The relationship between brokers’ influence, strength of ties and NPD project outcomes in innovation-driven horizontal networks

This paper examines the impact of a broker's perceived use of power – position (i.e., coercive, reward and legitimate) and personal (i.e., expert, information and referent) – on strength of ties between network members and new product development (NPD) project outcomes. Our sample consists of 100 individuals drawn from 42 organizations that were involved in different innovation-driven horizontal networks. The results of structural equation modeling suggest that the perceived use of both personal power bases and position power bases by the broker are positively related to the strength of ties between members. Strength of ties, on the other hand, is positively related to NPD project outcomes of design performance and development time. Finally, results show that the relationships between a broker's use of different power bases and NPD project outcomes are fully mediated by the strength of ties between networks members. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed.     

Inter‐Team Coordination Patterns and Outcomes in Multi‐Team Projects

We examine what kinds of patterns of mechanisms can be applied in the coordination of several inter‐related project teams. We identify three distinct coordination schemes; namely: centralized coordination, decentralized coordination, and balanced coordination. In addition, we compare individuals' perceptions on communication, coordination effectiveness, project efficiency, learning, task analyzability, and task uncertainty between the three identified coordination schemes. The results of our study extend to both theoretical and practical understanding of coordination in multi‐team projects and its relation to communication, coordination effectiveness, project performance, and learning.     

Posting,quoting, and replying: a comparison of methodological approaches to measure communication ties in web forums

Active involvement in discussion-based communities is nowadays a firm part of people’s online activities. The measurement of communication ties and networks between contributors to such domains is thus becoming a relevant research question in social sciences. However, especially in web forums, very often almost no direct relational information exists that would indicate the presence of communication ties among contributors. In contrast with the reply-to structure of Usenet newsgroup or mailing list conversations that contain explicit relational information created by the contributors, some web forums only enable participants to add new posts to threads or to quote preceding posts in threads. When discussions emerge, it is difficult to identify who is replying to whom. Drawing on the social network studies dealing with the conversational patterns in Usenet and web forums, this paper presents an alternative approach to identifying the ties between authors of posts. Several assumptions are discussed, and different measures are developed and empirically evaluated. The findings provide a starting point for the development of a standardized methodology for studying social networks in online communities where only limited direct information about communication ties is available.     

Understanding information exchange in healthcare operations: Evidence from hospitals and patients

Coordination – or the information exchange among physicians and hospital staff – is necessary for desirable patient outcomes in healthcare delivery. However, coordination is difficult because healthcare delivery processes are information intensive, complex and require interactions of hospitals with autonomous physicians working in multiple operational systems (i.e. multiple hospitals). We examine how three important variables distinctive of the healthcare operations context – use of IT for dissemination of test results (ITDR) (i.e. electronic health records systems) by physicians and hospital staff, social interaction ties among them, and physician employment – influence information exchange and patient perceptions of their care. Drawing from the literature on process inter-dependencies and coordination, vertical integration and social exchange, we develop and test research hypotheses linking ITDR, social interaction ties and physician employment to information exchange relationship, and information exchange relationship to provider–patient communication. Using a paired sample of primary survey data and secondary archival data from CMS HCAHPS for 173 hospitals in the USA, we find that increased information exchange relationship drives provider–patient communication, and increased social interaction ties drives information exchange relationship. Social interaction ties fully mediates the relationship between ITDR and information exchange relationship. Physician employment amplifies the link between ITDR and social interaction ties, but does not have an effect on the link between ITDR and information exchange. We do not find a direct relationship between ITDR, and information exchange relationship or provider–patient communication.     

Managing The Environment

Abstract

The literature on network management in the public sector reports positive effects of network activity on agency performance. Current studies show however no differences between specific types of contacts in an agency's environment. The present article adopts an explorative design to study the different types of environmental actors in the networks of nine colleges for nursing studies in the Netherlands. A typology of environmental ties is introduced, and applied to the nine cases. It appears that contacts to different types of actors reflect different levels of ambition in the network management of the colleges. The level of ambition in network management appears to be associated with two indicators for college performance: it is positively associated with diploma rate, and negatively associated with drop-out rates among freshmen. These results are discussed with reference to the current literature in public network management.     

厂网村结对共建 合力推“创先争优”

大唐岩滩水力发电有限责任公司在开展"创先争优"活动中,拓宽创新渠道,与下游的行业链电网公司和地方协和村三方结对共建,通过"加强安全管控交流,和谐社会互建,筑造安全厂网;加强技术合作,组织建设互促,共造效益厂网;通过文化联谊、党员干部互动,营造人文厂网;通过教育培训、人才培养互补,打造智能厂网"的"两加强两通过四打造"活动,力推"创先争优"活动向横向纵深发展。     

Networks and leadership development: Building linkages for capacity acquisition and capital accrual

Social networks can aid the leadership development process through facilitating access to important developmental assignments and the acquisition of capabilities to handle associated challenges. Although much of the traditional focus of leadership development has been on building intrapersonal capabilities, functioning effectively as a leader necessitates the development of interpersonal capabilities associated with dyadic ties and relational capabilities associated with patterns of ties within networks. Such capabilities allow aspiring managers to accrue not only human capital, but social and system capital as well. Aspiring managers can tap task, career, and friendship/support networks to aid developmental and career success. Structure factors, including strategic choices, network characteristics, and the technological interface moderate the ability of managers to convert potential network contacts into significant leadership development and capital accrual. Personal factors also influence leadership development prospects. Overall, there are many ways in which network concepts associated with dyadic and relational levels of analysis can facilitate addressing the challenges that are key to leadership development.     

Old flames never die – the role of binding social ties for corporate entrepreneurship in family firms

This paper investigates the role of social ties and family embeddedness for corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. Family firms are mostly characterized by close and often inseparable ties between the dominant family coalition and the firm and offer specific resources within a context of both rational as well as non-rational factors that influence entrepreneurial strategies. We empirically test (n =?181) the relationship between binding social ties and innovation, strategic renewal, and corporate venturing. Our findings indicate a strong significance for networks and close and stable relationships both to inside the firm and the outside in decision making for corporate venturing and innovation. In contrast, the results for strategic renewal show no relevance of strong social ties. We link up with the debate on the role of owners as an important stakeholder group.

     

Supplier's Internal Communication Network During the Project Sales Process

The nature of internal communication networks in project sales has remained largely unexplored. This article sheds light on a supplier's internal communication network during a project sales process by using social network analysis and in‐depth qualitative data. We analyzed the project sales process and related internal communication network of a material handling equipment provider. The results illustrate the non‐centralized and complex nature of internal communication networks and highlight four barriers to and four drivers of efficient communication during project sales. Above all, using communication training seems to be the most efficient way to improve internal communication.     

Rallying competencies in virtual communities: A study of core processes and user interest in open source software projects

Managing work practices has become one of the key challenges facing virtual communities. This paper seeks to broaden the research on virtual communities by applying the theory of competency rallying (TCR) in a longitudinal manner to examine the impact of task identification, task assignment, task execution and task management on user interest in open source software (OSS) projects defined by popularity and communication. The aim of this paper is: (1) re-conceptualizing the concept of user interest and broadening our understanding of user interest by incorporating users' post-usage behaviors, (2) examining the effect of various tasks involved in an OSS project's key processes of defect-fixing and feature-enhancement on user interest. The current study found that project popularity is positively influenced by task assignment, task execution and task management. Additionally, user communication was found to be positively impacted by task identification and task execution. The data collected from 1178 OSS projects in a longitudinal manner (at 3 time points over a period of 16 months) confirmed the expectations from TCR and also demonstrated that over time the effects that development of competencies and managing short term cooperative work have on project success might increase, while the impact of identifying market needs and marshalling competencies may not significantly change.     

Toward a structural view of co-opetition in supply networks

Co-opetition, or simultaneous competition and cooperation, in the supply chain management literature has been treated as a dyadic relational phenomenon where the buyer's strategy is considered to be the primary driver. In this paper, we move beyond the dyadic view and propose a theory of co-opetition in supply networks. We argue that as firms within a supply network interact over time to access, share, and transform resources, new ties between firms are formed and existing ties dissolve, giving rise to co-opetition dynamics at the network level. Taking a configurational approach, we employ the inter-related dimensions of ties between firm, firm-level task, network-level objective, and governance to specify four practical supply network archetypes that cover a wide range of economic activities. We then explain how coopetitive relationships may evolve in these supply network archetypes. Specifically, we discuss how relationships form or dissolve in these archetypes and how local structural changes lead to co-opetition dynamics at the network level. We also discuss the implications of such dynamics from a managerial perspective.     

Overcoming equivocality on projects in the fuzzy front end: Bringing social networks back in

The management of the fuzzy front end (FFE) phase of innovation is crucial to the ultimate success of new product and process initiatives. A critical challenge that teams face at this stage is dealing with equivocality – the extent to which project participants grapple with multiple, and plausibly conflicting, meanings and interpretations of the information available to them (Daft and Lengel, 1986; Weick, 1979). While initially, a certain level of equivocality is beneficial for enhancing teams’ creativity and preventing early closure, at some point it must be resolved in order for an idea to become a viable New Product Development (NPD) project. This study employs a social networks perspective to understand how different types of informal work-based relations and their structural properties affect equivocality on project teams in the FFE. In particular, it examines the structural effects of two types of social relations and their associated networks—those of technical-advice and friendship ties. The findings suggest that while high density in projects’ technical-advice network is likely to reduce equivocality, high density in projects’ friendship network is likely to increase it. More interestingly, having multiple members on projects who are highly central in the lab's technical-advice network tends to increase equivocality unless it is balanced with members who occupy positions of high centrality in the lab's friendship network. In addition to contributing to the scholarship on NPD, FFE, and social networks, the results offer managerial insights for deploying social networks in order to assemble NPD teams and structure the flows of communication on projects so as to resolve equivocality in the FFE.     

From network ties to network structures: Exponential Random Graph Models of interorganizational relations

Theoretical accounts of network ties between organizations emphasize the interdependence of individual intentions, opportunities, and actions embedded in local configurations of network ties. These accounts are at odds with empirical models based on assumptions of independence between network ties. As a result, the relation between models for network ties and the observed network structure of interorganizational fields is problematic. Using original fieldwork and data that we have collected on collaborative network ties within a regional community of hospital organizations we estimate newly developed specifications of Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) that help to narrow the gap between theories and empirical models of interorganizational networks. After controlling for the main factors known to affect partner selection decisions, full models in which local dependencies between network ties are appropriately specified outperform restricted models in which such dependencies are left unspecified and only controlled for statistically. We use computational methods to show that networks based on empirical estimates produced by models accounting for local network dependencies reproduce with accuracy salient features of the global network structure that was actually observed. We show that models based on assumptions of independence between network ties do not. The results of the study suggest that mechanisms behind the formation of network ties between organizations are local, but their specification and identification depends on an accurate characterization of network structure. We discuss the implications of this view for current research on interorganizational networks, communities, and fields.     

TTF视角下的跨国虚拟团队沟通模型——基于中国软件外包行业的案例研究

信息及通信技术的发展使得跨国虚拟团队(GVT)成为可能,但也带来了诸多挑战。本文选取大连软件外包行业为研究样本,采用案例分析方法,提出了技术任务适配视角下的GVT沟通模型。通过对6个团队的多案例研究,提出不同类型的任务对媒体有着不同的需求,任务类型与媒体特征间存在着最优适配,同时外语水平、项目经验等个人因素也会影响媒体使用的感知适配,并最终影响沟通绩效水平。     

In search of efficient network structures: the needle in the haystack

Searching for efficient networks can prove a very difficult analytical and even computational task. In this paper, we explore the possibility of using the genetic algorithms (GA) technique to identify efficient network structures in the case of non-trivial payoff functions. The robustness of this method in predicting optimal networks is tested on the two simple stylized models introduced by Jackson and Wolinsky (1996), for which the efficient networks are known over the whole state space of the parameters’ values. This approach allows us to obtain new exploratory results in the case of the linear-spatialized connections model proposed by Johnson and Gilles (Rev Econ Des 5:273–299, 2000), for which the efficient allocation of bilateral connections is driven by contradictory forces that push either for a centralized structure around a coordinating agent, or for only locally and evenly distributed connections. Murat Yıldızoğlu gratefully acknowledges the support of the CCRDT program of Aquitaine Region.     

Buyer–Supplier and Supplier–Supplier Alliances: Do They Reinforce or Undermine One Another?

abstract    Previous research has portrayed buyer–supplier and supplier–supplier alliances as important mechanisms to foster learning and exchange efficiencies. Controversy remains, however, as to how these alliances interact. While some propose they reinforce one another (e.g. learning in horizontal ties generates positive spillovers to vertical ties), others propose a negative interplay (e.g. when increasing vertical-tie intensity, suppliers may weaken horizontal ties to avoid retaliation from buyers who wish to preserve bargaining power). We empirically test these competing views using survey data from the Brazilian auto-parts industry. In an attempt at reconciliation, we propose that the positive or negative interaction between vertical and horizontal alliances depends on the level of technological uncertainty of goods exchanged. Vertical ties seem to inhibit horizontal ties when technological uncertainty is low; when technological uncertainty is higher, vertical and horizontal ties do not seem to have any meaningful form of interaction. We discuss implications for theory and practice.     

Network design in games with spillovers

How should an organization be designed in order to provide its members with minimal incentives to defect? And how does the optimal design depend on the type of strategic interaction between defectors and remaining organizational members? This paper addresses such issues in a game theoretic model of cooperation, in which an organization is formally represented by a connected network, and where gains from cooperation are given by a partition function. We show that critical structural features of the organization depend in a clear-cut way on the sign of spillovers. In particular, positive spillovers favor the adoption of dispersed and centralized forms, while negative spillovers favor cohesive and horizontal ones. Moreover, if the organizational form determines all the communication possibilities of members, a highly centralized organization—the star—emerges under positive spillovers, whereas two horizontal architectures—the circle and the complete—emerge under negative spillovers.     

Upstream intergenerational transfers in economic development: The role of family ties and their cultural transmission

I construct a model where upstream income transfers, from adult children to their old parents, are driven by a culture of strong family ties. This evolves endogenously, through a process of intergenerational cultural transmission. The two-way causal link between economic and cultural change can be a strong enough force to offset cultural substitution, thus generating path-dependent outcomes. These outcomes show that economic development is negatively related with upstream intergenerational transfers, and with the strength of family ties. On the one hand, the economy may follow a convergence path towards a low level of economic development, where adherence to strong family ties is the dominant characteristic of a culturally homogeneous population, and where the overall flow of intergenerational transfers is substantial. On the other hand, the economy may follow a different path of convergence towards a relatively higher level of economic development, where the population is more diverse in terms of their attitudes on family ties, and where the overall flow of intergenerational transfers is lower by comparison.     

A strategic analysis of network reliability

Abstract. We consider a non-cooperative model of information networks where communication is costly and not fully reliable. We examine the nature of Nash networks and efficient networks. We find that if the society is large, and link formation costs are moderate, Nash networks as well as efficient networks will be ‘super-connected’ i.e. every link is redundant in the sense that the network remains connected even after the link is deleted. This contrasts with the properties of a deterministic model of information decay, where Nash networks typically involve unique paths between agents. We also find that if costs are very low or very high, or if links are highly reliable then there is virtually no conflict between efficiency and stability. However, for intermediate values of costs and link reliability, Nash networks may be underconnected relative to the social optimum.     

Survival Through Networks: The ‘grip’ of the administrative links in the Russian post-Soviet context

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the post-Soviet transformation experience of four defence sector organizations in a Russian region where the defence sector occupies a substantial part of the local economy, this article develops a typology of network relationships: Grooved Inter-relationship Patterns (Gr’ip) networks and Fluid Inter-relationship Patterns (Fl’ip) networks. This typology can be applied to a range of transition/emerging market and low system trust contexts. Gr’ip networks, in this case, represent the persisting legacy of the Soviet command-administrative system. Fl’ip networks are here an attempt by the defence companies to link into the civilian supply chains of a developing market economy. This article argues that Gr’ip networks had and still have a crucial role to play in Russian enterprises’ survival and development.