Opposing effects of input control and clan control for sellers on e-marketplace platforms

E-marketplace platforms focus on attracting and retaining sellers to secure the platform’s long-term viability and success. Although sellers’ behavioral intentions have been linked to control modes deployed on e-marketplace platforms, little is known about how and why perceptions of input control and clan control affect sellers’ crucial behavioral outcomes. Drawing on IS control literature, we conducted two online surveys with sellers on Amazon (n = 286) and Etsy (n = 185). Our results revealed that perceived input control had a negative effect on sellers’ perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intentions, whereas positive effects were observed with perceived clan control. In addition, we find that intrinsic motivation mediates the observed direct effects. Our study contributes to the literature by introducing control modes in the context of e-marketplace platforms and examining the effects of input control and clan control on sellers’ beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, our study has important practical implications for platform providers in how to apply different control mechanisms and increase complementors’ willingness to keep contributing to e-marketplace platforms, thereby nurturing platform health and sustainability.

The Role of Organizational Social Capital in the Design of Management Control Systems

ABSTRACT Interest in so-called “soft controls,” such as clan control, and what role they may play in designing management control systems has been growing in recent years. In particular, the conditions under which clan control and formal bureaucratic controls complement or substitute each other are the subject of an ongoing debate. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of organizational social capital in the design of management control systems and, more specifically, to better understand the functioning of clan control. We argue that adopting a social capital perspective can help explain how clan control works and what positive effects it has on performance: organizational social capital moderates the positive effect of clan control on performance and enables organizations to use clan control and bureaucratic controls complementarily. We provide empirical evidence that supports our hypotheses and is based on survey data from 523 small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany.

Self-Control Beyond Clans and Culture

Modern organizations increasingly depend on employees' cooperation. Clan control has been proposed in the literature as a means of organizing cooperation. This conceptual chapter provides an overview of the origins of clan control in the fields of organizational culture and organizational control. While the literature review shows an existing underdevelopment in terms of how clan control translates into cooperative behavior, it still identifies the internal nature of clan control. Following this characterization, the authors develop a three-step process model of self-control that is initiated by supportive leadership, and translated internally through employees' cognitive and motivational processes into cooperative behavior. Further additive, weakening, and strengthening effects of combining self-control with bureaucratic control and market control are discussed. The model provides practical levers for implementing self-control, and extends existing theory to include its cognitive, motivational, and behavioral processes.

Self-Control Beyond Clans and Culture

Modern organizations increasingly depend on employees' cooperation. Clan control has been proposed in the literature as a means of organizing cooperation. This conceptual chapter provides an overview of the origins of clan control in the fields of organizational culture and organizational control. While the literature review shows an existing underdevelopment in terms of how clan control translates into cooperative behavior, it still identifies the internal nature of clan control. Following this characterization, the authors develop a three-step process model of self-control that is initiated by supportive leadership, and translated internally through employees' cognitive and motivational processes into cooperative behavior. Further additive, weakening, and strengthening effects of combining self-control with bureaucratic control and market control are discussed. The model provides practical levers for implementing self-control, and extends existing theory to include its cognitive, motivational, and behavioral processes.

Knowledge Codification, Exploitation, and Innovation: The Moderating Influence of Organizational Controls in Chinese Firms

This study examines how firms use organizational controls in the knowledge exploitation process to enhance endogenous innovation. Some past studies have shown that controls restrict the flexibility needed in innovation, whereas others have shown that controls enhanced innovation by directing the efforts of research and development professionals. Thus, we extend the theoretical development of organizational control theory to examine how different types of organizational controls (clan, behaviour, and output controls) play different roles at different points in the innovation process. First, we propose that codifying knowledge enhances its level of exploitation, with clan control serving as a moderator. Next, we propose that knowledge exploitation enhances endogenous innovation with behaviour and output controls serving as moderators. Our results from a sample of 607 Chinese manufacturing firms show that clan control moderated the knowledge codification–exploitation relationship positively. Behaviour control moderated the knowledge exploitation–innovation relationship positively, but output control had an inverse U-shaped moderating influence in this relationship. The results indicate that examining different types of organizational controls at different points in the knowledge management process provides a more comprehensive understanding for the role of controls in innovation.