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Book part
Publication date: 11 November 2014

Snejina Michailova and Kseniya Nechayeva

This paper examines how personal networks influence the internationalization process of Russian multinational corporations.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines how personal networks influence the internationalization process of Russian multinational corporations.

Design/methodology/approach

We identify and review 78 articles published in five International Business journals that address the role of networking and relationships in firm internationalization. We then use the network perspective to examine how Russian multinationals internationalize.

Findings

Combining the key conclusions of the reviewed studies with insights from the network perspective, and adding insights that we have gained both through first-hand experience and by following the Russian business media, we develop a model that links personal networking and Russian multinationals’ internationalization. We outline four functions that personal networking plays – access to information and knowledge, resource commitment, development of marketing and sales capabilities, and further network expansion.

Originality/value

This paper challenges established views of how firm internationalization occurs. It combines two previously unrelated streams of literature, the network model of internationalization and the role of personal networking within the Russian business environment, and argues that personal networking plays a much larger role in how Russian MNCs internationalize than has the International Business literature has acknowledged.

Details

Emerging Market Firms in the Global Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-066-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2013

Lars‐Gunnar Mattsson and Asta Salmi

This paper aims to discuss the important and changing role of personal networks for transformation in Russia, and the related challenges for management. Formal institutions…

1311

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the important and changing role of personal networks for transformation in Russia, and the related challenges for management. Formal institutions supporting the transformation to a market economy have been weak and Russian managers still tend to rely on personal networks. While these networks are important in all economies, they play a different role in full‐fledged market economies than in planned economies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is conceptual and is based on literature on the nature of markets, the Soviet planned economy, and the transformation process in Russia. A business network approach is used to understand markets and focus on the dynamics of overlapping business and personal networks.

Findings

Overlapping between business networks involving non‐Russian networks and between personal and business networks are important drivers of transformation. The challenges for management in Russia are both organizational and strategic, and transformation implies substantial changes in the network structures.

Research limitations/implications

The authors recommend further empirical analysis of the role that the overlapping of business and personal networks plays in transformation, as well as its managerial implications.

Practical implications

This paper shows why firms must build business relationships during transformation that are integrated in nature and in which personal relations support the technical, logistical, financial, and knowledge exchange dimensions.

Originality/value

This paper challenges the dominating view of transformation, which says that market exchange is transactional, impersonal, and competition‐driven. The paper analyzes transformation in Russia as a network overlapping process in which the role of personal relations changes.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 August 2016

Byoungho Jin and Sojin Jung

The purpose of this paper is to, built upon Johanson and Vahlne’s (2009) Business Network Internationalization Process Model, explore the role of personal networks and business…

1492

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to, built upon Johanson and Vahlne’s (2009) Business Network Internationalization Process Model, explore the role of personal networks and business networks and their impact on foreign market knowledge and performance among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) after international market entry.

Design/methodology/approach

With a total mailing list of 2,250 US firms, data were collected via a mail survey in accordance with the methods of Dillman et al. (2008).

Findings

An empirical analysis of 105 SME cases revealed that business networks increased foreign market knowledge, which in turn also heightened the international performance of the SMEs. This confirmed the mediating role of market knowledge between business networks and international performance. Personal networks, however, provided little support in helping SMEs achieve foreign market knowledge and international performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes unique empirical evidence demonstrating that business network internationalization models can be applicable to the context of SMEs; that is, having access to such a network (i.e. a business network) is found to be a critical factor of international performance.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2005

Ricardo Madureira

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…

Abstract

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.

Details

Managing Product Innovation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-311-2

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2020

Jalleh Sharafizad and Kerry Brown

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…

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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

Findings

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 35 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 March 2020

Victor Rodrigues de Oliveira, Wallace Patrick Santos de Farias Souza, Giácomo Balbinotto Neto and Paulo de Andrade Jacinto

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.

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Practical implications

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 47 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 October 2017

Smaranda Boros and Lore Van Gorp

Integrating predictions of social exchange theory and implicit social cognition, this paper aims to investigate mechanisms of co-evolution between professional and personal

Abstract

Purpose

Integrating predictions of social exchange theory and implicit social cognition, this paper aims to investigate mechanisms of co-evolution between professional and personal support networks in a professional, non-hierarchical setting.

Design/methodology/approach

The study covers simultaneously people’s behaviours and their subjective interpretations of them in a cross-lagged network design in a group of 65 MBA students.

Findings

Results show that people build on their professional support network to develop personal support relations. People who have a high status in the professional support network appear to be afraid to lose them by asking too many others for personal support and people with a low status in the professional support network seem also be reluctant to ask many others for personal support.

Practical implications

Although personal support is a key social mechanism facilitating individual well-being and organizational success, support in the workplace often remains limited to professional topics. This research shows why people hesitate to expand their networks in professional settings and to what extent their fears have a basis in reality.

Originality/value

It goes beyond predictions of social exchange theory which inform most network evolution studies and tap into implicit social cognition predictions to expand the explanatory power of the hypotheses. The study’s network analysis takes into account both behaviours and social perceptions. The sample is a non-hierarchical professional group which allows a more ecological observation of how hierarchies are born in social groups.

Details

Team Performance Management: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7592

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2012

Mohamed Amine Chatti

This article aims to introduce the personal knowledge network (PKN) model as an alternative model to knowledge management (KM) and to discuss whether personal knowledge management

4941

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to introduce the personal knowledge network (PKN) model as an alternative model to knowledge management (KM) and to discuss whether personal knowledge management (PKM) is better adapted to the demands of the new knowledge environments. The PKN model views knowledge as a personal network and represents a knowledge ecological approach to KM.

Design/methodology/approach

KM and PKM have attracted attention over the past two decades and are considered as important means to increase organizational and individual performance. In this article, the author reviews previous models of KM and PKM and explores their failure to address the problem of knowledge worker performance and to cope with the constant change and critical challenges of the new knowledge era. The author further highlights the crucial need for new KM models that have the potential to overcome the shortcomings of previous models. In light of these shortcomings, the article introduces and discusses the PKN model as an alternative model to KM and PKM that is better adapted to the demands of the new knowledge environments.

Findings

Unlike traditional KM/PKM models which view knowledge as a thing or process, the PKN model views knowledge as a personal network and represents a knowledge ecological approach to KM.

Originality/value

The article focuses on personal knowledge and the links to networks and knowledge ecologies in an innovative way for consideration within KM.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 16 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 April 2017

Gerald Mollenhorst, Christofer Edling and Jens Rydgren

In this chapter, we focus on the social integration of young immigrants in Sweden who themselves and/or one or both of their parents came from Iran or former Yugoslavia. In…

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on the social integration of young immigrants in Sweden who themselves and/or one or both of their parents came from Iran or former Yugoslavia. In particular, we look at the share of alters in their core networks who are of the same parental national origin and how this has changed within a period of four years. To explain network changes, we consider the parental national origin similarity among them, changes in opportunities to meet network members, and important life events.

We analyzed two waves of survey data collected in 2010 and 2014 from 1,537 individuals who live in Sweden and who were all born in 1990, including 325 immigrants from Iran, 447 immigrants from former Yugoslavia, and 805 native Swedes. The results indicate that: (a) the share of parental national origin similar alters in the core networks of immigrants significantly increases over time, (b) first-generation immigrants in particular increasingly associate with others who are of the same parental national origin, (c) important life events hardly result in network changes, and (d) schools and work places are social contexts that enhance the social integration of immigrants, because in these contexts immigrants meet and engage in personal relationships with individuals who do not share their parental national origin.

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