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Background: Strong partnerships, community engagement, and multisectoral collaboration in the health supply chain are synergistic pillars towards achieving universal health coverage. In Rwanda, the health supply chain involves the collaboration of various stakeholders, including distributors, manufacturers, wholesalers, and customers. However, since the eruption and ending of COVID-19, there has not been any study to assess stakeholders' perspectives on the status of the benefits, challenges, and best practices of collaborative partnerships among health supply chain stakeholders in Rwanda. Therefore, this research was conducted to fill that gap in order to devise ways for improved visibility, coordination, and efficiency of the health supply chain management system in Rwanda. Methods: This quantitative cross-sectional study, collected data from 11th April to 18th May 2024. It involved 103 respondents from 54 institutions engaged in the management of the health commodities supply chain in Rwanda. These were the Ministry of Health, Rwanda Biomedical Center, Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority, Rwanda Medical Supply Ltd, other Central Medical Stores namely Bureau des Formations Médicales Agréées du Rwanda (BUFMAR) and Medical and Allied Service Solutions (MEDIASOL); private wholesale pharmacies, non-government organizations, and Health Facilities (hospitals). A sample size of 103 respondents was determined by the Yamane formula, and purposive sampling was used to select the respondents to complete a self-administered questionnaire specifically developed for this study. The outcome measures were perceived benefits, challenges, and strategies to overcome challenges of collaborative partnerships among health supply chain stakeholders in Rwanda. Results: Availability of health commodities ranked at 98.0%, infrastructure/accessibility of health services (86.4%), and cost-effectiveness (84.5%) were the most mentioned benefits. Most stated challenges included insufficient financial resources from stakeholders (84.5%), shortage of skilled staff (77.7%), and limited dialogue or lack of information sharing (69.9%). Most respondents agreed that collaborative partnerships can be improved by political will (96.1%), supply performance measurement (92.2%), improved financing policies (84.5%), fostering trust and transparency building (78.6%), and a well-structured health supply chain (72.5%). Conclusion: Establishing and strengthening stakeholder collaborations are essential for improved performance. Staff capacity strengthening and mutual information sharing will reduce risks, and improve forecasting, leading to cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the determinants that contribute to the successful adoption of social commerce businesses among women, including entrepreneurial mindset, perceived value, social commerce literacy, and collaborative ecosystems. It also explores the potential impact of collaborative ecosystems and the successful adoption of social commerce businesses on women's entrepreneurship. Targeting 223 women who are actively involved in social commerce businesses, data was analyzed using Smart PLS software. The results indicate that entrepreneurial mindset, perceived value, social commerce literacy, and collaborative ecosystems significantly impact the successful adoption of social commerce business among women. Furthermore, the study also found that the successful adoption of social commerce businesses and collaborative ecosystems has a significant impact on women's entrepreneurship. This study contributes to the literature and theory of social commerce adoption, women entrepreneurship, and collaborative ecosystems in several ways. It makes a valuable contribution to social commerce theory by spotlighting the intricate interplay among diverse factors that collectively shape the successful adoption of social commerce ventures among women. The study's findings also hold significant implications for a range of stakeholders, encompassing practical insights that can instigate positive transformations and enrich the realm of social commerce business and women's entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial and established firms form collaborative relationships to commercialize products. Through such ties, entrepreneurs seek (a) development help to hone ideas into marketable products and (b) access to markets. In most cases, entrepreneurs face a trade-off: they can be a big fish in a small pond, getting more attention and development help from a smaller firm with less market access, or a small fish in a big pond, getting less attention and help from a larger firm with more market access. Our study investigates what goes into choosing between these options. Drawing from resource dependence theory and an empirical study of tie formation between developers and publishers of PlayStation 2 video games, we develop and test a framework that identifies the key decision variables and focuses on two moderators--resource need evolution and resource uncertainty related to competition--that explain whether a big fish (more development help) or a big pond (more market access) drives tie formation. Our findings point to prospective peers as one of the significant decision criteria at tie formation and highlight the dynamic nature of resource dependence. Altogether, the results give resource dependence theory a dynamic element it has lacked in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has produced contradictory insights into how prior collaboration between organizations--their relational embeddedness--impacts collective collaborative performance. We theorize that the effect of relational embeddedness on collaborative success is contingent on the type of success under consideration, and we develop a typology of two kinds of success. We test our hypotheses using data from Crunchbase on a sample of almost 11,000 U.S. start-ups backed by venture-capital (VC) firms, using the VCs' previous collaborative experience to predict the type of success that the start-ups will experience. Our findings indicate that as prior collaborative experience within a group of VCs increases, a jointly funded start-up is more likely to exit by acquisition (which we call a focused success); with less prior experience among the group of VCs, a jointly funded start-up is more likely to exit by initial public offering (a broadcast success). Our results deepen understanding of the connections between organizational performance and collaboration networks, contributing to entrepreneurship research on the role of investors in technology ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We investigate the implications of the degree assortativity of intra‐firm networks for firms' innovation performance. We argue that prevalent patterns of collaborative relationships between organizational members can lead to variations in the levels of degree assortativity in intra‐firm networks, ranging from disassortative structures (highly central members connect with peripheral members) to assortative ones (highly central members connect with other highly central members and vice versa). These patterns influence knowledge access and resource mobilization pathways and are thus associated with various firm‐level invention outcomes. Using coarsened exact matching methodology and controlling for other characteristics of the intra‐firm network structures, we find that assortative structures in the pharmaceutical industry are associated with larger invention output, but inventions originating from assortative structures have lower average novelty and impact. Managerial Summary: A central challenge in knowledge‐based industries is the design of collaborative teams to increase innovative output. In this article, we show that firms in the pharmaceutical industry vary in the extent to which central inventors within a firm collaborate with peripheral inventors. Further, the ideal composition varies based on the desired innovative output: Firms with frequent collaborations between central inventors have higher inventive productivity, while firms with higher mixing between central and peripheral inventors generate inventions that are on average more novel and have higher impact. Results have implications for organizational design toward desired innovative outcomes, as well as management of strategic human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a response to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) must collaborate and work together; namely, using collaborative commerce (c-commerce). To some extent, SMEs have taken advantage of various web, e-marketplace, and social media resources to collaborate in their business activities. However, this only occurs to a partial extent. Consequently, a study was conducted to build a conceptual model of c-commerce for SMEs, for use as a standard in these collaborative activities. Data collection was performed through in-depth interviews, observation, and literature reviews. The sample selection was done via purposive sampling; specifically, SMEs' fashion products with high personalisation and good production quality. The conceptual model of c-commerce is based on the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), a suitable method for building models for new and complex ecosystems. The conceptual model is compared with a rich picture and then analysed. The final result of the conceptual model is employed to construct a c-commerce system for SMEs in creating joint products and sharing resources with their stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]