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For over four decades, IB scholars have been conceptualizing and empirically examining the organizational structure of the multinational corporation (MNC) without really placing relationships at the center of attention. It therefore remains unclear what characterizes those relationships beyond subunits’ roles, motivation, or control mechanisms. Relationship as a term has often been used but rarely defined in the IB literature on intra-firm networks. We develop arguments that position such relationships as the focal unit of analysis. We extend current IB literature to examine in detail the nature and dynamics of relationships in MNCs by borrowing insights from Industrial Marketing and Purchasing research, which focuses on the relational nature and dynamics of interactions between actors. We offer a theoretical framework and develop a conceptual model that brings to the fore the multiplexity and temporality of relationships in MNCs. We also argue that intra-MNC network relationships can be seen as an evolving process and advocate for shifting away from variance-based and typological views toward a process view for examining relationships. Theoretically, understanding what characterizes the nature of MNC intra-firm relationships and what processes contribute to structuring them provides important insights into the global configuration of the MNC and the required organizational design mechanisms needed for MNC existence and resilience. The study is timely and practically relevant in the sense that considering intra-firm relationships deserves even more attention in the current global economic environment when accessing external resources becomes costly and/or inefficient.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategy of contract manufacturers (CMs). The research question is the following: how can the strategy of CMs be explained? The purpose is to better understand this activity though using different theoretical approaches and analyzing two customer relationships of a Hungarian CM, Videoton Holding.

The primary theoretical background is the relational view of strategy, and the concept of the business model is used for the analysis. The authors confront the literature about this topic in strategic management using the industrial marketing and purchasing approach to strategy; namely, strategizing. Through the case study of Videoton the authors explore how the company became a highly developed CM from its origins as an original equipment manufacturer company.

Through comparing theory the authors have created a research framework which is adapted to the empirical findings. In the CM’s strategy it is crucial to understand how partners are able to synchronize key propositions, key resources and key actors while taking the network of the firms into consideration.

The paper is novel in that the authors investigate the strategy of a supplier from their own perspective, not that of a customer. Applying and contrasting different theoretical approaches to this particular topic may considered to be valuable as well.

Using a combined Industrial Marketing and Purchasing’s network approach and institutional theory, this paper aims to explore why firms exploit dual marketing strategy that targets both the consumer (business-to-consumer) and business markets (business-to-business). This study uses the regulated housing market as its research context in examining how housing developers cope with government intervention when implementing a dual marketing strategy.

This study applies a qualitative case study research approach, using 19 in-depth interviews, from the purposefully selected industry actors within the housing market, observations and documents.

The findings uncover housing developers’ struggles in dealing with government intervention when they adopt a dual marketing strategy. When dealing with the regulated consumer market, developers formed an issue-based net with other competitors and used their association to bargain with the government for flexibility in public policy. When selling to the business market, in which the private investment club emerged as a powerful actor, they initiated strategic net and influenced property developers’ pricing and selling strategies. The findings also demonstrate that the restrictions imposed on the consumer market have a spillover effect on the business market, which reflects the contextual embeddedness of the two markets.

This study contributes to the understanding of how actors strategize and co-evolve when implementing a dual marketing strategy. It helps policymakers, business actors and other connected actors to understand the interactions of all actors within a network that affects each other’s decisions.

This paper explores how the procurement function initiates and develops relationships with social enterprises that are intended to induce social impact in the supply networks of for-profit firms.

The paper utilises an in-depth case study involving a focal company, first-tier supplier, nongovernmental organisation and four social enterprises.

Tension mitigation that arises between social and commercial logics occurs via individual relationships through building trust, dependency manipulation, monitoring and supplier development activities. Deeper insights are revealed when triadic relationships are viewed within a quadratic relationship configuration that enables better capturing the essence of supply networks.

The paper is based on a single case study, limiting empirical generalisability. Future research could consider multiple case studies to reveal different types of relationship configurations that induce social impact in supply networks.

Societal goals can be met while maintaining supply network economic performance if procurement involves a trusted third party such as a nongovernmental organisation and helps to develop social enterprises as suppliers.

The paper contributes to the sustainable supply chain management literature by reporting on a novel procurement approach for enhancing social sustainability through cooperation with social enterprises. The paper also contributes to supply network theory by demonstrating how exploring quadratic relationships can reveal novel relationship configurations within supply networks.

The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: how do business and political (i.e. party politics and state) networks relate? What are the consequences of the relations between these two networks for the behaviour of the actors involved?

The research design consists of the historical approach based on relevant literature sources of the past, a relatively long period – from 1968, the beginning of the era of market socialism, until the first decade of the twenty-first century, by which time the market economy had been established for more than 20 years. The authors analyse the behaviour of economic and non-economic actors in Hungary based on cases and historical data, applying the IMP network approach.

Research findings demonstrate the long-term influence of the relation between business and bureaucratic networks on managerial and organizational network behaviour. The old and new pictures of the economic system are different, but the background to the pictures and the movement in the two pictures are quite similar.

The historical illustrations and cases the authors have presented cannot be too widely generalized: the characteristics of the Hungarian mode of transition from market socialism to market economy impose important limitations on the generalizability of the findings.

The study offers lessons to policy makers: policy decisions can have long term, unanticipated impacts on non-target areas as well.

The results confirm that the informal networks of socialism can replicate themselves and network structures can be repurposed in the system after the transition as well.

One contribution of the paper is related to the second network paradox: the cases illustrate non-business relationships with non-economic factors, particularly relations with bureaucracy. The other contribution is the description of how the transition from socialism to capitalism affected the networks that firms were embedded in before and after the transition.

The boundaries of relationship marketing have been discussed since relationship marketing was first investigated in the 1970s. Investigating these boundaries, this paper reviews the links between relationship marketing and network theory. Three main themes of marketing relationships are identified: relationship marketing, neo‐relationship marketing and network theory. A framework is developed to allow for the positioning of these three themes of marketing relationships. While this framework has been developed in terms of a table, the intent is not to box theorists into neat positions but rather to develop an overall position statement for the three types of marketing relationships. Theorists can discuss marketing relationships depending on their position within the framework. Consequently, the framework allows for further development of relationship and neo‐relationship marketing by offering better applications for the practitioner, and enhances understanding of network theory. Suggestions are offered for the integration of marketing relationships into the marketing curriculum and further implications for marketing research are discussed.

This paper attempts to seek answers to four questions. Two of these questions have been borrowed (but adapted) from the work of Defee et al.: RQ1. To what extent is theory used in purchasing and supply chain management (P&SCM) research? RQ2. What are the prevalent theories to be found in P&SCM research? Following on from these questions an additional question is posed: RQ3. Are theory‐based papers more highly cited than papers with no theoretical foundation? Finally, drawing on the work of Harland et al., the authors have added a fourth question: RQ4. To what extent does P&SCM meet the tests of coherence, breadth and depth, and quality necessary to make it a scientific discipline?

A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with the model outlined by Tranfield et al. for three journals within the field of “purchasing and supply chain management”. In total 1,113 articles were reviewed. In addition a citation analysis was completed covering 806 articles in total.

The headline features from the results suggest that nearly a decade‐and‐a‐half on from its development, the field still lacks coherence. There is the absence of theory in much of the work and although theory‐based articles achieved on average a higher number of citations than non‐theoretical papers, there is no obvious contender as an emergent paradigm for the discipline. Furthermore, it is evident that P&SCM does not meet Fabian's test necessary to make it a scientific discipline and is still some way from being a normal science.

This study would have benefited from the analysis of further journals, however the analysis of 1,113 articles from three leading journals in the field of P&SCM was deemed sufficient in scope. In addition, a further significant line of enquiry to follow is the rigour vs relevance debate.

This article is of interest to both an academic and practitioner audience as it highlights the use theories in P&SCM. Furthermore, this article raises a number of important questions. Should research in this area draw more heavily on theory and if so which theories are appropriate?

The broader social implications relate to the discussion of how a scientific discipline develops and builds on the work of Fabian and Amundson.

The data set for this study is significant and builds on a number of previous literature reviews. This review is both greater in scope than previous reviews and is broader in its subject focus. In addition, the citation analysis (not previously conducted in any of the reviews) and statistical test highlights that theory‐based articles are more highly cited than non‐theoretically based papers. This could indicate that researchers are attempting to build on one another's work.

A retail banking case study published in this journal ten years ago described a method for inviting staff involvement in customer service improvement. In this article, the author has reinterpreted the case as an archetypal example of internal marketing for generating and circulating staff knowledge through a network of voluntary internal relationships. First, a typology for making sense of conflicting concepts in the internal marketing literature is provided. Second, the author returns to the case data to suggest an integrated theoretical framework for internal marketing that links the parallel but distinctive traditions of relationship marketing and the markets‐as‐networks approach of the International Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group. Third, internal marketing is defined as a relationship development strategy for the purpose of knowledge renewal. Finally, the implications for management are examined.

The purpose of this study was to suggest pragmatic ways of dealing with the business-to-business (B2B) theory/practice gap.

Reflecting on experience both as a researcher and practitioner.

B2B marketing is characterized by complexity. There is no straight way to harmonize the relationship between its theory and practice but there are ways to make the two benefit from each other. A dilemma is that academics and practitioners are rewarded for different types of achievements.

Scholars can be made aware of the need for close involvement through action research and case theory to secure access to high-quality data in a complex B2B reality, and to their mission to contribute better real world based theory.

The article can make practitioners aware of the value of grand theory to improve the pragmatic use of mid-range theory as it materializes in models, checklists and heuristics.

The simultaneous emphasis on explicit and tacit knowledge in both theory generation and practice, and a framework of theory generation that sorts out substantive, mid-range and grand theory relationships.