Transient commitments and dynamic business networking

AbstractA business network is a dynamic organizational form, ever shifting and changing. Capturing conceptually the dynamics of a network is difficult. We seek to explicate and understand how transient commitments focused on instrumental activities unfold and how they lead to network dynamics. We study this using the activity and actor dimensions of a dynamic network. Our empirical data is based on the defense supply industry where a number of firms act, interdependently and yet also somewhat independently, to change and adjust their surrounding network and so bring new solutions to their customers

A process-based model of network capability development by a start-up firm

Start-up firms are notoriously resource and time poor. One way of addressing these deficits is to develop strategic capability to access, activate and co-shape resources with other firms in the start-up's network. The capability literature assumes such a development is inevitable, provided a start-up survives. But developing network capability depends on the managers of other firms, the deepening managerial understanding of business relationships, and the ability of the start-up managers to adjust to and understand interdependence in networks. We present a processual model of how managerial understanding of network capability develops, comprising of three parts each building on the earlier: (i) in relationships, (ii) through relationships and (iii) in the network. The model was inductively developed from a longitudinal study of a start-up firm. Also, two sensemaking processes were found to predominate â problem solving and social-cognitive processes. Our model highlights the role of the start-up manager in sensemaking with managers across a number of firms to resolve commercial problems. Thus, the independence many start-up managers seek must turn towards interdependence. Second, managers' temporal horizons and the specific temporal profile of events and activities inside the involved business relationships are important in understanding and developing, with other firms, network capability

Peter Drucker's ontology: understanding business relationships and networks

PURPOSE: The paper aims to consider the underlying premises of Peter Drucker’s managerial writing and focuses on three main aspects: humans and relations, an evolutionary perspective and a pragmatic perspective. These ontological views are taken to a new level and applied to explore the world of networked firms. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH: The paper is a conceptual contribution based on a literature study by the author. FINDINGS: An examination of Drucker’s ontology shows how his world perspective led him to an understanding of managers and organisations. The three elements of his ontology discussed are applied to research in business networks. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The paper argues for research on human perspectives of business relationships and networks, particularly of issues such as time, timing, partner integration, relational and network embeddedness, network sensing, network horizons, and network identity. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Drucker’s ontological view enabled him to make pronouncements that cut through to the truth of reality in our organisationally shaped world. Understanding Drucker’s ontology provides managers with ways to deepen their understanding of an individual’s role at every level within an organisation. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The linking of Drucker’s ontology to research on new ways to organise and manage networked firms opens areas of future research.Christopher J. Medlinhttp://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1704807

Competitive paper, IMP ASIA Conference, December 6-10, 2009 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This paper explores the interplay between value creation and appropriation of value by firms within a business network context. These two value processes are inter-linked. Collectively firms create a product of value to an end consumer and a part of that value is appropriated by each firm in the network. Value appropriation is composed of a number of different negotiation processes, value and cost moving between exchange parties and price making and taking spread across time. Value appropriation is a process. Value appropriation is important to a firm’s survival. Firms that appropriate a greater proportion of the value captured by the network, relative to their resource base and costs, will be more profitable. These firms are able to invest in new technologies, resources and business relationships to continually develop their network positions. Value creation in a business network is a result of individual firm efforts, either independently or in relationships. Equally, firms work alone and in groups to appropriate value. Understanding the dynamics and linkages between value creation and appropriation allows a better understanding of how value is created by business firms and by value nets. In the final sections of the paper we present propositions for further research and make recommendations for managers

Dimensions of space in business network research

Interactive processes constitute a core notion in business exchange, leading to the concepts of relationships and networks. The constitution of process, comprising unfolding events, activities, and connected structures, relies on difference in space and time.While research has been devoted to time, the concept of space has thus far remained largely unexplored within business network research.This conceptual paper focuses on spatial dimensions for conducting research according to the IMP business network approach. Business actors create connected relationships and networks that exist and change as continuous emerging spatial structures and as mental maps in the managerial mindset. These relational network processes and structures are located, distributed and experienced in and across space. Drawing on economic geography and conceptual frameworks from the business network approach, we propose new dimensions and conceptualizations of space for the study of these networks. The paper delivers proposals to extend our current understanding of business networks as emerging and changing spatio-temporal entities with implications for theorydevelopment, research and practice.</p

Time and process in business network research

This Special Issue of Industrial Marketing Management brings together a range of articles by authors who have undertaken the difficult task of researching time and process in business networks. Understanding interaction processes within a business relationship and network perspective requires the elaboration of time, the central construct by which humans grasp and comprehend change. As an introduction to the articles we present the concept of human time and delineate accordingly three methodological approaches available for the study of network processes. We also introduce the authors' contributions to the special issue that broadly divide into two groups: those that deal with methodological issues concerning the study of processes in business networks and those that consider the role of time and timing for studying business processes. © 2012 Elsevier Inc..Aino Halinen, Christopher J. Medlin and Jan-Åke Törnroo

In: Trust, Globalisation and Market Expansion DIMENSIONS OF INTER-FIRM TRUST: BENEVOLENCE AND CREDIBILITY

ABSTRACT Past research on inter-firm trust has noted two dimensions, benevolence and credibility. The credibility dimension of trust has been operationalized variously as a combination of honesty, reliability and expectancy; while benevolence has rarely been examined as a unique dimension. We examine the two trust dimensions with empirical data of inter-firm relationships in the software industry and find that benevolence is strongly associated with relationship performance. No association is found between credibility and relationship performance, when discriminant validity is imposed. This result has important implications, as almost all of the inter-firm empirical research on trust has been based on the credibility dimension or a global measure combining the two dimensions. The research in this chapter suggests that benevolence, where managers perceive the other firm willing to look after their firm&apos;s interests and so the collective interests of both firms moving forward, is the key to business relationship performance