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This paper illuminates the distinction between individual and organizational actors in business-to-business markets as well as the coexistence of formal and informal mechanisms of coordination in multinational corporations. The main questions addressed include the following. (1) What factors influence the occurrence of personal contacts of foreign subsidiary managers in industrial multinational corporations? (2) How such personal contacts enable coordination in industrial markets and within multinational firms? The theoretical context of the paper is based on: (1) the interaction approach to industrial markets, (2) the network approach to industrial markets, and (3) the process approach to multinational management. The unit of analysis is the foreign subsidiary manager as the focal actor of a contact network. The paper is empirically focused on Portuguese sales subsidiaries of Finnish multinational corporations, which are managed by either a parent country national (Finnish), a host country national (Portuguese) or a third country national. The paper suggests eight scenarios of individual dependence and uncertainty, which are determined by individual, organizational, and/or market factors. Such scenarios are, in turn, thought to require personal contacts with specific functions. The paper suggests eight interpersonal roles of foreign subsidiary managers, by which the functions of their personal contacts enable inter-firm coordination in industrial markets. In addition, the paper suggests eight propositions on how the functions of their personal contacts enable centralization, formalization, socialization and horizontal communication in multinational corporations.

This paper investigates the relationship between (1) business cycle and use of personal contacts to obtain job and (2) use of personal contacts to obtain job and wages.

For this, we use data from the Monthly Employment Survey (2002–2015) from Brazil which has detailed information on individual and job characteristics. In addition, we investigate the impact of referrals on wage using quantile regressions.

Time-varying parameter estimates indicate that the relationship between business cycle and use of personal contacts became less countercyclical over time. In general, they show that there is more evidence of a slow changing relationship between personal contacts and the business cycle over time rather than a sudden and discrete one. Using quantile regressions, we observed that, controlling for similar observable characteristics, and including unobserved heterogeneity, wage differences between workers using personal contacts versus workers using others channels disappear. The evidences indicate that workers resort to personal contacts because of valuation of non-pecuniary job characteristics.

The results suggest that, in designing subsidy or affirmative action programs, attention to network effects is important. Social networks can help labor markets run more smoothly by alleviating information frictions.

This study extends the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of the use of personal contacts for the Brazil. Although there are many studies and methods for measuring use of personal contacts, to our knowledge, there are no studies using a time-varying parameters model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of personal and inter-firm networks and the elements that contribute to the formation and management of these networks for regional small businesses.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 small business owners located in regional areas.

The findings highlight key characteristics of regional small business owners’ networks. Findings indicated that participants relied strongly on their personal networks for business purposes. This study shows that while personal networks adapted and changed into informal inter-firm networks, weak-tie relations within inter-firm networks were unlikely to develop into close personal networks. Novel findings also include a preference for “regional interactions” and included regular collaboration with local business competitors. Although the participants used social media to manage their business through personal networks, results confirmed there was a lack of awareness of the benefits of inter-firm networks with businesses outside the local region.

While it is acknowledged small business owners use personal and inter-firm connections to maintain and grow their business, there is a lack of research examining both of these networks in the same study. This research addresses this gap and presents five propositions as a useful direction for future research. This paper adds to the evolution of existing knowledge by expanding understanding of the formation of business networks and conditions of business trust relations within a regional context.

Purpose — In the context of the study of the role of social networks in travel behavior, this chapter adds to that body of knowledge by presenting a new data collection effort, which collects a wide array of information about the social, urban, and temporal context where social activity-travel behavior occurs.

Methodology/approach — The study was developed in Concepción, Chile, involving 240 respondents from four different urban contexts and their personal networks. The analysis concentrates on the challenges and opportunities of different techniques to build personal networks as a way of studying the social dimension of travel behavior. Although most of the current methods to study personal networks rely on emotional closeness, this approach may not be sufficient, since these “elicited” people may not include daily contacts that could be relevant to study social activities. Tackling this issue, the data instrument also collects those daily “revealed” people, on a two-day time use diary and a social activities listing. With this information, the chapter presents a comparative analysis between these “elicited” and “revealed” personal networks.

Findings — Overall, the results illustrate the dependence of the name generator technique on what is observed in terms of social activity-travel behavior, specifically on aspects such as personal network size, average distance, and frequencies of interaction. In addition, the comparison between the different methods to construct the personal networks, illustrates how name generators provide the opportunity to further understand transport related questions, such as the role of income and access to amenities on spatial and temporal patterns of social interactions, and their effect on social capital.

Information and influence are distinct network resources that are embedded in and mobilized from networks of personal contacts. A five-city survey shows that Chinese job changers obtain both kinds of network resources from social ties of varying strengths. During the first 20 years of China's market reforms, job changes were increasingly network facilitated; despite the growth of labor markets network allocation of labor had reached dominance by 1992. Job changers using information and influence networks to search for new employment were more likely to increase both job search time and job–worker matching; however, those using influence networks, not information networks, were likely to move into jobs of higher earning opportunity. These results are interpreted in a dynamic context of increasing market competition and growing allocative efficiency.

In recent years the use of networks and, in particular, personal contact networks (PCNs) has emerged as a focus for research in the area of small firm entrepreneurship. A tacit theme emerging from this area has been the need for entrepreneurs to develop a competency in using their PCNs as a means of resolving marketing problems faced in developing their enterprises. The competency literature itself focuses primarily on the subject of management development, with scant attention given to the identification of specific competences for small firm entrepreneurs and, in particular, the challenges they face in marketing decision‐making. Previous research by the authors addressed this shortcoming and pointed to the value of using PCNs for resolving marketing problems in the entrepreneurial small firm. A spectrum of entrepreneurial competences critical for marketing‐led enterprise development was developed. A conceptual model is proposed of how small firm entrepreneurs might use their existing competency strengths to develop a further competency in the proactive use of PCNs, a strength which is critical for the planned success of the entrepreneurial enterprise.

This paper forms Part 2 of a monograph detailing a study that sought to examine the key determinants of SME marketing. It reports the key findings with respect to marketing competency in SMEs, explores the strong sales orientation of such firms, examines the nature and use of SME personal contact networks and considers to what extent formal marketing planning is practiced in such enterprises. New insights to these important areas of small firm research are presented. A new model of SME marketing competency is developed, depicting competencies at three levels, foundation, transitional and marketing in practice. The monograph concludes with a holistic interpretation of the data that enables the development of a new model of SME marketing.

This paper investigates the association between team constraint and team performance. Constraint is a quantitative measure describing the pattern of connections between contacts in personal network. Team members do not leave the relationships they have with other people behind when they act as part of a team. This paper looks at one way in which the pattern of connections that team members have in their personal networks affects the performance of the team. There are 15 process improvement teams from the same company in the sample. The results from this study provide some evidence that personal networks are important to team performance, strengthening the assertion that differences in social networks do explain performance variations.

Outlines a qualitative methodology for researching in entrepreneurial small firms and through an application of this methodology to a group of five entrepreneurs, illustrates its appropriateness in explaining how such firms manage and develop their personal contact networks over the life cycle of an enterprise. Draws on the relevant literature to provide a contextual setting for the research. The research approach adopted is largely inductive and it resulted in the emergence of a theoretical model of network evolution for owner‐managed entrepreneurial small firms.

This monograph is the consequence of a variety of experiences. It reflects an interest in SMEs and entrepreneurship stretching back almost 17 years from the author’s days in the fresh food industry. It reflects knowledge from a series of studies and projects in which the author has been engaged since commencement of an academic career in 1990. In particular, it reflects the findings of a five‐year piece of doctoral research that the author conducted with 57 firms in Ireland and the UK between 1995‐1999. The study seeks to identify the key determinants of SME marketing activity. The research objectives focused on determining a framework of marketing competencies for SMEs, the extent of formal marketing processes practised, and how SME marketing decisions are made. Further research objectives emerged (these were inductive in nature) that focused on determining the extent of the sales orientation in SMEs and on gaining insights into the use and character of the contact networks of the individuals who manage such enterprises. A syncretised qualitative methodology was developed for the study. The research approach was both deductive and inductive. The analytical strategy adopted a range of tools but was predominantly characterised by data reduction through detailed coding and the development of strict frameworks for analysis. The findings identified a spectrum of marketing competencies for SMEs. It existed at three levels – foundation, transitional and operational. It was shown that the sales orientation of SMEs is what determines their marketing character. A core spectrum of SME sales competencies was identified. It showed significant overlap with the marketing competency spectrum. It was concluded that, since the sales orientation determines the marketing competencies, it also shapes the marketing character of SMEs. The sample firms engaged in significant formal marketing practice, most notably marketing planning. Marketing practice and decisions were characterised by significant usage of personal contact networks. Contact networks were also rooted in a strong sales orientation. It was clear that many marketing decisions that are ostensibly operational in character become strategic or eventually effect strategic change in the marketing practices of SMEs. A holistic model of SME marketing was developed. The model is an integrated complex of the elements of SME marketing examined. Whilst the holistic model developed is entrepreneurial in character, it depicts the SME as a much more sophisticated marketing entity than has been suggested in any previous research.