Enhancing organizational sensemaking: An examination of the interactive effects of sales capabilities and marketing dashboards

Current marketing research highlights the direct effects of marketing resources on firm performance. Few studies, however, examine how such resources interact with one another and contribute to the strategic actions, such as sensemaking. In this study, we investigate how sales capabilities and performance monitoring via marketing dashboards influence a firm's sensemaking. The results from our study suggest that sales capability and the use of marketing dashboards not only contribute directly, but also have an interactive effect, highlighting the importance of integrating both sales and marketing operations. Further, we find evidence that sensemaking influences cost control and enhances customer relationship performance, suggesting that sensemaking has the potential to simultaneously impact both cost efficiency and growth.     

The utilisation of network pictures to examine a company's employees' perceptions of a supplier relationship

Network pictures have been perceived as providing a picture of a company's position within a network ([Ford, D., Gadde, L.E., Håkansson, H., and Snehota, I. (2002), “Managing Networks,” IMP Group in Asia, 11th-13th December.]; [Ramos, C., Ford, D. and Naudé, P., (2005), “Developing Network Pictures as a Conceptual Device,” First Annual IMP Journal Seminar.]). This exploratory paper aims to investigate the application of network pictures at the dyadic relationship level. Taking the perspective of employees from a single company, this research examines the perceptions of a specific supplier relationship. The study takes the network pictures of three key individuals and examines the boundaries of their network pictures, their lines of communication, their perceived relationship atmosphere and the impact of environmental factors. Unsurprisingly, the boundaries of each network picture, the frequency of communication and perceptions of the relationship atmosphere varied systematically with their managerial level and function. In this regard, the findings suggest that network pictures may act as a useful sense-making tool for developing and sharing relationship information both internally, between employees and externally, with the supplier. Further research is required in order to confirm whether these findings are applicable to other dyadic relationships and to investigate the implications of network pictures as a tool for managers.     

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.     

Actor network pictures and networking activities in business networks: An experimental study

In recent years, there has been increasing interest among business-to-business marketing scholars in the processes of managerial cognition. In particular, actors' network pictures, defined as the cognitive representations of managers' business surroundings have attracted much attention. However, there has so far been no empirical research on the impact that network pictures have on managerial behavior. The purpose of this paper is therefore to understand if and how specific pertinent network picture characteristics — namely power, dynamics, broadness, and indirectness — are associated with different behavioral choices, i.e. networking strategies. Based on an experiment with 445 Executive MBA students, all international managers across different industries, we find that managers' choices when managing business relationships, their strategic actions, are affected by the way they perceive their surrounding business network. However, amongst the different theoretical models of networking activities tested, only the power dimension showed significant associations with all four network picture characteristics. This study represents the first to empirically study the connection between cognition and behavior in business-to-business markets, as well as one of the few to apply an experimental design to study a business-to-business marketing related phenomenon. Also, it paves the way for future understanding of the association between network picture characteristics and networking strategies in interaction between actors.     

Networks of mind and networks of organizations: The map metaphor in business network research

This paper examines the definitions and uses of the network picture metaphor in industrial marketing research. Conceptually, the paper extends our understanding of networks and of representations of networks among researchers and practitioners as pictures or maps. A threefold interpretation is proposed of network pictures as representationalist, mentalist and situated. The representationalist use has dominated business-to-business network research while the mentalist use is prominent in strategic management and has recently made an entrance into industrial marketing research. The representationalist version of pictures, despite its apparent innocence, can either imply or leave unexamined the mentalist version, but mentalism stands in contradiction to much network thinking. This paper seeks to resolve the emerging contradiction of representationalist and mentalist versions of network pictures by advocating a situated version. Seeing network pictures as situated in use is helpful in grasping cognitions and actions in a manner consistent with networks. The paper concludes by developing the situated version of network pictures as ‘actants’ and sketches the benefits and implications for business researchers and practitioners.     

Changing network pictures: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions

A merger or acquisition may cause dramatic changes in a business network, which in turn affect managerial cognition as well as managerial activities. We use the concepts of ‘network pictures’ and ‘networking’ to illustrate and analyse changes in managerial sense-making and networking activities following a merger or acquisition. The paper focuses on acquiring, acquired or merging parties and those companies with which they have direct customer relationships. Based on three case studies comprising seven acquisitions and one merger, we show that following a merger or acquisition managers may need to adapt their previous network pictures in a radical way; these adaptations are, however, not always realized as shifts in network pictures and adjustments in networking activities by all the managers involved. Whereas the merging parties' network pictures and networking activities are largely driven by their perception of customers' needs and developments, it is not certain that the merger or acquisition is enacted accordingly. The paper contributes to a clearer view on the conceptual interdependence of the constructs of network pictures and networking in multi-actor situations and thus it develops a network perspective on mergers and acquisitions.     

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.     

Developing the organization's sensemaking capability: Precursor to an adaptive strategic marketing response

Effective strategic planning demands that organizations develop an understanding of the forces shaping the situation by engaging the collective efforts and interpretive capabilities of various representatives of the organization. This study investigates the mechanisms by which such an understanding develops and, subsequently, shapes marketing strategy. Specifically, organizations are examined as sensemaking units stimulated by perceived environmental turbulence, cultural open-mindedness, and team functional diversity. These factors are modeled as determinants of an organization's sensemaking capability, which is comprised of communicative, interpretive, and analytical dimensions. This study argues that a developed sensemaking capability increases the potential range of strategic responses and, ultimately, enhances customer-based performance. The results from a sample of wholesale distributors suggest that organizations that maintain greater internal variety are better able to sense and respond to the environment.     

Enablers and inhibitors of the development of network capability in entrepreneurial firms: A study of the Irish micro-brewing network

Focusing on the Irish micro-brewing industry, this paper identifies and describes the factors that both enable and inhibit the entrepreneurial firm's development of its network capability. The empirical research entailed in-depth interviews with the entire network of micro-brewery entrepreneurs in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland comprising nineteen firms. Using multiple levels of network analysis, findings illustrate the complexity of network capability development. The factors inhibiting the development of network capability were found to outweigh the ones enabling it. Past network experience, information sharing and participation in coordinated consumer events represent some of the factors found to enable network capability. Conversely, a desire for control over decision making, a lack of knowledge sharing or joint problem solving and the perception of value chain activity links and resources as unnecessary inhibits network capability. The main contribution of the paper is a framework of factors enabling and inhibiting network capability based on a multi-level network analysis.     

A cross-cultural comparison of the network capability development of entrepreneurial firms

The business-to-business network literature has made interesting and insightful contributions in relation to networks as a core trajectory for external resource acquisition for the small, entrepreneurial firm. Using the micro-brewing industry in Ireland and Belgium as an empirical base, the purpose of this paper is to extend this research through examining the relationship between national culture and the development of network capability in an entrepreneurial context. Findings from in-depth interviews with fourteen firms, and analysed in light of Hofstede's five dimensions illustrate that culture matters. Low power distance facilitated network capability development through wider network engagement. High masculinity and individualism negatively impacted network capability development as evidenced by a lack of experience in interaction, a desire for control and independence and minimal information sharing. Strong uncertainty avoidance scores allowed for joint problem-solving and industry cooperation whereas a short-term orientation led to more transaction-based exchange within the value chain. The core contribution of this paper stems from it being the first rigorous investigation regarding how national culture impacts network capability development in a business-to-business network context.     

Building capabilities to manage strategic alliances

Recently, academics have attributed a large part of alliance success to a firm's ability to successfully manage its alliances, also called its level of alliance management capability. We contribute to this growing body of literature by (1) verifying the impact of alliance management capability on alliance performance and (2) analyzing the drivers of alliance management capability. We measure this capability through four types of alliance learning processes and study how each of these processes affects alliance outcome. Furthermore, we take into account several possible drivers of alliance management capability such as organizational culture, commitment of the top team, alliance experience and the alliance function. We refine the results by examining how these factors affect each of the four learning processes underpinning alliance management capability. Our research model will be tested on a sample of 189 Belgian companies using PLS. We find that the commitment of the top management team is the most critical factor in explaining success with alliances.     

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.     

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.     

企业R＆D商业化能力研究

知识经济的飞速发展凸显出技术创新的重要性，企业R＆D商业化能力作为企业技术创新能力的重要组成部分越来越被人们所重视。本文认为，企业R＆D商业化能力的强弱在很大程度上影响着R＆D投入的收益多少．企业可以从多个层次来改善其R＆D商业化的水平．不同的商业化途径对R＆D的盈利水平亦有着显著影响。企业应该重视其R＆D商业化能力的改善．因为．它为企业在技术创新活动中实现真正意义上的自主提供了必要的资源支持．是企业实现自主创新战略的必然选择。