Knowledge transfer among the small businesses of a Brazilian cluster

This study verifies how knowledge is transferred among small businesses operating in industrial clusters, how this competitive resource circulates and is accessed within the cluster. Interfirm cooperation, industrial support institutions, workforce mobility and social ties, concepts highlighted in the literature as dimensions of the knowledge transfer process, were used to structure the survey instrument, which was applied in the cluster that leads Brazilian furniture exports. Questionnaire responses were received from 198 firms and submitted to factor analysis. Conclusions and theoretical contributions of the study are that: (i) the knowledge transfer process is multi-dimensional; (ii) knowledge transfer can occur in clusters even in the absence of interfirm cooperation; (iii) the dimensions of the process can be combined in various ways to facilitate knowledge transfer; (iv) this combination may differ from cluster to cluster; and (v) producers are more likely than suppliers to perceive and access knowledge available in the cluster.     

Information technology-enabled interactions,mutual monitoring,and supplier-buyer cooperation: A network perspective

This study, which integrates the literature on IT (information technology)-enabled interactions and governance mechanisms in interfirm relationships, proposes facilitated access to a network of partners as a key feature that distinguishes IT-enabled interactions from those that occur offline. Specifically, IT-enabled interactions improve interfirm network embeddedness, which in turn improves firms' perceived ability to mutually monitor each other. In contrast to the unilateral monitoring prevalent in prior research, the network-induced mutual monitoring, which reduces information asymmetry and improves power equity, improves cooperation performance without the backfiring “reactance” effect. Moreover, this study offers conceptual distinctions between formal and informal IT-enabled interactions and their different roles in supplier-buyer cooperation. A sample of 240 manufacturing firms in China contributes to this research, and the results strongly support the hypotheses. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the role of IT-enabled interactions in supplier-buyer cooperation.     

The Structures of Cooperation: Downscaling,Outsourcing and the Networked Alliance

This article explores interfirm cooperation and its relationship with downscaling, cooperative outsourcing, and the network structures of multiple firm alliances. Downscaling is defined and related to cooperative outsourcing, as major influences shaping interfirm relations. The advantages of embedding cooperative outsourcing in strategic alliances are then addressed, with special relevance to small and medium-size firms. Five types of network structures that may develop within alliances are considered, relating their main characteristics and internal division of labor to various aspects of interfirm cooperation, such as embeddedness, disparities, commitment and trust.     

Interfirm Alliances in the Small Business: The Role of Social Networks

In light of the increasing importance of strategic alliances in shaping competition, this study explored whether the social network of small firm executives can be leveraged to facilitate the establishment of interfirm alliances. Analyses are based on a mail survey of 149 small manufacturing firms in the northeast United States. Results indicate that the social networks of senior executives account for 11–22 percent of the variance in the degree to which firms engage in alliances, depending on the type of alliance. Results also show that the number of interfirm alliances is positively related to several networking properties (propensity to network, strength of ties, and network prestige). Findings are discussed in the context of network theory, social embeddedness, and the overall implications for management researchers and practitioners.     

Bonding Ties,Bridging Ties,and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Networks

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Building on the dynamic capabilities view and the configuration of network ties, this study investigates how dynamic capabilities moderate the relationships between bonding and bridging ties and firm performance, thus an area with potential to explain the divergent empirical results contained in the existing literature on the relationship between intra/extraorganizational ties and performance.

Methodology: This study employed a mail survey to senior executives. A total of 169 firms operating in an industrial district were collected. Regression analysis was employed to test the proposed model.

Findings: This study found that the combination of dynamic capabilities and bonding/bridging ties helps improve firm performance. Furthermore, this study found a positive relationship between bonding ties and firm performance, but no equivalent relationship for bridging ties.

Research Implications: Research results indicate that firm performance is significantly enhanced by bonding ties, which provide opportunities for sharing information and exchanging resources. Moreover, the empirical results reaffirm the proposition that dynamic capabilities are important transformational mechanisms for managing resources.

Practical Implications: The findings reveal that managers can improve firm performance by simultaneously building social ties and developing and implementing dynamic capabilities.

Originality/Value: This study demonstrates that the components of dynamic capabilities (i.e., sensemaking and reconfiguration) are transformational mechanisms and can moderate the positive relationship between bonding and bridging ties and firm performance, empirically supporting recent perspectives from the literature on dynamic capabilities and social networks.     

Cooperative or competitive in alliance formation: Alliance patterns with respect to rivals

Premised on the assumption that strategic alliance is a type of competitive action toward rivals, this study explores how a firm uses alliances differently with respect to rivals. I distinguish between two types of alliances that directly involve rivals: alliance with a rival and with a rival's partner. The former and the latter reflect cooperative‐ and competitive‐orientations respectively. Further, I investigate what drives a focal firm to adopt a particular alliance rather than another. The findings indicate that the key consideration explaining different alliance patterns is the resource profiles of focal and rival firms. This study contributes to the literature on competitive dynamics and strategic alliance by suggesting a new approach to integrate interfirm competition and cooperation. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Institutionalized place branding strategy,interfirm trust,and place branding performance: Evidence from China

This study investigates the relationships among institutionalized place branding strategy, interfirm trust, and place branding performance. Findings indicate that each of the institutionalized place branding strategies (regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive) has positive effects on interfirm trust. The relative predictability of these dimensions on interfirm trust also falls into a particular order: Normative is most predictable, followed by cultural-cognitive, then regulatory. Cultural-cognitive strategy can not only directly drive interfirm trust but also negatively moderate the effects of regulatory and normative strategies on interfirm trust. Finally, interfirm trust has a positive effect on place branding performance. These results altogether provide valuable insights into the effect of institutionalized place branding strategies on interfirm trust, which encourages firms to be collaboratively involved in place branding strategies.     

Interlocking directorates and conflicts of interest: the Rotterdamsche Bankvereeniging,Müller & Co. and the Dutch financial crisis of the 1920s

How can interlocking directorates cause financial instability for universal banks? A detailed history of the Rotterdamsche Bankvereeninging in the 1920s answers this question in a case study. This large commercial bank adopted a new German-style universal banking business model from the early 1910s, sharing directors with the firms it financed as a means of controlling its interests. Then, in 1924, it required assistance from the Dutch state in order to survive a bank run brought on by public concerns over its close ties with Müller & Co., a trading conglomerate that suffered badly in the economic downturn of the early 1920s. Using a new narrative history combined with an interpretive model, this article shows how the interlocking directorates between the bank and this major client, and in particular the direction of influence of these interlocks, resulted in a conflict of interest that could not be easily overcome.     

Inter-firm scalar linkage in India: A class within the small scale industry

Along with the growing industrial sector, functional complementarity between large and small scale enterprises has become a widely prevalent phenomenon. Expanding the base of the industrial production leads to division of processes where large and small scale units operate as complementary to each other. Such complementarity and division of labour between the different sized units results into cost minimization, and acceleration in growth of the manufacturing sector.However the extent and the pattern of functional complementarity (between large and small scale enterprises) is likely to be conditioned by market as well as institutional factors. Therefore, in order to examine the impact of interscale complementarity in terms of growth as well as of distribution of gains across large and small scale enterprises it is very important to learn about the nature of interfirm linkages and the process through which linkages get established. It is in this context, the present paper furnishes details based on a case study of Textile Machinery Parts Manufacturing (TMP) industry in a metropolitan city (Ahmedabad). The industry represented is constituted by a large number of small scale firms that are engaged in fabricating replacement parts for the users of machinery equipments (i.e. Textile Mills) who operate on a large scale. Owing to wide range of products, and in case of some parts higher frequency of replacement, the TMP industry, at least till recently, has sustained a large number of small firms.The major findings of the analysis are: (i) The incidence of inter-firm linkages is limited to about a third of the small scale firms; (ii) Among various forms of linkages the marketing linkages are the most predominant (iii) The linkage relationship has been a positive factor in determining the performance of the small scale firms; (iv) Personal contacts play an important role in inter-firm linkages, thus benefits of linkage relationship are mainly confined to a small social-group of industrialists; (v) While the small scale suppliers operate under a highly competitive market, the buyers often enjoy oligopsonist's advantage; hence the gains of competitive efficiency tend to favour the large scale sector.     

Strategic partnering between new technology based firms and large established firms in the biotechnology and micro-electronics industries in Belgium

There is an increased emphasis on New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs) and on Strategic Partnerships. The number of strategic partnerships between large, established firms and NTBFs has multiplied over the past few years, due to a growing trend towards technological and marketing relationships between large and small firms. In this contribution, the strategic — predominantly technology —partnering (also referred to as interfirm technology cooperation) experiences of a small number of Belgian NTBFs in the biotechnology and micro-electronics industries will be analysed. The analysis presented here derives from the regionspecific technology policies in Belgium.A multiple case study design was chosen to develop an understanding of the impact of strategic partnering on New Technology Based Firm-survival and growth in Belgium. To improve the reliability of conclusions in the research presented here, a small number of cases will be investigated for the construction of a theoretical model.     

从地缘政治的角度分析中伊贸易问题

本文从地缘政治的角度分析了中国和伊朗之间的贸易问题。新时期中伊两国的贸易合作有着非常广阔的发展空间,但同时也存在许多不可避免的问题。我们应该抓住机遇,突破"瓶颈",多角度、多方位地看待中伊贸易的发展,扬长避短,积极推动与伊朗的能源合作,在此基础上努力开展其他经济项目的合作,促进我国同伊朗经济贸易的快速全面发展。     

Regional Bank–Industry Relations during the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Links between Bankers and Manufacturing in Sheffield,c.1850 to c.1885 1

This article examines the relationships between banks and manufacturing industry in mid-nineteenth century Sheffield. It investigates the knowledge base and connections of the banks' directors and assesses the extent to which Sheffield banks were part of a regional information network concerning both investment opportunities and potential borrowers' creditworthiness. The findings reveal that close ties existed between the bankers and their customers. These took a number of forms, from interlocking directorships to ownership of local firms. A financial/industrial network appears to have existed, facilitating information flows and business contacts of vital importance in the provision of finance to local manufacturers. Moreover, the banks examined appear to have preserved impartiality when dealing with manufacturing customers as a whole and, more importantly, those in which directors were involved.     

Struggling with Destiny: The Cotton Industry,Overseas Trade Policy and the Cotton Board, 1940–1959

This essay provides an institutional approach to the analysis of the Norwegian state's effort to promote industrial development between 1950 and 1980. It explores the extent to which national financial systems influence the ability of governments to intervene in industrial policy. It also explores the extent to which both the governance structures and investment strategies of Norwegian firms have been influenced by government policy. It demonstrates that the financial system is indeed a critical factor in the effective implementation of industrial policy in the period in question.     

Firm size,age, industrial networking,and growth: a case of the Korean manufacturing industry

This paper investigates the roles of firm size, age, and industrial networking in determining firm growth. Analyses using the 2-year panel data of 7,889 Korean manufacturing firms between 1994 and 2003 confirm that firm size and age have significant negative effects on firm growth and significant positive impacts on firm survival. R&D and export activities are found to facilitate both firm growth and survival. The primary focus of this study is to examine the effects of industrial networking, such as subcontracting and clustering, on firm growth. The results show that subcontracting does not yield any positive effect for firm growth, but encumbers survival, which may be accounted for by the high subcontracting intensity among small firms. Clustering, on the other hand, is found to promote firm growth and survival. There is, however, little evidence that such a positive effect of clustering is derived from network externalities through cooperation and competition among firms in a cluster per se.     

Paul Erker. Vom nationalen zum globalen Wettbewerb: Die deutsche und amerikanische Reifenindustrie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [From National to Global Competition: The German and American Tire Industry during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries]. 710 pp. Paderborn: Schoningh, 2005. ISBN 3-506-71788-X, X98.00.

Paul Erker begins with the question of how an uninspiring, black,nondurable commodity product such as a tire could be interesting.He emphasizes that, since its invention in 1888, the tire hasundergone several radical technical changes, and because hisstory is about competition the issue is thus thrilling and "evendramatic" (p. 9). It is for these reasons, and because the authorsystematically compares American and European firms, that thebook—written in German—should be presented to theAmerican reader.     

Social networks and marketing cooperation in entrepreneurial clusters: An international comparative study

This research examines factors that influence the development of marketing cooperation among cluster-based firms in different regions in the world. Theorists have consistently demonstrated the role and importance of economic externalities, such as knowledge spillovers, within industrial clusters. Less research attention has been paid to the investigation of marketing-based externalities, though it has been suggested that these may also accrue from geographical agglomeration. The study focus is on the development of joint marketing activities between firms operating in a single industry sector, located in close proximity. The results suggest that social networking is important in facilitating inter-firm cooperation in marketing activities. The study also explores whether the levels of inter-firm cooperation differs between countries with distinctly different levels of social collectivism. Interestingly, this study finds few significant differences in marketing cooperation among cluster-based firms from Scotland and Chile.     

Majorca's tourism cluster: The creation of an industrial district, 1919–36

The Balearic Islands today form the largest tourism cluster in the Mediterranean, an extensive industrial district whose origins date back more than a century. This article explores the key period during which the hotels and travel firms built up their relations of cooperation and competition which explain the subsequent dynamism of the island's tourist trade and its remarkable expansion in the second half of the twentieth century.