Forms of Network Resource: Knowledge Access and the Role of Inter‐Firm Networks

The leveraging of inter‐firm networks is increasingly considered to be a strategic resource that can potentially be shaped by managerial action. In recent years, scholars have turned to the concept of social capital to understand how the transfer of knowledge occurs within and across firms. However, this has resulted in an overstretching of the social capital concept. The aim of this paper is to refine and add specificity to the current broad application of the social capital concept. It is argued that although the social capital concept explains investments in networks based on a network logic relating to sociability and socialization, it does not explain investments in networks based on a logic relating to economic expectations. These expectations result in network participation that is more calculative than networks containing social capital. The paper introduces the notion of ‘network capital’ to explain the resources contained within inter‐firm networks that do not necessarily equate with the type of trust and obligations associated with social capital. Network capital is defined as an investment in calculative relations through which firms gain access to knowledge to enhance expected economic returns. It is argued that while network capital can be strategically managed, particularly to influence knowledge flow, the nature of social capital is such that it is very difficult to manage. It is concluded that the network capital–social capital framework opens a number of avenues in terms of future research, especially in relation to the extended resource‐based view of the firm and theories of open innovation.     

Managing Knowledge Creation in High‐Tech R&D Projects: A Multimethod Study

R&D projects in high‐tech organizations bring together diverse knowledge domains to quickly develop new products and processes. The fast‐paced context of high‐tech organizations makes it challenging to create new knowledge and solve complex problems. Managing these R&D projects requires understanding both the mechanisms and the type of knowledge created to achieve project objectives. This research conducts a two‐phased multimethod study to understand knowledge creation in high‐tech R&D projects. The first phase uses qualitative data to develop a theory on knowledge creation in R&D projects. The second phase involves a survey that collects data from R&D projects to test the theory. Results from the case study find that R&D projects benefit from two types of knowledge – objective and intuitive. The case analyses show that intuitive and objective knowledge creation in high‐tech organizations occurs by creating not only diverse but also psychological safe project teams. The large‐scale survey finds that team diversity positively influences objective knowledge creation while psychological safety affects intuitive knowledge creation. Surprisingly, the results show that team diversity negatively affects intuitive knowledge creation. A post hoc analysis takes a more granular look at diversity and shows that different kinds of diversity have different effects on knowledge creation. This helps to better explain how to manage innovation across boundaries. Finally, the analysis shows that both objective and intuitive knowledge influence R&D project performance. Taken together, these results help explain how to manage innovation across functional boundaries to create knowledge and enhance R&D project performance.      

Strategic Network Orchestration in Emerging Markets: China's Catch‐up in the High‐Speed Train Industry

Transitioning from catch‐up in production to catch‐up in innovation capabilities is essential to emerging market firms (EMFs) achieving internationalization and a competitive advantage. While some EMFs are now positioned among the world's most advanced firms, many struggle to become independent innovators. Thus, understanding how EMFs can develop internal absorptive capacity and progress towards catching up in innovation capabilities remains important. Our study seizes this research opportunity and develops a network‐based explanation of catch‐up, which complements existing technological and organizational explanations. Specifically, we address the question of ‘How does the orchestration of collaborative networks enable EMFs to catch up in production and innovation capabilities?’ by describing an important yet under‐researched process of strategic network orchestration and showcasing the dynamic interdependencies between network orchestration and organizational learning. Our study provides a detailed account of Chinese high‐speed train (HST) development from 1990 to 2020 and opens the possibility for future research on network orchestration in emerging market contexts. This provides EMF managers with a set of actionable network orchestration mechanisms that can be used when designing and purposefully managing their strategic nets of domestic and foreign partners.     

Towards a Theory of Competitive Progression: Evidence from High‐Tech Manufacturing

This study replicates and extends Ferdows and De Meyers' observed ‘sand cone’ model of cumulative competitive capabilities by means of Roth's related competitive progression theory (CPT). Using path analysis, we model and test the relationships among the generic competitive capability constructs of conformance quality, delivery reliability, volume flexibility, and low cost as predicted by CPT. Our results, drawn from a sample of high‐tech manufacturers, provide further evidence that on average, these four capabilities are acquired both cumulatively and in that sequence. We also find that each generic capability increases operational know‐how and reduces non‐value‐added directly and/or indirectly through the enhancement of successive capabilities in the progression, which in turn improves profitability. The paper contributes a theoretical rationale for the observed sand cone effect, describes how the competitive progression acts to influence accelerated organizational learning over an innovation cycle, and offers evidence that combinative capabilities have strategic value for high‐tech manufacturers.     

Investment in Facility Changeover Flexibility for Early Entry into High‐Tech Markets

A model is introduced to analyze the manufacturing‐marketing interface for a firm in a high‐tech industry that produces a series of high‐volume products with short product life cycles on a single facility. The one‐time strategic decision regarding the firm's investment in changeover flexibility establishes the link between market opportunities and manufacturing capabilities. Specifically, the optimal changeover flexibility decision is determined in the context of the firm's market entry strategy for successive product generations, the changeover cost between generations, and the production efficiency of the facility. Moreover, the dynamic pricing policy for each product generation is obtained as a function of the firm's market entry strategy and manufacturing efficiency. Our findings provide insights linking internal manufacturing capabilities with external market forces for the high‐tech and high‐volume manufacturer of products with short life cycles. We show the impact of manufacturing efficiency and a firm's ability to benefit from volume‐based learning on the dynamic pricing policy for each product generation. The results demonstrate the benefits realized by a firm that works with its manufacturing equipment suppliers to develop more efficient and flexible technology. In addition, we explore how opportunities afforded by pioneer advantage enable a firm operating a less efficient facility to realize long term competitive advantage by deploying an earlier market entry strategy.     

Inter‐temporal and Inter‐industry Effects of Population Ageing: A General Equilibrium Assessment for Canada

Abstract. This paper examines the inter‐industry and labour market occupational effects of future demographic changes in Canada, using a computable overlapping‐generations model. In addition to the impact of slower labour force growth, the model captures the shift in sectoral composition of final demand of older individuals. The simulation results indicate that the growth in real GDP per capita could decline by nearly one percentage point between 2006 and 2050. The results also suggest that the equilibrium unemployment rate is likely to decline by more than two percentage points in the long run. However, the impact varies significantly at the occupational level.     

The Importance of Compensating Strategic Network Board Members for Network Performance: A Contingency Approach

Firms in government‐supported strategic networks tend to rely on professional network board members for support and assistance. As such, two significant issues arise: should board members be compensated and under which circumstances is compensation more – or less – effective for network performance. Based on yearly panel data from 53 government‐supported strategic networks of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises over a five‐year period, this study examines the effects of compensating network board members. Advocating for a contingency approach, we combine the agency and stewardship literatures to posit that the effects of compensation are moderated by contingency factors that stimulate either an agency or stewardship relationship between the network board and the networking firms. Our findings indicate that significant funding, network firms represented on the network board, and top‐down network formation stimulate board members to become agents rather than stewards. This therefore explains the higher effect of board member compensation under such conditions.     

The Role of Project and Organizational Context in Managing High‐tech R&D Projects

High‐tech organizations often struggle to manage different types of R&D projects. Evidence from research and practice suggests that managers frequently categorize and manage projects based on the extent of change triggered in product, process, technology, and market dimensions. However, this can create challenges in high‐tech organizations. This study investigates how high‐tech organizations manage R&D projects based on their learning goals. First, we argue for the benefits of categorizing R&D projects based on the degree of exploration and exploitation learning goals. A qualitative case study from four high‐tech business units involving 10 R&D projects helps understand the different types of projects based on their learning goals. The case study shows that R&D projects in high‐tech organizations typically fall into three categories based on their learning goals: Radical innovation projects, Incremental innovation projects, and Hybrid projects. Second, we iterate between literature and evidence from our qualitative data to theorize how project context and organizational context affect project performance depending on the type of project. The data for the empirical analysis come from a multilevel survey of 110 R&D projects across 34 high‐tech business units. Results show the importance of designing project and organizational context differently for the three types of R&D projects. Collectively, this study offers a new perspective on how to manage high‐tech R&D projects.     

Institutional Voids,Economic Adversity and Inter‐firm Cooperation in an Emerging Market: The Mediating Role of Government R&D Support

This paper examines the mediating mechanism of the relationship between institutional voids (IVs) and inter‐firm cooperation and the moderating role of economic adversity in the context of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) based in emerging markets. The hypotheses are tested using time‐lagged survey data from 214 SMEs in Ghana. The findings provide support for the hypotheses by showing that: (1) IVs positively influence the use of government research and development (R&D) support; (2) the use of government R&D support mediates the relationship between IVs and inter‐firm cooperation; and (3) economic adversity positively moderates the relationship between IVs and the use of government R&D support. The findings contribute to understanding the role of IVs in inter‐firm cooperation. The wider implications for theory and practice are examined.     

Self‐Service Operations at Retail Stores: The Role of Inter‐Customer Interactions

Inter‐customer interactions are important to the operation of self‐services in retail settings. More specifically, when self‐service terminals are used as part of customers’ checkout processes in retail operations without the explicit involvement of retailers as the direct service providers, inter‐customer interactions become a significant managerial issue. In this article, we examine the impact of inter‐customer interactions at retail self‐service terminals on customers’ service quality perceptions and repeat purchase intentions at retail stores. We conduct a scenario‐based experimental design (N = 674) using a 2 × 2 factorial design in which inter‐customer interactions are divided into “positive” vs. “negative” and occur during the “waiting” or during the actual “transaction” stages of self‐services at a retail store. We use attribution theory to develop the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that, through their interactions, fellow customers can exert influences on a focal customer's quality perceptions and repeat purchasing intentions toward a retail store. Furthermore, these influences were impacted by how customers attribute blame or assign responsibility toward the retail store. Service operations managers should leverage these interactions by designing into self‐service settings the capacities and interfaces that are best suited for customers’ co‐production of their self‐service experiences.     

When Many Davids Collaborate with One Goliath: How Inter‐organizational Networks (Fail to) Manage Size Differentials

How do organizations of vastly different size collaborate in order to achieve a common goal? While this poses less of a problem when the network is orchestrated by a classic lead firm, in networks exhibiting a shared governance mode, where leadership responsibilities are more or less equally distributed, size differentials present a critical management challenge. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on coordination in and of inter‐organizational arrangements by emphasizing the so far largely neglected role of size for managing close collaborative relationships. We study the case of Apprenticeship Network, a network that originally consisted of seven small and medium‐sized enterprises, but which then accepted a very large multinational firm as a new member. By unpacking how the network coordinated its endeavour over time to achieve accountability, predictability and a common understanding as critical conditions for effective coordination, we explore how coordination effectiveness may deteriorate and result in the failure of the collaborative effort. We pay special attention to the role of size in these processes, and we theorize how the strategic front and back‐staging of agreed‐upon rules and norms facilitates the formation, maintenance and deletion of a tie, thus producing important network dynamics.     

The Practice of Scenario Planning: An Analysis of Inter‐ and Intra‐organizational Strategizing

Strategic activity is often punctuated through the application of strategy tools. Despite widespread use, a lack of understanding exists regarding the impact such tools and their practices have on an organization's strategy process. Of the growing body of research tackling the phenomenon, none appears to extend beyond an intra‐organizational setting. Acknowledging the importance of multi‐organizational partnerships, particularly in the public sector, in this paper an attempt is made to help fill this void through examining the application and effect of a scenario planning process at an inter‐organizational level. Conceptualizing scenario planning as a practice of simplexity, where complexity of thought combines with simplicity of action, an in‐depth, longitudinal case study is used to demonstrate the importance and interaction of sensemaking, storytelling and organizing in creating meaning within strategizing activities at the inter‐organizational level. However, also demonstrated is the relative weakness of the output of the scenario planning process ? the stories ? as a boundary object capable of transferring knowledge and meaning to the intra‐organizational level. Through empirical and theoretical integration a model is developed presenting the flow of practices and artefacts used in sensemaking within inter‐ and intra‐organizational strategizing.     

Understanding the Processes Underlying Inter‐firm Collaboration: Mutual Forbearance and the Principle of Congruity

This paper makes a theoretical innovation by integrating two key principles – mutual forbearance and the principle of congruity – into one general process model. It examines the micro‐mechanisms underlying the formation of a mutual‐forbearance agreement and explicates the role of time and of individual actions. We further understanding of the process of cooperation building by drawing a parallel between early stages of the formation process of mutual forbearance and cooperation, and argue that mutual forbearance may, under certain conditions, lead to long‐term cooperation or, if mismanaged, completely smother any chances of it. A prospective agreement may be put at risk when potential contributions are evaluated differently by each party and no action to mitigate the consequences is taken; even more so in a mutual‐forbearance context when the parties can only observe their counterparts’ actions through the market. Our model takes into account the micro‐mechanisms associated with the time between the actions of one entity/individual (e.g. the top manager) and the reaction of another entity/individual, the boundary conditions of the background to those actions and the alternative actions available during this time. Propositions for further exploration and implications are drawn.     

Testing the Time‐Variancy of Explanatory Factors of Strategic Change1

The article proposes an empirical framework able to: (1) assess the relative validity of both adaptive and inertial views of strategic change and (2) verify the potential time‐ or context‐dependency by testing the structural stability of the empirical model, in Spanish banks, 1983–1997. Results offer inconclusive findings regarding (1) but strong evidence to answer (2). The assumption of structural stability is rejected and the effect of many explanatory factors considered in the empirical model varies over time as some factors show different effects and/or significance levels depending on the period considered. These findings suggest that explanatory models of strategic change should be viewed as ‘time‐’ or ‘context‐dependent’. The article provides a conceptual model in which alternative explanations operate in a sequential way. The results highlight, first, that inconclusive past findings about adaptive versus inertial views should be reviewed under this new evidence, and future empirical research must assure that its methods and interpretations are robust to potential structural breakdowns; and second, the limitations raised by the static approach offered by the available theories/models when approaching the dynamic and complex nature of strategic change. Theoretical developments and implications for managerial practice are suggested.     

Creative Search and Strategic Sense-making: Missing Dimensions in the Concept of Dynamic Capabilities

In this paper we discuss the role of managerial agency in creating and shaping dynamic capabilities. We argue that dynamic capability is a phenomenon that enables a deviation to take place from the knowledge that otherwise would have arisen cumulatively from experiential learning. In addition we argue that to create major changes in patterns of knowledge accumulation managers need to be purposefully and creatively engaged. Such agency is identifiable in two cognitive processes we call creative search and strategic sense-making. We show how these processes differ in respect to their temporal orientation and relationship to uncertainty and by adopting a process perspective we demonstrate how creative search, strategic sense-making and experiential learning are complementary. This notion of complementarity implies that these processes, notwithstanding their contrasting characteristics, coexist together and serve to offer an explanation for how knowledge progresses at a firm level. Variance is introduced into the framework proposed through the identification of factors that influence the coexistence of creative search and strategic sense-making. The argument developed is illustrated through the use of an emergent technology context.     

新经济的时代特征与企业战略范式的转型

本文试图从新经济角度认识企业战略范式的转型问题。文章根据认识的过程原理,概括出新经济的时代特征体现在信息化、知识化、人本化和全球化四个方面。再根据企业战略和企业经营环境固有的互动性,尝试探讨了企业战略范式在传统经济和新经济两种经济形态下可能的范式构成,包括企业的战略形态、战略选择偏好、企业竞争动力学、博弈行为、治理原则、战略目标等多项可比的结构要素。     

Generalized Method of Integrated Moments for High‐Frequency Data

We propose a semiparametric two‐step inference procedure for a finite‐dimensional parameter based on moment conditions constructed from high‐frequency data. The population moment conditions take the form of temporally integrated functionals of state‐variable processes that include the latent stochastic volatility process of an asset. In the first step, we nonparametrically recover the volatility path from high‐frequency asset returns. The nonparametric volatility estimator is then used to form sample moment functions in the second‐step GMM estimation, which requires the correction of a high‐order nonlinearity bias from the first step. We show that the proposed estimator is consistent and asymptotically mixed Gaussian and propose a consistent estimator for the conditional asymptotic variance. We also construct a Bierens‐type consistent specification test. These infill asymptotic results are based on a novel empirical‐process‐type theory for general integrated functionals of noisy semimartingale processes.     

The Multiscale Importance of Road Segments in a Network Disruption Scenario: A Risk‐Based Approach

This article addresses the problem of the multiscale importance of road networks, with the aim of helping to establish a more resilient network in the event of a road disruption scenario. A new model for identifying the most important roads is described and applied on a local and regional scale. The work presented here represents a step forward, since it focuses on the interaction between identifying the most important roads in a network that connect people and health services, the specificity of the natural hazards that threaten the normal functioning of the network, and an assessment of the consequences of three real‐world interruptions from a multiscale perspective. The case studies concern three different past events: road interruptions due to a flood, a forest fire, and a mass movement. On the basis of the results obtained, it is possible to establish the roads for which risk management should be a priority. The multiscale perspective shows that in a road interruption the regional system may have the capacity to reorganize itself, although the interruption may have consequences for local dynamics. Coordination between local and regional scales is therefore important. The model proposed here allows for the scaling of emergency response facilities and human and physical resources. It represents an innovative approach to defining priorities, not only in the prevention phase but also in terms of the response to natural disasters, such as awareness of the consequences of road disruption for the rescue services sent out to local communities.     

Explaining the Causes and Effects of Dynamic Capabilities Generation: A Multiple‐Indicator Multiple‐Cause Modelling Approach

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multiple‐indicator multiple‐cause model to explain dynamic capabilities generation. We use one of the main common effects of dynamic capabilities (operational, structural and strategic flexibility) to design a measurement tool for dynamic capabilities generation. Based on this measurement tool, we test the influence of several factors identified in the specialized literature as potential causes that trigger and promote dynamic capabilities generation. We use data from a survey of 200 CEOs of Spanish firms to test the model. The results show that only organizations whose managers have perceived a high degree of environmental dynamism have generated dynamic capabilities. The results also show that knowledge codification and technical innovation are significantly related to dynamic capabilities generation. We attempt to shed light on current theoretical debates about dynamic capabilities generation and provide a practical guide to explain the origin and results of dynamic capabilities that have been tested empirically.