Study On The Relationship Between Collective Psychological Ownership In Supply Chain,Interdependence And Communication

Psychological ownership is a feeling of ownership towards an object.According to existing research,psychological ownership can be divided into psychological ownership at individual-level(individual psychological ownership)and at group-level(collective psychological ownership,CPO).Individual psychological ownership is the possessive feeling that the object is “MINE”,and CPO is the collective possessive feeling that the object is “OURS”.CPO is not a simple superposition of individual psychological ownership.It reflect not only the individual perception,but also the interaction between individuals in group which is neglected by individual psychological ownership.So compared to individual psychological ownership,CPO can explain some organizational phenomena better.However,existing literature primarily focused on individual psychological ownership.Studies on CPO are very limited and are all confined within organization.As the market competition has gradually changed from competition among individual enterprises to competition among supply chains,enterprises in supply chain are becoming more and more closely linked,and supply chain has gradually become a "virtual organization".As a kind of special “organization”,the supply chain may also have the phenomenon of CPO,but this possibility has been overlooked by existing studies.Therefore,this paper aim to study the influencing factors and effects of CPO under the supply chain background.Referring to existing literature,this paper finally studies the influence of interdependence among supply chain enterprises on CPO and the effect of CPO on inter-firm communication.According to existing studies,the effect of psychological ownership is affected by the intensity and symmetry of psychological ownership.Based on different intensity or symmetry,the effect of psychological ownership may be positive or negative.Therefore,in order to explain or predict the effect of psychological ownership more accurately,we should synthesize these two dimensions in study.However,existing literature always study the intensity and symmetry of psychological ownership in an isolated way.The study of psychological ownership in a comprehensive perspective is still in the blank.To make up for this lack of existing research,this paper not only uses contingency approach to study the influencing factors and effects of CPO overall intensity in supply chain,but also uses configuration approach to synthesize the intensity and asymmetry of CPO in supply chain to explore its impact on inter-firm communication.Our empirical study is based on 71 dyadic data which from 176 buyers' data and 149 suppliers' data.Through contingency approach,we find that(1)interdependence overall intensity has a significant positive effect on CPO overall intensity insupply chain;(2)CPO overall intensity insupply chain significantly affects inter-firm communication;(3)interdependence overal intensity positively affects inter-firm communication through the completely mediating role of CPO overall intensity insupply chain.Through configuration approach we have three key findings:(1)interdependence relationship between buyers and suppliers can be divided into four patterns based on dimensions of overall intensity and the symmetry between both sides,namely Low-intensity asymmetric pattern(dominated by supplier),Low-intensity symmetric pattern,Medium-intensity asymmetric pattern(dominated by buyer)and Medium-intensity symmetric pattern.There is no significant difference in the overall intensity of CPO between these four interdependence patterns,but there is significant difference in buyers' CPO and suppliers' CPO between these four patterns;(2)CPO is more originated from one party's dependence on the other side rather than the other party's dependence on themselves;(3),CPO in supply chain can be divided into four patterns based on dimensions of overall intensity and the symmetry between both sides,namely High-intensity symmetric pattern,Medium-intensity symmetric pattern,Low-intensity symmetric pattern and Medium-intensity asymmetric pattern.The inter-firm communication in the first two CPO patterns are significantly better than those in the latter two patterns.Besides,in Medium-intensity asymmetric pattern,suppliers' conception of inter-firm communication is negative.Our study makes two main contributions.First,prior studies on CPO mostly conducted inside organization.We expand the research scope of CPO from single organization level to supply chain level,which contributes to a more comprehensive understanding and a wider application of CPO.In addition,prior studies on the consequences of psychological ownership were overly concerned with its intensity,neglecting its symmetry.Or only considered its intensity and asymmetry in isolation way,ignoring the interaction between them.As a result,some research results are difficult to explain or even contrary to each other..In this paper,CPO intensity and symmetry are combined to study CPO's impacts on inter-firm communication in supply chain.So that we can understand and predict the effect of CPO in supply chain more accurately.