The role of network embeddedness across multiple social networks: Evidence from mobile social network games

This article examines peer influences from network relationships within a social network game (i.e., embeddedness) and across such games (i.e., multiplexity). Drawing on social influence theory, we develop a bivariate Poisson model of users’ repeated visits and latent attrition that accommodates peer interaction after controlling for homophily. We estimate the model using data from two social network games with considerable overlap among network members. We find that friends who are only multiplex across games exert greater peer influence on users’ game visits than members who are embedded within a single game. We also determined that ignoring network multiplexity across games may lead firms to mistarget users due to biased peer influences of embedded friends. This result provides an unresearched explanation—strength of peer influence—for the mixed findings in previous literature on network embeddedness. We utilized our results to conduct several scenario analyses to demonstrate how firms can effectively manage users’ engagement and target users in multiple social network games.     

关系质量对企业知识创造绩效的作用机理：一个被调节的中介模型

基于嵌入性视角，分别引入知识转移、合作模式作为中介变量和调节变量，深入探究关系质量影响企业知识创造绩效的内在机理。利用277份来自全国多地的制造业及高新技术企业调查问卷，采用多元回归方法进行实证研究。结果表明：经济型和社会型关系质量均正向影响企业知识创造绩效；社会型关系质量通过元素知识和架构知识转移正向影响企业知识创造绩效。在契约治理模式下，经济型关系质量更倾向于通过元素知识转移正向影响企业知识创造绩效；在股权治理模式下，社会型关系质量更倾向于通过架构知识转移正向影响企业知识创造绩效。     

Asset Specificity and Vertical Integration

Asset specificity is usually considered to be an argument for vertical integration. The main idea is that specificity induces opportunistic behavior, and that vertical integration reduces the cost of preventing opportunism. In this paper I show that asset specificity can be an argument for non‐integration. In a repeated‐game model of self‐enforcing relational contracts, it is shown that when parties are non‐integrated, increasing degrees of asset specificity make it possible to design relational contracts with higher‐powered incentives.     

Business suppliers' value creation potential : A capability-based analysis

Joint value creation through partnering and networking is a topic of current interest. This paper proposes that the dimensions of the supplier's value creation in a supplier-customer relationship could be classified according to efficiency, effectiveness and network functions. These functions are interrelated, but they are conceptually distinct. The value creation process could be described as a spectrum ranging from core value, to added value, to future value. The value-producing potential of a supplier can be assessed reasonably well only in the case of the core value, where there is sufficient benchmarking information in the form of existing alternative offerings and solutions. A priori evaluation of the costs and benefits of added value and, especially, future value projects is problematic, because the realisation of the value is dependent on the development of multiple partners, technologies and industries. In these cases, we suggest that a customer could use a supplier's capability profile as an indicator of how suitable that particular supplier is for specific value creation projects. A framework connecting specific capabilities to different types of value production is suggested, and its managerial implications are discussed.     

Involving suppliers in product development: Insights from R&D directors and project managers

While there is increasing evidence that involving suppliers in new product development (NPD) is important, and for many firms even inevitable, there is also evidence that not all such efforts are successful. Firms aiming at implementing this strategy effectively have to pay close attention to several contingency factors on the organizational level and properly manage supplier involvement on the project level. The exploratory case study research underlying this article explores key issues to be considered when involving suppliers in NPD and the counter measures they can take. Our research shows that companies differentiate between so-called “know-how” and “capacity” projects, and that they manage them differently. Furthermore, this research shows that firms outside the automotive and high-tech manufacturing industries are likely to intensify supplier involvement in the future.     

Use of the written contract in long-lasting business relationships

While contracts are signed in most business dealings, they are seldom used. These contracts are drawn up for different purposes: as a communication tool, to reduce uncertainty, or simply because it is customary. This study investigates how contracts are used in long-lasting business relationships and what factors influence the use of contracts. A number of studies claim that the negotiation process and the relationships developed during that process influence the subsequent use of contracts. In many cases, parties conduct business without contracts as they develop trust-based relationships. A conceptual framework is developed, which is then used to analyze three in-depth case studies. Findings show that the contract itself, rather than the negotiation process, has the greatest influence on how the contract is used.     

Relational and Process Multiplexity in Vertical Supply Chain Triads: An Exploration in the U.S. Restaurant Industry

Both supply chain relationships and process connections between organizational units have been studied in business research, to enhance the understanding of supply chain integration, and to explore the differential outcomes of both types of connections for business and functional performance. However, the extant research remains deficient in two ways: within individual studies, researchers have operationalized supply chain connectivity unidimensionally, with the concept of connectivity constrained to either social relations or operational/process ties while disregarding the other viewpoint. Additionally, researchers have persistently designed studies to evaluate dyadic structures, while foregoing the larger, more intricate structures representative of complex supply chains. We address these issues by modeling supply chain connectivity as having multiple relational‐ and process‐based threads comprising linkages, and by empirically testing a set of theorized relationships describing vertical triadic supply chain networks (manufacturer, broker, retailer) within the U.S. restaurant industry. We find that increased supply chain connectivity improves chain performance, but this improvement is more directly attributable to process‐based linkages than relational linkages, which impact performance only through the process mediator variable, suggesting that current theories of interorganizational relationalism may lack complete conceptualization. Implications of these findings for managers and the academy are highlighted, and areas of follow‐on research are discussed.     

Network,knowledge and relationship impacts on innovation in tourism destinations

We combine network structure and firm-level relationship measures to explore the association between innovative behavior, firm position within the network of a destination, and the knowledge and relational trust characteristics of a firm's innovation-oriented relationships. We find current collaboration, shared knowledge and trust are associated with innovative behavior with partner firms, but that betweenness centrality indicates which partners are the most prominent innovators in a population. That is, relationship-level characteristics facilitate innovation partnerships, but network structure characteristics identify the most successful innovative partners. To theory, our findings contribute to efforts in the tourism, innovation and network literature to evaluate the differential effects of knowledge stocks and flows on innovation. For practice, our results suggest that promoters of innovation within a destination should leverage brokerage positions to improve the in-flow of ideas while encouraging the firms that share knowledge and trust to collaborate to apply those ideas.     

Unraveling the dynamic and contingency mechanism between service experience and customer engagement with luxury hotel brands

This study unravels the dynamic and contingency mechanism between service experience and customer engagement with luxury hotel brands by investigating a multi-step model linking these two variables, in which emotional attachment and relational quality constructs (i.e., brand satisfaction, brand trust, and brand commitment) act as a bridge, while customer involvement acts as a moderator. Based on a self-administered survey dataset of 249 international tourists who are customers of luxury hotel brands, partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that all proposed hypotheses are supported. As such, this study discovers and clarifies the nature and dynamic mechanism underpinning the co-creation and reciprocation process of customer engagement with luxury hotels. In particular, the positive service experience is found to contribute to customer engagement via emotional attachment and relational marketing. Furthermore, the moderating role of customer involvement in the luxury hotel setting is confirmed.     

Dynamic DEA models with network structure: An application for Iranian airlines

Efficiency estimation of interdependent divisions within a company or assessing the interrelated processes in a production system provides insights for improving the operational performance. Recent developments in network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) models enable decision making units (DMUs) to be informed of inefficient processes within the system. The NDEA model assesses the processes of the system in a specific moment and ignores the dynamic effects within the production processes. Thus, without considering the temporal dimension of production processes, biased efficiency measurement will be obtained that provides misleading information to DMUs. For evaluating the performance of a DMU with interrelated processes during specified multiple periods, this paper proposes a relational dynamic NDEA (DNDEA) model which measures the efficiencies of the system and its internal processes over the time, simultaneously. To illustrate the capability of the proposed model, this study for the first time measures the efficiency of eight Iranian airlines in several periods connected to each other by carry over flows. The actual data is gathered in three periods from 2010 to 2012 and the results are compared with the dynamic DEA and network DEA models in the same time span.