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The study investigates the perceived network effectiveness of the Florida Benchmarking Consortium (FBC). It also examines the impact of network coordination, longevity of membership and environmental support on perceived network effectiveness.

It uses a cross-sectional, nonexperimental research design and an ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression that employed data from an online survey administered to local government employees from FBC member governments.

The results show that the FBC moderately meets the expectation of network participants to serve as a platform for exchanging experiences and increasing performance knowledge. However, the network's effectiveness is not dependent on the frequency of interactions among network members, but depends on their interactions with focal egos such as the FBC Executive Director. Contrary to expectations, the longevity of involvement with the network is not associated with perceived network effectiveness. Moreover, network members who perceive the environment as supportive are more likely to positively evaluate the network's effectiveness.

Because perceived network effectiveness may be improved if the members interact with the right “focal” players, managers should proactively pursue closer connections with knowledgeable network members using additional and more frequent communication. Also, research efforts at identifying the characteristics of the right focal players that contribute to network effectiveness should be pursued.

While there is extensive attention to the participation of public organizations in networks, less research focuses on network effectiveness examined at the network level. This study addresses this research gap by investigating if the FBC is effective in meeting its network goals.

This study sought to identify the organizational factors associated with team and network effectiveness of the Athena Breast Health Network, a multi-site collaboration between five University of California health systems.

Providers, managers, and support staff completed self-administered surveys over three years. Statistical analyses at the network and medical center levels tested hypotheses regarding the correlates of effective teams and perceived network effectiveness over time.

Perceived team effectiveness was positively correlated with group culture and environments which support collaboration, negatively correlated with hierarchical culture, and negatively associated with professional tenure at year two. As measured by increasing team effectiveness scores over time and Athena’s potential impact on patient care, perceived network effectiveness was positively associated with team effectiveness.

Results do not allow us to conclude that a certain type of culture “causes” team effectiveness or that team effectiveness “causes” greater perceptions of progress over time. Subsequent studies should examine these variables simultaneously. Further research is needed to examine the role of payment incentives, internal reward systems, the use of electronic health records, public disclosure of performance data, and depth of leadership within each organization and within the network overall.

Focusing on group affiliation and participation may improve team member perceptions regarding effectiveness and impact on patient care.

Relatively little is known about the adaptive processes that occur within inter-organizational networks to achieve desired goals, and particularly the roles played by multi-disciplinary inter-professional teams. We studied a network comprising multiple campuses actively involved in better understanding, preventing, and treating a complex disease.

The focus in this paper is on the extent to which bonding and bridging social relationships predict the performance effectiveness and attitudinal (identity) outcomes.

The research was survey-based, involving 76 work teams and a total of 499 employees in 48 organisations.

The analysis reveals a positive relationship between both bonding and bridging relationships and performance effectiveness and attitudinal outcomes. Team identity mediates the relationship between the team ' s social-network structure and its performance effectiveness.

The research investigates the performance effectiveness and attitudinal outcomes of social networks simultaneously, which is rare, but for study-design reasons fails to investigate behavioural outcomes. More extensive data would reveal more about the possible interaction between bridging and bonding.

In order to improve performance effectiveness managerial attention should focus on building a team and social networks.

The research shows that team identity fully mediates the influence of bonding and bridging social relationships. This finding sheds light on the processes that mediate performance effectiveness, which in turn facilitate understanding of how team dynamics lead to differing performance levels. The results also reveal how the type of social network affects the creation of a team identity: individuals identify with the team through the social networks to which they belong both within it and outside. Thus, team identity matters given the evidence suggesting that those who identify more with their work teams perform more effectively.

This paper sets out to test the mediating role of internal network density and external network range in the relationship between educational diversity (i.e. separation and variety) and group effectiveness.

The authors surveyed 267 employees in 54 organizational groups.

The study's results show that educational separation has a U‐shaped relationship with the advice network density. Moreover, educational variety moderates the relation of educational separation with external network range in such a way that for groups with high educational variety, the relationship between educational separation and external network range is U‐shaped, while for groups with low educational variety the relationship has an inverted U shape. The results also show that internal network density and external network range mediate the relationship between educational diversity and group effectiveness.

The paper extends the literature on group diversity by simultaneously exploring two forms of educational diversity (separation and variety) as they relate to group network density and external network range. The study is cross‐sectional, restricting causal inferences and future research should further explore the way in which the alignment of educational variety and separation relates to social network structure and group effectiveness.

Understanding the association between educational diversity and group social network structure and the way they relate to group effectiveness enables managers to improve group effectiveness.

The paper is one of the first to explore the curvilinear association between educational diversity and social network structure.

By exploring the relation between diversity and social network structures, these results increase understanding of how to address diversity issues at the societal level.

Physiotherapists throughout the UK have a professional obligation to keep up to date and practice effectively. The Scottish Physiotherapists Clinical Effectiveness Network (SPCEN) was established in 1999 with the aim of providing a mechanism through which physiotherapists could share and learn from experiences, avoid duplication of effort and undertake proactive activities. The purpose of this paper is to report on the experience of the SPCEN and provide an evaluation of the impact the network has made on the clinical effectiveness activities of physiotherapists throughout Scotland.

A questionnaire survey was distributed to 2,118 physiotherapists across Scotland (response rate of 54.5 per cent). It aimed to determine the level of clinical effectiveness activity, the confidence of physiotherapists in engaging in these activities and the extent of involvement with clinical guideline implementation.

Results were analysed in two groups. Group 1 consisted of those that reported that they did participate in network activities (40 per cent n=330) and Group 2, those who did not (60 per cent n=686). Participants were significantly more engaged in undertaking a range of clinical effectiveness activities than non‐participants (p<0.0001), had greater confidence in their own ability to engage and were involved in the implementation of clinical guidelines to a greater extent (p<0.0001).

Establishing the SPCEN has resulted in more confident physiotherapists who are engaging in greater levels of clinical effectiveness activity throughout Scotland.

This paper provides the reader with an indication of the value networks can achieve.

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 paper aims to apply innovation networks (INs) theory to the context of domesticated markets, where innovation triggers deinstitutionalization. In such contexts, the success of INs depends on their capacity to transform the business field in which they are embedded, so that it accommodates innovative business models. Such “institutional INs” beget a meso-level finality, and this poses different requirement on their effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to confront extant models of collaborative innovation in networks with this specific context to offer exploratory insights into how innovation can be achieved in domesticated contexts and what the differential implications are for network configurations and strategic “reinstitutionalization” practices.

Based on an illustrative embedded case study in the Dutch steel industry, a framework offering indications on the effectiveness of discrete configurational dimensions and their fit with reinstitutionalization practices for institutional INs is suggested. The case builds on 26 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus groups with top managers in the industry. As the aim is to extend theoretical models of INs to this under-researched context, an abductive approach to theorizing, consistent with the extended case method, is adopted.

Findings suggest that collaborating to redesign an institutionalized business field collectively implies a more explicit attention to interdependencies within the business field.

Besides suggesting modifications to extant frames regarding heterogeneity in and the configuration of networks, this paper has some practical implications. The framework proposed offers managers some support in the largely ignored issue of developing a collective action network. With these findings, we aspire to stimulate further research into this relevant, yet underdeveloped, topic.

The study extends IN theory toward innovation realization in domesticated contexts. In such contexts, IN’s success depends on their capacity to transform the business field in which they are embedded, so that it enables innovative ways of creating end-customer value. Besides suggesting a new area for theorizing about innovation networks, institutional innovation networks are also a useful template for institutional innovation and collective action research. The paper offers a framework to support managers in the largely ignored challenge of developing a collective action network. In an increasingly transparent, connected and consolidated business environment, such a challenge becomes ever more essential.

Suggests that there is a need to explore managerial public sector effectiveness given its complexity and subjective nature. Argues the case for a multi‐perspective approach to public sector effectiveness, based on specific, inter‐related perspectives. Chooses these perspectives based on their ability to contribute to an explanatory framework focused on the features of effectiveness. Concludes that managerial effectiveness is essentially about understanding, reinterpreting and making sense of differing role expectations, which the framework developed will hopefully help in developing.

The purpose of this paper is to define optimal behavioral characteristics for members in digital social networks (DSNs). To this end, an assumption was tested that DSN members behave similarly to autonomous agents in a complex adaptive system (CAS) by maintaining a process of self‐branding.

Online questionnaires were presented to 94 DSN users. Their answers were used to assess: different parameters of their behavior on the DSN; and their perception of the DSN's effectiveness. Statistical analyses were conducted to examine possible correlations between these parameters and the optimal behavioral characteristics of individual agents in the CAS model.

Subjects who reported a higher degree of functional autonomy and self‐branding on the DSN also reported a higher degree of DSN effectiveness. A significant positive linear correlation was found between the degree of self‐branding and optimal behavioral characteristics described previously for individual agents in a CAS.

The study provides first empirical evidence that the CAS model parameters can be used to explain DSN‐related phenomena in general, and the perception of DSN effectiveness in particular. This suggests that individual DSN members should generate and maintain a powerful self‐brand through autonomous activities to increase DSN effectiveness. Such activities can be manifested through behavioral processes characterizing individuals in CAS, and especially through maximizing situational sensitivity and integration of information.

This is the first study to empirically test the CAS theoretical model on DSNs. It specifies behavioral characteristics, which individual DSN members should incorporate to increase the perceived DSN effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to provide managers of multinational companies and researchers with a framework for investigating and effectively managing organizational factors and supply‐chain networks in lieu of conditions prevalent in developing countries.

This paper draws from the international management, supply‐chain management, and organizational behavior literature to construct a framework and formulate propositions linking important organizational factors to supply‐chain effectiveness in developing countries.

The paper reviews the literature, develops a useful framework, formulates propositions, and provides important managerial insights for supply‐chain management in developing countries.

Supply‐chain effectiveness is a broad construct in this paper. Future research might want to isolate and examine the potential effects of organizational variables on more narrow supply‐chain outcomes.

The modeled framework can help managers of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) better understand and manage important organizational variables in ways that render their supply chains in developing countries more effective.

Currently, the literature does not provide managers of MNCs and researchers a framework for investigating and effectively managing key organizational factors affecting supply‐chain networks in lieu of conditions prevalent in developing countries. This paper attempts to fill this gap. Propositions developed in this paper can serve as a foundation for future empirical research needed to support the development of theory in this area.