Handbook of Management Scales/Knowledge channels

Knowledge channels (composite reliability = 0.77; AVE = 0.54) Description A set of new, multi-item measures are operationalized. The authors define and measure the salient infrastructural competencies – termed business-to-business seller competence (B2B-SC) – associated with the seller-side of Internet-enabled commerce. They find that the conceptual domain of B2B-SC comprises seven theoretically important dimensions: (1) technical skills, (2) change disposition, (3) conflict management, (4) market acuity, (5) coordinated logistics, (6) knowledge channels, and (7) fluid partnering. Definition Knowledge channels competence refers to the boundary-spanning strategies used by sellers that permit the transfer, recombination, and/or creation of knowledge among supply chain partners. Items Managers regularly visit supply chain partners to enable two-way sharing of expertise. (0.85) Use teams that cross company boundaries. (0.81) Employees share expertise with partners via informal gatherings. (0.48) Source Rosenzweig/Roth (2007): B2B seller competence: Construct development and measurement using a supply chain strategy lens. Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 1311-1331. Comments Much efforts have been made by the authors in order to ensure that the new scales exhibit sufficient psychometric properties, which make them quite useful. The standardized path loading of the third item is quite low, but it might well be necessary to achieve content validity.