An empirical investigation of the antecedents of partnering capability

In this paper, we propose a new approach to evaluating firms' Partnering Capability. While previous research treats Partnering Capability as an exogenous factor, we take into account its antecedents and thus conceive it as endogenous. Our motivations are driven by the fact that firms ex-ante evaluate their partners by assessing their Partnering Capability. We focus on departmental integration, customer service, and economic and operational performance as key antecedents of Partnering Capability. Our empirical findings show that Partnering Capability is directly induced by operational performance and departmental integration. In addition, customer service along with departmental integration generates a chain of indirect effects due to economic and operational performance. Finally, we investigate the importance-performance matrix analysis (IMPA) that further identifies the managerial levers to enhance Partnering Capability.