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Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) represents a critical strategy for data-based decisionmaking within educational settings. Visual analysis is frequently used to analyze CBM data; thus, CBM vendors often automatically generate graphs based on student data to facilitate analysis. Differences in graph formatting are apparent across CBM vendors, and currently, the extent to which these differences may influence rater interpretation of data is unknown. As such, the current study sought to evaluate whether there were differences in rater evaluation of presence and magnitude of an intervention effect when identical data were plotted on graphs of four CBM vendors: AIMSweb, FastBridge Learning, easyCBM, and DIBELS Next. Results of the study indicated that visual analysts rated. Results of the study found that probability of identifying the presence of a treatment effect was similar across vendors. However, differences emerged with respect to ratings of magnitude of effect, with raters indicating the greatest magnitude of intervention effect for easyCBM and DIBELS Next graphs. As data graphs generated by CBM vendors may be utilized by school personnel to make decisions regarding the continuation, discontinuation, or alteration of intervention procedures, the results of the study indicate the need for increased consideration in the manner in which data are presented visually such that accurate decisions are made regarding student progress and response to intervention., Author(s): Evan H. Dart [sup.1], Ethan R. Van Norman [sup.2], David A. Klingbeil [sup.3], Keith C. Radley [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.170693.a, 0000 0001 2353 285X, University of South Florida, [...]

Abstract Supply chain disruptions negatively impact the economy and individual organizations. However, as many companies recover from disruptions (COVID-19 being a recent example), less attention has been paid to how [...]

We model the interaction of a single buyer with a single supplier within a market in a developing country with homogeneous local suppliers and homogeneous buyers from developed nations. The buyer sources a product from a supplier and then inspects and sells it on the market, subject to quality standards such as regulations about chemical content. Suppliers decide how much effort to exert to ensure compliance with quality standards. Buyers are assumed to comply with contracts because they are based in countries with strong legal systems. We assume that legal enforcement of the supplier's contractual obligations is not possible. We model the interaction between buyer and supplier as a repeated game in which the partnership can be terminated by the buyer if the supplier refuses to pay penalties for quality violations. After termination, the buyer and supplier each search for a new business partner. We model the interaction between buyer and supplier using relational contacts in which penalties for quality failures are set so that the supplier voluntarily pays them. We show that optimal relational contracts have dynamic form in this setting because the value of the outside option available to the parties, if the relationship is terminated, is determined by the contract terms. We characterize the properties of the optimal dynamic equilibria and analyze the use of third-party quality certifications within this framework. History: Accepted by Martin Lariviere, operations management. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2990. Keywords: supply chain * sustainability * quality * relational contracts, 1. Introduction On November 24, 2012, more than 100 people were killed in a Tazreen garment factory fire in Bangladesh. Investigations found that conditions in the factory were unsafe and [...]

We study the impact of multidimensional bargaining and the location of inventory risk on the performance of a two-stage supply chain, We conduct a controlled human subjects experiment where a retailer and supplier either interact through ultimatum offers or dynamically bargain over contract terms, including a wholesale price and, potentially, an order quantity. We also manipulate whether the risk associated with unsold inventory lies with the retailer or the supplier or is endogenously determined in the bargaining process. One key insight is that supply chain efficiency is significantly higher when the order quantity is included in the negotiation and that, contrary to the normative theory, this leads to a Pareto improvement whereby both the supplier and retailer earn higher profits. A second important result, also counter to the normative theory, is that the party incurring the cost of unsold inventory always earns a lower profit than its counterpart, regardless of the bargaining environment or inventory risk location. To explain these data, we posit that retailers and suppliers are affected by an anchoring bias and demonstrate that it can explain many of our results. History: Accepted by Gad Allon, operations management. Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Cornell University and the University of Texas at Dallas. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ mnsc.2017.2985. Keywords: behavioral operations management * bargaining * supply chain contracting * inventory risk allocation, 1. Introduction Supply chain contracting is an important operations management topic that has attracted much attention in the literature (e.g., Cachon 2003, 2004; Netessine and Rudi 2006; Ozer and Wei [...]

The authors examine the upstream impact of a firm's customer-centric organizational structure on its supplier, including both positive effects of greater revenue and negative effects of demanding services that raise the supplier's costs. These countervailing effects on supplier profit are moderated by characteristics of the firm's buying center and the firm-supplier relationship, in accordance with the value capture literature. Study 1 examines the proposed firm-level financial effects of the dual processes, using surveys of industrial firms matched with secondary data from their supplier. Study 2 assesses the supplier-level net impact of the dual processes, using publicly available data to shed light on the upstream financial impact of firms' customer-centric structures across a broad sample of Fortune 500 suppliers. Findings highlight the need for a supplier to proactively assess the structure of each buyer-firm, as a supplier can take steps to mitigate cost effects and enhance revenue effects., Author(s): Andrew T. Crecelius [sup.1] , Justin M. Lawrence [sup.2] , Ju-Yeon Lee [sup.3] , Son K. Lam [sup.4] , Lisa K. Scheer [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000000106344187, grid.265892.2, Collat [...]

This study investigates the impact of supplier development efforts on the buying firm's seven-year ROA financial performance window ranging from 2007 to 2013 under conditions of an exogenous economic shock that affected firms worldwide from 2007-2012. Based on an analysis of a total of 210 time-point observations consisting of primary survey data from 2012 that measures the average application of supplier development efforts of 30 firms in South Korea's top manufacturers, along with seven years of actual return on assets performance. A linear mixed effects model with random intercepts and slopes shows that supplier development practices that are focused on building intimate relationships help in creating robust supply chains, while practices that rely on threats and pressure do not have positive outcomes. Specifically, operational knowledge transfer activities help buyer firms in mitigating the negative effects of upstream disruptions arising from supplier insolvency and production funding difficulties. Through the unique lens of a long-term longitudinal perspective that prior studies have not stressed as much, findings from this study provide additional evidence to the ongoing debate on the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining intimate buyer-supplier relationships., The global economic crisis in 2007 was a time when management capabilities of firms were put to the test. Hoberg and Alicke (2013) found that the change in annual orders [...]

Scholarly emphasis on the significance of integrating customer and supplier work processes to co-create customer value is increasingly important. While suppliers and customers working closely is imperative for the success of the value co-creation (VCC) process, customers' reluctance at times to allow suppliers into their environments has not been fully explored. The present study is an expansive qualitative inquiry consisting of 114 in-depth interviews across 57 business-to-business evaluations that aims to understand both the nuanced nature of customer non-receptivity to specific VCC initiatives and those strategies suppliers may adopt to successfully manage it. Findings elicit three potential kinds of customer non-receptivity: apathy, ambivalence, and annoyance. Furthermore, conclusions propose six strategies suppliers may use to manage customer non-receptivity: intrinsic initiative, inspiration and implementation, complexity absorption, value alignment, credibility building, and objective centrality., Author(s): Avinash Malshe [sup.1] , Scott B. Friend [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 2218 5518, grid.267207.6, Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas, , 1000 LaSalle Avenue, 55403, [...]

An increasing number of information technology vendors are partnering with residential care providers, and based on their responses in Behavioral Healthcare Executive's Information Technology Vendor Survey, it's a trend that [...]

We study the relationship between a client and a vendor in value co-creation environments such as information technology projects. We consider that the client gets utility from the project throughout [...]

Introduction Both specialized emergency care and basic health-care services depend on the presence of a well-staffed and well-trained, health-care workforce. Yet, despite the high burden of disease in sub-Saharan Africa, [...], Objective To characterize patent and proprietary medicine vendors and shops in Nigeria and to assess their ability to help Improve access to high-quality, primary health-care services. Methods In 2013 and 2014, a census of patent and proprietary medicine shops in 16 states of Nigeria was carried out to determine: (i) the size and coverage of the sector; (ii) the basic characteristics of shops and their staff; and (iii) the range of products stocked for priority health services, particularly for malaria, diarrhoea and family planning. The influence of the medical training of people In charge of the shops on the health-care products stocked and registration with official bodies was assessed by regression analysis. Findings The number of shops per 100 000 population was higher In southern than in northern states, but the average percentage of people in charge with medical training across local government areas was higher in northern states: 52.6% versus 29.7% in southern states. Shops headed by a person with medical training were significantly more likely to stock artemisinin-based combination therapy, oral rehydration salts, zinc, injectable contraceptives and intrauterine contraceptive devices. However, these shops were less likely to be registered with the National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers and more likely to be registered with the regulatory body, the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria. Conclusion Many patent and proprietary medicine vendors In Nigeria were medically trained. With additional training and oversight, they could help Improve access to basic health-care services. Specifically, vendors with medical training could participate in task-shifting interventions. Objectif Caracteriser les vendeurs et magasins de specialites pharmaceutiques et de medicaments brevetes au Nigeria et evaluer leur capacite de contribuer a l'amelioration de l'acces a des services de soins primaires de qualite. En 2013 et 2014, un recensement des magasins de specialites pharmaceutiques et de medicaments brevetes a eterealise dans 16 Etats du Nigeria afin de determiner: (i) la taille et l'offre de ce secteur; (ii) les caracteristlques de base des magasins et de leur personnel; et (iii) la gamme de p.roduits en stock pour les soins prioritaires, en particulier pour le paludisme, la diarrhee et la plantation familiale. L'influence de la formation medicale des personnes responsables des magasins sur les produits en stock et l'inscription aupres d'organismes officlels a ete evaluee au moyen d'une analyse de regression. Le nombre de magasins pour 100 000 habitants etait plus eleve dans les Etats du Sud que dans ceux du Nord, mais le pourcentage moyen de personnes chargees de la formation medicale dans les zones de gouvernement local etait superieur dans les Etats du Nord: 52,6% contre 29,7% dans les Etats du Sud. Les magasins diriges par une personne ayant une formation medicale etaient sensiblement plus nombreux a avoir en stock des associations medicamenteuses comportant de l'artemisinine, des seis de rehydratation orale, du zinc, des contraceptlfs injectables et des dispositifs intra-uterins. Cependant, ces magasins etaient moins nombreux a etre inscrits aupres de l'Association nationale des distributeurs de medicaments brevetes et de specialites pharmaceutiques et plus nombreux a l'etre aupres de l'organisme de reglementation, le Conseil des pharmaciens du Nigeria. Conclusion De nombreux vendeurs de specialites pharmaceutiques et de medicaments brevetes au Nigeria avaient regu une formation medicale. Un controle et une formation complementaire leur permettraient de contribuer a ameliorer l'acces aux services medicaux de base. Les vendeurs ayant une formation medicale pourraient notamment participer aux interventions de transferi des taches. Objetivo Caracterizar los proveedores y establecimientos de medicamentos patentados y de venta libre en Nigeria y evaluar su capacidad de ayudar a mejorar el acceso a servicios sanitarios primarios de alta calidad. Metodos En 2013 y 2014, se llevo a cabo un censo de los establecimientos de medicamentos patentados y de venta libre de 16 estados de Nigeria con'el objetivo de de determinar: (i) el tamano y cobertura del sector; (ii) las caracteristicas basicas de los establecimientos y el personal; y (iii) la gama de productos destinados a servicios sanitarios prioritarios, en concreto para la malaria, la diarrea y la planificacion familiar. Un analisis de regresion evaluo la influencia de la formacion medica de las personas a cargo de los establecimientos de productos sanitarios almacenados y el registro en los organismos oficiales. Resultados El numero de establecimientos por cada 100 000 habitantes era mayor en los estados del sur que en los del norte, aunque el porcentaje medio de personas con formacion medica en ambitos gubernamentales locales era superioren los estados del norte: un 52,6% frente a un 29,7% en los estados del sur. Los establecimientos dirigidos por una persona con formacion medica tenian almacenados mas productos para tratamientos combinados basados en la artemisinina, sales de rehidratacion oral, zinc, anticonceptivos inyectables y dispositivos anticonceptivos intrauterinos. No obstante, era menos probable que estos establecimientos estuvieran registrados en la Asociacion Nacional de Comerciantes de Medicamentos Patentados y de Venta Libre, pero si en el organismo regulador, el Consejo de Farmaceuticos de Nigeria. Conclusion Se proporciono formacion medica a varios proveedores de medicamentos patentados y de venta libre en Nigeria. Con mayor formacion y supervision, podrian ayudar a mejorar el acceso a servicios sanitarios basicos. En concreto, los proveedores con formacion medica podrian participar en intervenciones de rotacion de tareas.

Eye-catching self-employed female Akha souvenir vendors have become part of the informal sector in Thailand that is linked to the global tourism economy. Data from nine months' qualitative research are analysed in the framework of 'mixed embeddedness' to explore the opportunities and risks with which ethnic minority street vendors in Bangkok are confronted. The role of social capital merits analysis, and Akha vendors' practices of economic action require examination. Comprehensive assessment of ethnic minority entrepreneurs with respect to their everyday economic activities and prospects must systematically integrate individual and collective action into socio-economic and politico-institutional contexts. Keywords: street vending, mixed embeddedness, ethnic minority entrepreneurs, tourism and migration, Thailand, Akha., The work of self-employed Akha souvenir sellers in Thailand's capital city is situated at the intersection of tourism and migration, two central social and economic phenomena of our times (Williams [...]

We study a model of a firm managing its inventory of a single product by sourcing supplies from two supply sources, a regular supplier who offers a lower unit cost and a longer lead time than a second, emergency, supplier. A practically implementable policy for such a firm is a tailored base-surge (TBS) policy [Allon G, Van Mieghem JA (2010) Global dual sourcing: Tailored base-surge allocation to near- and offshore production. Management Sci. 56(1):110-124] to manage its inventory. Under this policy, the firm procures a constant quantity from the regular supplier in every period and dynamically makes procurement decisions for the emergency supplier. Allon and Van Mieghem describe this practice as using the regular supplier to meet a base level of demand and the emergency supplier to manage demand surges, and they conjecture that this practice is most effective when the lead time difference between the two suppliers is large. We confirm these statements in two ways. First, we show the following analytical result: when demand is composed of a base demand random component plus a surge demand random component, which occurs with a certain small probability, the best TBS policy is close to optimal (over all policies) in a well-defined sense. Second, we also numerically investigate the cost effectiveness of the best TBS policy on a test bed of problem instances. The emphasis of this investigation is the study of the effect of the lead time difference between the two suppliers. Our study reveals that the cost difference between the best TBS policy and the optimal policy decreases dramatically as the lead time of the regular supplier increases. On our test bed, this cost difference decreases from an average (over the test bed) of 21% when the lead time from the regular supplier is two periods (the emergency supplier offers instant delivery) to 3.5% when that lead time is seven periods. Keywords: inventory/production systems; dual sourcing; multiple suppliers; optimal policies History: Received January 5, 2012; accepted December 9, 2013, by Martin Lariviere, operations management. Published online in Articles in Advance September 10, 2014., 1. Introduction We study a periodically reviewed, single location inventory system experiencing stochastic demand and having access to two supply sources, one with a lower unit cost ('R' for regular) [...]

To stay abreast of current supply-market pricing, it is common for procurement managers to frequently organize auctions among a pool of qualified suppliers (the supply base). Sole awards can alienate losing suppliers and cause them to defect from the supply base. To maintain the supply base and thereby control the high costs of finding and qualifying new suppliers, buyers often employ split awards, which in turn inflate purchase costs. This results in a trade-off that we investigate in an infinite-horizon stationary setting in which the relative cost position of each supplier is randomly drawn in every period. We characterize the optimal split award that minimizes long-run costs (purchasing and qualification) and show that maintaining a constant supply-base size--using a 'qualify-up-to' policy--is optimal for the buyer. We find that neither the extent of multisourcing nor the buyer's value of split awards compared with winner-take-all auctions are monotonic in the qualification cost and that split-award auctions can increase ex ante system, buyer, and supplier benefits simultaneously. To our knowledge, this is the first paper studying split-award auctions for supply-base maintenance, and it will hopefully galvanize further research on this important topic. Keywords: auctions; split awards; multisourcing; supply base History: Received November 25, 2010; accepted August 4, 201.3, by Yossi Aviv, operations management. Published online in Articles in Advance February 28, 2014., 1. Introduction In rapidly changing industries, the frequent evolution of products and technologies makes it difficult for a procurement manager to discover the production costs of its suppliers. In such [...]

Prior literature has shown that, for a symmetric information setting, supplier encroachment into a reseller's market can mitigate double marginalization and benefit both the supplier and the reseller. This paper extends the investigation of supplier encroachment to the environment where the reseller might be better informed than the supplier. We find that the launch of the supplier's direct channel can result in costly signaling behavior on the part of the reseller, in which he reduces his order quantity when the market size is small. Such a downward order distortion can amplify double marginalization. As a result, in addition to the 'win-win' and 'win-lose' outcomes for the supplier and the reseller, supplier encroachment can also lead to 'lose-lose' and 'lose-win' outcomes, particularly when the reseller has a significant efficiency advantage in the selling process and the prior probability of a large market is low. We further explore the implications of those findings for information management in supply chains. Complementing the conventional understanding, we show that with the ability to encroach, the supplier may prefer to sell to either a better informed or an uninformed reseller in different scenarios. On the other hand, as a result of a supplier developing encroachment capability, a reseller either may choose not to develop an advanced informational capability or may become more willing to find a means of credibly sharing his information. Keywords: direct and indirect channel; information asymmetry; supplier encroachment History: Received March 13, 2012; accepted May 12, 2013, by Yossi Aviv, operations management. Published online in Articles in Advance November 4, 2013., 1. Introduction Many upstream manufacturers have invested in direct channels such as online stores, catalog sales, and factory outlets (Nair and Pleasance 2005). With these established direct channels, manufacturers may [...]

We deal with the problem of a profit-maximizing vendor selling a perishable product. At the beginning of a planning cycle, the vendor determines a minimum committed order per period. During [...]

The supplier-buyer relations at Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. are analyzed to determine the role of the history of interaction between organizational boundary spanners and between organizations on the creation of trust among companies. Results indicate that history influences trust formation. The impacts of organizational similarity on interorganizational interaction is also examined.

Many factors inhibit the successful collaborative relationships between companies and suppliers, such as low level of trust and differences that result in friction. A strong collaboration between the two parties lies on what they do togethh er, what they perceive of each other and the manner by which they interact. Details of several successful partnerships between leading companies and suppliers are presented.

Pricing and quantity decisions are critical to many firms across different industries. We study the joint price/quantity newsvendor model where only a single quantity and price decision is made, such as a fashion or holiday product that cannot be replenished and where the price is advertised nationally and cannot be changed. Demand is uncertain and sensitive to price. We develop a method for easily finding the optimal price and quantity that applies to more general cases than the usual one in which uncertainty is either additive, multiplicative, or a combination of the two. We represent a quantity by its fractile of the probability distribution of demand for a given price. We use a standard approach to approximating a given distribution with a finite number of representative fractiles and assume that these fractile functions are piecewise linear functions of the price. We identify effects that are not usually seen in a joint price/quantity newsvendor model. For example, although the optimal quantity is a decreasing function of the unit cost, the optimal price can be nonmonotone in the unit cost and we shed insight into why. We illustrate that using a simplified structure of demand uncertainty can result in substantially lower profits. Key words: pricing; simultaneous production planning; newsvendor model; supply chain management, 1. Introduction Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released in July 2005, broke all publishing records. In 24 hours, the book sold 6.9 million copies in the United [...]

We examine the formation of buyer-seller links when exchange can take place only if such a link exists. Sellers produce products of different qualities, and multiple sellers can form a sellers' association to pool their customers setting uniform prices. Buyers form trade links with individual sellers or sellers' associations. We show which buyer-seller links will form and find the set of links that are stable and show how these links influence prices. We also show that a trade network mismatch may occur where a high-quality good remains unsold even without an economy-wide excess supply of goods.

A new approach to value systems called value grid is proposed with reference to supplier-manufacturer relations in telecom, pharmaceutical, auto and steel industries.

Community colleges serve a large and diverse student population. Vendors and community colleges would be well served by smaller database packages with focus on non-traditional studies. Untapped key elements vendors should consider in promoting sales with community colleges include: timely responses, practical license structures, and consistent database offerings. Fostering positive vendor/community college relationships is assisted by strategies to address current economic realities, customizing database contents, focus groups and other forums to communicate mutual needs and capabilities. Proactive librarians should assist vendors in understanding the unique needs of community colleges. KEYWORDS. Community colleges, California, collection development, library consortia, database selection, electronic resources

Manufacturing firms in capital-intensive industries face inherent demand volatility for their products and the inability to change their capacity quickly. To cope with these challenges, manufacturers often enter into contracts with their customers that offer greater certainty of supply in return for more predictable orders. In this paper, we study a 'forecast-commitment' contract in which the customer provides a forecast, the supplier makes a production commitment to the customer based on the forecast, and the customer's minimum order quantity is a function of the forecast and committed quantities. We provide a complete analysis of the supplier's decisions when there is a single customer facing uncertain demand. We first show that the supplier has two dominant commitment strategies: committing to the forecast or committing to the production quantity. We then characterize the jointly optimal commitment and production strategy for the supplier and extend the results to consider a capacity constraint. We show that the proposed contract can moderate the supplier's motivation to underproduce, and due to the structure of the contract and the form of the supplier's optimal strategy, also limits the customer's incentive to overforecast. We also provide results for a capacitated two-customer example, which show that the supplier's choice of production quantity for each customer is not necessarily nondecreasing in the total available capacity. Key words: supply contracts; information sharing; capacity allocation; quantity flexibility, 1. Introduction As supply chains become more global and decentralized, companies are increasingly adopting mechanisms that facilitate and encourage the sharing of reliable demand and supply information. The need for [...]

Game theory, which is used to examine retailer's management of customer orders, is presented.

A group of small retailers in highly integrated relationships with their major supplier are found to outperform competitors who operate more independently, to be more committed to their supplier and to be more prepared to invest in the relationship. In this paper, the benefits delivered through these integrated relationships are characterised as service, cost, flexibility and image benefits, which are in turn shown to ostensibly embody resources, capabilities and competencies that strengthen competitiveness. This classification of benefit typologies is novel and the results provide the first empirical evidence that the transfer of benefits through business-to-business relationships can positively affect small firm performance, commitment and relationship investments. No significant difference in trust was identified between small firms engaged in integrated and more independent relationships., Introduction Since Dwyer, Schurr and Oh (1997) identified a scarcity of research into relationship aspects of buyer-seller interactions, researchers and practitioners have sought to extend their understanding of business from [...]

The Chinese concept of Guanxi is studied with respect to business relationships. The study focuses on a buying firms' trust in a supplier's salesperson and reveals that such a trust is determined on the characteristics of the salesperson.

Byline: James E. Parco (1), Amnon Rapoport (2,3) Keywords: bargaining; sealed-bid; k-double auction; bonus procedure; truthful revelation; experiment Abstract: The sealed-bid k-double auction mechanism for two-person bargaining under incomplete information can be extended by providing a bonus for both traders if, and only if, an agreement is reached. Brams and Kilgour (1996, Group Decision and Negotiation, 5, 239--262) proved that there is a unique level of bonus, namely, half the difference between the buyer's bid and seller's ask, that induces the traders to bargain truthfully. Stein and Parco (2001, unpublished manuscript) extend the theoretical work to the case of partial bonus levels that reduce, but do not completely eliminate, misrepresentation of the reservation values. In the present study, we experimentally investigate the effects of providing different bonus values on the misrepresentation of the bargainers' reservation values. Our results show that implementation of a bonus has a significant impact on bargaining behavior but not nearly to the extent predicted by the equilibrium analysis. A reinforcement-based learning model originally proposed for the no bonus case accounts quite well for the results of all three experimental conditions. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Management, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, 80840, USA (2) Dept. of Management and Policy, University of Arizona, 405 McClelland Hall, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA (3) Dept. of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong Article History: Registration Date: 10/02/2005

The gap between decision heuristics of customers and salespersonsE influence strategies, ascertaining the effect of the presence of a etop-of-the-lineE (TOTL) effect on product choice is bridged by using a compact disc (CD) player product line. The product choice results, using a net step-up analysis, indicate that the TOTL sales tactic was effective in producing higher product choices.

A field experiment using computer-interactive interviews is applied to test the effects of buyer-seller relationships on selling effectiveness in the context of an individual purchase decision. The results show that when buyers are in a relational exchange with a seller, they evaluate the sellerEs product more highly and are more likely to consider and choose the sellerEs product for purchase.

The effect of ebuyer firm downsizingE on buying firm structure and buyer-seller relationships is examined. The findings indicate that survivorsE collective negative outcome expectations, regarding their organizationEs downsizing efforts, have a strong negative impact on respondentsE propensity toward trust, commitment, and flexibility in their relationships with suppliers.

The relational exchange and its likely outcomes are conceptualized, and the empirical evidence from the distributor perspective is substantiated. This analysis supports the operationalization of relational exchange as a second-order factor composed of perceptions of customer orientation, perceptions of supplier investment, and perceptions of supplier communication.

Byline: Rachel E. Kranton (1), Deborah F. Minehart (2) Keywords: Key words:Bipartite graphs, outside options, link externalities; JEL classification: D00, D40 Abstract: Abstract. This paper studies competition in a network and how a network structure determines agents' individual payoffs. It constructs a general model of competition that can serve as a reduced form for specific models. The paper shows how agents' outside options, and hence their shares of surplus, derive from 'opportunity paths' connecting them to direct and indirect alternative exchanges. Analyzing these paths, results show how third parties' links affect different agents' bargaining power. Even distant links may have large effects on agents' earnings. These payoff results, and the identification of the paths themselves, should prove useful to further analysis of network structure. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA , US (2) Department of Economics, Boston University, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, USA , US