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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how accountability is expressed in contractual arrangements found in network governance structures that provide public transport services and to raise discussion of how to understand contracting accountability in network governance contexts.

The paper is rooted in two research traditions: contracting studies and studies of accountability in government/governance contexts. Content analysis is used in examining contracts from two cases. These contracts are of five types: contracts between public organizations, contracts within a public organization, contracts between public organizations and private firms, and contracts between political parties within a municipality and contracts within a network. Various contracting approaches are identified within these types.

The paper concludes that the contracts' functions differ between the cases. The first case did not have an overall contract that defined the network, relying on different two-party contracts instead. In the other case, an incentive-based contract was used to link the organizations. From an accountability perspective, the latter contracting structure clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the actors and increases the possibility of accountability to citizens.

The paper brings new insights to the field of contracting and accountability by focusing on the role of contracts in network governance structures, taking account of various accountability relationships. It also contributes new theoretical categories usable when analysing contracting accountability in a network context.

The purpose of this paper is to study how networks may influence the awarding of a contract. In particular, the authors explore strategic networks originating from cooperative relationships.

Based on notices of contracts awarded in the French public sector, the authors identified 10,377 partnership relations within 4,242 strategic alliances. The authors represented the system of relations in a graph. The authors used the networks depicted to measure a set of relational properties and build a structural equation model (partial least squared-path modeling).

The results highlight two important elements. First, the authors reveal the impact of the strength of weak and strong ties on contract awarding. Second, the authors show that the strength of weak ties is magnified by lead partners.

The findings provide insight into strategic behavior that can influence awarding contract. The authors also provide public principals with new means to improve their partner relations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of “formalization” in business networks as an instrument of industrial policy. Formalization in business networks is not a debated topic but it can affect organizational and inter-organizational dynamics considerably. The aim of the paper is to understand if the introduction of a normative tool that enhances formalized networks can be effective to promote network aggregations among SMEs. Second, the aim is to understand if this formalization supports good-working networks, i.e., capable to introduce new products or to enter new markets/customers.

The paper refers to a review of the literature and mainly to an empirical research on formalized network contracts (NCs) that have been conducted in the latest two years. This research has used both secondary data, collected accessing to databases and reports given by institutions and the government, and primary data, collected in specific direct interviews. These interviews have been concerned both institutions such as Chamber of Commerce, Confindustria and the Ministry of Economic Development and the Small Business Association, and 15 cases of NCs in Italy.

The formalization has consequences both internally and externally to the NC. Internally it can act as an element to reduce ambiguity and building elements of “fragile trust,” in the absence of basic elements of “resilient trust” and in the presence of changes in the competitive environment. Externally, the formalization through the NC allows the policy maker to identify more clearly companies’ aggregations in order to let them being destination of specific industrial policies. However even if the formalization has in some cases enhanced new networks’ creation, in many cases formalization has generated positive results when companies had already experienced networking outside the frame of the NC.

Further research on formalization in networks should be developed following the “history” of formalized networks over time in order to understand how much formalization should be used as a long-term tool for industrial policy.

The paper can be useful both for companies that want to sign a NC and for the institutions developing industrial policies devoted to support companies’ aggregations in the form of NC.

The paper presents a new legal tool – the “NC” – introduced in 2009 by the Italian Government to enhance firms’ aggregation; second, the paper debates the topic of formalization in networks that is not much debated in literature; and finally, the paper also adopts an industrial economic approach and is among the few attempts to integrate industrial policies and industrial marketing and purchasing thinking.

Based on social network theory and the literature of contract governance, the purpose of this study is to explore how distributors’ “banding together” (network intensity) affects contract governance (detailed contracts), which, in turn, influences channel conflict and simultaneously tests the moderating effect of network centrality.

The authors collect the data from the side of 288 manufacturers.

This study finds that, first, distributors’ network intensity positively affects detailed contracts between manufacturers and distributors; second, detailed contracts, in turn, declines channel conflict; and third, network centrality will weaken the positive influence of network density on detailed contracts. In addition, an ex post analysis finds that detailed contracts play a negative mediating role between distributors’ network density and channel conflict and this negative mediating effect would be weakened by distributors’ network centrality.

The current study not only helps to make up for the shortcomings of using the dyadic analysis paradigm to analyze channel behavior but also helps manufacturers to understand and respond to the phenomenon of distributors’ “banding together” comprehensively and deeply.

This paper aims to understand the motivations driving cooperative behaviour between heterogeneous stakeholders in place-branding activities, focusing on contract-based and relation-based cooperation constructs.

The longitudinal case study method is used to help understanding how the investigated network has evolved over four years from an attempt to build a regional umbrella-brand to a network contract between 13 enterprises.

The findings suggest that the relationships of trust and shared values among stakeholders are essential to foster cooperation, but also that contract-based governance complements a relation-based governance, enhancing the performance of the alliance.

The main limitation is related to the case study methodology, as results are strongly dependent on the specific characteristics of the stakeholders and the geographical area analysed.

The role of stakeholders in building a place brand is increasingly important. When analysing cooperative behaviour drivers, more attention should be paid to such intangible assets as social, human, relational and organisational capital.

This longitudinal case study emphasises that for success in place-branding activities, contract-based cooperation can be particularly useful at the beginning of a network alliance, while relation-based cooperation ensures the strength and continuity of the partnership but it takes time to develop. Responsible leaders, working as relationship facilitators/enablers, are important to keep network members engaged, by creating trust and favouring mutual beneficial relationships between stakeholders.

This paper aims to clarify how organizations manage their participation in networks to share and jointly create knowledge but also risk unwanted knowledge spillovers at the same time. As formal governance, trust and observation are less applicable in informal networks, the authors need to understand how members address the need to protect knowledge by informal practices. The study aims to investigate how the application of knowledge protection practices affects knowledge sharing in networks. The insights are relevant for organizational and network management to control knowledge risks but harvest the benefits of network engagement.

The authors opted for an exploratory study based on 60 semi-structured interviews with members of 10 networks. In two rounds, network managers, representatives and members of the networks were interviewed. The second round of interviews was used to validate the intermediate findings. The data were complemented by documentary analysis, including network descriptions.

Through analyzing and building on the theory of psychological contracts, two informal practices of knowledge protection were found in networks of organizations: exclude crucial topics and share on selected topics and exclude details and share a selected level of detail. The authors explored how these two practices are enacted in networks of organizations with psychological contracts.

Counter to intuition that the protection of knowledge can be strengthened only at the expense of knowledge sharing and vice versa, networks benefitted from more focused and increased knowledge sharing while reducing the risk of losing competitive knowledge by performing these knowledge protection practices.

This paper reports a national study which investigated the involvement of infection control professionals in (and their views about) the formal processes of contracting for health care in the NHS internal market. Health care professionals needed to be involved contracting, if it was to be effective. The study found that many infection control professionals were not, in fact, involved in contracting, while the importance of both contracts and informal professional networks were recognised. But respondents did not think that their professional networks entirely compensated for their lack of involvement in contracting. As formal agreements continue to be central to achieving quality of care in the post‐internal market NHS, infection control professionals need to be involved in specification and implementation of these arrangements.

In recent years, some peer-to-peer (P2P) service sharing platforms have improved their service quality by setting an entry quality threshold for service providers. Considering consumers' heterogeneous preferences for service quality and commission rate, it is worth studying how to select the commission rate contract for a P2P platform under a predetermined entry quality threshold for service providers.

In this study, the platform's profit-maximizing model is constructed under two proposed contracts: unilateral commission rate contract and bilateral commission rate contract. The optimal entry quality threshold and the optimal commission rate are obtained. This study also explores the impacts of cross-side network externality and service price on a platform's optimal decisions and social welfare.

Results show that it is always advantageous for the platform to adopt the bilateral commission rate contract, which is closely related to the strength of cross-side network externality, service price and quality sensitivity coefficient. Under certain conditions, adopting the unilateral commission rate contract can reduce platform profit and service provider surplus, and improve consumer surplus and social welfare.

This study analyzes the unilateral commission rate contract and the bilateral commission rate contract of the platform, and discusses which contract is beneficial to the platform, consumers and service providers. In addition, this study provides a basis for the operation decision of a P2P service sharing platform and the pricing decision of service providers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the buyer–supplier exchange dynamic in terms of the influence of product and market contingencies on the interfirm connectivity, governance and exchange performance of interconnected dyads in multitier supply chains (MSCs).

Using an inductive approach, the authors analyzed the supply network of a high-end motorcycle manufacturer (OEM). Four sets of “interconnected dyads” constituting four embedded units of analysis were considered, each involving the OEM, its tier 1 and corresponding tier 2 suppliers. These interconnected dyads representing four strategic components and their sub-components offer contrasts in terms of product and market contingencies.

This analysis reveals that product and market contingencies influence patterns of dependence among firms. These in turn impact interfirm connectivity (i.e. structural characteristic), and the degree of contract formalization, collaboration and concentration of decision-making power (i.e. governance characteristics) in the interconnected dyads. The authors also found that structural and governance aspects can have mutual influence, leading to satisfactory or unsatisfactory outcomes. Propositions synthesizing the relationships among the constructs are developed.

The constructs and their underlying relationships need to be further refined if we are to devise hypotheses and validate them at a large-scale empirical level.

This is one of the first studies to explore the influence of business contingencies on the complex buyer–supplier exchange dynamic in MSCs having a “beyond the dyad” perspective. The authors address why and how various types of interconnectivity are developed, and how the interplay among interfirm dependence, connectivity and governance influences the suppliers’ performance in the MSCs.

This paper addresses a gap in research literature in the fields of blockchain technology (BC), supply chain network dynamics (SC) and network effect phenomena (NE). Extant BC and SC literature describes the potential benefits to be reaped through the adoption of BC technology. While BC technology does not yet meet the researched expectations of adoption, performance and efficacy, the authors analyze the three inter-related fields (BC, SC and NE) to bridge this gap in theory.

This paper begins with a research review correlating the technological fundamentals of BC technology into fundamental value propositions for SC logistics contexts. The authors review the gap between these theoretical technological functions and the current ecosystem of BC applications. With an overarching understanding of BC in SC contexts, this paper then explores the phenomena of NE and attempts to synthesize various interrelated aspects of the three fields (BC, SC and NE). Research frameworks from extant literature are used for cross-comparing legacy software/information system solutions with potential and existing BC-based solutions. Case studies are utilized to support this analysis.

Several key considerations and themes are identified to better inform practitioner and researcher decision-making. Novel insights pertain to BC platform architecture and application modularity, integrated governance and decision-making capabilities, and the automation capabilities that arise from a healthy application and smart contract ecosystem.

The core contribution is the synthesis of network effect theory with SC phenomena and BC theory and the exploration of how these three fields are inter-related in the maturation of BC technology. Specifically, the authors deepen insights from extant literature by contextualizing findings with relevant interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks.