Corporate culture and its impact on the willingness to cooperate in the distribution channel: conceptualization and empirical finding in the German hospital industry

Authors: Claudia Kreipl; Michael Lingenfelder

From an instrumental view, corporate culture plays a role as an organizationalparameter influencing a company’s competitive situation. Nevertheless, it has not beenincluded in the IMP-interaction model explicitly. Corporate culture can be regarded asan intangible resource and in this indirect way, it is integrated into the model. Thequestion whether corporate culture has far-reaching influence on the interactionprocess and should therefore receive more attention shall be traced. A focus is set onthe impact of corporate culture on the shift of the interaction process from transactionepisodes to a long-term relationship in the form of vertical cooperation. Wedifferentiate between a general willingness to perform such a shift and willingness withrespect to a specific vertical partnership in the form of Efficient Consumer Response.Findings show the highest willingness in hospitals being externally oriented, i.e. marketand adhocracy type. To receive acceptance as a suitable partner, the perception as anexternally oriented culture type, especially an adhocracy type seems appropriate.However, the influence of a cultural fit can be neglected.

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Publish Year: 2002

Conference: Perth, Australia (2002)