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PurposeThis paper seeks to adopt a resource‐based approach to investigate the link between procurement capabilities, internet resources, and performance. It aims to cover two gaps in the operations management literature: the missing links between procurement capabilities and the performance of a firm, and the role of internet resources in shaping such links.Design/methodology/approachAfter the identification of two key capabilities in procurement and the introduction of internet resources, the relationships with performance are empirically tested in a sample of 93 firms in the textile and clothing industry in Italy. Data were analysed using a partial least‐squares technique and main and interaction effects were investigated.FindingsFirst, process efficiency and process integration capabilities provide a significant (and equally important) contribution to firm performance, but there are no complementary effects between them. Second, and contrary to expectations, the internet has been found to enhance the effect of process integration capability, but not that of process efficiency capability. Third, a new finding reveals that the internet not only interacts with each of these capabilities in procurement separately, but it also enhances the synergistic effect between them.Research limitations/implicationsThe investigation is based on a self‐reported cross‐sectional analysis, and it is specific to a single industry and the procurement of one type of material. Nonetheless, it suggests a number of different implications. Achieving excellence in procurement requires the development of distinct capabilities, because the management of core purchasing activities and the integration of procurement in the supply chain are not complementary. Contrary to common expectations, employing the internet in procurement has little power to reduce transaction costs, although it can be fruitful for improving inter‐functional coordination. The internet can also help in "putting the pieces together" by exploiting the otherwise latent complementary effects between procurement capabilities.Originality/valueThis paper is unique in that it employs a strategic management theory – the resource‐based view – to unpack the mechanisms through which procurement activities contribute to performance. It represents a first response to the call for research into the use of such theoretical frameworks which has recently been made in the operations management literature. The paper also offers the first empirical test of how the internet interacts with existing capabilities in the procurement domain, providing clear guidance on how to exploit its often undervalued potential.

Service innovation is a primary source of competitive advantage and a research priority. However, empirical evidence about the impact of innovativeness on new service adoption is inconclusive. A plausible explanation is that service innovation has thus far been studied using new product frameworks that do not fully capture the complexity of new service assessments by customers. We propose a different, holistic framework, which posits that new service adoption does not depend on individual service attributes, but on specific configurations of such attributes. We investigate this framework in a luxury hotel service context, using qualitative comparative analysis, a set-membership technique that is new to service research and suitable for configuration analyses. Results confirm that individual service attributes have complex trade-off effects and that only specific combinations of attributes act as sufficient conditions for new service adoption. Moreover, the composition of such combinations differs according to the different coproduction requirements. Our findings contribute to managerial practice by providing new insights for improving the service-development process and the launch strategy for new services. They also augment extant service knowledge by demonstrating why interdependencies among various innovation attributes are important to consider for gaining an accurate understanding of new service adoption.

An increasing body of research suggests interorganizational relationships as being critical to the financial performance of firms. Similarly, innovation has been considered a key driver of the growth and success of firms. However, little work has examined how the extent firms' interorganizational relationship commitment and diversity influence their innovation focus and performance. In this article, the authors show that diverse interorganizational relationships reduce the positive impact of innovation focus on firm performance. In contrast, interorganizational relationship commitment increases service innovation focus and strengthens the innovation focus—firm performance relationship. The findings are based on multisource and longitudinal performance data and highlight the positive impact of relationship commitment on the effects of service innovation focus on firm performance. Implications for management and research are discussed.

AbstractWe study the role of perceived threats from other cultures induced by terrorist attacks and criminal events on public discourse and support for radical‐right parties. We develop a rule which allocates Twitter users to electoral districts in Germany and use a machine‐learning method to compute measures of textual similarity between the tweets they produce and tweets by accounts of the main German parties. Using the exogenous timing of attacks, we find that, after an event, Twitter language becomes on average more similar to that of the main radical‐right party, AfD. The result is driven by a larger share of tweets discussing immigrants and Muslims, common AfD topics, and by a more negative sentiment of these tweets. Shifts in language similarity are correlated with changes in vote shares between federal elections. These results point to the role of perceived threats from minorities on the success of nationalist parties.

Despite increased research on the various effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the question of whether CSR is worthwhile for firms still remains to be addressed. Prior work suggests that CSR offers firms insurance-like protection against negative publicity due to greater levels of goodwill with various stakeholders. Yet, we still miss an answer to the following question: How effective, if at all, is CSR in insulating firms from scrutiny compared to other important marketing measures, such as customer orientation and service quality orientation? This study develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework that demonstrates the relative impact of CSR on consumer resistance to negative information when confronted with negative information about a firm. The results demonstrate that CSR shields firms from negative information about CSR practices but not information related to firms' core service offerings. Managerially, the findings demonstrate that CSR may offer less of blanket insurance than assumed in previous research. Furthermore, results indicate that firms with a consumer base of experts should favor a focus on service quality orientation over CSR; conversely, when consumers are novices firms should focus on CSR for greater consumer resistance to negative information.