a b s t r a c tRelational ties between manufacturers and their suppliers serve as an important strategic resource for value creation and realization. However, conflicting evidence exists regarding their role in the acquisition of specific knowledge. This study proposes that relational ties have a nonlinear effect on specific knowledge acquisition and that this nonlinear relationship is conditional on contract specificity and competitive intensity. Results from a sample of 385 manufacturer-supplier exchanges in China demonstrate that a buyer's relational ties with its major supplier have an inverted U-shaped effect on specific knowledge acquisition from this supplier; this inverted U-shaped relationship is stronger (steeper) when contract specificity is high and competition is more intense. These findings suggest that managers should understand the benefits and downsides of relational ties in acquiring specific knowledge and avoid building highly embedded ties when they draft detailed contracts or competition is highly intensive.

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China provides a vast and prominent manufacturing base, so curtailing its local supplier opportunism represents a primary concern for local and foreign buyers. Drawing on institutional theory, this study examines how regulatory uncertainty and relationship structure moderate the role of contracts and trust in restricting local supplier opportunism in China. An analysis of 293 buyer–supplier dyads in China reveals that contracts are more effective in deterring supplier opportunism when regulatory uncertainty is high. In addition, contracts help curtail opportunism more in domestic, compared with international, buyer–supplier relationships, whereas trust is more effective in restricting supplier opportunism in international relationships than in domestic ones.

In the presence of Lewis acid salts, the cyclic ether, dioxolane (DOL), is known to undergo ring-opening polymerization inside electrochemical cells to form solid-state polymer batteries with good interfacial charge-transport properties. Here we report that LiNO3, which is unable to ring-open DOL, possesses a previously unknown ability to coordinate with and strain DOL molecules in bulk liquids, completely arresting their crystallization. The strained DOL electrolytes exhibit physical properties analogous to amorphous polymers, including a prominent glass transition, elevated moduli, and low activation entropy for ion transport, but manifest unusually high, liquidlike ionic conductivities (e.g., 1 mS/cm) at temperatures as low as −50 °C. Systematic electrochemical studies reveal that the electrolytes also promote reversible cycling of Li metal anodes with high Coulombic efficiency (CE) on both conventional planar substrates (1 mAh/cm2 over 1,000 cycles with 99.1% CE; 3 mAh/cm2 over 300 cycles with 99.2% CE) and unconventional, nonplanar/three-dimensional (3D) substrates (10 mAh/cm2 over 100 cycles with 99.3% CE). Our finding that LiNO3 promotes reversibility of Li metal electrodes in liquid DOL electrolytes by a physical mechanism provides a possible solution to a long-standing puzzle in the field about the versatility of LiNO3 salt additives for enhancing reversibility of Li metal electrodes in essentially any aprotic liquid electrolyte solvent. As a first step toward understanding practical benefits of these findings, we create functional Li||lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in which LFP cathodes with high capacity (5 to 10 mAh/cm2) are paired with thin (50 μm) lithium metal anodes, and investigate their galvanostatic electrochemical cycling behaviors.

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Purpose Power is central to inter-organizational relationships. The literature distinguishes between structural power (i.e. dependence) and behavioral power (i.e. use of power), yet few studies considered them simultaneously. Opportunism is generally linked to use of power, but it remains unclear whether use of power deters or invites opportunism. In this study, the authors treat dependence as a driver of use of power and opportunism as its outcome, and empirically test relationships among dependence, power, and opportunism from both buyer and supplier perspectives. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study examines how buyer and supplier dependence influence the other’s and their own use of coercive and non-coercive power, which lead to opportunism of two parties, based on data from 240 companies in China on their perceived relationships with major suppliers. Findings Results show that buyer/supplier dependence is positively related to supplier’s/buyer’s use of coercive and non-coercive power. Buyer’s and supplier’s use of coercive power also positively influences their opportunism. Buyer’s use of non-coercive power is negatively related to both partners’ opportunism, whereas supplier’s use of non-coercive power is not significantly related to either partner’s opportunism. Originality/value This study contributes to literature in two ways. First, the authors distinguish the structural aspect of power from its behavioral aspect and demonstrate that dependence, which represents structural power, generates different patterns of influence on use of coercive and non-coercive power when considered from buyer’s and supplier’s perspectives. Second, the authors reexamine relationships between use of power and opportunism and show that buyers and suppliers react differently to use of different types of power.