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A key argument in transaction cost economics (TCE) is that transactions are aligned with governance structures so as to effect a discriminating – mainly transaction cost economizing – match (Williamson, 1991). The archetypical problem in TCE is the vertical integration or “make-versus-buy” decision, and the focus of transaction cost economizing in this context is on mitigation of “holdup” problems associated with investments in specific assets (Klein, Crawford, & Alchian, 1978; Williamson, 1985). However, this asset specificity condition in only one example (albeit a significant one) of a more general class of contractual hazards. Indeed, in his most recent discussion of the TCE agenda, Williamson (1996, p. 3) suggests that “identification, explication, and mitigation of contractual hazards – which take many forms, many of which long went unremarked – are central to the exercise.”

This paper argues that social contexts and social capital enable knowledge integration; that different social contexts combined with different types of social capital enable different types of knowledge integration. Four types of social contexts are distinguished based on the extent of social embeddedness and closeness of interorganizational coupling; four types of social capital are also described. Based on the diversity of knowledge streams, the extent of tacitness of knowledge to be exchanged, and value created through such exchanges, four modes of knowledge integration are identified, namely frontier, incremental, combinative, and instrumental. This paper provides new insights about the processes of interorganizational transfer of knowledge: the unique combination of a specific social context with a specific type of social capital means firms can achieve equally effective yet highly differentiated approaches to different modes of knowledge integration.

Increasingly, companies are using alliances and joint ventures to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. These collaborations are voluntary arrangements between two or more firms that exchange, share, bundle, and create resources in pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper proposes that the innovativeness and risk characteristics of these entrepreneurial collaborations significantly influence the outcomes that partner firms realize. Furthermore, interfirm trust works to moderate the effects of these characteristics and allows partners to effectively manage these arrangements. Using data from a sample of alliances and joint ventures engaged in new product development in the telecommunications, medical, and electronics industries, we empirically test the effects of these characteristics on partner satisfaction and partnership success.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of buyer investment in interorganizational, information‐related connectivity enablers on supplier firm performance within the context of buyer‐seller matched dyads.

Data for this study were obtained from a field survey. A mail questionnaire was constructed that contained items measuring the five key constructs of interest. Based on the supply chain information literature and the relational view, two competing models linking the focal constructs using structural equation modeling were evaluated.

The results of the study indicate that buyer‐to‐supplier information sharing, buyer‐to‐supplier performance feedback, and buyer investment in inter‐organizational information technology are key enablers of buyer‐to‐supplier communication openness. However, only buyer‐to‐supplier communication openness plays the direct and critical role in achieving significant performance improvement.

In this study performance is only examined from the supplier's perspective. It would be valuable to reevaluate and compare the performance outcomes from a buyer's perspective as well, or even more significantly, to compare these findings in a dyadic study where paired buyer and supplier data are collected over time to establish a pattern governing these efforts.

The fact that investments in the buyer‐side information resources engender supplier‐side competitiveness provides an incentive for suppliers to assist buyers in their investments in buyer‐side information resources. The study provides validation for the positive impact of such investments on supplier performance, therefore reassuring suppliers that their contribution to the dyad will pay off.

While information connectivity between buyers and suppliers has long been considered a critical enabler of buyer‐supplier integration, research had yet to explore the relationship between buyer investments in interorganizational information initiatives and supplier performance. The paper has addressed this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of innovation and internationalization for small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) and at testing it on tradition-based firms. These are SMEs whose productions reflect their territory's cultural identity. They are often micro-firms and weak in global markets. Since these firms characterize the European and Italian offer, the scientific challenge is to verify whether there are possible strategic paths, mainly based on interfirm collaboration and dynamic knowledge, that can help them getting higher levels of competitiveness. More specifically, the proposed model aims at understanding if it is possible to overcome these firms’ weaknesses through collaboration in networking perspective.

Methodology uses theoretical backgrounds in order to define hypotheses. The main approach starts from contributions on RBT and dynamic capabilities and their possible linkages in the internationalization perspective. Thus, considering the aims, the paper analyze if according to resource-based approach, dynamic capabilities allow entrepreneurs to seek opportunities which become strategic resources for a sustainable competitive advantage. This issue is analyzed both in theoretical terms and in its empirical implications in artistic craft sector. The empirical research has been designed in order to explain knowledge creation and transfer processes, in terms of firms’ competitiveness. Particularly, the analysis adopts multiple case studies methodology.

Tradition-based “Made in Italy” SMEs, as depicted in the empirical analysis, are characterized by limited size and scarce financial resources. This situation determines a difficult access to innovation in order to compete in global market. Thus, the research has highlighted that the only internationalization path, useful for this kind of firms, is cooperation, in a networking perspective. Firms that succeed in this process not only set the basis for survival but even to gain competitive advantage.

Through this analysis, the paper proposes a model of innovation and internationalization for SMEs’ development. Particularly, the model will be replicable to all those firms that are expression of cultural identity (e.g. “made in”) and of tradition, for which innovation and internationalization can represent useful keys to compete globally.

The paper provides a connection between RBT, dynamic capabilities and internationalization theories applied to tradition-based sectors, such as craft, in search of innovation, in order to compete internationally. So the paper investigates also on the internationalization and networking processes, in order to verify if combined dynamic capabilities and resources are able to make these firms more competitive. Moreover, the research field is quite unexplored and represents an important step in the theoretical and empirical evolution.

The channels literature lacks a classification scheme for channel systems which can provide insights to their development and management. Consideration of the channel context is essential in marketing products or services in foreign markets. Develops a new taxonomy of channel systems based on three channel contextual factors ‐ environmental uncertainty, value‐added in the downstream channel, and replaceability of suppliers ‐ and discusses each cell in terms of the level of interfirm commitment. The new taxonomy shows that the behavioural process varies with the channel context and high commitment between channel members is appropriate only in certain channel contexts.

The relationship between interlocking directorates and firm performance has been increasingly debated, with a focus on whether firm's centrality in interlock networks is associated with performance. The purpose of this study is to examine not only how a firm's position in this network is associated with performance but also how the performance of network partners can impact a firm's performance. This study examines how firms effectively utilise the interlock network to achieve the goal of higher market capitalisation – termed market capitalisation rank (MCR).

The premise of the study is the UK FTSE 350 firms from 2014 to 2018. The paper makes use of a temporal network autocorrelation model to examine how firm characteristics, the structural position in the interlock network and the performance of network partners affect MCR over time.

The analysis indicates that firms with ties (via the interlock network) to firms with high market capitalisation are more likely to enhance their own MCR, highlighting network partners have the opportunity to play a critical role in a firm's dominance strategy to optimise firm value.

The value of this research is that it does not only look at the impact of a firm's position in the network on performance, but the impact of the performance of network partners on a firm's market performance as well.

Explores the changing nature of the relationship between buyers and suppliers in the UK automotive industry, using research evidence from two major companies in this sector, Nissan and Lucas Industries, and incorporates these changes into wider debates on the social relations of production and changing work practices. Illustrates these changes in work practices through transformations in recruitment and training practices in large automotive companies.

In recent years, the network perspective has become highly influential in the strategy research. A number of strategic phenomena and outcomes have been studied successfully by adopting the methodology of social network analysis and taking a relational perspective on firm behavior and outcomes. However, while the social network methodology provides a powerful research tool for strategy researchers, it is fraught with both theoretical and methodological challenges. In this paper, we argue that many of the issues related to using the social network approach in strategy research derive from the use of an essentially individual level methodology being applied to the level of the organization. Organizations being large, complex, and nested entities, the social processes that are implied in network research at the level of the individual are often questionable at the interorganizational level. We identify ten specific issues, grouped under three major heads: issues relating to network structure, to network ties, and to network actors and action. We discuss the theoretical and methodological challenges associated with each issue and conclude with some suggestions for using the network perspective in strategy research.

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the significant determinant for supply chain partnering (SCP) that can be applied by the firms to increase their effectiveness in SCP efforts. Next, the paper intends to examine the impact of scalable partnering towards the effectiveness of SCP.

To address the research problem, a survey instrument is developed and a structured model is hypothesized and tested using SPSS tool. Data are collected from a field research on a sample of 584 companies in Malaysia.

The result of this research indicates that resource sharing have positive influences on SCP. Increasing scalable partnering would also lead to increases in the effectiveness of SCP.

One of the limitations of the study is that the use of a single key informant for the data collection from the respective companies. A more stringent test of the relationships between scalable partnering and its impact in SCP requires a longitudinal study.

Managers must also recognize the influential role of scalable partnering which actually motivates channel partners to continue their investment in SCM initiatives. Thus, managers should pay more attention to the need of channel member to generate a higher level of confidence in scalable partnering.

While SCP and its determinant exist in prior research, this paper contributes a new variable “Scalable Partnering” towards strengthening the relationship among the supply chain partners.