Ragnhild Silkoset

Corporate Ownership and Control 13(2) p. 113-131 Doi: https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv13i2p12

Using evidence from paired franchisor-franchisee dyads, this study identifies how plural formed ownership mechanisms curb the risk of shirking and free riding in franchise systems. These risks have damaging effects on the invested capital of franchisee entrepreneurs. Although shirking and free riding produce a major source of uncertainty for the franchisee entrepreneur it can be limited by plural formed governance dimensions. These mechanisms have different effects based on unit status, i.e., company owned-units versus franchisee-units. We tested our model using a paired-dyadic data approach to mitigate the problem of shared-method variance among the psychometric measures. Results support the contention that competition limits shirking and free riding across inter-firm relationships, but did not support the hypothesized role of relational mechanisms in lowering potential shirking and free riding. Also, endogeneity test uncovered that dealer’s self-selected into either one of the plural form contracts. Drawing on the economics, marketing and management literatures, this study presents a basis for further investigation by placing international franchising entrepreneurship into a broader context of transactional and relational governance.

Journal of Business Ethics Published ahead of print Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2885-9

Years of research clearly shows that relying on traditional organizational power bases is not effective when companies want to promote business ethics and performance. It is not only that the use of legitimate power to establish ethics codes and coercive power to punish employees who do not comply does not work; this study—based on a multi-method research approach in the retail industry—indicates that the classic iron fist leads to unethical business values and lower service performance. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for forward-looking managers. The ethical attitudes and behaviors of employees within international organizations is a dynamic variable that is possible to change by the use of values-based leadership. Our extensive study of a large grocery store chain owned by a multinational corporation indicates that managers who lead by example will boost team values and commitment.

International Business Review 23(4) p. 774-784 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2013.11.009

Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 22(2) p. 169-184 Doi: https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679220211

B2B branding research indicates that corporate brand equity investments will increase suppliers’ price premiums. In contrast, economics of information studies suggest suppliers’ price premiums to decrease with their brand investments. This study, building on economics of information, tests these contrasting perspectives empirically in a B2B-services context. The results show that suppliers’ corporate brand investments are ineffective in creating price premiums because brand investments and price premiums provide substituting information of unobservable quality. Furthermore, suppliers’ price premiums decrease with buyers’ willingness to punish sellers’ quality deception. In contrast, the suppliers’ price premiums increase with their provision of warranties and with their customers’ quality sensitiveness.

Magma forskning og viten 16(2) p. 39-46

European Journal of Marketing 47(1-2) p. 174-197 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/03090561311285501

Purpose – This study aims to demonstrate that the investments in social capital do not always pay off. Although an important function of social capital is its potential for influencing co-located companies' opportunistic behavior, social capital also has a negative side. This study seeks to examine the negative and positive effects of the social capital dimensions on a company's profitability and on the perception that co-located firms free ride and shirk. Design/methodology/approach – By including data from 224 firms in 112 true-paired dyadic relationships, this study provides a unique and valid basis for empirical study within SEM analysis. The ability to link different information sources in the analysis creates a unique data set that controls for the confounding effects of common method biases in the analysis. Findings – Markets with a low degree of collective activity gain less advantage from cognitive social capital, because its primary effect lies in its transparency and ability to detect opportunistic behavior. The effect of relational social capital is more stable because of the positive direct effect on profitability. Structural social capital indicates markets that would benefit from creating private incentives with the intention to transfer collective activities into private payoffs. This reduces the need to follow up the co-localized businesses. Originality/value – This study shows that the dimensions of social capital vary regarding whether they reduce or facilitate the perceived withholding efforts by co-located firms.

International Business Review 21(5) p. 751-765 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2011.08.005

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of animosity theory in three areas; construct domain, the mediating role of affect and model testing. Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory and empirical research is carried out in two countries in order to explore the domain and to test the factor structure and the hypotheses through confirmatory analysis. Findings – We find animosity is a four-dimensional construct which impacts buying behavior through affect. Originality/value – The research extends the domain of the animosity construct to a four-dimensional structure rather than the two-dimensional structure used in most previous studies. It is the first study to empirically test an extended animosity domain and investigate the mediating role of affective emotional responses between animosity and buying intentions.

Magma forskning og viten 13(5) p. 46-53

Magma forskning og viten 13(1) p. 22-25

Journal of Business Ethics 97(3) p. 341-363 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0523-0

VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG

The literature operates with three perspectives on market orientation. These include market orientation as behavior (Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990), market orientation as a unique resource (Hunt and Morgan 1995) and market orientation as a dynamic learning capability (Sinkula 1994; Day 1994b). A company's level of market orientation will vary with regard to the perspectives, including factors affecting a company’s degree of market orientation and the effects of market orientation. Chapter 2 investigates these subjects. After investigating the different aspects of market orientation and after looking at variations in the factors affecting the level of market orientation, Chapter 3 will investigate factors that influence the market-oriented firm’s intelligence processing for the generation of knowledge. Through the establishment of measures for market orientation capabilities, I will identify determinants that affect knowledge generation in the area of market orientation (see Sinkula, Barker and Nordewier 1997; Day 1994a). Chapter 4 explains the method used to analyze the research model, and the validation of the measures, while Chapter 5 reports the results of the analysis. Chapter 6 describes the conclusions from the project, and offers suggestions for future research.

Magma forskning og viten 12(4)

Magma forskning og viten 11(2) p. 59-65

Journal of Business Venturing 22(4) p. 522-544

International Business Review 16(4) p. 405-424

Innovasjonsprosesser ? om innovasjoners odyssé, Hernes og Koefoed (red)

Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing 13

Traditionally, buyers encourage fierce price competition among suppliers. Such price competition has been the dominating strategy for purchase of commodities in business markets. Undoubtedly, this practice has been effective in many cases. Unfortunately, transactional purchasing practices could have negative effects because they demotivate suppliers to engage in value creating activities and incur substantial transaction costs. In contrast to competition, buyer-seller cooperation can also bring prices and total costs down. One problem of cooperation is that the parties can realize individual gains by defection while the other continues to cooperate. This article examines how industrial buyers of a commodity can overcome this problem and realize cost savings and low prices by motivating the supplier to cooperate by offering an extended time frame for purchases. The authors test the research hypotheses in a sample of 347 industrial buyers of electricity. The empirical tests provide general support for their predictions. The implications of the findings for marketing theory and practice are discussed.

Magma forskning og viten 9(4) p. 72-87

Anthology for Kjell Grønhaug in celebration of his 70th birthday. Anna Mette Fuglseth and Ingeborg Astrid Kleppe (eds) p. 101-129