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1 – 10 of over 4000Knowledge sharing is a fundamental source of competitive advantage. Social networks are thought to play an important role in knowledge sharing, but are presumed to create a…
Abstract
Knowledge sharing is a fundamental source of competitive advantage. Social networks are thought to play an important role in knowledge sharing, but are presumed to create a trade-off such that a network can be optimized to promote either knowledge seeking or knowledge transfer, but not both. The trade-off, however, is premised on, and representative of a broader tendency to treat, brokerage and closure as contradictory network forms. We challenge this assertion and propose a theory of knowledge sharing with brokerage and closure as compatible and complementary. Evidence from a contract research and development firm broadly supports our theory. We also report the results of a simulation analysis, which illustrate that only in the extremely rare case when a network is characterized by nearly complete balance do brokerage and closure begin to create a trade-off.
Bilian Ni Sullivan and Daniel Stewart
This article explores the contingent role that social ties play in the emergence of status hierarchies. We argue that, while status is formed based on actors’ perception and…
Abstract
This article explores the contingent role that social ties play in the emergence of status hierarchies. We argue that, while status is formed based on actors’ perception and understanding of social cues, network structure, and position influence this process by influencing the attention and legitimacy given to the focal actor in accordance with social cues that signal an actor’s identity. Using a large data set from an open-source software development community, we find that a broker linking diverse network members is less likely to receive status ratings from others and that the rating is more likely to be low when a broker receives a rating. Furthermore, we find evidence that the effects of brokerage are contingent upon certain factors that may affect the attention and legitimacy given to actors in the process of status evaluation, such as the actor’s prior status. An actor’s prior status was found to weaken the negative effect of brokerage. The importance of this study for theories of status, social networks, and attention is discussed.
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Steven Devaney and David Scofield
Commercial real estate is a highly specific asset: heterogeneous, indivisible and with less information transparency than most other commonly held investment assets. These…
Abstract
Purpose
Commercial real estate is a highly specific asset: heterogeneous, indivisible and with less information transparency than most other commonly held investment assets. These attributes encourage the use of intermediaries during asset acquisition and disposal. However, there are few attempts to explain the use of different brokerage models (with differing costs) in different markets. This study aims to address this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The study analyses 9,338 real estate transactions in London and New York City from 2001 to 2011. Data are provided by Real Capital Analytics and cover over $450 billion of investments in this period. Brokerage trends in the two cities are compared and probit regressions are used to test whether the decision to transact with broker representation varies with investor or asset characteristics.
Findings
Results indicate greater use of brokerage in London, especially by purchasers. This persists when data are disaggregated by sector, time or investor type, pointing to the role of local market culture and institutions in shaping brokerage models and transaction costs. Within each city, the nature of the investors involved seems to be a more significant influence on broker use than the characteristics of the assets being traded.
Originality/value
Brokerage costs are the single largest non-tax charge to an investor when trading commercial real estate, yet there is little research in this area. This study examines the role of brokers and provides empirical evidence on factors that influence the use and mode of brokerage in two major investment destinations.
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Honghong Zhang and Xiushuang Gong
The purpose of this present study is to investigate how opinion leaders' responsiveness to social influence varies with network positions (i.e. degree centrality and brokerage…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this present study is to investigate how opinion leaders' responsiveness to social influence varies with network positions (i.e. degree centrality and brokerage) and network density in new product diffusion networks.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data based on a sociometric network survey. Hierarchical moderated regression and hierarchical linear modeling analyses were used to test the moderating effects of degree centrality, brokerage and density on the relationship between opinion leadership and susceptibility to social influence.
Findings
This study documents the significant moderating roles of network positions and network density in the relationship between individual influence (i.e. opinion leadership) and susceptibility to social influence. Interestingly, this study shows that the significant moderating effects of degree centrality and brokerage hold for opinion leaders' responsiveness to informational social influence, whereas that of network density holds for opinion leaders' responsiveness to normative social influence.
Research limitations/implications
This research sheds light on the network structural characteristics under which opinion leaders would be differentially responsive to social influence (i.e. informational and normative influence) from others.
Practical implications
This research provides marketing managers with insights into leveraging social influence by activating opinion leaders through existing network ties in new product diffusion networks.
Originality/value
Although opinion leaders are generally less susceptible to social influence from others than nonleaders, this research finds that, under certain network conditions, opinion leaders would be equally responsive to social influence from their peers.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of open innovation mechanism specific to aesthetic innovation. Prior research have drawn its research attention to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of open innovation mechanism specific to aesthetic innovation. Prior research have drawn its research attention to technological innovation and focussed on the biopharmaceutical and technological sectors as the main research contexts. Thus, to gain a wider picture of the structural characteristics of innovation ecosystem, this paper aims to complement the existing technological-centred literature and provides understanding of aesthetic innovation by focussing on exploring the role of actors and intermediaries in either facilitating or inhibiting innovation in the creative sector.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploratory study and the qualitative method was employed. With aim to explore aesthetic innovation in the creative sector, this research grounded its context in the UK designer fashion sector, which is part of the creative industries. Data were collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with respondents being purposely selected so as to ensure representativeness. A wider range of participants within the designer fashion sector was covered. Such multiple-sourced data collection approach allowed this research to triangulate data so that research trustworthiness was enhanced.
Findings
The result suggests the role of a broker in beyond traditionally facilitating knowledge exchange. This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the critical role of a broker in shaping the open innovation mechanism when it comes to aesthetic innovation. A broker in fact occupies a strategic position that allows it to negotiate relationships among the connected organisations and thus to govern the interaction mechanism of the innovation ecosystem as a whole. Given the empowered broker in such setting, the relationship between innovation creators and innovation seekers is controlled by a broker, which leads to risk that an innovation creator may not fully appropriate the value that it creates.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study is its specific context, that is, the UK designer fashion industry. Such focus limits the scope of generalisation particularly its application to the entire creative sector. Thus, it is suggested that future research may consider to explore other creative industries so that the understanding of the open innovation mechanism from a structural perspective applied to aesthetic innovation can be enhanced.
Originality/value
This paper outlines the structural mechanism of open innovation applied to aesthetic innovation. The result contributes to the literature by complementing the findings derived from technology-centred research. Also, empirical evidence of this study is particularly of value to policy makers in the aspect of creative sector development. The suggested implications provide strategies of innovation ecosystem that could benefit individual actors involved in this open innovation setting and ensure prosper of the sector as a whole.
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Two core assumptions set network theory apart from other perspectives and direct research into specific strategic and organizational topics.
Richard Angelous Kotey, Richard Akomatey and Baah Aye Kusi
This study examines the possible nonlinear effect of size on stakeholder and shareholder profitability in the Ghanaian insurance brokerage industry.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the possible nonlinear effect of size on stakeholder and shareholder profitability in the Ghanaian insurance brokerage industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a panel dataset of 64 Ghanaian insurance brokerage firms spanning 2011–2015. Static [ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effect and random effect and dynamic (two-step generalized method of moments (GMM))] estimation techniques are employed to analyze the data.
Findings
The study finds the existence of both economies and diseconomies of scale and scope theories in the Ghanaian insurance brokerage industry confirming the existence of nonlinear nexus between size and performance. This finding is consistent for both stakeholder and shareholder profit performance. Thus, the results show that size improves profitability of insurance brokerage firms, but beyond a certain threshold, the relationship turns negative as size negatively affects profitability.
Practical implications
The research findings have implications for both policy and research; the study recommends that Ghanaian brokerage managers should understand that not all growth is good and exercise a duty of care when applying growth strategies by monitoring size effect on performance so as not to go beyond the inflection point. Further research can be done to examine this effect in other contexts, timeframes and jurisdictions.
Originality/value
This research is unique in that it employs a panel dataset consisting of 96% of insurance brokerage firms in Ghana whilst employing both static and nonstatic regression models to examine the effect of size. The research analysis adopted is robust, and the findings are significant. Also, the lack of empirical studies on the operations and dealings of auxiliary institutions such as the insurance brokerage firms adds value to this research.
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The emergence of new manufacturing technologies, spurred by intense competition, will lead to dramatically new products and processes. New management systems, organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The emergence of new manufacturing technologies, spurred by intense competition, will lead to dramatically new products and processes. New management systems, organizational structures, and decision‐making methods will also emerge as complements to new products and processes. This paper attempts to investigate technologies, systems and paradigms for the effective management of networked enterprise (supply chain networks), especially long supply chains. In doing so, the paper presents not only an exhaustive literature review to identify the complexities, gaps and challenges associated with long supply chains but also the emerging enabling technologies to support these gaps and challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach takes the form of an interview of industrials, researchers and a literature review.
Findings
“Competition in the future will not be between individual enterprises but between competing supply chains.” Business opportunities are captured by groups of enterprises in the same enterprise network. This is due to the global competition that forces enterprises to focus on their core competences.
Practical implications
The paper presents a vision of the future technical issues relating to long supply chains and an insight into the future scientific and industrial advances required to meet future market and public demands.
Originality/value
This research work highlights the research issues and discusses the key enabling features, which will need to evolve and be perfected in industry in the future manufacturing networked enterprises and especially long manufacturing supply chains.
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Yuxuan Chang and Xiaoyang Zhao
This paper examines whether technological changes that promote communications between investors and managers help bridge the gap in the cost of equity capital among firms in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines whether technological changes that promote communications between investors and managers help bridge the gap in the cost of equity capital among firms in different regions.
Design/methodology/approach
We use the online interaction platforms of listed firms in China and utilize brokerage presence (BP) to capture the geographic distribution of financial factors. We explore whether online interactions would reduce the cost of equity to a greater extent for firms located in low brokerage presence regions (hereafter “low-BP firms”) than those in high brokerage presence regions (hereafter “high-BP firms”).
Findings
We find low-BP firms benefit more from an improved information environment created by online interactions. We also find that posts about low-BP firms are more value-relevant and useful in processing corporate disclosures. Further, a higher number of interactions significantly enhances more informational efficiency for low-BP firms, and the effect of reducing the gap in financing costs is more pronounced when corporate information is complex.
Originality/value
We conclude that online interactions alleviate geography-induced information frictions and create a relatively level playing field for firms located in all regions.
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Qiyuan Zhang, Mengyang Wang and Ziyu Zhao
In the pursuit of co-exploration, the strength and brokerage dimensions of dyadic ties create a novelty–action trade-off: tie strength facilitates coordination but constraints…
Abstract
Purpose
In the pursuit of co-exploration, the strength and brokerage dimensions of dyadic ties create a novelty–action trade-off: tie strength facilitates coordination but constraints novelty, while tie brokerage expands knowledge diversity but aggravates coordination difficulty. This study contributes towards a better understanding of this tension by comparing two dimensions of relational ties and examining their contingent values given different environmental factors and exchange characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used survey data from 194 matched buyer–supplier dyads in China's high-tech industries and employed hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The authors find that compared with tie strength, tie brokerage has a stronger positive effect on co-exploration. Moreover, guanxi importance amplifies the effect of tie strength while decreasing the value of tie brokerage. As market uncertainty increases, the role of tie brokerage becomes more salient. Additionally, tie strength becomes less effective when buyer centralization is high, whereas tie brokerage exerts a stronger impact on co-exploration when an exchange is highly formalized.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the supply chain literature by adopting a relational perspective to integrate relational ties into the study of buyer–supplier co-exploration and by elaborating on the different implications of tie strength and tie brokerage in resolving the novelty–action trade-off. Furthermore, it provides a more nuanced understanding of when distinct dimensions of relational ties are effective, by clarifying boundary conditions in terms of environmental factors and exchange characteristics.
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