Business networks and retail internationalization: A case analysis in the fashion industry

The paper presents different theoretical perspectives on the issue of business networks and their role in the process of internationalization. With regard to methodology, a specific case study is conducted of a vertically integrated firm in the fashion supply chain, which has implemented branding and retailing strategies in international markets. The case analysis, which is the result of a longitudinal study conducted over several years, aims at an in depth analysis of the extent to which business relationships represent a learning context involving opportunities/constraints in the internationalization process. The paper outlines the relationship between the specific business model, the international patterns followed, and business relationships. Three research questions are posed and discussed. Some final remarks on the relationships between business networks and international retail expansion conclude the work.     

Business service networks and their process of emergence: The case of the Health Cluster Portugal

Business services have been receiving increasing attention from academics, practitioners and policy-makers. Despite the growing interest, this field of research suffers from several limitations: it draws mostly on services marketing theory, and it is grounded mostly in monadic and dyadic studies. This paper contributes to the advance of business services research by addressing these limitations with regard to a specific service-related issue. We carry out an interdisciplinary study by integrating among others an industrial network approach (INA) into the services area, and we thus develop the research at a network level by adopting a services network perspective; furthermore, the study is carried out in a business-to-business context by looking into a health cluster: the Health Cluster Portugal. The article addresses one particular aspect of business services networks: their emergence. We propose a conceptual framework that draws on process-based research and integrates theories from other bodies of research, allowing a rich understanding of how a business service network is created. Our findings point to discontinuities along the emergence of such networks, showing that there is an iterative process underlying their formation, with different theories playing a predominant explanatory role at different stages. This paper contributes to the wider body of literature on services research by promoting the integration of the INA and other process-related approaches in the area of business services networks, and also provides practitioners and policy-makers with a structured framework to understand how an intentional ‘bottom–up’ business service network may be created or orchestrated.     

Global alliance networks: A comparison of biotech SMEs in Sweden and Australia

The role of networks in business operations is widely recognized. We discuss social network theory, identify its main constituents, and outline a methodology and procedure that enable the identification and valuation of informal networks in an international business-to-business environment. Research is carried on informal Internet networks among firms in the biotechnology industry from Sweden and Australia. We use the methodology to recognize salient nodes, determine prominence and identify structural holes that allow the unveiling of brokerage opportunities that lie latent in networks. Global firms and suppliers of industrial products that are or can position themselves effectively in a social network are in a position to leverage considerable value.     

Exploring the roles of university spin-offs in business networks

This paper identifies different university spin-off (USO) roles related to resource interaction among business parties. It does so by mapping how USOs become part of business networks in terms of their roles relative to other parties. The theoretical frame of reference focuses on roles and resource interaction based on an industrial network approach to business markets. The empirical research is based on five cases of USOs representing a variety in terms of technology, degree of newness, sector, and area of application. As a result of the analysis, three different roles are identified: the USO as resource mediator, resource re-combiner and resource renewer. These roles reflect how USOs adapt resources to, or require changes among, business parties' resources. The paper also discusses the main resource interfaces associated with the three roles and related challenges. The paper contributes to previous research through illustrating USOs' roles relative to business parties from a resource interaction point of view, and by pointing to the establishment of new companies in business networks as a way of implementing innovation. Finally, the paper discusses the managerial implications of the research in terms of the USO's need to understand which role to take and how to develop it.     

Leveraging ties: the contingent value of entrepreneurial teams' external advice networks on Indian software venture performance

This study investigates the impact of entrepreneurial teams' external networks on their ventures' performance. We first argue that ventures whose entrepreneurial teams span many structural holes in their external advice networks experience higher performance. We then propose that network ties are not uniform in their effect, but rather are contingent on two distinct features of entrepreneurial teams: (i) their strategic consensus—extent of agreement on key goals and strategies within the team—and (ii) internal cohesion—extent of interpersonal friendships within the team. Finally, we propose that team demographics and team networks complement (rather than substitute) each other. Data from Indian software ventures provide support for these arguments. We extend entrepreneurship research by highlighting how venture teams' internal processes and external networks jointly shape performance outcomes. We also add to the literature on team networks by drawing attention to the role of strategic consensus as a distinct pathway through which teams can leverage their external networks.     

How firms learn in NPD networks: The 4S model

This paper examines how firms learn in new product development (NPD) networks. While existing research in business and industrial marketing has significantly advanced our understanding of learning within single firms and in dyadic relationships, our knowledge of inter-firm learning across direct and indirect business relationships in NPD networks remains limited. We address this limitation by conducting multiple case study research to develop a more holistic understanding of learning in NPD networks that is captured in the proposed 4S model. Drawing on an integrated theoretical perspective and the empirical results of three case studies, we propose that firms engage in iterative cycles of syndicated, situated, selected and synergised modes of learning in NPD networks.     

Entrepreneurship in International Business: An Institutional Perspective

International business activities have confronted entrepreneurs with host business environments that are fundamentally different from their home countries. Despite decades of entrepreneurship research, we know very little about these entrepreneurs and their strategic behaviour in establishing and managing transnational operations. This paper develops an institutional perspective on transnational entrepreneurship. This perspective argues that significant variations in institutional structures of home countries explain variations in the entrepreneurial endowments of prospective transnational entrepreneurs. Transnational entrepreneurship is embedded in transnational actor networks that facilitate successful cross-border business operations. This paper goes beyond the theoretical impasse in entrepreneurship and international business studies.     

Rediscovering strategic content in ‘strong process’ research on business network innovation

A strong process view on business networks takes ‘becoming’ as a starting point for understanding business networks and innovation. This view tends to leave the role of strategic content implicit and underdeveloped. Yet, embracing content from a process angle is important to obtain insight in the role of strategic intent and value transformation. A philosophical architecture for addressing this gap is currently lacking. In the context of business network innovation, this paper seeks to explore how content can remain theoretically relevant and how it can be inserted in a strong process view underpinning industrial marketing research.This conceptual paper makes a distinction between content-centric, process-content co-evolution, and process-centric philosophies. These are mutually exclusive and fail to cater to the gap introduced. A fourth strategy is introduced that adopts the process-centric view as a foundation but uses pragmatism and encapsulation to reach out to content research. The paper offers methodological considerations for empirical research and applies the resulting approach to industrial marketing. It concludes with implications for research in industrial marketing.     

Network position and identity: A language-based perspective on strategizing

This article explores processes of strategizing within business networks by showing how managers employ sensemaking to cope with network paradoxes. It takes the linguistic turn to analyze how participants discursively construct their organizations' identities and positions within a ‘designed’ network context. In doing so, the paper attempts to answer the research question posed so provocatively over a decade ago by Håkansson and Ford (2002): by exploring how companies interact in business networks. Our contribution is to show how firms interact by taking a language-based perspective on strategy to help understand the links between network, organizational and micro-levels of social construction. An in-depth discussion of a case study is presented, with particular emphasis on the identity-constructing processes affecting (and affected by) the positioning and strategizing of various network actors. We conclude by reflecting on the theoretical and practical contributions of our analysis, the latter focusing on tensions in Indigenous business development.     

The sites and practices of business models

This paper examines the concept of business models. Drawing on the business model literature, we first identify technology, market offering and network architecture as the three core elements of business models. The theoretical routes of each element are then examined through the associated literatures: technology and innovation studies, industrial marketing, operations strategy, and evolutionary economics. Multiple dimensions of each element are identified and the resultant framework is used to explore developments within the recorded music market across three centuries.Through changes in the recorded music market since the 1870s, we explore how business models emerged, took on multiple sites and evolved through their practice over time. We look at how interlinking business models become spread out across the business network as different network actors play their part. The recorded music market generates important insights into how business models are created, developed and practiced. We suggest that firms, business networks and markets form embedded systems within which multiple overlapping business models can be considered as constituent parts. In this way, the business model is understood as having agency to shape action; but in turn actions (of others in the business network as well as within the firms themselves) also shape the business model.     

Studying processes in and around networks

The industrial marketing literature on business networks has drawn attention to the importance and yet the complexities of managing in a context of fluid and dynamic inter-organizational relationships. This context also poses significant challenges to researchers who wish to better understand the evolution of networks and the processes occurring in and around them in order to generate valuable theoretical insight and actionable knowledge for practitioners. After reviewing the nature of process research, this paper considers the key methodological choices and tradeoffs faced by process researchers interested in studying network dynamics. These choices and tradeoffs are illustrated by drawing on a series of exemplary process studies of networks derived from the entrepreneurship, strategic management, organization theory and industrial marketing literatures. The paper concludes by proposing that future studies might benefit from focusing on key network transformations and from mobilizing programmatic investments.     

Supply network dynamics as a source of new business

Supply networks where operational control extends well over organizational boundaries have emerged in industries producing relatively complex and customized products with tight profit margins. Products like ships, automobiles and telecommunication systems incorporate complex design and engineering skills that are produced through a tier-structured, multi-level supply networks. Efficiency in these networks has stemmed from specialization and cost efficiency in individual value adding operations. This paper demonstrates how supplier networks have evolved and how the inherent dynamics of these networks generate constantly new business opportunities for fast moving companies with a clear focus on operational efficiency. We use action research methodology on cases from the shipbuilding and constructions industry to document some of the dynamic features of supply networks. This insight is then applied to the electronics manufacturing services business to explain the fundamentals of successful operations in this highly competitive business with ever narrowing margins. In this dynamic market of contract manufacturing companies with constant focus on the reduction of production lead times by incorporating value added operations either physically or logically to maintain and recreate profitable business. To succeed in doing this, issues related to industrial parks, local tacit knowledge and reverse/repair logistics must be managed in cross-organizational manner. We conclude that there is an ever-changing limit to the expansion of supplier networks through specialization and cost efficiency, and that at one point contracting and integrating parts of the supply network will create operationally outperforming business models that further boost the inherent dynamics of supply networks.     

Customer referencing as business actor engagement behavior – Creating value in and beyond triadic settings

The rising impact of customer engagement is increasingly evident in business markets. This paper studies customer referencing as an important manifestation of engagement behavior in the business-to-business (B2B) context. To extend extant research, which has thus far examined referencing almost exclusively from the seller's viewpoint, we study how referencing affects value creation in business networks. We explore resources contributed and gained though referencing and the resulting value outcomes for the entire reference triad (the seller, the reference customer, and the prospective buyer). Empirically, the paper draws on an extensive field study conducted in knowledge-intensive business service industries. The results explicate how customer referencing affects value creation within and beyond the triad, by i) enhancing or impairing actors' internal processes; ii) strengthening or damaging relationships between the triad actors; and iii) facilitating exchange in their broader business network. The paper contributes to research on customer referencing by explicating its role in value creation on a network level. As one of the first studies on engagement in the B2B context, this paper contributes to the emerging actor engagement research by analyzing how influencing behavior operates in a business network. These insights can help firms to facilitate exchange in complex markets.     

Network process analysis: An event-based approach to study business network dynamics

To develop business, managers need to understand the dynamic nature of the business networks in which their company operates. Qualitative process research offers a promising methodology to deliver that understanding but does not yet provide elaborate analysis methods applicable to business network research. We therefore introduce an event based analysis strategy developed to study processes in business networks. Employing a longitudinal case on a paper trader's internationalization process in a network context as an experimental arena, we propose three tools for process analysis. First, a research steering wheel that combines both retrospective and real time event analysis; second, an analytical scheme comprising influencing factors, critical events and consequent change; and third, an event trajectory that unfolds process patterns. The proposed strategy offers a viable alternative to social network analysis, network pictures and narrative analysis with which to study network change and dynamics. Elaborating events from a moderate constructivist perspective, it enables the researcher to trace and understand processes beyond mere structural change, and to capture their evolution in a multilayered network context. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology and discuss its relevance for research and practice.     

Use of social capital among Russian managers of a new generation

Dynamic changes in the Russian political economy during the 1990s led to a unique combination of low levels of social capital at the general (state) level and very high levels of social capital at the interpersonal level. This research uses the three dimensions of social capital as outlined by Nahapiet and Ghoshal [Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998) Social capital, intellectual capital and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242-266.], to investigate the operation of business networks within Russia. Focusing on a generation of Russian business managers who had minimal exposure to the previous regime and who experienced western education/business practices, this study illustrates one snapshot of social capital in Russia in 2004. Results highlight how this generation of business managers operates and how they conduct their business networks. It is expected that there will be changes in Russian business networks, as formalized legal systems become stronger and the new generation of Russian managers, who have had little exposure to socialist systems and nomenklatura emerge.     

产业网络及其演变模式分析

产业网络是利用网络研究产业间或产业内部各种关系的一种新的方法。从纵向看，它表现为产业的链式结构；从横向看，它表现为不同行动者之间的竞争与合作，产业网络的演变过程与产业的形成和发展密不可分。我们在考夫曼关系模型的基础上对产业网络中的关系及其变化进行了研究，得出产业网络关联模型，提出了产业网络演变的模型和其他几种演变模式，并对处理产业网络中的各种关系的战略和政策及其应用作了研究。本文从网络角度研究产业的形成和发展，是产业经济学的一种新的研究方法，有关结论对培育新的产业、制定产业政策提供了理论依据。     

Conceptualizing business models in industrial networks

This paper is concerned with business model conceptualizations and outlines a framework for their analysis in industrial networks. A literature review suggests that there is a broad range of current conceptualizations of business models. Analyzing them as they pertain to interaction, business relationships, and industrial networks reveals two main explanations for their differences: first, they clearly rely on different basic theoretical assumptions, and second, they seem to address two types of business models. We refer to these as firm-centric and network-embedded business models. Based on this distinction, a scheme of analysis at the levels of the firm, relationship and network is suggested for the two types of business models. Business models are challenging from an analytical as well as managerial perspective. Further research on emerging network-embedded business models is suggested.     

Dynamics of relationships and networks — creation, maintenance and destruction as managerial challenges

This paper introduces the topic of dynamics in business networks as the overarching theme of the special issue. We first discuss the nature of stability and change in business relationships and industrial networks. Then, we highlight the paradox that stability and change are not opposing ends of a scale but co-existing and influencing each other. Finally, the contributions of this special issue are presented.     

Improving logistics outsourcing through increasing buyer-provider interaction

Logistics outsourcing has been at the top of the management agenda during recent decades. Through this approach companies have been able to improve logistics performance. However, several studies point out severe problems with outcome and it is even claimed that in some cases “logistics outsourcing has become a source of corporate failure and disappointment” [Boyson, S., Corsi, T., Dresner, M. and Rabinovich, E. (1999). Managing effective third-party logistics relationships: What does it take? Journal of Business Logistics, 20 (1), 73-100.]. Previous research shows that many companies have taken outsourced functions back in-house. The aim of this paper is to explore the reasons behind the problems in logistics outsourcing. Our analysis is based on an extensive literature survey. This examination indicates that outsourcing decisions require a holistic perspective. We apply the industrial network model [Håkansson, H. and Snehota, I. (1995). Developing relationships in business networks. Routledge, London.] for the analysis of potential consequences of logistics outsourcing. The main conclusion of the paper is that increasing interaction between buyer and provider would be beneficial to the outcome of outsourcing.