This study intends to examine the assumptions of culture homogeneity within nations and its stability in the current global context. First, by using a sample of 720 respondents (207 in Canada, 263 in Japan, and 250 in Morocco), it empirically examines the cultural values of three countries at three different continents (Canada in North America, Japan in East Asia, and Morocco in North Africa) and compares the findings to Hofstede's framework. Second, it tests for the existence of cultural segments transcending the national boundaries. Cultural values are measured using the horizontal–vertical individualism and collectivism scale. The findings show that: (i) horizontal collectivism dominates the cultural environment of these three countries; (ii) horizontal collectivism and horizontal individualism coexist in Canada; and (iii) vertical individualism characterizes Morocco and Japan more than Canada. In addition, the study reports three segments that transcend national borders, each of them sharing the same cultural values. When compared with each other, the three clusters completely differ on horizontal collectivism, vertical collectivism, and horizontal individualism. The research concludes that some changes are occurring in cultural values/patterns in the three studied countries.
Purpose
– This paper aims to examine the influence of the salesperson’s characteristics (organizational commitment [OC] and disposition to innovate) on buyer’s behaviors in buyer – supplier relationships. A model is proposed depicting the effects of the salesperson’s OC and disposition to innovate on buyer’s long-term orientation and opportunism through partner-specific value to the buyer.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected from 155 sales professionals of Japanese manufacturers. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
– As predicted, the salesperson’s OC and disposition to innovate enhance buyer’s long-term orientation through providing partner-specific value to the buyer, and in turn, buyer’s long-term orientation mitigates opportunism.
Practical implications
– The salesperson plays an important role for developing and maintaining Buyer-seller relationships. Based on authors’ results, firms should promote salespeople’s OC because a highly committed salesperson is likely to be more innovative when managing the relationship with the buyer and, in turn, increase the relationship-specific value to the buyer.
Originality/value
– This study makes two contributions to Buyer-seller relationship literature. First, previous studies on the salesperson focus on the social aspects in the relationship. This study, however, examines the salesperson characteristics in the exchange, and the results reveal the importance of including the salesperson characteristics in studying Buyer-seller relationships. Second, this study proposes the salesperson’s partner-specific value as a key boundary-spanning aspect mediating the salesperson characteristics and buyer’s behaviors in Buyer-seller relationships. The results confirm the argument, thus providing impetus for further studying different types and dimensions of transaction-specific assets in Buyer-seller relationships.
A new algorithm is proposed using the feedforward type shared FDL bank to achieve service differentiation in optical burst switching networks, which is composed of many fiber delay lines. In our scheme, the proposed algorithm divides a shared FDL bank into sub-groups, and the different sub-group reservation policies for each class are related to each other. By doing so, the algorithm can accomplish service differentiation easily. The optimal number of delay lines for each sub-group is decided by the algorithm. The scheme is verified through extensive simulations and numerical analysis.
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