Modern mediators : intermediaries’ informational roles in sourcing from China

Purpose Sourcing intermediaries, commonly known as agents or trading companies, represent a useful organisational solution for assisting companies to manage supply risks and to overcome the liability of foreignness. However, the landscape of global business is experiencing rapid and fundamental changes, which leads us to ask whether intermediaries will continue to play a role in global sourcing. This paper aims to understand how sourcing intermediaries ensure a lasting position in the changing setting of global sourcing and information sharing. Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates the operations of both Chinese and Nordic (Finnish and Swedish) intermediaries in sourcing from China by analysing qualitative data collected over a period of four years. Findings Through the lens of information asymmetry, this paper identifies four distinct informational roles that are used by intermediaries to reduce information asymmetry between suppliers and buyers located in different countries. The paper also examines intermediaries’ signalling activities under these roles in a cross-border triad. Originality/value The paper contributes to the scientific debate on the usefulness of intermediaries by underlining intermediaries’ informational advantage, which provides a new explanation for the survival of intermediaries in a rapidly changing business context. Additionally, this study contributes to research on intermediation strategies by empirically examining both Chinese and Western intermediaries, highlighting the importance of institutional contexts in affecting intermediaries’ informational roles.©2021 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Business Incubators as International Knowledge Intermediaries : Exploring their role in the internationalization of start-ups from an emerging market

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72002004; 71872043] and Academic Program of Beijing International Studies University [financial code: 21110010006].Peer reviewedPostprin

Strengthening the Role of Academic Institutions and Innovation Brokers in Agri-Food Innovation : Towards Hybridisation in Cross-Border Cooperation

Existing research suggests that regions can develop their long-term competitive advantage through well-functioning interregional innovation cooperation. In this article, we use the example of innovation in small and medium-sized agri-food enterprises (SMEs) to scrutinise and compare regional innovation approaches on each side of the Dutch-German border and explore how they can converge into a cross-border innovation space. Particular attention is paid to the role of academic institutions and innovation brokers in creating a common innovation space. We explore how differences between two cross-border regions can be harnessed to enhance the impact of innovation, and how this may lead to what we describe as hybridisation effects. In the empirical analysis, we apply the concept of hybridisation to a cross-border innovation space, something that, as far as we are aware, has not been done before. We empirically ground the concepts of a cross-border innovation space and hybridisation and illustrate how relative regional strengths can lead to hybridisation effects. We conclude that differences in economic structures, institutional set-ups, visions and identities inherent in cross-border spaces are not only hindrances, but also opportunities, and we highlight the importance of these complementary strengths and the potential for their strategic use by regional innovation actors. Our findings are highly relevant for the further development of the Interreg Europe programme and the implementation of the EU's Territorial Agenda 2030.Peer reviewe

A Bibliometric Review of the Innovation Intermediary: Mapping Roles and Setting a Research Agenda

The development of innovation management practices toward openness and emerging socio-economic models have changed the roles and supporting activities of innovation intermediaries. This paper aims to review the extant research to explore the role of innovation intermediaries, map the current knowledge and outline a future research agenda. Utilizing the novel quantitative literature review approach of bibliographic coupling, examining 164 journal articles, the paper presents a robust analysis of the intellectual streams and key concepts underpinning innovation intermediaries. This is the first time that a quantitative review method has been used to analyses this research area and it provides an opportunity for new insights to complement previous qualitative reviews. This paper makes a contribution to the on-going debate by proposing a framework that explains the role of innovation intermediaries: knowledge broker, knowledge transfer enabler, orchestrator, and open innovation facilitator, and the functions embedded with the roles at different levels of unit analysis, i.e., firm, industry, and national. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the framework and details key areas for future research.Output Status: Forthcomin

A Bibliometric Review of the Innovation Intermediary: Mapping Roles and Setting a Research Agenda

The development of innovation management practices toward openness and emerging socio-economic models have changed the roles and supporting activities of innovation intermediaries. This paper aims to review the extant research to explore the role of innovation intermediaries, map the current knowledge and outline a future research agenda. Utilizing the novel quantitative literature review approach of bibliographic coupling, examining 164 journal articles, the paper presents a robust analysis of the intellectual streams and key concepts underpinning innovation intermediaries. This is the first time that a quantitative review method has been used to analyses this research area and it provides an opportunity for new insights to complement previous qualitative reviews. This paper makes a contribution to the on-going debate by proposing a framework that explains the role of innovation intermediaries: knowledge broker, knowledge transfer enabler, orchestrator, and open innovation facilitator, and the functions embedded with the roles at different levels of unit analysis, i.e., firm, industry, and national. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the framework and details key areas for future research

Matchmaking for open innovation : perspectives on multi-sided markets

Open innovation has gained increased managerial and academic attention since 2003 and follows theoretical approaches of innovation networks. My dissertation reports an explorative action research study on participatory cases about how open innovation partnerships emerge in practice. I was engaged in industrial and academic projects where new ideas, external technologies and new start-up ventures were searched and matched for open innovation projects. Therefore, the formation of new network ties for joint business opportunities, matchmaking, is in the focus of the research. The problem of matchmaking arises from the network and market structure. In the thesis, it is shown that matchmaking for open innovation requires a multi-sided market perspective. Innovation intermediaries act as matchmaker and coordinate the matching process between multiple market agents. The contribution is a shift from matchmaking as pure transaction-based market mechanisms towards interactive mechanisms over time, but with economic long-term impact for all market agents.Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog

Knowledge and innovation systems in Swedish horticulture : A study of multi-actor collaboration for impact

The background of this thesis is new directions in international and national politics, the challenges of contemporary innovation systems, and the challenges and potentials in Swedish horticulture. The aim is to investigate how the knowledge and innovation system in Swedish horticulture can be reinforced to meet current and future challenges. The research questions focus on how network facilitation, social learning, and impact orientation can contribute to a reinforced knowledge and innovation system. The frame of reference takes in theories of systems of innovation, and, in particular, agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS). The thesis is also complemented with theories of social processes related to learning and impact. The methods include qualitative case studies in a progression from traditional qualitative research methods towards an action research approach. The results identified processes of network brokering, dialogue, co-agency and inclusion as central to reinforcing the knowledge and innovation system of Swedish horticulture. The findings point to a need to balance a structural interpretation of the horticultural knowledge and innovation system with a process perspective, to actively invite the agency of engaged and entrepreneurial individuals, and to balance the historical ‘supply side innovation’ perspective with a prioritization on the creation of societal impact. These results provide a contribution to the debate around different systems perspectives of the AKIS. They also highlight how changes in everyday work at the micro-level are a precondition for system level change, and how actions at the micro-level have the potential of improving the ability to meet current and future challenges and contribute to societal impact and change

Overview of Hybrid Financial Instruments and Investment Leverage Enablers for Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse

Cultural heritage adaptive reuse investment strategies involve long-term, sometimes perpetual, investment horizons, which necessitate the integration of sustainable funding mechanisms. In order to achieve participatory circular human prosperity, the sustainable finance movement must re-evaluate investment leverage approaches including value creation models, the design of hybrid financial instruments, analytical decision-making frameworks,collaborative social enterprise structures, impact performance metrics and evolving mindsets. In the context of this overview of financial and non-financial instruments, cultural heritage adaptive reuse activities include: • Adaptive reuse of cultural built heritage structures • Energy retrofit of cultural built heritage structures • Protection and management of natural eco-systems; • Socio-cultural community enterprise activities. Cultural heritage adaptive reuse activities embody circular economy dimensions, that engender social, cultural, environmental and economic regeneration, within the global value chain. Consideration of the financial landscape, with regard to capital investment leverage is as much about understanding the motivations of social enterprise stakeholders (including local communities) to engage with the capital markets, as about innovations in financial instruments to safeguard cultural heritage values