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The strategic management literature lacks a comprehensive explanation as to why seemingly similar business models in the same industry perform differently. This paper strives to explain this phenomenon.

The model is conceptualized and accompanied by a case study on the airline industry to explain knowledge brokerage that creates value from the effective utilization of knowledge resources acquired from intra‐ and inter‐firm environments.

The model explains a cyclical view of business model flexibility in which the knowledge‐based resource accumulation of the business model is spread across the intra‐ and inter‐firm environments. Knowledge brokerage strategies from the inter‐ and intra‐firm environments result in improved performance of the business model. The flexibility that the business model acquires is determined by how efficiently resource accumulation is aligned with its external environment.

The paper effectively integrates the concepts of knowledge brokerage and business models from a resource accumulation‐based view and simultaneously arrives at the performance heterogeneity of seemingly similar business models within the same industry. It has performance implications for firms that start out without any distinct resources of their own, or that use an imitated business model, to attain better performance through business model evolution aligned with successful knowledge brokerage strategies. It adds to the resource accumulation literature by explaining how resources can be effectively acquired to create value.

We argue for a broadened approach to brokerage by distinguishing between brokerage emphasizing a particular structural pattern in which two otherwise disconnected alters are connected through a third party (“brokerage structure”) and the social behavior of third parties (“brokerage process”). We explore a processual view of brokerage by examining three fundamental strategic orientations toward brokerage: conduit, tertius gaudens, and tertius iungens that occur in many different forms and combinations. This processual view is especially relevant in increasingly complex and dynamic environments where brokerage behavior is highly varied, intense, and purposeful, and has theoretical implications for studying multiplexity, heterogeneity, and brokerage intensity.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Technological standardization can promote the development of complex products and systems (CoPS) (e.g. large aircraft, high-speed trains). Many studies argue that a superior network position contributes to improving a firm's ability to innovate; however, few studies have considered the aforementioned line of research as falling under the purview of CoPS standardization. This study focuses on CoPS integrators, which hold the most important enterprise roles in CoPS manufacturing and innovation, to analyze whether the two types of superior positions (i.e. the central position and the brokerage position) help the integrator influence the standardization process in a process moderated by technological complexity.

Considering the outstanding market performance of the railway transportation industry in China, the abundance of cooperative activities in this industry, and data availability, we adopt integrators from this industry as samples for the empirical analysis in this study. A negative binomial regression analysis with random effects was conducted to analyze the acquired panel data.

The results show that the central position has an inverted U-shaped effect on the integrator's ability to influence standardization and that the brokerage position has a positive effect. We also find that the underlying mechanism of the two types of network positions impacts the integrator's ability to influence standardization and that it has two modes: knowledge integration in related domains and knowledge integration in nonrelated domains. Moreover, technological complexity attenuates the effect of the central position and strengthens the effect of the brokerage position on the integrator's ability to influence standardization.

This paper contributes to the theoretical research on CoPS manufacturing and innovation and complements knowledge-based theory. The results could prove enlightening for integrators facing complex technological environments, allowing them to establish a reasonable external knowledge search strategy and choose appropriate cooperation partners according to their knowledge domains.

This study aims to examine the role of returning Somali diaspora entrepreneurs on firm performance and their perceived environmental obstacles.

The paper draws on a broad literature review and covers a theoretical background to develop a research framework. It presents several propositions to be empirically tested to determine the influence of returnee entrepreneurs’ success and the challenges they face in the process.

The paper offers an overview of how Somali diaspora returnee entrepreneurs can use their resources to succeed in their business and the possible environmental uncertainties that could hinder them. The study highlights some under-researched areas and provides future research directions.

A research investigation is needed to test the proposed conceptual framework empirically. Further research is also recommended to use other predictors when investigating the perceived environmental uncertainty faced by returnee entrepreneurs.

In the diaspora entrepreneurship literature, returnee entrepreneurs in post-conflict African countries did not get enough attention. Hence, the study will contribute theoretically to the literature.

The paper provides a conceptual framework that will help understand returnee entrepreneurs in post-conflict states in Africa, paving the way for empirical studies on the topic.

Sustainable development involves companies on an individual, organizational and social level requiring the adoption of business models or innovations capable of privileging the co-creation of mutual value with a view to sustainability. From an organizational perspective, this paper aims to show that knowledge brokers, by making explicit their roles as mediators of interactions and acting on dynamic capabilities (DCs), can generate a proactive approach to the three dimensions of sustainability and specifically allows capabilities to positively impact the propensity toward sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices.

This study offers an empirical analysis of 200 companies in the agro-food sector participating in a knowledge brokerage system activated by protection consortia. It uses a multiple regression technique that allows for observing relationships between DCs and SSCM.

Absorptive, adaptive and innovative capabilities, when understood and brokered, have a positive and direct impact on the SSCM.

As there have rarely been frameworks developed that correlate knowledge brokerage, DCs and sustainability, this paper suggests that DCs, when adequately valued by the knowledge broker, allow for identifying the requirements of the various stakeholders regarding sustainability and changes in market scenarios to generate sustainability practices along the supply chain.

The purpose of the paper is to advance a framework that can analyze the impact of the egocentric alliance network on firm ambidextrous innovation holistically. On this purpose, the framework involves and integrates structural holes (SH), alliance functional diversity (AFD) and alliance partner geographical diversity (APGD) that measure network characteristics from structural, relational and nodal perspectives, respectively.

The authors collected multi-source matching panel data including alliance deals, technical patents and financial information during 2000–2017 of the 106 top high-tech firms in the computer, communications, electronics and biopharmaceutical industries and conducted a three-way interaction model to uncover the complex mechanisms from a contingency perspective.

Empirical results show that SH as structural capital is positive to both exploitative and exploratory innovation. Both AFD as relational capital and APGD as cognitive capital positively moderate the SH-exploitative innovation nexus rather than the SH-exploratory innovation nexus. APGD and AFD co-moderate the relationship between SH and firm ambidextrous innovation in the way that when APGD and AFD are both high, SH has the strongest positive impacts on firm exploitative and exploratory innovation.

This research provides new insights into the benefit-cost paradox of the structural brokerage position (SH) by uncovering relational (AFD) and nodal (APGD) network characteristics that impact the trade-off. Also, it contributes to social capital theory by differentiating three dimensions of network capital (structural, relational and cognitive capital) and integrating them into ambidextrous innovation research. Finally, the findings give firms enlightenment to configure their egocentric alliance network for innovation ambidexterity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how scale and scope of operations, firm age, and the choice to join a franchise formula influences brokerage firms' efficiency.

Four‐year data of 1,282 Dutch real estate brokerage firms is used to compute a relative efficiency measure for all firms. Consecutively, variation in this efficiency measure is explained from the firm and market characteristics.

The results show that scale and scope have a non‐linear, U‐shaped, relationship with efficiency. A reversed U‐shaped relationship is found between age and efficiency. Finally, being a member of a franchise does not necessarily lead to improved efficiency, but it depends on the franchise formula terms used.

Based on these results, managers of real estate brokerage firms are able to reconsider their own organizational design choices.

Compared to prior studies, this study uses data from multiple years. Further, the analysis also incorporates non‐linear effects of scale, scope and age on efficiency. Finally, prior research has only compared efficiency of franchise versus independent firms. This study shows that benefits of a franchise depend on the contract terms.

Health care ecosystems instantiate different innovation trajectories, driven either by science-/techno-push or user-centric rationales. This article focuses on organization intermediaries (OIs), respectively, active in health care ecosystems driven by science- and techno-push versus user-centric innovation processes; it aims at characterizing their operation and intervention modes. The analysis elaborates on network and content brokerage. Innovation also needs to consider various challenges associated with physical vicinity. The authors check whether territorial anchoring plays a role in brokerage, depending on the innovation model.

The article offers an investigation of eight French organizations matching the definition of OIs and active in different areas of health care-related innovation. It follows a qualitative and abductive research protocol adhering to the precepts of grounded theory.

First, the authors show that content and network brokerage specialize in specific activities in each innovation model. On network brokerage, the authors show that OIs foster the development of communities of practice in the science-/techno-push model, while they nurture communities of innovation in the user-centric model. Services materializing content brokerage are typical consequences of activities performed in each model. The second contribution deals with physical vicinity. In the science-/techno-push model, OIs install a physical space (the “internal” dimension) to support the development of communities of practice, while the “external” dimension copes with agglomeration effects. In the user-centric model, OIs deliver services thanks to the “internal” space; communities of innovation create a leverage effect on the physical space to operate their activities that are supported by “external” network effects.

The originality of the article lies in the description of the alternative roles plaid by organization intermediaries in the science-/techno-push versus user-centric approaches of innovation. In these two approaches, (contents and network) brokerage and physical vicinity play different roles.

The purpose of this paper is to seek to develop a theoretical framework for understanding the structure of effective knowledge sharing networks in professional organizations.

A literature review is performed to achieve the purpose. This article integrates two streams of literature: related to knowledge network structure and related to professional complex systems, to gain insight into the structure of effective knowledge sharing networks in professional complex systems. This preliminary theoretical framework is then used to put forth strategies for knowledge management and collective learning in professional organizations.

An analysis of knowledge networks and complex systems literatures suggests that effective knowledge sharing networks in complex systems may be richer in density compared to brokerage. However, integrating this analysis with the literature on professional organizations, including “subgoals” theory, suggests that the reverse may be true in professional complex systems, i.e. that effective knowledge sharing networks in professional complex systems may be richer in brokerage and hierarchy, rather than in density.

The paper provides a foundation for future research avenues in the professional organizational context. For instance the framework could be used to explore effective knowledge sharing structures across professional subgroups and hierarchical levels in a hospital context; and across faculty, staff, and administrators in a college/university context.

A key implication is that, in order to enable collective learning in professional organizations, senior executives must make proactive and unceasing efforts to: coordinate knowledge exchange across professional subgroups; create cognitive linkages between subgroup actions and organizational outcomes; and connect professional subgroups with the changing external environment.

The theoretical framework lays a foundation for addressing the gap in the literature related to knowledge creation and collective learning in professional organizations.