjective criteria (e.g., a manager's view of the service as "a mere commodity" versus "strategically important") as by market realities or the more objective criteria implied by the constructs embodied in transaction cost economics and the resource-based view of the firm. Further, the research reveals the inconsistencies that can sometimes exist between the formal and informal integration mechanisms employed by a firm.

[1]  Bengt Klefsjö,et al.  The machine that changed the world , 2008 .

[2]  J. Barney.  Is the Resource-Based “View” a Useful Perspective for Strategic Management Research? Yes , 2001 .

[3]  David J. Collis,et al.  A resource‐based analysis of global competition: The case of the bearings industry , 1991 .

[4]  D. Teece.  Technology Transfer by Multinational Firms: The Resource Cost of Transferring Technological Know-How , 1977 .

[5]  R. Coase,et al.  COASE, THE NATURE OF THE FIRM, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF MARGINAL ANALYSIS , 2005 .

[6]  M. C. Jensen,et al.  THEORY OF THE FIRM: MANAGERIAL BEHAVIOR, AGENCY COSTS AND OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE , 1976 .

[7]  新郷 重夫,et al.  A study of the Toyota production system from an industrial engineering viewpoint , 1989 .

[8]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  The Toyota way : 14 management principles from the world's greatest manufacturer , 2004 .

[9]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[10]  Melissa A. Schilling,et al.  Disentangling the Theories of Firm Boundaries: A Path Model and Empirical Test , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[11]  R. Coase.  The Nature of the Firm , 1937 .

[12]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the firm and the evolutionary theory of the multinational corporation , 1993 .

[13]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Strategy Formation in an Adhocracy. , 1985 .

[14]  Jennifer Nicole Karlin.  Defining the lean logistics learning enterprise: Examples from Toyota's North American supply chain. , 2004 .

[15]  James P. Womack,et al.  Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation , 1996 .

[16]  S. Masten.  Transaction costs, mistakes, and performance: Assessing the importance of governance , 1993 .

[17]  J. Barney,et al.  The resource-based view of the firm: Ten years after 1991 , 2001 .

[18]  C. Marlene Fiol,et al.  Revisiting an identity-based view of sustainable competitive advantage , 2001 .

[19]  C. Galbraith.  Transferring Core Manufacturing Technologies in High-Technology Firms , 1990 .

[20]  J. Whitney.  Case Study Research , 1999 .

[21]  J. H. Dyer.  Does Governance Matter? Keiretsu Alliances and Asset Specificity as Sources of Japanese Competitive Advantage , 1996 .

[22]  O. Williamson.  The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting , 1985 .

[23]  洲崎 清,et al.  The new manufacturing challenge : techniques for continuous improvement , 1987 .

[24]  Joseph T. Mahoney,et al.  A resource-based theory of sustainable rents , 2001 .

[25]  O. Williamson,et al.  STRATEGY RESEARCH: GOVERNANCE AND COMPETENCE PERSPECTIVES , 1999 .

[26]  M. Kotabe,et al.  Gaining from vertical partnerships : Knowledge transfer, relationship duration and supplier performance improvement in the U.S. and Japanese automotive industries , 2003 .

[27]  Henry Mintzberg.  An Emerging Strategy of "Direct" Research , 1979 .

[28]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[29]  J. H. Dyer,et al.  Creating and managing a high‐performance knowledge‐sharing network: the Toyota case , 2000 .

[30]  K. R. Conner,et al.  A Resource-Based Theory of the Firm: Knowledge Versus Opportunism , 1996 .

[31]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage , 1998 .

[32]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[33]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  Strategic Supplier Segmentation: The Next “Best Practice” in Supply Chain Management , 1998 .

[34]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[35]  Oliver E. Williamson,et al.  The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting . By Oliver E. Williamson. (New York: Free Press, 1985. Pp. 450. $27.95.) , 1986 .

[36]  J. Barney.  Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy , 1986 .

[37]  L. Bengtsson,et al.  The Interorganizational Learning Dilemma: Collective Knowledge Development in Strategic Alliances , 1998 .

[38]  Edward W. Davis,et al.  Extended enterprise, the: gaining competitive advantage through collaborative supply chains , 2003 .

[39]  A SchillingMelissa,et al.  Disentangling the Theories of Firm Boundaries , 2002 .

[40]  G. Stock,et al.  Enterprise logistics and supply chain structure: the role of fit , 2000 .

[41]  Margaret A. Peteraf.  The cornerstones of competitive advantage: A resource‐based view , 1993 .

[42]  O. Williamson.  Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives , 1994 .

[43]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The core competence of the corporation’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. pp. . , 1990 .

[44]  Christina L. Ahmadjian,et al.  Keiretsu, Governance, and Learning: Case Studies in Change from the Japanese Automotive Industry , 2000 .

[45]  K. King–Aribisala.  Markets , 2004, Focus on Pigments.

[46]  M. C. Jensen,et al.  Harvard Business School; SSRN; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Harvard University - Accounting & Control Unit , 1976 .