Value-based network mobilization: A case study of modern environmental networkers

This article addresses current environmental issues by taking a network perspective to examine the initiatives to solve them. Previous investigations of network dynamics and mobilization concern the business context, but we broaden the analysis to the societal networks wherein business is embedded. Our aim is to investigate the early emergence of collective action around a common issue. We analyze the network mobilizers, who promote the issue and its solutions, and the mobilization mechanisms that they employ. We have conducted a case study that examines three initiatives to save the Baltic Sea, all involving business, governmental, and civil society actors. This rich case material leads us to formulate a conceptual model of value-based network mobilization. The mobilizing actors, values, and relationship sediments emerge as important factors in creating issue networks. Our key contribution is to show how the environmental issues bring new types of actors to networks and change the rules of the game. We propose that ‘modern environmental networkers’ should become more important in the future, and that business firms need to develop their skills in playing the new games with these new actors.     

Securing and managing an organization's network legitimacy: The case of Motorola China

This study combines concepts from institutional and network theory to explain the currently observed behaviors of organizations in securing their network legitimacy. Organizations secure their network legitimacy by engaging in business, social, and political activities, with key network actors and institutions. This is achieved within an institutional framework of rules, regulations, and ideologies, including any consequential contextual changes. But while network legitimacy plays an important part in an organization's survival, limited attention has been paid to the development of a conceptual framework. In this article we provide one such framework and, specifically examine attributes of successful network legitimacy through an inductive, interpretative case analysis of Motorola China, in a transitional Chinese telecommunication sector.     

Pharmaceutical marketing through the customer portfolio: Institutional influence and adaptation

This paper discusses the dilemma of managing marketing in institutionalized business contexts. On the basis of a study of pharmaceutical marketing practices it is argued that business aspirations are dependent on understanding institutional influence and adaptation mechanisms on the customer-portfolio level. As relationships are perceived as such mechanisms, understanding network dynamics, institutional co-evolution and actor cognitions are key managerial issues. Furthermore, it is suggested that institutional discontinuities leverage institutional entrepreneurship to a critical extent.     

A comparison of selected Western and Chinese smart governance: The application of ICT in governmental management,participation and collaboration

There has been increasing scholarly interest in the concepts and practices of smart governance. However, there is a lack of comparative studies of smart governance in different institutional contexts. This study develops a framework for comparing smart governance in different institutional and technological contexts. Comparative and discourse analyses are conducted to understand the similarities and differences of smart governance practices in selected Western countries and China. A key finding of this study is that different institutions have largely affected smart governance strategies, arrangements and outcomes. Smart governance is tightly linked with e-governance and e-democracy in some Western countries, while it officially emphasizes smart management and service in China. A common aspect is that the increasing use of social media, smartphones, portals, crowdsourcing platforms, and planning support systems have generally promoted smart governments and services, e-participation, and wider collaboration through both top-down and bottom-up approaches. This could lead to gradual changes in government organizations, new relations between governments, the private sector and citizens, and improvements in the city.     

Mobilizing a network to develop a field: Enriching the business actor's mobilization analysis toolkit

This paper tells the story of a thought experiment on deliberate network mobilization to advance radical innovation adoption in health care. The health care industry is said to experience a personalized medicine (PM) revolution, driven by simultaneous thrusts toward cost-effectiveness and new patient-value-centered advances in targeted treatment, digitization and preventive medicine enabling the personalization of care. Even though this revolution is almost unequivocally welcomed, adoption rates seem to disappoint. This paper seeks to explain the behavioral challenges faced by a business actor if it would take up the role of network mobilizer looking to develop the health care field – i.e. to impact the fundamental formal and informal institutions that structurate behavior – to accommodate this radical innovation. We enrich the strategic nets perspective on mobilization with stakeholder and social movement concepts into a framework to analytically tackle the behavioral challenges of mobilization. In a thought experiment with leading Belgian health care experts, we identify six voids remaining in this framework. Through a further abductive reflection on the information needs underlying these voids, we propose three new tools for mobilization analysis thereby contributing to a theory of network and field development from a business actor perspective.     

New value creation in business networks: The role of collective action in constructing system-level goals

This study focuses on collective goal formation in business networks aimed toward new value creation and innovation. Previous research has depicted such networks as value-creating systems or meta-organizations pursuing a system-level goal. We develop these views by addressing a research question: How can multiple organizations collectively form a system-level goal, and how does this affect new value creation at the level of the whole network? We conducted a multi-case study of two Finnish health care networks in which multiple diverse organizations participated in the formation of a system-level goal for the network and developed innovative joint treatment practices for the better care of patients. We derived six propositions and developed a conceptual model explaining how the collective formation of a system-level goal is linked to network-level value creation by increasing network actors' resource commitment. Furthermore, we introduced important moderating factors, network architects and domain similarity, which affect collective goal formation. We claim that the conceptual model strengthens pre-existing theories on managing business networks through a system-level goal, collective action, framing, agenda construction, and institutional mobilization. We contribute especially to previous research on networks aiming for new value creation.     

The Institutional Domain of Technology Diffusion

Marketing implications of technological innovation have received considerable attention in the recent past. In this article, Mohan Reddy, John Aram, and Leonard Lynn suggest that the institutional scope for understanding technology diffusion, in addition to supplier and user organizations and industries, should include organizations that manufacture technological complementarities, institutions that possess vertical complementary assets, and the nonmarket sector. The nonmarket sector includes trade associations, professional societies, governmental agencies, independent research agencies, and public service organizations. The authors develop a set of propositions and discuss the implications of our framework for marketers of technical products.     

Conceptualizing and validating organizational networking as a second-order formative construct

Based on an existing conceptualization in the literature, this study operationalizes the construct of organizational networking, through a rigorous two-stage scale construction and validation process. Organizational networking refers to firm behaviors, i.e. the activities/routines/practices, which enable an organization to make sense of and capitalize on their networks of direct and indirect business relationships. We conceptualize the measurement model as a second-order formative construct with four first-order reflective constructs based on a four-dimensional view of organizational networking comprising information acquisition, opportunity enabling, strong-tie resource mobilization and weak-tie resource mobilization. The scale validation was undertaken at the first- and second-order levels. The result confirms the four distinct first-order measurement models. At the second-order level, a MIMIC (multiple indicators and multiple causes) model was employed to assess the validity of the formative measurement model. The results suggest that all four components significantly contribute to the overarching construct of organizational networking, with strong-tie resource mobilization being the most important contributor. Thus, our operationalization confirms the uniqueness of the different dimensions of organizational networking that should be configured as a strategy of sensing and seizing opportunities in the network. The organizational networking scale will provide future research with a basis to explore different strategic patterns of networking behaviors in varying contexts, and its role in relation to other organizational behaviors and outcome variables, such as firm performance.     

Privacy and security issues in cloud computing: The role of institutions and institutional evolution

Cloud computing is likened and equated to the Industrial Revolution. Its transformational nature is, however, associated with significant security and privacy risks. This paper investigates how the contexts provided by formal and informal institutions affect the perceptions of privacy and security issues in the cloud. This paper highlights the nature, origin, and implications of institutions and institutional changes in the context of cloud computing. A goal of the present work is also to gain insights into the mechanisms and forces that have brought about institutional changes in the cloud industry. Specifically, they investigate how contradictions generated at various levels by the technology, the formation of dense networks and relationships and the changing power dynamics have triggered institutional changes. Since the current analysis of the causes and consequences of institutions and institutional change is mainly concerned with more established industries and markets, this paper is expected to provide insights into institutions surrounding to this new and emerging technological development.     

Globalization and the Renewal of Asian Business Networks

How are Asia's business networks responding to the growing integration of the region into the global economy? To address the question the paper identifies two distinct types of Asian business network originating in two different institutional contexts. It is argued that these original contexts have imprinted upon dominant firms' governance structures and influence their preferred networking mode. Consequently, the renewal of business networks reflects the pressures of globalization and the governance structures of the dominant organizational forms in the networks. Two types of network (global commodity chains and family business groups) are described and the global pressures for change bearing upon them outlined.     

Favor prevalence in emerging markets: A multi-level analysis

Favors are a medium of exchange for social capital. Social capital creates social, political, and economic benefits for individuals, organizations, communities, and societies around the world. Favors promote cooperation between individuals and are used to bond individual actors with other individuals, groups, communities, and institutions. Favors are prevalent in business in emerging markets because of the presence of institutional voids, limited social and geographic mobility, and strong reciprocity norms. Favors create benefits and liabilities for business organizations and their networks. They produce outcomes beyond the favor exchange process that can be characterized as productive or perverse. Despite their prevalence and importance, favors and their dynamics are not well understood. We explore the antecedents, content, process, and consequences of favors. We conclude our multi-level analysis of favors with a discussion of the “breakeven” point for favors—the point where favors tip from having a positive effect to having a negative effect on organization performance. We present an integrated framework to explain the dynamics of favors in emerging market business contexts, and develop propositions to guide future research.     

Exploring the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities for social innovation in a humanitarian aid supply network setting

This paper explores the microfoundations of the dynamics capabilities (DCs) needed for social innovation in a humanitarian aid context. We aim to reveal how humanitarian aid supply networks should develop DCs to achieve social innovation by meeting societal needs in highly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments. We conducted a qualitative content analysis on the activities of Logistics Cluster (LC), which is an organization that coordinates and guides local and international organizations to support worldwide humanitarian aid interventions. We primarily examined the LC's lessons-learned reports, supported by semi-structured interviews with the managers of LC and its supply network members. The findings revealed that: (i) early anticipation of needs in disaster-affected areas and lessons-learned exercises are the microfoundations of sensing capabilities; (ii) building capacity, supply network service provision, collaboration with logistics service providers, local partner engagement, building trust, and reconciliation are the microfoundations of seizing capabilities; and (iii) coordination and adaptability are the microfoundations of reconfiguring capabilities in the humanitarian aid context. Additionally, we identified relevant microprocesses for this context, which are preparing, engaging, strengthening, streamlining, and responding. Based on these findings, we propose a framework for social innovation in highly dynamic settings.     

Top manager and network effects on the adoption of innovative management practices: a study of TQM in a public hospital system

This paper reports findings from a study that combined two theoretical perspectives—top manager and network/institutional—to examine the factors influencing organizations to adopt innovative management practices. The study setting was a system of public hospitals and the innovation was Total Quality Management (TQM). Study results indicate that both top manager and network/institutional factors are important determinants of whether and when organizations adopt innovations. However, as predicted, the relative importance of these two sets of factors appears to change as an innovation becomes more widely diffused. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Picture this: Managed change and resistance in business network settings

This paper discusses change management in networks. The literature on business networks tends to downplay the role of managerial initiative in network change. The change management literature addresses such initiative, but with its single-firm perspective it overlooks the interdependence of network actors. In exploring the void between these two streams of literature, we deploy the concept of network pictures to discuss managed change in network settings. We analyze a change project from the furniture industry and address the consequences of attempting to manage change activities in a network context characterized by limited managerial authority over these activities. Our analysis suggests that change efforts unfold as a negotiated process during which the change project is re-negotiated to fit the multiple actor constituencies. The degree of overlap in the co-existing network pictures of the involved actors is found to be decisive for the possibility of successfully implementing network change.     

The evolution of cyber-insurance industry and market: An institutional analysis

The cyber-insurance (CI) market is at a nascent stage. This paper investigates how the contexts provided by formal and informal institutions affect the development of the CI industry. It highlights the nature, origin, and implications of CI-related institutions and provides insights into the mechanisms and forces that can lead to institutional changes. It offers an explanation as to how different institutional pillars related to CI progressively evolve and reinforce one another. Such a mechanism is likely to influence a range of demand and supply side factors and create a system that can accelerate the growth of the CI industry and market. The paper also investigates how contradictions generated by CI, the formation of dense networks and changing power dynamics can trigger regulative normative and cognitive changes. Since the current analysis of the causes and consequences of institutions and institutional change is mainly concerned with more established economic sectors, this paper is expected to provide insights into institutions surrounding to this new and rapidly evolving industry.     

Examining institutional effects on B2B relationships through the lens of transitioning economies

Our study addresses the limited attention paid to the role of indigenous institutional environments in framing the legitimate forms of governance used to shape buyer-supplier exchanges. Drawing on institutional theory and marketing channel literature, the study suggests that the emphasis in buyer-supplier exchanges on communication modalities and norms has much to do with the effectiveness of legal systems in a buyer's country. Three contexts for legitimacy are conceptualized from an examination of exchanges in developed economies with strong formal institutions and transitioning economies with underdeveloped institutions. Using surveys of US buyers to represent strong formal institutional environments, we conclude that buyers heavily influenced by regulative enforcement place a relatively greater emphasis on formal information sharing in their partnership efforts to build trust and enhance supplier performance. From surveys of buyers in India and China, we conclude that buyers place a relatively greater emphasis on informal information sharing when their legitimacy derives from the endogenously enforced moral codes of their private networks. Finally, surveys administered in Brazil and Russia revealed that buyers in environments pressured by the familial loyalty practices of their private networks place a relatively greater emphasis on the norm of solidarity to build trust in their suppliers.     

PLANNING IN AMBIGUOUS CONTEXTS: THE DILEMMA OF MEETING NEEDS FOR COMMITMENT AND DEMANDS FOR LEGITIMACY

This paper argues that ambiguity of context manifested in pressures for legitimacy and commitment affect planning processes. Ambiguity arises from multiple conflicting constituencies and the lack of direct control over resources. Using nonprofit and entrepreneurial organizations as examples of organizations facing ambiguous contexts, we examine their planning practices to develop an understanding of the relationship between commitment, legitimacy, and planning. From this analysis, we articulate a managerial dilemma: the need to use informality and vagueness to gain commitment from diverse interests, and the need to demonstrate formalization of managerial practices to acquire legitimacy from critical resource suppliers. Using elements of this dilemma, we present a new planning framework for organizations in ambiguous contexts that recognizes planning as a strategy for resource acquisition rather than a strategy for resource allocation.     

Institutions Are What Actors Make of Them — The Changing Construction of Firm‐Level Employment Relations in Spain

This article analyses the variation and change in firm‐level employment relations in Spain between the transition to democracy and the global financial crisis. Using three auto companies as case studies, I address a crucial puzzle in the institutional literature on comparative employment relations: How do employment relations change and vary, even when national employment relations institutions do not? This article argues that differences in actor ideologies shape the construction of national institutions at the firm level, which explains change and variation of employment relations over time and across cases. The study identifies four drivers of ideological change — generational change, leadership change, identity work and diffusion — that impact the variation and change in employment relations at the firm level.     

How organizations promote person-environment fit: using the case of japanese firms to illustrate institutional and cultural influences

The majority of person-environment (P-E) fit studies have been conducted in the Western context and little is known about the process through which organizations promote P-E fit. In this paper, I illustrate how Japanese organizations promote multiple types of P-E fit through their human resource practices. I also develop conceptual models in which promoting P-E fit in Japanese firms is contrasted with that of U.S. firms. The case and models suggest that institutional and cultural contexts affect the way organizations promote P-E fit. Future research directions for a better understanding of P-E fit management especially in the Asia-Pacific region are discussed.     

A framework for understanding strategic network performance: Exploring efficiency and effectiveness at the network level

There are currently limits in our understanding of strategic network performance due to the complexity of the underlying processes involved. Improving our understanding of performance is critical if we are to improve network functioning, an important managerial problem. This paper addresses a research gap in strategic network performance by investigating: efficiency and effectiveness at the network level of analysis. A multiple case study methodology is used to investigate two Australian agri-business strategic networks. The cases suggest that processes relating to building actor webs and collective sensemaking are crucial for improving strategic network effectiveness, whereas network efficiency is influenced by developing activity patterns and utilizing resource constellations. The cases also highlight potential trade-offs between network effectiveness and efficiency in relation to performance at the network level. The paper contributes an empirically informed theoretical framework for understanding how network level processes influence network performance.