Does Trust Affect Antecedents of Inter-Organizational Governance Mechanisms and Elicit Successful Collaboration via Innovation? An Empirical Study from a Market-Oriented Economy in Vietnam

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Comments

Responses

Revision pages

GENERAL COMMENTS

R1

The article addresses an evergreen topic in a comprehensive manner. While the English of the paper is to be corrected not only the grammar, but oftentimes the phrasing as well, the message of the author clearly gets through to the reader. The article starts with an extensive literature review of 10+ pages, where not only the sheer number of referenced works is exemplary but also is the actuality. 26 of the cited papers is from the past 3 years.

Thank you for fruitful feedback

R1

The articles endeavours to check seven hypotheses that are not only verbally formulated but the author also has a clear image of their relations. Hence the SEM method is an adequate way of testing those hypotheses. The data collection method is well described and the data are mostly presented in an adequate manner.

Thank you for fruitful feedback

ABSTRACT

LITERATURE REVIEW

METHODOLOGY

1

R1

The article shall involve the rationale of involving the chosen questionnaires and also the content of the coded variables, since it is really hard for the reader to understand the results in their current form and of course the validity of the SEM results can also not be tested.

Thank you very much.

Regarding the content of the coded variables, we revised all the coding, see the blue words, Table 2. Results of Reliability and Validity Analyses; Table 3. Discriminant validity coefficients; Table 4. Summary Results of Path Coefficients and Hypothesis Testing; Table 5. Summary Results of Mediated Effects.

In terms of the rationale of involving the chosen questionnaires:

- In the first phase to gather a comprehensive search for relevant literature was conducted. The literature search relied on Tier 1 (Elite, A Star and A) scientific databases, John Wiley & Sons, Sage, JSTOR, Springer Link, Routledge, InderScience, Emerald Insights, Taylor & Francis; Elsevier and Science Direct. These databases have cover a large number of Inter-organizational relationship theories, collaboration related to this research topic. The researchers started with the identification of relevant keywords such as "trust"; "inter-organizational trust", "IRs", "coordination", "commitment", "communication” “innovation" "frequency of interaction" and search strings and we combine these keywords with “OR” and “AND.”, these keywords were discussed with the researcher team and three experts of tourism field. The final procedure leads to 7 keywords based on model from previous studies (see Figure 1)

-          Second, the rationale to choose the measurement scales to build a questionnaire of this study based on the values of Cronbach’s Alpha for each items measure are greater than 0.7 in previous studies, these measures were considered to be adequately reliable by Hair et al. [82], seven constructs were chosen with 42 indicators in this research.

Page 14; 15; 16; 17; 18

Page 12

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CONCLUSION

R1

The conclusions and the potential practical applications are also nicely highlighted, which give extra value to the paper.

Thank you very much.

FINAL WORD

R1

After minor adjustments and language check the paper will be a valuable contribution to the existing body of literature.

Thank you very much.

We revised all pages.

R

Comments

Responses

Revision pages

GENERAL COMMENTS

R1

The article addresses an evergreen topic in a comprehensive manner. While the English of the paper is to be corrected not only the grammar, but oftentimes the phrasing as well, the message of the author clearly gets through to the reader. The article starts with an extensive literature review of 10+ pages, where not only the sheer number of referenced works is exemplary but also is the actuality. 26 of the cited papers is from the past 3 years.

Thank you for fruitful feedback

R1

The articles endeavours to check seven hypotheses that are not only verbally formulated but the author also has a clear image of their relations. Hence the SEM method is an adequate way of testing those hypotheses. The data collection method is well described and the data are mostly presented in an adequate manner.

Thank you for fruitful feedback

ABSTRACT

LITERATURE REVIEW

METHODOLOGY

1

R1

The article shall involve the rationale of involving the chosen questionnaires and also the content of the coded variables, since it is really hard for the reader to understand the results in their current form and of course the validity of the SEM results can also not be tested.

Thank you very much.

Regarding the content of the coded variables, we revised all the coding, see the blue words, Table 2. Results of Reliability and Validity Analyses; Table 3. Discriminant validity coefficients; Table 4. Summary Results of Path Coefficients and Hypothesis Testing; Table 5. Summary Results of Mediated Effects.

In terms of the rationale of involving the chosen questionnaires:

- In the first phase to gather a comprehensive search for relevant literature was conducted. The literature search relied on Tier 1 (Elite, A Star and A) scientific databases, John Wiley & Sons, Sage, JSTOR, Springer Link, Routledge, InderScience, Emerald Insights, Taylor & Francis; Elsevier and Science Direct. These databases have cover a large number of Inter-organizational relationship theories, collaboration related to this research topic. The researchers started with the identification of relevant keywords such as "trust"; "inter-organizational trust", "IRs", "coordination", "commitment", "communication” “innovation" "frequency of interaction" and search strings and we combine these keywords with “OR” and “AND.”, these keywords were discussed with the researcher team and three experts of tourism field. The final procedure leads to 7 keywords based on model from previous studies (see Figure 1)

-          Second, the rationale to choose the measurement scales to build a questionnaire of this study based on the values of Cronbach’s Alpha for each items measure are greater than 0.7 in previous studies, these measures were considered to be adequately reliable by Hair et al. [82], seven constructs were chosen with 42 indicators in this research.

Page 14; 15; 16; 17; 18

Page 12

Page 12

CONCLUSION

R1

The conclusions and the potential practical applications are also nicely highlighted, which give extra value to the paper.

Thank you very much.

FINAL WORD

R1

After minor adjustments and language check the paper will be a valuable contribution to the existing body of literature.

Thank you very much.

We revised all pages.

R

Comments

Responses

Revision pages

GENERAL COMMENTS

R3

Overall, the paper has been prepared well and have it own strengths, but there are also several improvements that need to be addressed before it can be considered for publication. Below are my general and specific comments on the manuscript:

Thank you

TITLE

R3

The title is clear and accurately reflects the content of the paper.

Thank you

ABSTRACT

R3

The abstract provides a good summary of the paper, but it could benefit from being more concise.

Thank you

Abstract:

This study aims to examine the relationships between trust the structure of inter-organizational governance mechanisms (IGM), what factors of IGM and trust affect innovation and how their effects lead to Successful Inter-organizational Collaboration (SIC) through innovation in tourism industry, a questionnaire survey was administrated to collect 423 tourist firms during March to September 2022 in Vietnam. We applied a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis to determine the path coefficients among these latent constructs. The results revealed that the role of trust is significant in shaping organizations' behavior into IGM and innovation. IGM directly impacts innovation and SIC but also indirectly affects innovation variables. This study provides new insights on literature tourism about trust, IGM, innovation and SIC. The results can guide to indispensable strategies of tourist firms to improve the outcomes of the tourism sectors in long-term collaboration.

Page 1

INTRODUCTION

R3

The introduction is well-written and provides a clear overview of the research question and its significance.

Thank you

METHODOLOGY

1

R3

 The methodology section is weak and needs improvement. The authors do not provide a detailed description of the search strategy used to identify the studies included in the review. This is a crucial step in conducting a systematic review and needs to be included in the manuscript.

Suggested improvement: The authors should provide a detailed description of the search strategy used, including the databases searched, the search terms used, and any exclusion criteria applied.

Thank you very much for your constructive feedback. We revised as your suggestions.

- In the first phase to gather a comprehensive search for relevant literature was conducted. The literature search relied on Tier 1 (Elite, A Star and A) scientific databases, John Wiley & Sons, Sage, JSTOR, Springer Link, Routledge, InderScience, Emerald Insights, Taylor & Francis; Elsevier and Science Direct. These databases have cover a large number of Inter-organizational relationship theories, collaboration related to this research topic. The researchers started with the identification of relevant keywords such as "trust"; "inter-organizational trust", "IRs", "coordination", "commitment", "communication” “innovation" "frequency of interaction" and search strings and we combine these keywords with “OR” and “AND.”, these keywords were discussed with the researcher team and three experts of tourism field. The final procedure lead to 7 keywords based on model from previous studies (see Figure 1)

Page 12

RESULTS

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R3

 While the results are clearly presented and analyzed, some of the studies included in the review have methodological limitations that are not discussed in the manuscript.

Suggested improvement: The authors should discuss the limitations of the studies included in the review, particularly those with small sample sizes or lack of control groups.

Thank you

We revised as your suggestions.

The Non-parametric bootstrapping procedure was used to test the proposed hypotheses and estimate the significance of the effect of path coefficients with 2.000 replications [82] by using the SmartPLS 3.0 [83]. The path coefficients, standardized , T values and significance levels ( ) used to evaluate the structural model of this study [81] by PLS-SEM [81; 82]. Table 4 presents the results of testing the hypotheses from the PLS analysis. As predicted in H₁, Trust has a positive impact on IGM amongst tourist firms and their suppliers. All the path coefficients were significant H₁ (H_1a, H_1b, H_1c, H_1d), therefore the analysis provided support to hypothesis H₁ that is verified where  0.01 level [81]. For this reason, the results indicated that relationships that occur between inter-organizational trust and the IGM in tourism industry cannot be dissociated.

As predicted in H_2.1, IGM has a positive impact on innovation amongst tourist firms and their suppliers. All the path coefficients were significant H_2.1 (H_2.1a, H_2.1b, H_2.1c, H_2.1d, H_2.1e), therefore the analysis provided support to hypothesis H_2.1 that is verified where  0.05 level [81]. These results indicated that a discrete role to the IGM and trust as the direct predictors of innovation variable, as well as these factors also play as the important antecedents in tourist firms establishment the innovation, so these factors cannot be dissociated.

As predicted in H_2.2, Innovation and IGM have positive impact on SIC amongst tourist firms and their suppliers. Only three the path coefficients were significant H_2.2 (H_2.2b, H_2.2c, H_2.2e) were supported and verified where 0.05 level [81], with the exception of commitment and communication did not lead to SIC (H_2.2a and H_2.2d were not significant; p > 0.05) [81]. Therefore, H_2.2a and H_2.2d were not supported, with 423 tourist firms thought that commitment and communication did not play as the critical antecedents lead to SIC, these factors can be dissociated and play as independent variables of different values. Therefore, the H_2.2 was supported a part.

Page 17-18

DISCUSSION

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R3

The discussion provides a good overview of the findings, but could be improved by discussing the limitations of the studies included in the review.

Suggested improvement: The authors should discuss the limitations of the studies included in the review, particularly those with methodological limitations that may affect the validity of the results.

Thank you

We revised as your suggestions

See part 5.3. Limitations and future research

There are some limitations in this study. Firstly, this study only involved collecting in quantitative data, just conducted survey one side of tourist firms. Therefore, this may lead to limit the generalizability of our findings only focus on the perspectives of one sides and their evaluation. Secondly, we collected database by using both online and offline survey, so the online survey may get some limitations to lead our data not adequate. Thirdly, we cannot reach the potential participants in north of Vietnam, so the results of collecting data not follow our plan and strategy. Therefore, another useful extension target population would be to conduct a survey from the south to north in Vietnam. Fourth, the dimensions in this study are based on previous studies we gathered dimensions from one side as in the dyadic relationship, manufacturers -buyers. Therefore, the findings may lead to the weak points to identify the inter-organizational collaboration in tourism sectors, so in the future a research design should include concepts, perspectives, ideas from both sides would enable cross-validation of the effects of control mechanisms.

In the future research, the research should spend more time to collect data through face to face survey to increase valid data rate and response rate. The research expands more theories and add more factors to predict the relationships amongst these constructs of collaboration in different fields, because the inter-organizational collaboration focus on the exchange relationships among tourist firms and accommodation, restaurants, transportation, tourist destinations in network relationships are embedded in Vietnam. Therefore, to deeply understand the dynamics of the inter-organizational collaboration amongst  trust, IGM, innovation and SIC, the researcher should be examined these relationships with a longitudinal data, use mixed methods, experimental methods, qualitative method to explore the concepts and perspectives of SIC through interviewees are needed to fully examine the dynamics of these complex relationships, the researcher should conduct qualitative method (i.e., in-depth interview, or focus groups) in tourist firms and other tourism sectors to get insights of these constructs, it may enhance the knowledge and in-depth understand about the perspectives of these factors. Moreover, this model can use to explore other fields as agriculture field, food and beverage field, garment field ...etc. For further research can investigate new research to identify unsuccessful collaboration to find out the reason why they are unsuccessful.

Page 23-24

REFERENCES

4

R3

References: There are some inconsistencies in the citation style used in the references section.

Suggested improvement: The authors should review the citation style throughout the manuscript and ensure that it is consistent.

Thank you

We revised as your suggestions

(see references part)

Examples of the revision:

6. Al-Omoush, K. S., Ribeiro-Navarrete, S., Lassala, C., & Skare, M. (2022). Networking and knowledge creation: Social capital and collaborative innovation in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(2), 100181.

7. Gölgeci, I., & Kuivalainen, O. (2020). Does social capital matter for supply chain resilience? The role of absorptive capacity and marketing-supply chain management alignment. Industrial Marketing Management, 84, 63-74.

8. Putra, I., Sunarsih, N., Novitasari, L., & Setini, M. (2020). Exploring the relationship between social capital, innovation capability and innovation during the coronavirus pandemic. Uncertain Supply Chain Management, 8(4), 857-864.

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FINAL WORDS

R3

Overall, the paper has potential for publication, such as a clear research question, well-written introduction, and clear presentation of the results. However, the weaknesses in the methodology and discussion sections need to be addressed before the manuscript can be considered for publication The authors should provide a detailed description of the search strategy used in the systematic review, discuss the limitations of the studies included in the review, and ensure that the citation style is consistent throughout the manuscript.

Thank you.

We revised as your suggestions and improved the entire manuscript.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

R3

The English in the manuscript is generally good, with only a few minor errors in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. However, some parts of the manuscript are wordy and could benefit from being more concise.

Specifically, there are instances where the authors use unnecessarily long or complex sentences that make the text difficult to read and understand. For example, in the introduction section, the sentence "The aim of this review is to synthesize and analyze the current literature investigating the effect of music on sleep quality by examining the studies that have been conducted and analyzing their findings, strengths, and weaknesses, and finally, to identify the gaps and future research directions in this area." could be simplified by breaking it into two or three shorter sentences.

Suggested improvement: The authors should review the manuscript for wordiness and use shorter, clearer sentences to improve the readability of the text. They should also consider revising some sentences to ensure that they are grammatically correct and make sense in context.

We revised all pages.

R

Comments

Responses

Revision pages

GENERAL COMMENTS

R4

Generally, this is an interesting paper. Below You could find a few suggestions for improving the paper:

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

ABSTRACT

1

R4

In the Abstract You can add the period when the sample was collected.

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

We revised and added (see abstract)

“from March to September 2022”

Abstract: This study aims to examine the relationships between trust the structure of inter-organizational governance mechanisms (IGM), what factors of IGM and trust affect innovation and how their effects enhance Successful Inter-organizational Collaboration (SIC) through innovation in tourism industry, a questionnaire survey was administrated to collect 423 tourist firms during March to September 2022 in Vietnam. We applied a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis to determine the path coefficients among these latent constructs. The results revealed that the role of trust is significant in shaping organizations' behavior into IGM and innovation. IGM directly impacts innovation and SIC but also indirectly affects innovation variables. This study provides new insights on literature tourism about trust, IGM, innovation and SIC. The results can guide to indispensable strategies of tourist firms to improve the outcomes of the tourism sectors in long-term collaboration.

Page 1

INTRODUCTION

2

R4

The text of the article is characterized by logicality and the sequence in presentation of information. The objectives are clear and well defined. But, the introduction session is overlong. It needs to be shortened

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

We revised the introduction part.

Page 1-3

LITERATURE REVIEW

3

R4

The theoretical framework is consistent and well designed. However, I suggest consider following literature:

o   Bulińska-Stangrecka, H., & Bagieńska, A. (2019). HR practices for supporting interpersonal trust and its consequences for team collaboration and innovation. Sustainability, 11(16), 4423.

o   Wang, L., Yeung, J. H. Y., & Zhang, M. (2011). The impact of trust and contract on innovation performance: The moderating role of environmental uncertainty. International journal of production Economics, 134(1), 114-122.

o   Oliver, A. L., Montgomery, K., & Barda, S. (2020). The multi-level process of trust and learning in university–industry innovation collaborations. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 45, 758-779.

o   Lai, C. S., Chen, C. S., Chiu, C. J., & Pai, D. C. (2011). The impact of trust on the relationship between inter-organisational collaboration and product innovation performance. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 23(1), 65-74.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. We will use these papers to conduct a relevant research in advance.

CONCLUSION

4

R4

Conclusion session is missing. Please, add it.

Thank you

We revised as your suggestions (see part 5.4. Conclusions)

 In this study, with using a database of 423 tourist firms have engage in the inter-organizational collaboration in Vietnam. We have determined a key issue in IGM, innovation literature tourism to understand whether trust affect IGM, what factors of IGM and trust affect innovation and how their effects lead to Successful Inter-organizational Collaboration (SIC) through innovation in tourism industry. The second aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of IGM and innovation on the relationship between inter-organizational trust and Successful Inter-organizational Collaboration. The findings from this study make several contributions to the current literature. Firstly, it has been to confirm the transaction cost theory and social exchange theory to understand SIC. TCT shapes the choice of governance structure in collaboration including coordination, commitment, frequency of interaction, while SET shapes inter-organizational behavior focuses on relational characteristics within ongoing collaborations between partners and emphasizes the importance of inter-organizational trust, communication as effective social mechanisms of inter-organizational governance. Second contribution, this study found that inter-organizational trust positively affects directly IGM, this new understanding should help to improve predictions of the impact of inter-organizational trust and communication, commitment, coordination, frequency of interaction in tourism industry. The results contribute to provide empirical evidence regarding the governance mechanisms in the literature tourism. Third contribution, our analysis results showed that there is positively affects relationship between trust, IGM and innovation amongst tourist firms and their suppliers. Moreover, this study also found that IGM, innovation have a positively affect SIC. Lastly, this is the first study of investigating the role of mediating IGM and innovation which examines associations between inter-organizational trust and SIC that positively influences this linkage. Overall, this current study suggested that IGM and innovation play as important roles and both play beneficial roles to enhance trust and SIC.

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FINAL WORDS

R4

However, besides that fact, I think that this paper ‘Do Trust Affect Antecedents of Inter-organizational Governance Mechanisms and Elicit Successful Collaboration via Innovation? Empirical from Oriented Market Vietnam’ could still be a good contribution to practice.

Thank you very much for your fruitful feedback.