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Prior research from transaction costs economics argued that central firms perform better because they have superior access to information to discipline their alliance partners. Central firms may also, however, face higher costs and risks of unintentional learning and weaken their competence through structural inertia. We propose that these costs and risks are influenced by the learning capacities of the firms in the network and can explain different outcomes for focal firm performance.

To test our predictions, we use instrumental variable–generalized method of moments estimation techniques on 15,517 firm-year observations from equity alliance portfolios in the global food industry across a 21-year window.

We find support for our predictions and show that the relationship between network degree centrality and firm performance is negatively influenced by partners’ learning capacity and positively influenced by focal firms’ learning capacity, while firms with low network degree centrality benefit less from their learning capacity.

Future developments in transaction cost economics may consider partner and focal firms’ learning capacity as moderators of the network degree centrality – firm performance relationship.

In alliance decisions, managers must consider that the combination of high network degree centrality and partners’ learning capacity can lead to high costs, risks of unintentional learning, and structural inertia, all of which have negative consequences for performance. In concentrated industries where network positions are controlled by a few large firms, policymakers must acknowledge that firms may face substantial barriers to collaboration with learning-intensive firms.

This study is the first to develop and test a comprehensive transaction cost analysis of the central firm’s unintended knowledge flows and structural inertia in alliance networks. It is also the first to incorporate theoretically and empirically the hazards of complex and unintended information flows on the relationship of network degree centrality to performance in equity alliance portfolios.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of cultural, social and psychological capital on the individual job performance. The authors propose and empirically test a combination of models, which originate from sociology and positive psychology, and demonstrate that cultural capital – in addition to social and psychological capital – is an important driver of individual job performance.

The paper opted for a large-scale survey research design. The sample consists of employees in several occupations who had formal contracts with companies from the public and private sector in Brazil. The measurement instrument is developed and tested by using data collected among 369 valid respondents in 2016. The methods applied include exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis through partial least squares estimation.

The results obtained indicate that there is a significant simultaneous positive effect of cultural, social and psychological capital on individual job performance. The results indicate that cultural, psychological and social capitals together were able to explain 57 percent of the respondents’ individual job performance, with psychological capital being the dominant driver. The authors also find that cultural capital is at least as important as driver of individual job performance as social capital.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may have limited generalizability and may suffer from potential bias in terms of social desirability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the propositions in different country contexts using different research methods.

This paper is the first to quantify the relevance of Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory to the study of individual job performance, and offers tools with validated psychometric properties for its empirical assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the accumulated body of knowledge on the performance of new product projects and provide directions for further research.

Using a refined classification of antecedents of new product project performance the research results are meta‐analyzed in the literature in order to identify the strength and stability of predictor‐performance relationships.

The results reveal that 22 variables have a significant relationship with new product project performance, of which only 12 variables have a sizable relationship. In order of importance these factors are the degree of organizational interaction, R&D and marketing interface, general product development proficiency, product advantage, financial/business analysis, technical proficiency, management skill, marketing proficiency, market orientation, technology synergy, project manager competency and launch activities. Of the 34 variables 16 predictors show potential for moderator effects.

The validity of the results is constrained by publication bias and heterogeneity of performance measures, and directions for the presentation of data in future empirical publications are provided.

This study helps new product project managers in understanding and managing the performance of new product development projects.

This paper provides unique insights into the importance of predictors of new product performance at the project level. Furthermore, it identifies which predictor‐performance relations are contingent on other factors.

The study seeks to classify retailer‐driven clothing supply networks to provide new insights on their structure and operation and examine whether or not differences are evident in the types of networks operated by different types of retailer.

A large‐scale empirical investigation is conducted of 73 supply networks operating with 26 Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers, representing 39 major retailers. In‐depth interviews and survey methods are used, representing qualitative and quantitative approaches, respectively.

Six primary types of clothing supply network are identified. A strong association is shown between retailer type and network type, specifically for networks operated by established brand retailers and by value players such as supermarket retailers. The typical attributes of the supply networks of each type of retailer are compared.

Although the empirical study is large, it is limited to supply networks with prime manufacturing partners located in Sri Lanka. The country is important in global clothing production, serving many prominent global retailers. Studying and comparing supply networks anchored in other regions will provide a valuable comparison with the findings here.

The study has implications for clothing retailers in analyzing, managing and developing their networks. For manufacturers, it provides insights to understand the network structures operated by different types of retailer for different classes of garment. The study also offers insights for policy makers in clothing producing regions.

A new empirically based classification is presented for clothing supply networks. The diversity in network types has not previously been shown. The comparison of networks of established brand retailers and value players provides empirical evidence of differences not reported previously. The findings enrich both the theoretical and empirical bases for sector‐specific supply network studies.

This study aims to examine the role of returnee managers that can affect the strategic-divestment decision of emerging-market firms (EM firms). Drawing on arguments from the upper echelons theory and international human resource mobility perspectives, this study aims to propose that returnee managers influence corporate divestitures when the business outlook is negative. In addition, this study aims to examine the interplay between returnee managers and CEOs, whose characteristics can foster or undermine the efforts of returnee managers to engage in corporate divestments.

This study examines 278 firms from nine emerging economies. The negative binomial regression was employed to estimate the model. In the robustness checks, the logistic regression was adopted to confirm the earlier findings.

The empirical results support the notion that returnee managers strengthen the relationship between firm performance and divestments. Because of the limited liabilities of foreignness and outsidership, returnee managers can gain social trust and credibility through communication and social interaction. Furthermore, the results provide mixed support for the moderating effect of CEO characteristics on the performance–divestment relationship.

This study reveals that returnee managers are a great asset for EM firms that aim to find synergies and upgrade their capabilities through asset reconfiguration, which is an essential activity of emerging market firms to integrate themselves into the global competition. Meanwhile, CEO characteristics can foster (through their education level) or hinder (due to their age) divestment attempts, influenced by returnee managers.

This study explores an understudied phenomenon in international business (IB): strategic divestment of EM firms. The literature that examines strategic divestment and corporate refocusing in emerging markets is extremely limited. Furthermore, this study explores the novel topic that intersects the international business (IB) and international human resource management (IHRM) research areas. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of returnee managers on strategic divestments.

This research investigates how micro-enterprises cooperate with external parties in order to promote innovation and entrepreneurial success. The purpose of this paper is to describe supplier and consumer cooperation and analyzes how these two behavioral modes influence the product and service innovations of micro-enterprises. Based on the resource-based view of the firm, the authors show that micro-enterprises help the source of innovation by tapping into the resources and abilities of suppliers.

This research used a questionnaire to randomly sample micro-entrepreneurs that run stalls at night markets. Before distributing the final questionnaire, the authors in-depth interviewed ten micro-entrepreneurs and asked them to openly describe their entrepreneurial processes and success stories.

The results of this study show that cooperation with consumers does not improve product and service innovations. By contrast, the cooperation of micro-enterprises with suppliers was found to increase the generation of product and service innovations in the present study. And the findings show that the effect of innovation approaches on entrepreneurial success indicates that product innovation positively improves firm performance. Last, from the perspective of cooperation behavior, product innovation mediates entrepreneurial success through cooperation with suppliers.

Because of respondents were night market vendors and thus the results are not necessarily generalizable to other types of micro-enterprises. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test multiple types of micro-enterprises. Second, this research aimed to differentiate the relationships between innovation approaches and entrepreneurial success by focussing exclusively on product and service innovations. Therefore, other variables should be included in future studies.

As for practical implications in the field of cooperation behavior, the authors have shown that it is crucial to maintain long-term cooperative relations with trusted suppliers.

As for practical implications in the field of cooperation behavior, the authors have shown that it is crucial to maintain long-term cooperative relations with trusted suppliers.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how innovation in micro-enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a sound basis to facilitate further research on innovation management at logistics service providers (LSPs).

Content analysis of extant literature was undertaken and supplemented by conceptual deliberations.

Future LSP‐specific innovation research should be undertaken. While comparatively much knowledge on innovation management by LSPs does already exist, it is hardly integrated. More comprehensive studies of LSPs' innovation processes and systems are required.

The review is limited to articles written in English and published in academic journals from 1999 to mid‐2009. This research should be supplemented by empirical research, in particular case studies.

LSPs can compare their own innovation management concepts to the body of scientific knowledge presented here. As long as research does not take their specific context into account, LSPs are required to adapt more general concepts to their needs.

This paper outlines theoretical features of a research stream on innovation management at LSPs. It integrates previous findings on LSPs' innovation management in a suitable framework, and it proposes an agenda for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review and analysis of existing research articles on new product development (NPD) published in the 12-year period starting from 1998 to 2009.

To explore the articles related to NPD, four key words namely new product, product design, product development and product innovation were used in combination of title or abstract or keyword of the articles through several knowledge databases. The abstracts of journal papers were read and a decision as to whether article belongs to any NPD research issue or not was made. In total, 1,127 research articles were categorized systematically and then analyzed on various principal NPD information groups.

Analysis of selected articles led to a certain level of dispersion in the publication of NPD research in different journals. It is found that more attention needs to be on knowledge and creativity management, communication and information transfer in any NPD process.

By observing extended literature from authors reviewing articles from various journals, growth in research, and variety of topics covered in NPD, a broad systematic multi journal review of NPD literature is clearly overdue. The authors have developed a comprehensive listing of publications on NPD where they have classified the surveyed papers according to various principal NPD information groups like: published year, NPD research stream, type of organization studied (industrial/consumer/service), level of innovation (high/moderate/low), NPD focus on frameworks, performance perspective (success, failure or both), NPD research design (conceptual/empirical and qualitative/quantitative) and NPD relevant best practice element. Based on the classification scheme, the issues were analyzed from the system's perspective and their implications to NPD research.

The understanding of the later stage (i.e. the exploitation phase) in the new product development (NPD) process by companies from emerging markets is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to address this lack and, by drawing upon a data set from Turkish firms, explore how different factors affect the exploitation phase of the NPD process.

Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were carried out on a sample of 671 Turkish firms operating in five industries (i.e. information and communication technologies, biomedical, machinery, chemical and plastic, and food and beverage) in the Izmir region (Turkey) to test the hypotheses.

Results reveal major differences regarding human capital, leadership, marketing capabilities, and business and institutional networks in terms of the commercialization of newly developed products in domestic and international markets.

By focusing on the exploitation stage, this paper extents the growing research efforts to study the NPD process of companies in emerging economies other than China by using primary data from Turkey.

The study aims to identify salespeople’s challenges while selling newly launched products in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector by examining the holistic environment in which they perform their selling tasks. Furthermore, it develops a hierarchical model mapping the interrelationships between identified challenges to explore their dependence and driving power through qualitative research techniques.

The current study is exploratory and inductive in its research design. It used focus-group discussion (FGD), semistructured interviews and thematic content analysis (TCA) to identify new-product selling challenges in the FMCG sector. The identified factors were then worked into a hierarchical model using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to analyze their relationship. The factors were further classified into clusters based on their driving and dependence power, with the help of the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) technique

The TISM and MICMAC results identified salespeople’s most critical new-product selling challenges in the FMCG sector: product innovation, product differentiation, customer perception and market turbulence. An enhanced organizational focus on these factors will ensure that salespeople get adequate input to tackle the challenges they face while selling newly launched FMCG products.

The study was confined to identifying challenges in the FMCG sector alone but offered scope for application in other sectors.

This study will help organizations to identify and close gaps in the new-product selling process, thereby improving the performance of salespeople and contributing to a new product’s success. The study findings have a bearing on various stages of product development, management and life cycle. They also highlight the need for greater synergy between an organization’s sales force and other departments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is unique in identifying new-product selling challenges in the FMCG sector. It also delineates the complex Web of interrelationships between them and classifies the identified factors based on their driving and dependence on power. The research results can help in organizational decision-making and sales practices, empowering salespeople in their new-product selling tasks.