HCBE Theses and Dissertations
Campus Access Only
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Date of Award
2011
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Department
H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship
Advisor
Michelle A Marks
Committee Member
Leslie A DeChurch
Committee Member
Barry Barnes
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that relational behaviors play a role in helping firms improve the performance of their strategic alliances, but there is still a preponderance of attention given to firm level elements and a dearth of literature investigating lower levels of analysis. This has helped create a "managerial relevance gap" (Bell, den Ouden, & Ziggers, 2006) between theoretical and operational requirements. This study attempts to fill one portion of that gap by investigating individual and team level factors that shape decisions to promotively collaborate with partners in alliances. The question of interest in this paper was whether supervisors and workgroup peers influence individuals to collaborate in an alliance, and whether those individuals consequently perform collaborative behaviors that improve performance. An analysis of survey responses from 1,242 members of a pharmaceutical sales organization produced three key findings. The first indicates that individuals' attitudes toward collaboration are related to collaborative behaviors, and that these behaviors in turn are positively related to performance. The second outcome of the study shows that attitudes of one's peer group do influence collaborative attitudes while those of one's supervisor do not. Third, there is an insignificant relationship between collaborative attitudes and performance. While evidence of indirect effects mediation was shown, it is therefore not possible to demonstrate either a full or partial mediation effect between collaborative attitudes and performance. These findings, along with the limitations of this study, are discussed. Finally, implications for future research and managerial practice are explored.
NSUWorks Citation
Dave Luvison. 2011. Bridging the Managerial Relevance Gap in Strategic Alliances: An Investigation of the Influence of Supervisors and Workgroup Peers on Collaborative Attitudes, Behaviors and Performance. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship. (68)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hsbe_etd/68.