Strategic capability architecture: The role of network capability

A firm's network capability refers to its ability to build, handle and exploit relationships. These capabilities are interwoven in a complex configuration with the other capabilities and competencies of the firm and in practice, are very difficult to separate from them. Rather than assuming that firms inherently possess network capability, our aim is to discover if the shared managerial logic of top management teams confirms its presence. In order to understand how managers perceive, process and interpret network capability, we guided the management teams of five industrial suppliers through a novel five-step process of introducing, identifying, critically screening, challenging and verifying the capabilities of the firm. The paper introduces a framework for strategic capability architecture and investigates how network capability emerges from among the configuration of other capabilities in industrial firms. We found that network capabilities are central to the formation of customer capabilities. Network capabilities also play an important role as assets contributing to the formation of other capability sets. Furthermore, we found that the networking capabilities act in unison with other capabilities through three different strategic logics termed partnering, value streaming, and horizontal allying.     

Organizational antecedents of cross-functional coopetition: The impact of leadership and organizational structure on cross-functional coopetition

Cross-functional coopetition (the joint occurrence of cooperation and competition between departments) has received increasing interest from academia and practice. However, there is still little evidence on how cross-functional coopetition can be fostered. We investigate in how far leadership styles (consideration and participation) and organizational structures (centralization and formalization) can be employed to enable a firm's management favoring cross-functional coopetition between departments. Analyzing survey data from 234 German companies, we demonstrate that both consideration and participation have a positive effect on cross-functional coopetition. Additionally, we find that formalization has positive effect on cross-functional coopetition, whereas the effect of centralization is negative. We show that our findings are valid for a multitude of organizational cultures. Finally, we derive implications for research and practice as well as avenues for future research.     

Enabling relationship structures and relationship performance improvement: The moderating role of relational capital

Based on data from 248 asymmetric subcontractor–customer relationships in Finland, this study analyzes the direct impact of relationship structures, relational capital, and the subcontractor's relationship-specific investments on the improvement of operational relationship performance. In addition, the study investigates the moderating role of relational capital on the links between relationship structures, relationship-specific investments, and relationship performance improvement. We found that both relational capital and relationship-specific investments directly affect the relationship performance improvement, while relationship structures do not. However, relational capital positively moderates the link between relationship structures and relationship performance improvement by creating enabling structures. Thus, our findings contribute to the existing literature and discussion on enabling organizational and relationship structures by demonstrating how relational capital changes the role and impact of relationship structures.     

The impact of trust and contract on innovation performance: The moderating role of environmental uncertainty

Research into two important control mechanisms for managing the supply chain relationship - contracts and trust - is on the rise. However, our understanding of how they influence innovation in a firm remains rather unclear. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to examine the individual and interactive effects of contracts and trust on firms' innovation performance and the contingent effects of environmental uncertainty on those relationships in China. The empirical results from a survey of Chinese manufacturing firms indicate that there is a positive relationship between trust and firms' innovation performance, an inverted U-shaped relationship between the use of contracts and firms' innovation performance, and that contracts and trust are substitutes. Moreover, we find that environmental uncertainty enhances the effects of trust, but does not influence the impact of contracts on innovation performance.     

The use of influence strategies in interdependent relationship: The moderating role of shared norms and values

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of interdependence on the influence strategies and investigate the moderating role that “shared norms and values” play in the relationships between interdependence and influence strategies. The results reveal that when the degree of total dependence between suppliers and retailers gets higher, the suppliers adopt fewer hard coercive strategies and more promise and noncoercive strategies. When retailers dependent much more on suppliers, suppliers adopt more hard coercive strategies and fewer noncoercive strategies, but there is no significant effect on promise strategies. Under a higher degree of shared norms and values, the negative relationship between total interdependence and hard coercive strategies, and the positive relationship between total interdependence and (1) promise strategies and (2) noncoercive strategies increase. Moreover, the relationship between interdependence asymmetry and influence strategies is also moderated by shared norms and values. It implies that under a higher degree of shared norms and values and a higher extent to which retailers depend on suppliers, suppliers adopt fewer hard coercive strategies and more promise and noncoercive strategies.     

Non-linear relationship between industrial service offering and sales growth: The moderating role of network capabilities

In an effort to approach the mixed findings regarding the relationship between a firm's industrial service offering and its performance, this study analyzes the impact of the industrial service offering on sales growth and the moderating role of network capabilities. The proposed research model is tested based on data from 91 Finnish manufacturing firms. Our results demonstrate a non-linear effect of the service offering on sales growth. We also find that network capabilities enhance the effect of the service offering on sales growth. For managers of manufacturing firms, the results imply that the active development of a comprehensive service offering should be implemented in conjunction with the development of organizational capabilities, such as network capabilities, to create value and promote improved performance.     

Organizational culture and coopetition: An exploratory study of the features,models and role in the Polish Aviation Industry

This study explores the importance of organizational culture for coopetition, and identifies the cultural profile of coopetitors operating within an innovation network. Although organizational culture's role in interorganizational collaboration is long established, coopetition settings have not received a similar attention. This exploratory study sheds light on the role of culture for coopetition, and scrutinizes organizational culture using the Competing Values Framework. Our findings suggest cultural differences between coopetitors versus non-coopetitors. Coopetitors display a cultural profile typical to hierarchy, as they describe themselves as more stable than flexible and more internally than externally focused in their strategic orientation. Interestingly the culture model typical for coopetitors, has been identified as the most distant for non-coopetitors, while the second typical model for non-coopetitors i.e. adhocracy has been identified as the most distant for coopetitors.     

Examining the impact of job embeddedness on salesperson deviance: The moderating role of job satisfaction

This study investigates the dysfunctional outcomes of salesperson job embeddedness as moderated by job satisfaction. Our findings suggest that among salespeople with low job satisfaction, organizational job embeddedness is positively linked with organizational deviance, interpersonal deviance, and customer-directed deviance. However, among salespeople with high job satisfaction, job embeddedness is negatively linked with organizational deviance and not significantly linked with either interpersonal or customer-directed deviance. The managerial implications of this study suggest that sales managers should be proactive in mitigating salesperson deviance behaviors through a variety of methods that may enhance salesperson satisfaction, particularly among salespeople who are embedded. Such managerial methods may include the following: 1) more assertive communication of acceptable norms with salespeople, 2) proper mentoring, 3) developing coordinated monitor and control systems, and 4) setting appropriate expectations for new hire salespeople by providing realistic job previews.     

Strategic orientation and new product development performance: The role of networking capability and networking ability

While strategic orientation can represent an important antecedent to new product development (NPD) performance, research suggests that adopting a strategic orientation alone is not sufficient and a better understanding of contingencies is necessary. Based on the dynamic capability view of the firm, this study examines the effect of a firm's ability to connect with external network partners (networking capability) and the ability of NPD project managers to network with stakeholders within the firm (networking ability). The empirical results indicate that market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation are positively associated with NPD performance when a firm has sufficient networking capability to manage network dynamics and when the managers of NPD projects possess networking ability to successfully mobilize the support and advocacy of stakeholders within the firm. The results also show that NPD performance is highest when market (entrepreneurial) orientation, networking capability, and networking ability are all high, thus supporting the proposed three-way interaction.     

Organizing coopetition for innovation: The case of wireless telecommunication sector in Europe

Prior research highlighted the prevalence of coopetition as a strategy for innovation in high-tech industries for several reasons but the link between forms of coopetition and innovation is still understudied. In order to fill this gap in the literature, this study attempts to answer the following question: which form of coopetition favors which type of innovation? The results of an embedded case study approach of five Celtic-Plus projects (European Eureka Program) in the wireless telecommunication sector show that two forms of coopetition exist: multiple and dyadic. While multiple coopetition is successfully pursued for radical innovation, dyadic coopetition is more suitable for incremental innovation. Different innovation objectives lead to different levels of value creation/appropriation tensions between coopetitors. In order for competitors to pursue radical or incremental innovation successfully, different levels of social capital related to different choices of partners are needed. The role of social capital levels as a moderating factor between value creation/appropriation tensions and innovation type is discussed in detail. The study proposes a conceptual model that links coopetition strategy motives to the types of coopetition and their results in terms of radical or incremental innovation. Finally, a framework that helps firms to balance between multiple/dyadic–vertical/horizontal collaboration according to the levels of value creation/appropriation tensions and social capital is proposed.     

Longitudinal effects of job insecurity on employee outcomes: The moderating role of emotional intelligence and the leader-member exchange

The longitudinal study reported herein examines the buffering effects of individual and social resources (emotional intelligence and the leader-member exchange relationship) on the relationships between job insecurity and employee reactions (somatic complaints and organizational commitment) and the relationships between employee reactions over time. The results of this study, which was based on data drawn from 157 nurses employed by three hospitals in China, indicate that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between job insecurity and somatic complaints at both Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) and that the leader-member exchange relationship (LMX) buffers the effects of somatic complaints at T1 on organizational commitment at T2. Overall, the findings reveal that the ability of employees to deal with their emotions and their relationships with their supervisors is an important resource that serves to protect employee outcomes when job security is uncertain.     

Pursuit of rigor in research: Illustration from coopetition literature

We propose that rigor consists of three key aspects: conceptual (the theoretical lens, constructs, and logic used to understand a phenomenon), methodological (how data are collected and analyzed to capture a phenomenon), and empirical (how findings are organized, distilled, and related to the theory). We discuss rigor in the context of coopetition research and explain how rigor could be enhanced in future research. For each aspect of rigor, we discuss what it means to conduct rigorous research, review the current state of coopetition research using a rigor lens, and systematically discuss ways of improving rigor in future research. We suggest that pursuit of research with greater level of rigor would help increase the impact of coopetition research and contribute to the creation of cumulative knowledge on the topic.     

Creation and appropriation of socio-environmental value in coopetition

Although much has been written about value in coopetition initiatives, the dynamics of value creation and appropriation remain poorly articulated. This paper explores the types of value and the dynamics of value creation and appropriation when competitors cooperate.The research provides some suggestions towards semantic clarity and introduces new dimensions to the existing value creation and appropriation literature. We also present the Coopetition Value Matrix (CVM), an expanded typology that aids in the understanding of value dynamics in coopetition. Constructing the CVM required the incorporation of stakeholder theory and the concept of socio-environmental value, two aspects that are under-explored in coopetition research.We applied the CVM to a case of environmental coopetition in the South African wine industry, which provided us with empirical illustrations of the dynamic interaction of different types of value.     

The role of functional and demographic diversity on new product creativity and the moderating impact of project uncertainty

Earlier studies have shown inconsistency in the impact of team diversity on the effective functioning of New Product Development (NPD) teams. This inconsistency has been attributed to the insufficient amount of research on a possible complex (non-monotonic) relationship between team diversity and team performance and the possible boundary conditions of this relationship. Addressing numerous calls for future studies on these issues, we examined whether an inverted-U relationship exists between team diversity (i.e., functional and demographic) and its outcomes (i.e., new product creativity), using project uncertainty as a key moderator. The results of an empirical study with a sample of 103 new product development teams showed an inverted U-shaped functional diversity–new product creativity relationship. Moreover, the results showed that the direct relationship between functional diversity and new product creativity was stronger when project uncertainty was high as opposed to when it was low. On the other hand, the direct relationship between demographic diversity and new product creativity was weaker when project uncertainty was high as opposed to when it was low.     

Conceptualizing coopetition as a process: An outline of change in cooperative and competitive interactions

This study discusses how and why cooperative interactions between competitors change as their coopetitive relation develops over time. Such cooperative interactions are conceptualized to depend on the existence of agreements between competitors, or rules for cooperating and competing, which are formulated based on past experiences from mutual interaction. The purpose is to develop a framework which explains change in coopetitive interactions and particularly in inter-organizational rules for interaction. This framework distinguishes three mechanisms underlying change: inter-organizational learning manifested in cooperation between competitors, intra-organizational learning based on confrontations between conflicting experiences among organizational members, and the development of the external environment. Based on this generic framework, three scenarios are developed that delineate the nature of the change process in relations characterized respectively by strong competitive and cooperative dimensions, and in relations characterized by equal and moderately strong levels of cooperation and competition. These scenarios further suggest that rules for interaction change in a predefined or discontinuous manner depending on the balance and strength of the cooperative and competitive interactions.     

Mapping the perspectives of coopetition and technology-based strategic networks: A case of smartphones

The aim of this study is to introduce and rearrange various coopetition perspectives and consider their implications in the context of a technology-based case study example from the smartphone industry and especially with the state of strategic networks between smartphone producers and operating systems at one chosen moment (autumn 2012). The case study analysis is based on a strategic map of the (technical) coalitions of firms (cf. Näsi et al., 2001). The most important introduced coopetitive features are present in the studied case. This study emphasizes in the literature review the dichotomy between contextual and procedural coopetition. However, this dichotomy is not solid in practice according to the studied case: the same firm might simultaneously have both contextual and procedural features. The study reveals this overlapping and multidimensional character of coopetition generally and its technological dimension in practice, and the general need to continue to study these coopetitive features. The study shows that contemporary theoretical typologies and frameworks of coopetition require experiments in order to direct the coopetition discussions toward the practical phenomena of business.     

SBU strategy and performance: The moderating effects of the corporate-SBU relationship

This study suggests that the link between an SBU strategy and performance is moderated by the SBU's relationship with corporate management. Information processing arguments suggest that this relationship, typically characterized by general measures of centralization, has been inappropriately conceptualized in prior research. An alternative view, one that considers which decisions and activities should be controlled by the individual SBU, is proposed and tested. The results of a study of 496 SBUs indicate that SBU performance is enhanced when: (1) SBUs with an external strategic orientation control environmental monitoring activities and strategic decision analysis, and (2) SBUs with an intraorganizational orientation control those activities relating to operations. Weaker SBU performance is associated with SBU control over those functions and activities not central to the SBU's business strategy. Therefore, it is suggested that the corporate-SBU relationship can either facilitate or inhibit the implementation of the SBU's intended strategy.