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Article
Publication date: 16 August 2022

Artur Swierczek

The study seeks to explore the effect of socialization mechanisms on relational embeddedness of logistics service providers (LSP), and relational performance of dyads, and finally…

Abstract

Purpose

The study seeks to explore the effect of socialization mechanisms on relational embeddedness of logistics service providers (LSP), and relational performance of dyads, and finally their resulting effect on the supply chain performance in transitive triads.

Design/methodology/approach

To elaborate on the major constructs of the study, the researchers use the theoretical lens specifically provided by social capital theory (SCT), and relational view (RV). Consequently, the researchers use SCT to examine the role of the socialization process, used by the supplier and customer, to develop relational embeddedness of logistics service providers in triads. Next, the researchers use the RV, complemented by the underpinnings of supply chain practice view (SCPV) to elaborate on the relational performance of dyads and supply chain performance. The study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the higher component model (HCM) and test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results obtained from a sample of 350 transitive triads suggest that relational embeddedness of LSPs is only shaped by the mechanisms of formal socialization, developed by the supplier and customer. Interestingly, informal socialization appears to be insignificant for this process. The results indicate that relational embeddedness of logistics service providers has a positive effect on the relational performance of three dyads, which in turn, has a positive effect on the supply chain performance in transitive triads.

Research limitations/implications

One of the intriguing avenues of future research is to investigate the dynamics of supply chains. It would be also worthwhile to make use of the specificity of transitive triads, formed by the supplier, customer and LSP, to explore whether and under which circumstances (e.g. reciprocity, symmetry) the strong ties encourage the transfer and integration of knowledge among actors, and the weak ties accelerate the search for information. In connection with that, the other interesting research avenue would be to investigate the information benefits derived from the nonredundant triads.

Originality/value

Although there is a number of recent studies that show empirical evidence for developing relational embeddedness in transitive triads, to date, little research interest has been paid to how relational embeddedness of LSPs is shaped within the supply chain structures, and how it finally affects the supply chain performance.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2019

Artur Swierczek

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the manufacturer that occupies the central position in the triadic supply chain is capable of enhancing relationships within…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the manufacturer that occupies the central position in the triadic supply chain is capable of enhancing relationships within both dyads to produce the network rent and extra profit shared among all supply chain actors.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper opted for an exploratory study using a survey of triads forming supply chains. To reveal the capability of yielding the network rent in the examined triads, multiple regression analysis with Interaction effects was used. Having confirmed the existence of supernormal profit, the partial least square path model was developed to investigate the effects of manufacturer structural embeddedness on relational embeddedness and the resulting impact on the network rent.

Findings

The obtained findings show that manufacturer structural embeddedness has a direct and positive effect on relational embeddedness and relational embeddedness of two dyads (represented as a higher order factor) has a direct and positive effect on the network rent. In addition, relational embeddedness mediates the positive relationship between manufacturer structural embeddedness and network rent, as the null model with no mediation appears to underestimate the direct and positive effect between manufacturer structural embeddedness and the network rent.

Research limitations/implications

The study makes three key contributions. First, it extends the application of both relational and structural embeddedness to grasp the network architecture of the triadic supply chain. Second, the concept of manufacturer structural embeddedness is used to elaborate on the role of the manufacturer in establishing relationships of high quality with the supplier and the customer. In connection to the previous point, the calculated network rent demonstrates that establishing collaborative relationships in triadic supply chains may bring a significant supernormal profit, derived as the outcome of mutual interplay between the relational performances of two dyads.

Practical implications

The study shows that manufacturers intending to use their central position to develop collaborative relationships with both partners, and the supplier and the customer, ought to appreciate the role of social ties embedded in interorganizational networks. The paper also implies that in parallel with using formal contracts as a governance mechanism, the manufacturer centrally positioned in the triadic supply chains ought to deliberately shape relational embeddedness of both dyads. Finally, managers can consider the ways to enhance relational embeddedness in a triad by improving relational embeddedness of a certain dyad.

Originality/value

This study provides a novel framework for studying two basic dimensions of embeddedness (structural and relational) and their impact on the network rent in triadic supply chains that goes beyond the dyadic perspective and incorporates the extended supply chain.

Details

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-8546

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2019

Artur Swierczek

This study aims to investigate the link between manufacturer relational embeddedness, manufacturer influence and supplier-customer relational embeddedness and their resulting…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the link between manufacturer relational embeddedness, manufacturer influence and supplier-customer relational embeddedness and their resulting impact on the network rent.

Design/methodology/approach

Leveraging the theoretical lens of social exchange theory and the relational view and utilizing the survey data derived from the transitional triadic supply chains, the authors used multiple regression analysis and the partial least squares (PLS) path model. The regression analysis with interaction effects is used to indicate the network rent, while the PLS path model is applied to investigate the link between manufacturer relational embeddedness, manufacturer influence and supplier-customer relational embeddedness and their subsequent impact on the network rent.

Findings

The authors empirically establish that manufacturer relational embeddedness, as a higher-order factor, can comprise both upstream and downstream relational embeddedness. The research also demonstrates that manufacturer relational embeddedness significantly contributes to the manufacturer’s eagerness to form a direct link between the supplier and the customer, and the manufacturers report a significant ability to affect this relationship. Likewise, the study shows that supplier-customer relational embeddedness significantly and positively affects the network rent. In addition, the study implies that supplier-customer relational embeddedness is a mediator between manufacturer influence and the network rent, while manufacturer influence is a suppressor variable, which increases the negative relationship between manufacturer relational embeddedness and supplier-customer relational embeddedness.

Research limitations/implications

The research makes three key contributions. First, this study, as one of very few, simultaneously embraces context, intervention, mechanism and outcome, while investigating the role of manufacturer (its relational embeddedness and influence) in promoting supplier-customer relational embeddedness, and its resulting effect on the network rent. Further on, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirically based study that demonstrates to what extent the manufacturer is capable of fostering supplier-customer relational embeddedness, thus favoring the transposition from the intransitive into the transitive triadic supply chains. Finally, to date, the concept of network rent has been mostly conceptualized as the theoretical construct with no empirical evidence. This research offers guidance for manufacturers in managing the relationships between the supplier and the customer to yield the highest network rent.

Originality/value

This study provides a novel approach to investigating the role of manufacturer and relational embeddedness in yielding the network rent in the transitional triadic supply chains.

Details

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-8546

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2020

Yin Zhou, Wei Yang and Guijun Zhuang

The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of how relational embeddedness offers marketing channel partners both benefits and hazards. The nonlinear effect of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of how relational embeddedness offers marketing channel partners both benefits and hazards. The nonlinear effect of relational embeddedness on channel opportunism is investigated. Influence strategies (i.e. coercive and noncoercive influence) are also examined as mediators of this nonlinear effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data are gathered from a sample of 149 manufacturers in China. The hypotheses are tested through regression analysis.

Findings

The results support the hypothesis that relational embeddedness has a U-shaped effect on opportunism, and that this relationship can be mediated through noncoercive influence strategies. The results also indicate that coercive influence has an inverted U-shaped effect and noncoercive influence has a U-shaped effect on opportunism.

Research limitations/implications

This research serves as a launching point for further investigations into the “black box” of the double-edged effects of relational embeddedness. Other channel behavior constructs can be explored in future studies.

Practical implications

Firms should be aware of the benefits and pitfalls associated with relational embeddedness in marketing channels. They should be alert to using influence strategies when managing channel opportunism.

Originality/value

This study addresses the dilemma of embeddedness in marketing channel relationships and reveals its causes and mechanisms by exploring the mediating effects of influence strategies.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 36 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2023

Qian Hu, Zhao Pan, Yaobin Lu and Sumeet Gupta

Advances in material agency driven by artificial intelligence (AI) have facilitated breakthroughs in material adaptivity enabling smart objects to autonomously provide…

210

Abstract

Purpose

Advances in material agency driven by artificial intelligence (AI) have facilitated breakthroughs in material adaptivity enabling smart objects to autonomously provide individualized smart services, which makes smart objects act as social actors embedded in the real world. However, little is known about how material adaptivity fosters the infusion use of smart objects to maximize the value of smart services in customers' lives. This study examines the underlying mechanism of material adaptivity (task and social adaptivity) on AI infusion use, drawing on the theoretical lens of social embeddedness.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), mediating tests, path comparison tests and polynomial modeling to analyze the proposed research model and hypotheses.

Findings

The results supported the proposed research model and hypotheses, except for the hypothesis of the comparative effects on infusion use. Besides, the results of mediating tests suggested the different roles of social embeddedness in the impacts of task and social adaptivity on infusion use. The post hoc analysis based on polynomial modeling provided a possible explanation for the unsupported hypothesis, suggesting the nonlinear differences in the underlying influencing mechanisms of instrumental and relational embeddedness on infusion use.

Practical implications

The formation mechanisms of AI infusion use based on material adaptivity and social embeddedness help to develop the business strategies that enable smart objects as social actors to exert a key role in users' daily lives, in turn realizing the social and economic value of AI.

Originality/value

This study advances the theoretical research on material adaptivity, updates the information system (IS) research on infusion use and identifies the bridging role of social embeddedness of smart objects as agentic social actors in the AI context.

Details

Internet Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 December 2022

Nicolas Li, Dhruba Borah, Jihye Kim and Junzhe Ji

This study investigates the role of transnational mixed-embeddedness when transnational entrepreneurial firms (TEFs) become internationalized. First-generation immigrant…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the role of transnational mixed-embeddedness when transnational entrepreneurial firms (TEFs) become internationalized. First-generation immigrant entrepreneurs who maintain business arrangements in their home and host countries own TEFs. In many cases, they internationalize from emerging economies to advanced economies. Nevertheless, this study focuses on TEF cases that internationalize from an advanced to an emerging economy, which prior transnational entrepreneurship studies have largely overlooked.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a qualitative approach based on six TEF case studies from Canada and the UK venturing into China to explore TEFs' internationalization.

Findings

The case studies explore the elements that constitute TEFs' cognitive and relational embeddedness—two main types of embeddedness—in home and host countries and how TEFs exploit such embeddedness for their internationalization. The results suggest that high levels of transnational mixed-embeddedness help TEFs reduce resource and institutional distance barriers in home countries, thereby assisting their internationalization. A framework that visualizes the role of transnational mixed-embeddedness in TEFs' internationalization and novel categorizations of transnational mixed-embeddedness is proposed.

Originality/value

Although there has been a growing demand for research on the emergence of internationalized smaller firms, there have been few empirical efforts on TEFs' internationalization. It is still unclear how TEFs internationalize differently than homegrown entrepreneurial firms. This study fills this gap in transnational entrepreneurship literature by examining the influence of transnational mixed-embeddedness on TEFs' internationalization.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 August 2014

Leonid Bakman and Amalya L. Oliver

The chapter presents a theoretical framework that deals with the basic question of how networks and industries coevolve. We draw upon the structural and relational perspectives of…

Abstract

The chapter presents a theoretical framework that deals with the basic question of how networks and industries coevolve. We draw upon the structural and relational perspectives of networks to theorize about changes occurring in interfirm networks over time and the coevolutionary linkage of these changes to the industry life cycle. We further extend the widely accepted industry life cycle model by claiming that industry-specific evolutionary patterns impact the structure of the network’s relations, which in turn lead to diversification in the sources of innovation and to variation in the patterns of industrial evolution.

Details

Understanding the Relationship Between Networks and Technology, Creativity and Innovation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-489-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 February 2021

Jian Du, Keying Lu and Chao Zhou

Prior studies have argued that multinational firms with dynamic capabilities can reconfigure and upgrade their internal and external resources and adapt to an ever-changing…

Abstract

Purpose

Prior studies have argued that multinational firms with dynamic capabilities can reconfigure and upgrade their internal and external resources and adapt to an ever-changing competitive global environment. The impact of home country networks exerting on multinational corporations’ (MNCs) dynamic capabilities has been rarely discussed in extant research. This paper aims to explore how two types of home country networks’ relational embeddedness (from domestic firms and foreign firms) affect Chinese MNCs’ dynamic capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Several hypotheses were tested by analyzing the survey data from 204 multinational companies in china.

Findings

The results reveal the impact mechanism of the home country network on dynamic capabilities. Embeddedness in domestic networks positively affects embeddedness in the foreign network; embeddedness in foreign firms exerts positive effects on the three dimensions of MNC’s dynamic capabilities. Additionally, the effect of domestic firms’ relational embeddedness on resource reconfiguring capability is mediated by foreign firms’ embeddedness. Consequently, this study provides a theoretical introduction for MNCs from emerging economies.

Practical implications

This study has several managerial implications for emerging MNCs’ international operations. For MNCs from emerging economies, close cooperation with domestic firms helps firms to develop a close relationship with foreign firms; meanwhile, developing a close relationship with foreign firms can obtain spillover about technology and management experience better, improving dynamic capability. Specifically, domestic embeddedness, through foreign embeddedness, can extend the impact to focal firms in developing resource reconfiguring capability.

Originality/value

This study provides an alternate view of how home country networks influence the dynamic capabilities of Chinese MNCs and outlines its impact mechanism. Therefore, the study contributes both to the international business literature and social network literature.

Details

Chinese Management Studies, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-614X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 August 2023

Liang Xiao, Jiawei Wang and Xinyu Wei

Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms…

Abstract

Purpose

Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms. This study integrates VCC and social network theories, introduces relational embeddedness and divides this variable into economic and social relational embeddedness to explore its impact on VCC intention. This study also explores the mediating and moderating roles of customers' psychological ownership (CPO) and regulatory focus, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was conducted among users of mainstream social e-commerce platforms in China, and the relationship among the variables was revealed through a structural equation modeling of 464 valid responses.

Findings

The dimensions of relational embeddedness positively affect CPO and VCC intention, with social relational embeddedness exerting the strongest effect. CPO positively affects VCC intention and partially mediates the relationship between relational embeddedness and VCC intention. Promotion and prevention focus positively and negatively moderate the relationship between CPO and VCC intention, respectively.

Originality/value

This study expands the VCC research perspective and links the VCC concepts to social network dynamics. From the relational embeddedness perspective, this study identifies the type and intensity of relational embeddedness that promotes users' VCC intention and contributes to theoretical research on VCC and relational embeddedness. This study also introduces CPO as an intermediary variable, thus opening the black box of this mechanism, and confirms the moderating role of regulatory focus as the key psychological factor motivating users' VCC intention.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 November 2010

Phillip C. Nell, Ulf Andersson and Bodo B. Schlegelmilch

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to develop a more fine-grained model of the relationship between multinational corporation (MNC) external embeddedness and subsidiary…

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to develop a more fine-grained model of the relationship between multinational corporation (MNC) external embeddedness and subsidiary contribution to firm-level competitive advantage.

Methodology/approach – We briefly review previous international management literature and show that the conception of MNC embeddedness in external networks is often simplistic. We develop the concept of the HQ–subsidiary dyad being externally embedded and derive propositions on how this more holistic concept of MNC embeddedness influences subsidiary contribution.

Findings – We argue that subsidiary contribution depends not only on the relational embeddedness dimension of the subsidiary but that there is a complex interplay between several embeddedness dimensions on multiple levels. We suggest that the much emphasized effect of subsidiary relational embeddedness might be contingent on the HQ's own relationships, and the structure of the overall network. We also develop propositions which show that subsidiary relational embeddedness mediates the relationship between overall network structure and subsidiary contribution.

Research limitations – For the sake of theoretical stringency, we keep other influencing factors such as MNC strategy and specific subsidiary mandates as constant.

Originality/value of the chapter – Subsidiaries are an important source of firm-level competitive advantage. Subsidiary resources have also been shown to develop to a large extent in relationships with external actors. Despite this importance, we argue that our understanding of how the MNC is embedded in external networks and how this in turn influences subsidiary contribution is limited. This chapter attempts to make a first step into filling this gap.

Details

Reshaping the Boundaries of the Firm in an Era of Global Interdependence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-088-0

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