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Much has been written on the effect of fast-moving business environments on organizational and supply chain (SC) management. Yet, empirical findings on the effect of changing external and internal contingencies on today’s globalized agrifood SC networks and performance are still fragmented into different organizational instruments, with some conflicting results remaining unexplained. This study aims to address these deficiencies by providing a comprehensive research framework to investigate how SC external and internal contingencies jointly influence organizational SC network structures and agrifood performance across mutually dependent tiers.

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the so-called “contingency–netchain–performance” framework, based on contingent resource-based theory and the netchain approach, was empirically tested on data obtained from a standardized survey of 405 artisanal producers and 238 processors in the Nigerian shrimp sector.

The results provide statistical evidence that supports the path dependency of firm performance from the interplay of vertical, horizontal and lateral relationships and, primordially, from both external and internal contingencies. The findings show that the contingency paradigm of fit among small-scale food producers and processors cuts across tiers and uncover a tendency to adopt relational governance and tighter network structures that result in an organic organization as the best-fitting structure.

The paper presents a new research framework that offers comprehensive empirical explanations for the joint influence of SC external and internal contingencies on organizational SC network structures and performance across mutually dependent agrifood tiers. This study’s conceptual, practical and policy implications for SC management provide a nascent and flexible basis on which to identify the best-fitting organizational strategies that maximize firm performance across agrifood SC tiers characterized by changing business environments.

Although extant research has provided vast knowledge on the determinants of new product development (NPD) success, prior work is generally bounded to the framework of developed economies. Thus, research dealing with NPD, specifically in the emerging-market context, is still in its infancy. The purpose of this paper is to advance our current understanding on the determinants of NPD performance of emerging-market multinationals (EMMs) by exploring how international knowledge exploration plays a part in the international NPD performance of these firms. Furthermore, it examines how such contribution is contingent on EMMs’ international networking effectiveness and environmental dynamism that draws on the “fit” concept.

To empirically test the theoretical model, the authors draw on a sample of 179 high-technology firms from China, which is the world’s largest emerging market.

Results strongly support the hypothesis that international knowledge exploration positively affects international NPD performance. The analyses of moderating effects indicate that EMMs that are more effective in networking with global network partners and experience a low level of environmental dynamism are likely to achieve better financial performance in NPD.

This study advances our understanding on how and under what conditions EMMs can overcome their knowledge-disadvantaged position and achieve NPD success in global markets by highlighting the important role of international knowledge exploration and possible contingencies. Thus, it contributes to the literature on EMM and innovation.

This study aims to investigate how corporate lobbying affects the relationship between collaboration networks and innovation.

The study incorporates insights from the corporate political strategy perspective into the social network research to examine how firms utilize non‐market mechanisms as a way to manage uncertainty. In particular, using data from 291 US pharmaceutical firms, the authors study the moderating effects of corporate lobbying on the relationship between collaboration networks and firm innovativeness.

The results show that corporate lobbying moderates the relationship between network centrality, structural holes, and network size, and firm innovativeness.

The study integrates social network and corporate political strategy research in the case of collaboration networks. Integrating social network and corporate political strategy literatures provides us with new insights into what determines success of firm innovativeness. The study shows that in addition to network structures, firms must consider other variables such as government regulation in fostering their innovativeness.

The impact of network centrality on innovation performance is inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to examine how formal and informal institutions affect the influence of network centrality on firms’ innovation performance in emerging economies by integrating social network theory and institutional theory.

Multisource and lagged data from 234 technology-based entrepreneurial firms listed on the Chinese Growth Enterprise Market were leveraged to test a proposed research model.

Results suggest that formal institutions (marketization) positively moderate the relationship between network centrality and innovation performance, whereas informal institutions (social cohesion) negatively moderate this relationship. Moreover, formal and informal institutions have a strong joint impact on such relationship, that is, the effect of network centrality on innovation performance is most positive when marketization is high and social cohesion is low.

This empirical research provides new insights into whether and how firms can grasp the innovation benefits of network centrality by exploring institutional contingencies. It further sheds on light the scope of the network centrality–innovation issue by extending its research context to Chinese entrepreneurial firms.

Although the literature addressing entrepreneurial networking is reaching a fairly high degree of sophistication and scope, there are certain critical areas where important questions remain unanswered. Specifically, research into the processes of entrepreneurial networking has been hindered by a paucity of longitudinal studies. Thus, the consideration of change over time is de facto limited. Moreover, accounts of how individuals actually use networks to learn about entrepreneurship, its practices and processes remain sparse. Yet, we know that learning is a social process, so the research gap lies in relating networks, as social contexts to the entrepreneurial learning process. Furthermore, since social relations are fundamental to everyone's life, and emerge, develop and change throughout their life course, people are embedded in social situations that put them in touch with others (Kim & Aldrich, 2005). Consequently, learning is often “located in the relations among actors” (Uzzi & Lancaster, 2003, p. 398). As well as direct learning through network contacts, network transitivity also facilitates learning by one embedded network member, through the knowledge held by a second member, about a third, as shown in Uzzi and Gillespie's (2002) study. Accordingly, in many ways how entrepreneurs go about using their networks and with whom they network may be critical for entrepreneurship and thus warrants investigation. It is to this end that we now consider the shape, content and process of entrepreneurial networking.

In line with the slogan “Africa rising”, the paper responds to the calls to shed light on the management knowledge of Africa, especially on the internationalisation of process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Africa. This paper aims to explore the critical incidents that trigger the export initiation of SMEs from the garment and textile sub-sector of Ghana.

The study is based on the qualitative multi-case study research approach, coupled with the critical incident method and uses 36 case firms from the garment and textile sub-sector of Ghana.

From the interview transcripts, it was found that being in the receipt of unsolicited order, wining government award and having international orientation are among the critical incidents that catapult SMEs in the garment and textile sub-sector of Ghana to initiate export business.

The study is based on the interpretivist qualitative method; therefore, future studies could extend the results by improving the sample size and use statistical methods.

Based on the findings, it is recommended that what is needed to improve export participation of SMEs from Ghana is entrepreneurial orientation. Implicitly, public policy must promote entrepreneurship education, i.e whether the government expects to see improvement in export involvement of SMEs from Ghana. Such initiatives will catapult most entrepreneurs from their comfort zones to take advantage of the various critical incidents in the external business environment and become exporters.

The contribution of the paper is that unlike previous studies that use objective quantitative measures to examine the issue from other settings, the present paper uses the critical incident method which is proven to delve deeper into the phenomenon. Another contribution is that it sheds light on the internationalisation process of manufacturing SMEs from an under-researched and a new geographical context.

The paper describes exploratory research into the nature of the International/Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) conference papers with particular focus on content. A qualitative analysis of the Proceedings of the 16th Annual IMP Conference is presented. The results provide insights into the diversity of academic thought that fuels the development of the IMP network and allows us to begin charting the development of knowledge structures within past IMP conferences. Of particular interest are, first, the tentative knowledge structure that emerges, second, the depth of analysis that emerges from using multidimensional coding, and third, the utility of the process of successive categorisation.

The purpose of this paper is to use a multi-disciplinary theoretical understanding of boundary setting to develop a quadripartite model in which sustainability reporting boundaries are classified as “Reputation Management”, “Ownership and Control”, “Accountability”; and, “Stakeholder Engagement”. Content analysis is then used to empirically test the model.

Using impression management theory, rationalism, systems and contingency theory, and network theory, a model is created which classifies sustainability reporting boundaries. Content analysis is used to empirically test boundaries across the disclosure of 49 GRI topics by the FTSE100.

Sustainability reporting fails to discharge accountability due to adoption of narrow “Reputation Management” boundaries. Boundaries are significantly (p<0.0001) narrower than previous research suggests. Findings support impression management theory as the strongest theory to predict reporting content. An ownership and control boundary, although widely criticized, represents the boundary of progressive reporters, lending marginal support for economic theories. Accountability boundaries are scarce. No evidence was found for stakeholder engagement boundaries.

The determination of boundary is critical to the discharge of accountability. A critical consideration of boundary setting is required, including authentic stakeholder engagement in determining boundaries and transparency of boundary adopted. The results are ranked to enable benchmarking of the FTSE100. Boundaries can be widened through regulation or “name and shame campaigns”.

This paper provides a theory-informed advancement in thinking on sustainability reporting boundary setting and the importance of this for advancing sustainability reporting quality.

This chapter reviews the recent polarisation of debates in agrofood and rural studies, in particular the opposition between network (social relations, actor-network) and political economy analyses. It explores the contributions of different network approaches and draws on the French convention and regulation traditions, which provide alternative guidelines for confronting micro–macro tensions. Networks have similarly assumed analytical centrality in the new institutional economics and subsequent elaborations of the Williamsonian transaction costs paradigm have involved an approximation to some of the central tenets of social network analysis. Alternative traditions of political economy analysis (Global Value Chains (GVC), Global Production Networks) are now making an important contribution to agrofood studies. A distinctive feature of these analysts is their overture to social networks, actor-network, transaction costs and convention theory in the effort to capture the multiple dimensions of economic power and coordination. The possibilities for a fruitful convergence between these apparently conflicting approaches are best captured in the emergence of the concept of the “netchain”. At the same time, the intractability of values to absorption within economic transactions suggests the need to move forward to a focus on the tensions between netchains and social movements and a different type of network, the global policy network.

The development of collaborative network structures is an increasingly significant issue in the services industry. These interorganizational relationships are formed to gain flexibility, obtain needed skills and resources, and achieve operating efficiencies. Evaluates processes of network formation and compares them with the emerging relationship marketing paradigm, in the search for greater insight into an important but little understood phenomenon. Proposes a novel network classification scheme that identifies hollow, flexible, value‐added and virtual networks, leading to discussion of the need to extend the knowledge base concerning networks and the significance of the relationship marketing model to achieving research and managerial goals in this area.