Business networks and localization effects for new Swedish technology-based firms’ innovation performance

This study examines the business networks and localization effects for new technology-based firms (NTBFs) in the context of innovation performance (the number of patents and product differentiation). In this regard, the study includes 28 variables. A survey was conducted in 2016 with 401 Swedish NTBFs that were small and young (the employment mean was 1.80 and the average age of each firm was 28.3\ua0months). The biggest category of NTBFs was knowledge-intensive high-technology services, followed by medium high-technology manufacturing, and high-technology manufacturing. Hypotheses on how business networks and localization are related to innovation performance were tested using principal component analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. The results show that the primary significant factor for innovation performance regarding business networks and localization dimensions are professional network services, while industrial and regional areas also have a positive relationship on product differentiation. Our study also shows that innovation performance enhances firms’ abilities to access external financing through professional network services (e.g., venture capital companies)

The embedding of transnational entrepreneurs in diaspora networks:Leveraging the assets of foreignness

In this paper we examine how foreign actors capitalize on their ethnic identity to gain skills and capabilities that enable them to operate in a new and strange environment. We explore the mechanisms by which Bulgarian entrepreneurs in London use their ethnic identity to develop competitive advantage and business contacts. We find that the entrepreneurs studied gain access to a diaspora network, which enables them to develop essential business capabilities and integrate knowledge from both home and host country environments. The diaspora community possesses a collective asset (transactive memory) that allows its members to remove competition from the interfirm level to the network level (i.e., diaspora networks vs. networks of native businesspeople). Additionally, the cultural identity and networks to which community members have access provide bridging capabilities that allow diaspora businesspeople to make links to host country business partners and thus embed themselves in the host country environment. Thus, this paper adds to the growing body of work showing how foreignness can serve as an asset in addition to its better-known role as a liability

Institutional distance and knowledge acquisition in international buyer–supplier relationships::the moderating role of trust

Institutional distance can generate expanded opportunities for multinational firms to facilitate learning and responsiveness. However, such distance can also create obstacles regarding knowledge transfer and integration. A theoretical puzzle concerns the mechanisms and conditions in which international buyers and suppliers can overcome institutional distance and acquire new knowledge. We develop an integrative moderated-mediation model in which institutional distance prevents parties from accessing knowledge but, when knowledge is obtained and mutual trust is developed, it promotes cross-border knowledge acquisition in international buyer-supplier exchange, particularly between international firms and firms from the Asia Pacific region. These findings indicate that firms can overcome the challenges of regulative and cognitive distance and facilitate access to knowledge and knowledge acquisition when they are able to develop and cultivate relationships of mutual trust with foreign partners. While normative distance may create learning incentives and opportunities in international buyer-supplier relationships, its impacts on knowledge accessibility and acquisition are insignificant.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed