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Dyadic multi-dimensionality informs the variation that exists within and between network ties and suggests that ties are not all the same and not all equally strategic. This chapter presents a model of dyadic evolution grounded in dyadic multi-dimensionality and framed within actor-level, dyadic-level, endogenous, and exogenous contexts. These contexts generate both strategic catalysts that motivate network action and bounded agency that may constrain such network action. Assuming the need to navigate within bounded agency, the model highlights three strategic processes that demonstrate how dyadic multi-dimensionality underlies the evolution of strategic network ties.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the management of commercial actors in strategic networks of emergency preparedness management (EPM) in developed countries and how these strategies connect to the emergency response efficiency. This study uses collaboration, strategy, and efficiency to evaluate the private governance of the food, healthcare, and transportation sectors and follows an analysis of these sectors’ management that finds an ambivalent impact on the efficiency of the worldwide supply chain network (SCN) system. This study discusses many strategic networks and nets of commercial standards with different management structures and emphasizes illustrating the EPM context, thereby offering directions for future research.

An empirical research approach and triangulation methodology was adopted to design the selection, evaluation, and contribution of the observed data and the humanitarian and business literature. An overview of strategic networks’ role in EPM in Sweden comprises several network approaches and considers the strategic value of three SCNs for response efficiency.

The study finds that strategic networks are relevant for EPM and response efficiency and can be delimited and adapted to developing countries’ demands. However, growing interest in networks’ strategic value for EPM stresses public-private collaboration as a strategic choice to achieve response efficiency. To offer strategic planning that ties demand with supply, public-private actors must collaborate in SCNs.

The study contributes to the existing literature on strategic networks, for example, industrial networks, by illustrating their strategic value for developed countries’ SCNs. It also contributes to the business literature, for example, on strategic net management. The work is original because it adopts a practical perspective involving buyers and suppliers in planning, the delimitation of their capability in nets, and the strategic value of SCN collaboration.

This paper aims to focus on managing networks within destinations, or destination network management. The purpose is to provide a conceptual definition of the term.

Destinations are seen as networks, and networks are approached from a strategic perspective. Reviewing and drawing on the literature on destination management, tourism networks, strategic networks and strategic management the paper proposes a concept that could be of use in analyses of network management.

It is suggested that managing is a value‐creating activity embedded within a network, and that there are two approaches to network management: strategic management and the coordination of cooperation among the actors involved.

The paper is conceptual in nature. The authors intend to test the developed hypothesis in empirical case studies in the near future.

The paper contributes to the literature on destination management in proposing a novel concept of destination network management, and introducing a dynamic, activity‐oriented approach as opposed to the actor‐focused destination management organization (DMO) view.

The paper aims to study the effect of external managerial social networks on strategic flexibility for a quality management (QM) perspective. External social networks can affect strategic flexibility positively. QM also contributes to developing these networks. However, there is currently a wide variety of alternatives for managing quality in organizations, such as ISO standards or the European Foundation for Quality Management model. Thus, different alternatives will influence the external social networks differently in ways that have repercussions for strategic flexibility. Testing these differences is the main purpose of this paper.

A total of 203 valid responses were classified in three groups: non‐QM, ISO, and total quality management (TQM) firms. Then, a comparative ANOVA analysis was performed to test differences among groups. Finally, different regressions were run to test the effects of external social networks (range, size and strength) on strategic flexibility depending of the observed group.

Paper results show that, depending on which QM initiative is implemented in the organization, the effects of external managerial networks on strategic flexibility vary. Thus, in organizations without QM, the range of external social networks influences strategic flexibility negatively, whereas in organizations with ISO standards, this negative effect disappears. In organizations with TQM, the paper finds the positive effect of both size and strength of relations in the networks.

The paper facilitates how to differentiate QM alternatives depending on their observed behavior.

A new perspective (QM) is observed to test how managerial networks affect strategic flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the formation of strategic networks between second-tier actors in the context of a construction megaproject. The research question addressed is: How do second-tier strategic networks form in high uncertainty projects?

This is a qualitative single-case study, which examines strategic network formation in the context of a nuclear power plant construction project. Focused interviews with parties involved or having an interest in the megaproject were used as the primary data collection method.

The conditions for network formation in a megaproject context are specified with a focus on the determinants of uncertainty. A total of six second-tier network types with different formation conditions and potential roles in the project are characterized.

Analyzing the prerequisites of strategic network formation and examining the characteristics of various networks (that are either planned, taking shape or existing between the companies) in this specific context creates a basis for further study of network formation over network levels.

The formation of strategic networks is critical for many actors in the construction and related industries who are willing to participate in large projects. With the help of our findings, managers are able to define opportunities to orchestrate early phase network formation processes in uncertain circumstances, such as megaprojects.

The contribution of this paper lies in the close examination of strategic network formation from the second-tier actor perspective under circumstances of high uncertainty related to the early phases of megaprojects. Likewise, the illustration of different types of evolving nets in different phases of uncertain projects offers a contribution to the present discussion on strategic nets.

In the context of resource scarcity, the affiliation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to strategic networks has emerged as a fruitful path towards knowledge sharing as a reaction to fierce competition and with a view to enhance their innovative performance. In this framework, this paper aims to investigate the influence exerted by a specific relational design (i.e. types of strategic networks) and methodology (i.e. channels and content) of knowledge sharing on SMEs innovative performance.

A questionnaire-based survey with 102 top managers of European SMEs in the industrial field was conducted from June to August 2019 and a partial least squares structural equation modelling technique was used. The database was initially filtered to ensure the adequacy of the sample and data was analysed using the statistics software package SmartPLS 3.0.

The results concluded that the structural model explains 38.5% of the variance in SMEs innovative performance, indicating the positive effects exerted by offline and online and by competitive knowledge sharing on the dependent variable.

The study has both theoretical and practical implications in that it sets out a reference point for the key performance indicators for strategic networks structure, formation and development and, implicitly, for the selection of the most efficient relational design and methodology.

The pivotal originality elements reside in the advancement of a more comprehensive conceptual and structural model combining a two-fold operationalization of SMEs strategic networks (founded on business abilities or on the personality of the partner) and in the investigation of knowledge transfer processes at the inter-organizational levels within a context-centric approach.

This paper aims to examine how the characteristics of CEOs' social networks, such as the size of the network and the strength of the ties, influence strategic flexibility from a strategic orientation perspective. External social networks can affect strategic flexibility positively. Different orientations could have repercussions for the relationship between external social networks and strategic flexibility.

The data came from surveys completed by the managers of 188 Spanish firms. The methodology used was regression analysis.

The authors observe that external social networks affect strategic flexibility positively, more strongly when the networks are greater in size. The sample was classified into three groups: conservative, intermediate and entrepreneurship firms. The authors find that other effects vary according to the kind of strategic orientation in the organization. Both findings support and extend social capital and network theory and flexibility literature.

The interviews were held with Spanish CEOs, and the character of the research was cross‐sectional. This could have implications for the generalizability of the findings.

The authors' results extend previous research not only by highlighting the importance of CEOs' social networks in driving strategic flexibility but also by indicating how different strategic orientations either enhance or inhibit this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and develop a strategic performance model for small and medium enterprises linking with inter-firm networks, strategic alignment and environmental dynamism.

Drawing on the live experiences of 757 respondents, including managing directors/owners and CEOs of different SMEs, the authors proposed a theoretical model representing how firms could attain strategic performance through inter-firm networks with a mediating role of strategic alignment.

The current study demonstrated that SMEs with strong inter-firm networks have the ability to align business activities with strategies and get earlier strategic performance. Strategic performance looks skeptical to ever gain acceptance until strategic alignment is adopted by small and medium enterprises. The findings of this study indicated that environmental dynamism strengthens the relationship between strategic alignment and strategic performance.

This research extended the understanding about the inter-firm networks, strategic alignment and environmental dynamism surrounding strategic performance. This study identified and empirically tested how the inter-firm networks impact on strategic performance through the mediating effect of strategic alignment.

The purpose of this study is to explore the configuration of network ties that would have a positive impact on performance outcomes and test the presumed impact of multilevel strategic alliances on innovation and firm performance in a specific industry.

This study comprises part of a larger project on the network relations of yacht-building firms operating in Turkey. Data of the study was collected through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires with 143 yacht-building firms operating in major yacht-building regions of the country.

The findings of the study indicated the presence of meaningful relationship between total number of (strong) network relations perceived as strategic alliance and overall innovation performance. The generally presumed positive relationship between innovation performance and firm performance was supported. The type of innovation performance that was found to be related to the total number of network ties perceived as strategic alliance at national and global levels was product innovation performance.

A possible contribution of this study for industry members would be the implications of the finding that indicates positive impact of strategic alliances with different actors of the industry.

This study contributes to the exploration of network configurations that have a positive impact on innovation and firm performance, by dealing with the impact of the size, strength and geographical level of network relations in one single study. The yacht-building industry as the empirical setting represents a specific category of industry that rests on customized individual or small-batch manufacturing requiring considerable interaction with customers and suppliers. Because no study exists on this topic, findings can inspire similar industries.

Many research studies in operations management (OM) and strategic management (SM) investigate how different kinds of firm decisions regarding business relationships can positively affect a firm's operations performance, resource endowment, and competitive position. Very few studies exist, however, that have attempted to illuminate the actual behaviors of managers when making strategic decisions about their intercompany relationships; rather, most existing studies focus on normative theory. The purpose of this paper is to explore linkages between the “set” of strategic objectives that managers are willing to pursue, the “set” of networking decisions they make, and the “set” of business agreements they sign.

In order to investigate and explore actual managerial behaviors with respect to networking strategy, the study adopts a field research approach based on multiple case studies. Data were collected on 13 business agreements from three manufacturing firms in the mechatronics industry in Italy. Within‐case and cross‐case analyses are used for theory‐building purposes.

The empirical data allow identification four different archetypes of networking strategy. The archetypes capture different connections between the “set” of strategic objectives that managers are willing to pursue, the “set” of networking decisions that they consider, and the “set” of strategic agreements that they actually adopt. Specifically, the identified archetypes are named multi‐alignment, multi‐agreement (diversification), multi‐objective, and mono‐alignment (focus), and these are related to different association multiplicities among objectives, decisions, and agreements. The implications related to these archetypes are three‐fold. First, the multi‐alignment archetype suggests a focus not just on one kind of agreement, but also on the firm's overall portfolio of agreements, in order to facilitate understanding of how different kinds of agreements and networking decisions can play a complementary role in achieving a firm's predetermined business objective/s. Second, the multi‐agreement (diversification) archetype suggests that managers can minimize the risk of losing the potentiality of network collaboration by undertaking different kinds of agreements for the same strategic objective. Third, the mono‐alignment (focus) and multi‐objective archetypes suggest that just one agreement can potentially pursue one or multiple strategic objectives, and thus can allow managers to minimize the cost of managing several networking relationships.

The originality of this study lies in its exploration of linkages between objectives, decisions and networking agreements. Unlike most of the existing papers in OM and SM, however, it does not specifically focus on: vertical or horizontal relationships; operations performance (positioning school) or resource endowment (resource‐based view) strategic objectives; or any specific kind of agreement contract (outsourcing, alliance, joint venture, etc.). This paper presents four different networking strategy archetypes that represent different ways of matching a “set” of networking decisions, strategic objectives and business agreements. These are not related to either vertical or horizontal relationships, operations performance or resource endowment objectives, or any specific contract agreement form.