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The purpose of this paper is to draw on social network theory to develop a new theoretical model to explain how experience and leadership influence critical network position. Broad analyses of the mediating role of leadership between experience and critical network position calls attention to the need to investigate the direct relationship between leadership and critical network position. Empirical examinations of the roles of leadership and experience within the social network context are lacking. The authors seeks to fill this gap by constructing a new theoretical model and testing it in the knowledge-intensive sector.

The authors made 3,356 observations involving 427 faculty members in business and management departments in Taiwanese universities. To test the model, the authors performed two different regression models using the Baron and Kenny (1986) procedure and the Sobel test.

The results that the authors obtained lead to three conclusions. First, scholars’ experience positively relates to leadership in grouping the followers toward the common goal and to their publications. Second, scholars’ leadership predicts occupying the critical network position, which, in turn, facilitates acquiring more information and resources. Third, experience relates to critical network position through influence on personal leadership.

Although the insights gained from the study are important in theoretical and empirical implications, this study has its limitations. The research examined the professional interaction networks of business management scholars of Taiwanese universities. Although the authors believe that the findings are generalizable to other fields of similar phenomena settings, there are also settings where the generalizability of the study is probably quite limited. Future research could study samples in other fields, such as biomedical research and chemical research, and samples in other knowledge-intensive industries.

The results imply that managers can reap the benefits of their leadership either informal or informal organizations by occupying a critical position to control the flow of resources and information. In other words, the results indicate that leadership can be developed through experience. As well, leadership plays an important mediating role between experience and critical network positions. This may seem to contradict the evidence from research on network concepts and resources control, which primarily draws attention to leadership being a helpful quality for those in critical network positions.

This research extends beyond previous studies that focussed on the value of critical network positions. Furthermore, the paper also examines how the relationship between prior relevant experience and leadership plays a role in academic network settings. To the authors’ knowledge, no studies explore this perspective. Finally, studies that examine the relationship between business management academic networks and different methodology used to measures the network position are few in number, and those that use such longitudinal empirical work are particularly lacking. This study addresses these issues.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how individuals can leverage interpersonal relationships and critical network position to acquire knowledge and information for generate research productivity. Specifically, this paper argues that the relationship between tie strength and scholar productivity will be an inverted U-shape, and critical position as moderating role in research productivity generation process. The robustness tests were also provided.

Using panel data from scholars in tourism academic fields, this paper investigated the conditions under which maintenance of social relations affects knowledge creation. In total, two different regression models and robustness tests were used to test the hypotheses in a sample of 201 tourism scholars from Taiwan and an analysis of 1,198 publications.

The results showed that the relationship between tie strength and scholar productivity will be an inverted U-shape. Moreover, the moderating role of critical position of structural holes and betweennesss are recognized: it positively moderates with tie strengths and research productivity.

The empirical results are derived from a sample of scholars in Taiwanese business management departments, thus raising concern about the external generalizability to other departments and countries. Future research is, therefore, suggested to empirically test the validity of the framework and hypothesis in other departments or countries.

The practical implications of the results are that individuals need to know that there are two underlying governing forces on the choice of their knowledge exchange partners and occupying critical network position. A diversified social relation is beneficial to the knowledge creation performance because of more information knowledge sharing while a specialized knowledge would avoid the detrimental effects of coordination and conflict problems on research productivity. Therefore, individuals should understand and careful choice their cooperation partners and network position in order to achieve better knowledge creation outcome.

This research extends developments in social capital theory and the relational view into interpersonal relationships between tourism scholars and their cooperation partners. Furthermore, the paper also examines how critical position has effects on scholar’s research productivity creation process. Finally, studies that examine the relationship between tourism academic networks and different measures of research productivity are few in number, and those that use such longitudinal empirical work are particularly lacking. This study addresses these issues.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why staying on the edge of emerging and converging technologies is significant for businesses to create the most vibrant, adaptive and complex behaviors, including a wider range of business relational initiatives (e.g. outsourcing, opportunistic partnership, merger and alliance, acquisition), and a better sense of which initiative to choose.

This is an inductive, interpretative case study complemented by hands‐on experience with the industry.

Appreciating why existing proprietary technologies need to be replaced with new robust and open technologies is important. Knowing when and how existing and emerging technologies would converge is even better. Developing an understanding of the likely impact of this convergence on existing network structure and network position is critical.

For practitioners the paper presents a framework for examining business relational initiatives at any given point in time and identifying a positioning path over time to shift the firm's network position. For academics it advances one's understanding on how various business relational initiatives are influenced by network structure and network position at the network level.

This research aims to utilize a social network analysis approach to examine the effect of organizational position within a network of strategic partnerships on innovation as measured by perceptions of industry analysts. Specifically, the purpose of the paper is to examine how network characteristics such as degree centrality (being centrally located in a network), between centrality (being positioned as an intermediary), and closeness centrality (having a short average distance to all other firms in the network) affect the innovation ranking of the focal firm.

Data for 563 firms are generated from three distinct data sources (SDC Platinum: Alliances and Joint Ventures, COMPUSTAT, and Fortune's America's Most Admired Companies) and analyzed via social network analysis and linear regression.

The network characteristics of degree centrality and between centrality positively relate to industry perceptions or innovativeness whereas closeness centrality had no significant effect. Additionally, there were no discernable differences in innovativeness when comparing manufacturing firms to service organizations.

Insignificant findings related to closeness centrality and the good/service differential may be attributable to the data sources, in that, the information is limited to firms within the respective sources. This data limitation may limit the potential of examining the effect of all network characteristics. Additionally, some included companies participate in multiple industries (i.e., have multiple SIC codes), which may serve as the blurring of any differences between good and service firms.

The results highlight the importance of considering strategic partnerships that establish configurations of partnership webs when pursuing innovation activities. Specifically, the findings suggest that firms should seek numerous strategic partnerships (high degree centrality) and attempt to broker information or control the extent to which partners collaborate (high between centrality). These results provide insights for firms seeking to establish new supply‐chain relationships in order to enhance their level of innovation.

This research provides a unique empirical examination of the impact of network positional characteristics on the innovativeness of a focal firm.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the sociology‐of‐science type of accounting literature, addressing how accounting knowledge is established, advanced and extended.

The research question is answered through the example of research into linkages between accounting and religion. Adopting an actor‐network theory (ANT) approach, the paper follows the actors involved in the construction of accounting as an academic discipline through the controversies in which they engage to develop knowledge.

The paper reveals that accounting knowledge is established, advanced and developed through the ongoing mobilisation of nonhumans (journals) who can enrol other humans and nonhumans. It shows that knowledge advancement, establishment and development is more contingent on network breadth than on research paradigms, which appear as side‐effects of positioning vis‐à‐vis a community.

The originality of this paper is twofold. First, ANT is applied to accounting knowledge, whereas the accounting literature applies it to the spread of management accounting ideas, methods and practices. Second, an original methodology for data collection is developed by inviting authors from the network to give a reflexive account of their writings at the time they joined the network. Well diffused in sociology and philosophy, such an approach is, albeit, original in accounting research.

Integrating network attributes from studies of social networks, business relationships and small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization, this study adopts a perceptual view of a firm’s focal “net” of relationships to examine foreign market entry mode choice. This study aims to examine how the interaction between knowledge-intensive service (KIS) firm’s network ties, embeddedness and position is related to choice of mode and subsequently the firm’s perceived insidership status within its focal net.

This research is based on qualitative interviews with 25 small- to medium-sized KIS firms engaged in direct exporting or foreign direct investment (FDI). This study derives an empirically grounded framework of four distinct network patterns of these KIS firms through an iterative process of triangulation between cases and theory.

The four network patterns illustrate the complex interaction between network attributes and entry mode choice by KIS firms. The findings suggest formal ties and centrality in closed network relationships provide the “central controller” firm discretion over their entry mode choice. Resource-intensive FDI by “opportunistic investors” proved essential to securing centrality through formal, institutional ties. Less optimal patterns lacking institutional ties and centrality, however, precluded choice of FDI by “specialized exporters” and “client followers.” The study finds that entry modes are less likely to be influenced by the firm’s embeddedness in open or closed network relationships, but rather by the desire to achieve a more central network position and legitimacy through more formal, less imitable ties.

The findings demonstrate the importance of network structure, a position of centrality, and strength of professional and institutional ties to small KIS firm internationalization. By adopting a more finely grained examination of the interaction between key attributes of the firm’s focal net, this study provides a valuable first step in conceptualizing the complexities associated with networking and adoption of export/investment internationalization modes.

There are a number of implications for the strategic and operational facets of smaller KIS firm internationalization. To avoid excessive network liability for resource-deficient SMEs, practitioners should consider network positioning as a strategic activity, with the costs associated with building and maintaining networks offset against economic- and resource-related returns.

The authors contribute to a better understanding of entry mode choices of KIS by taking a network perspective that accounts for the combined effects of different network attributes. The four network patterns identified extend current theoretical knowledge on the role of networks for entry mode choices of small KIS by highlighting that entry mode choices reflect the particular firm’s focal net and its attempt to achieve insidership status through high centrality and formal ties.

While the value of connections with host-country nationals (HCNs) for expatriate adjustment is well established, there is little guidance regarding which HCNs stand to benefit expatriates most. The purpose of this paper is to utilize a social network perspective to build theory to explain how and why expatriates who are connected to a central HCN are more likely to adjust. This study offers explicit guidance for steps parent country management can take to assist expatriates in the development of valuable connections with HCNs, even while thousands of miles away from the expatriate’s new locale.

This study takes a social network approach to build theory that will improve understanding of the expatriate experience.

Because central individuals tend to be embedded in the organization, their embeddedness is likely to spread to expatriates with whom they are in close contact with. Links to central HCNs are posited to contribute to improved work adjustment by enabling expatriates to attain a better understanding of workplace requirements and workplace norms.

Management can take steps to identify central HCNs using social network analysis and introduce expatriates to highly central HCNs to help improve expatriate adjustment.

This study answers explicit calls in the literature for a greater exploration of social interaction of expatriates in understanding the expatriate experience, as well as calls for taking a more active role in the management of informal relationships. This study is the first to discuss implications of the HCN’s network to expatriate outcomes.

Strategic Alliances (SAs) have become widely used by global businesses for pursuing strategic goals.¹ Because of the special nuances that can make these kinds of joint ventures (JVs) effective means for achieving challenging strategic goals, they are generally more difficult to establish and manage. Some of the larger, more successful users of SAs recognize the special nature of these relationships and some such as Cisco and Pfizer have even created high-level divisions or departments in their organization explicitly focused on planning, pursuing, and managing outside strategic partnerships. These units not only monitor the alliances (in some cases, dozens at a time) but also develop tools and insights that will allow the organization to engage in SA more successfully.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the manufacturer that occupies the central position in the triadic supply chain is capable of enhancing relationships within both dyads to produce the network rent and extra profit shared among all supply chain actors.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using a survey of triads forming supply chains. To reveal the capability of yielding the network rent in the examined triads, multiple regression analysis with Interaction effects was used. Having confirmed the existence of supernormal profit, the partial least square path model was developed to investigate the effects of manufacturer structural embeddedness on relational embeddedness and the resulting impact on the network rent.

The obtained findings show that manufacturer structural embeddedness has a direct and positive effect on relational embeddedness and relational embeddedness of two dyads (represented as a higher order factor) has a direct and positive effect on the network rent. In addition, relational embeddedness mediates the positive relationship between manufacturer structural embeddedness and network rent, as the null model with no mediation appears to underestimate the direct and positive effect between manufacturer structural embeddedness and the network rent.

The study makes three key contributions. First, it extends the application of both relational and structural embeddedness to grasp the network architecture of the triadic supply chain. Second, the concept of manufacturer structural embeddedness is used to elaborate on the role of the manufacturer in establishing relationships of high quality with the supplier and the customer. In connection to the previous point, the calculated network rent demonstrates that establishing collaborative relationships in triadic supply chains may bring a significant supernormal profit, derived as the outcome of mutual interplay between the relational performances of two dyads.

The study shows that manufacturers intending to use their central position to develop collaborative relationships with both partners, and the supplier and the customer, ought to appreciate the role of social ties embedded in interorganizational networks. The paper also implies that in parallel with using formal contracts as a governance mechanism, the manufacturer centrally positioned in the triadic supply chains ought to deliberately shape relational embeddedness of both dyads. Finally, managers can consider the ways to enhance relational embeddedness in a triad by improving relational embeddedness of a certain dyad.

This study provides a novel framework for studying two basic dimensions of embeddedness (structural and relational) and their impact on the network rent in triadic supply chains that goes beyond the dyadic perspective and incorporates the extended supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of high-status local exchange partners on foreign firms.

Bridging status research and international business literature, the study develops a framework that describes three prominent effects of high-status partners on foreign firms, and further links these effects to firms’ relationship outcomes. The proposed conceptual model is examined using partial least squares structural equations modeling on a sample of 96 foreign firms operating in China.

The study provides evidence that high-status local exchange partners tend to seek higher relationship-specific investment from foreign firms, and in the meantime, provide firms with greater opportunities for local learning and networking; subsequently, foreign firms are more likely to achieve satisfactory outcomes in the relationships.

These findings suggest that affiliation with high-status local actors can be a key approach to overcome the liability of foreignness in a host country. Firms therefore, should treat them carefully as an important category of exchange partner portfolios. These are particularly relevant to foreign firms competing in China, a society characterized by strong hierarchies.

The study serves as a preliminary attempt to introduce status concept to the field of international business. It promotes status as a key criterion for local partner selection, and offers the status research a contextual insight in the dilemma of choosing high- vs low-status partner candidates.