Inter-organizational relationships and knowledge sharing through the relationship and institutional orientations in supply chains

Sharing knowledge in inter-organizational relationships is one way to enhance strategic competitiveness. It is generally agreed that the development of close relationships facilitates such sharing among partners. This paper presents a research model comprises five research hypotheses with four constructs, including relationship orientation, institutional orientation, relational risk and knowledge sharing. This study develops a conceptual model that relational risk as a mediating construct to examine the inter-relationship effects that affect knowledge sharing and these relationships. We analyze data collected from 312 of the top 1000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms in 2011 listed in Business Weekly. The results of the empirical study suggest that the role played by relationship orientation and institutional orientation is critical in ensuring the inter-organizational knowledge sharing as it mitigates the relational risk in the process. The findings of the study provide practical insights into how supply chain members should reinforce their relational and institutional view of relational governance and manage relational risks so as to improve their collaborative behaviors and in turn achieve the competitive advantage of knowledge sharing for the supply chain as a whole.

► Relationship and institutional orientation manage relational risk and in turn achieve knowledge sharing.
► Relational risk will weaken knowledge sharing. Relationship and institutional orientation can restrain this encroachment.
► This paper highlights relationship and institutional orientation from the relational and institutional views of partners.