Microfoundations of Partnerships: Exploring the Role of Employees in Trickle Effects

The growing body of literature on partnerships has paid most attention to their implications at the macro level, for society, as well as the meso level, for the partnering organisations. While generating many valuable insights, what has remained underexposed is the micro level, i.e. the role of mana...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Kolk, Ans (Author) ; Vock, Marlene (Author) ; van Dolen, Willemijn (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2016
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2016, Volume: 135, Issue: 1, Pages: 19-34
Further subjects:B Corporate social responsibility
B trickle effects
B Diffusion mechanisms
B Micro-level interactions
B Employees
B Partnerships
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Summary:The growing body of literature on partnerships has paid most attention to their implications at the macro level, for society, as well as the meso level, for the partnering organisations. While generating many valuable insights, what has remained underexposed is the micro level, i.e. the role of managers and employees in partnerships, and how their actions and interactions can have an effect on the spread and potential effectiveness of collaborative efforts. This article uses a case-study approach to empirically explore the patterns and potential boundary conditions of so-called ‘trickle effects’ of partnerships among individual actors within and outside partnering companies, which have thus far only been proposed conceptually. Based on interviews with employees from three different companies, we found an evidence of trickle-down and trickle-up effects with higher and lower management, as well as trickle-round effects with colleagues, family, friends and customers. The article discusses several partnership characteristics that seem to play a role, and notes implications for research and practice.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2727-9