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Drawing from social capital theory and resource dependence theory, this paper aims to test the relationship between top management team (TMT) government social capital and firm’s innovation performance via firm’s network prestige, and the moderating effect of TMT academic social capital.

The authors collected data from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research Database as well as A-share listed firms’ annual reports, and finally generated a sample of 922 firms and 2,464 firm-years from 2008 to 2014. UCINET 6.0 was used to analyze the data.

The authors find that the government social capital of TMT is positively related to firms’ innovation performance and firms’ network prestige plays a mediating role in this relationship. In addition, TMT academic social capital can strengthen the links between TMT government social capital and innovation performance through firms’ network prestige.

This paper not only contributes to literatures on the mechanism in the relationship between government social capital and firms’ innovation, but also to literatures on the effectiveness of the heterogeneity of firm’s social capital.

This study sought to examine the differential effect of brand quality and brand prestige on brand purchase intentions of mobile phones by students in Ghana. The study also examined the moderating role of network effect, system quality and self-efficacy on the relationship between brand quality and prestige on purchase intentions.

A quantitative research approach was adopted with data collection executed through the application of a questionnaire that was self-administered. A total of 518 completed questionnaires received from the respondents were used for the analysis. Statistical analysis was pursued using a sequential analytical procedure concentrating on purchasing intentions or actual purchases with respect to the choice of mobile phone brands.

The findings indicate that the network externality, system quality and self-efficacy can stimulate the choice of mobile phone brands. The moderating effect of network externality, self-efficacy and system quality were found to be mixed.

Mobile phone companies should skew their investments toward improving the quality of the brand whiles developing effective marketing and differentiation strategies to enhance the brand image and create prestigious brands.

This paper provides researchers with a contemporary perspective toward understanding the key factors that guide students to have informed purchase intentions and enable mobile phone companies to evaluate their strategies

Purpose – This chapter examines the expectation that because the developmental trajectories of cultural frontiers are often seen as being tied to that of their more complexly developed neighbors, increases in interregional interaction provide frontier communities with previously unavailable political-economic opportunities that promote social change.

Design/methodology/approach – This expectation is examined using data from archaeological excavations at the site of El Dornajo in southwestern Ecuador. Models based on external conditions like interregional interaction are considered alongside those based on internal conditions like environmental perturbations.

Findings – The results suggest that increased interregional interaction promoted the emergence of a regional prestige economy that symbolically legitimated (and perhaps made possible) the co-option of traditional risk buffering strategies during a time when the availability of subsistence resources had changed due to local conditions.

Practical implications – This chapter supports the notion that the emergence of institutionalized inequality requires control over both internal and external relationships. Furthermore, it suggests that examining models based on both internal and external conditions of change may help to explain the timing and pace of that change.

Originality/value – Much of the archaeological literature is dichotomized between models based on internal conditions and those based on external conditions. Few archaeologists would take exception to the notion that both conditions matter, but equally few archaeologists are looking at both kinds of conditions in the same case study.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a research framework by drawing on the network externalities research and previous literature on information systems to understand the antecedents of information disclosure. The framework postulates that the following network externalities are important factors affecting social network sites (SNS) perceived usefulness (PU): perceived external prestige, referent network size and perceived complementarity. In addition, the paper proposes that PU, habit and subjective norms significantly affect information disclosure of SNS among Chinese users.

Data are collected from 251 Chinese university students who use SNS. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses presented in the model.

The findings provide support for all the hypotheses, with the exception of the influence of referent network size on PU and the influence of subjective norms on information disclosure. Both perceived external prestige and perceived complementarity have reported positive effect on PU of SNS. In turn, the authors have found that PU and habit have positive effects on information disclosure.

SNS encourage users to reveal personal information by allowing them to post photos and videos and share their interests and feelings on the site. Yet, limited empirical research has investigated the concept of self-disclosure of personal information particularly among Chinese users of SNS. To fill this research gap, the authors have developed a research framework by drawing on the network externalities research and previous literature on information systems to understand the antecedents of information disclosure.

This chapter investigates the “pulsations” of regional interaction networks (world-systems) in Afroeurasia over the past 3,000 years. The purpose is to determine the causes of a fascinating synchrony that emerged between East Asia and the distant West Asian/Mediterranean region, but did not involve the intermediate South Asian region. The hypothesized causes of this synchrony are climate change, epidemics, trade cycles, and the incursions of Central Asian steppe nomads. This chapter formulates a strategy of data gathering, system modeling, and hypothesis testing that can allow us to discover which of these causes were the most important in producing synchrony as the Afroeurasian world-system came into being.

This paper aims to explore the way that the intellectual structure of the SCM discipline has been shaped over the last 20 years. The discipline is represented by the papers that are published in a network of ten leading academic journals in the field. As the SCM literature has grown, the analysis of the way that the characteristics of this network of journals have changed over time enables the identification of salient challenges facing SCM theory and practice for the new decade.

A combination of social network and citation analyses among the selected journals is applied. Citations between and within journals are collected and analysed using social network analysis metrics, that assess the communication patterns between and among the journals, the cohesion of the network and the role that each of the journals has performed (and is acquiring) in the dissemination of knowledge.

The analysis reveals that the current structure of the network of journals is characterised by an evident shift of focus of operations management journals towards more SCM phenomena, the cohesion of the discipline has improved but is still fragmented due to a lack of reciprocal co‐citations among the journals, and the emergence of three distinctive clusters in the network.

The study reflects the growth of supply chain management, by studying an eclectic number of academic journals over the past 20 years, but can be extended beyond this period and it can include more academic and practitioner journals to examine its extended problem domain.

The study confirms the inter‐disciplinary nature of supply chain phenomena and the opportunity for research in SCM to acquire a central role in the study of inter‐organisational systems.

Bibliographic studies have been conducted in the past in several (more established) disciplines. The study of where knowledge is communicated with co‐citations among papers and journals provides concrete evidence of the changing characteristics of an academic discipline. The SCM discipline is maturing as an academic discipline and the analysis of its intellectual structure can assist in establishing its legitimacy and future expansion.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the preferences of Malaysian banks' customers for Islamic banking attributes.

The paper uses mixed methodology. The quantitative approach consists of the collection of primary data through a self‐administered questionnaire distributed to 500 Islamic banks' customers in Malaysia. The data gathered were analysed using factor analysis as well as Friedman test. In parallel, qualitative approach was used, in forms of semi structured interviews with ten Islamic banks' customers. The results of both approaches were then reported accordingly.

The quantitative approach reveals that the preference for Islamic banking attributes in Malaysia is a combination of the quality of services offered by the Islamic banks, as well as the convenience associated with it. On the other hand, the qualitative approach revealed that choosing Islamic banks was mainly due to the religious motivation of the customers.

This paper is one of the few that has used a qualitative approach to study consumer preferences for Islamic banking attributes. Furthermore, the paper employs this methodology in the context of Malaysia, which enriches the studies done in this context and area.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sets of relationships, both physical and virtual, on which school technology coordinators (STCs) rely in exchanging problem‐solving knowledge. Using prestige as an indicator of knowledge exchange across school boundaries, a model of relational variables was constructed from social networks to explain the characteristics of personal knowledge exchange in STC communities.

The analytical model designed for this research was based on social network theory. Egocentric interviews were conducted to collect relational data on knowledge exchange among STCs. Path analysis was applied to examine associations among relational variables.

Prestigious STCs engage more in contributing knowledge to online communities of related competency than to STCs at other schools. They do not expend as much effort helping other STCs and only reciprocate within a smaller group from whom they have received advice. Online knowledge contributions have mediation effects for STCs with limited personal networks in becoming prestigious.

Few studies have evaluated the sets of relationships on which teachers rely, to solve problems, and few empirical studies have focused on the features of personal knowledge exchange in a loosely coupled community of practice. This study uses prestige rather than job evaluations as an indicator for knowledge‐intensive workers to examine the knowledge‐exchange characteristics and demonstrate applicability to studies of communities of practice. The results also reveal deficiencies of knowledge dissemination in STC communities. These findings are relevant for studies of the information and communication technology practices of other professionals.

In large organizations, space planning relies on workgroup leaders to indicate spatial adjacency preferences. However, many factors affect workgroups’ adjacency preferences, and it is not clear how the choices are made. This paper aims to explore whether the adjacency preferences are influenced by the collaboration relationship or constrained by the organizational structure.

The authors studied a large company’s spatial adjacency planning with an in-depth analysis of its formal organizational structure and collaboration network. A sample of 183 managers was surveyed regarding groups with whom they want to be spatially adjacent and groups with whom they mostly interact. The data enabled us to test three structural factors related to adjacency preference: department affiliation, workgroup’s prestige and collaboration relation. The authors used the quadratic assignment procedure analysis to examine the correlations between network matrices.

The results suggest that department affiliation and collaboration relations are significantly correlated to adjacency preferences. The authors did not find evidence supporting the notion that a workgroup’s prestige affects the preference. Among the three factors, collaboration relation best predicts the preference, which echoes Pena et al.’s (1977) argument that space planners should look into how groups function, rather than merely following the organizational chart.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research was the first to explore the choice of spatially adjacent workgroup through a detailed network analysis of the formal structure, work collaboration relations and other group-level characteristics. The findings have noteworthy cross-disciplinary implications, given that spatial proximity can be taken as a human resource management strategy to facilitate the overall interactions between workgroups.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of social networks with being in work, contrasting those under age 50 with those over 50 years.

A case study is undertaken of a local labour market in Scotland. Data were collected by interview using a semi‐structured questionnaire from 194 people divided into four groups. Data include information on individuals' socio‐economic characteristics and on their networks. A four‐way comparison is made by age and employment status.

Those in work have denser social networks populated with members with higher social and human capital. For those over 50 years, the more contacts one has with higher prestige employment positions (a proxy for social capital), and the stronger the ties with these contacts, the more likely that one is to be in employment. For those under 50 years, their own qualifications and the number of contacts are important.

This work adds to both research on employability and social networks.

The over 50s tend to be the age group that is most likely to be not in employment and as populations age there is a need to ensure that barriers to employment against those over 50 are reduced. Finding routes to reduce unemployment will also help combat social exclusion.

This is in the combination of a social network approach with age cohort analysis to give insight into how social capital is associated with being in employment.