Finding the Missing Link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Competitiveness through Social Capital: A Business Ecosystem Perspective

There are existing studies that successfully show the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firms’ financial performance. However, limited attention is paid to its impact on the business ecosystem. CSR could be seen as an investment for building a sustainable business ecosystem, which enhances the competitiveness of this system’s members. In that context, this study apprehends and captures the virtuous cycle of firm competitiveness. On analyzing data from interviews with seven firms, the study offers four propositions identifying the structure of the virtuous cycle linking CSR activities to firm competitiveness through the accumulation of social capital within business ecosystems. Based on those propositions, the study offers new insights into CSR research for academics and strategic planning guidelines for managers that integrate social and economic values for a sustainable business ecosystem and firm competitiveness

Business Ecosystem Management and Editorial on the Special Issue

Regarding business ecosystem management, it is important to approach the ecosystem beyond the macro-level and through the micro-level [...

Business Ecosystem Management and Editorial on the Special Issue

Regarding business ecosystem management, it is important to approach the ecosystem beyond the macro-level and through the micro-level [...

Requirements, Principles, and Performance of Corporate Federalism: A Case of MNC-SME Alliance

This study aims to define and propose a corporate federalism model. In addition, it empirically examines the relationships between the requirements, principles, and performance of corporate federalism, as applied to a strategic alliance among a multinational corporation (MNC) and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study uses survey questionnaires to gather information. The data were collected from associates of 171 SMEs in a strategic alliance with a designated MNC. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data in order to explore proposed relationships. The findings of the study suggest that corporate federalism creates commitment toward the alliance among participants. Among the requirements of corporate federalism, interpersonal relationships represent the most significant factor for the successful practice of corporate federalism in the given sample. Based on the findings, theoretical and practical implications for implementing corporate federalism in strategic alliances are discussed

Partner Selection Strategies in Global Business Ecosystems: Country Images of the Keystone Company and Partner Companies on the Brand Quality Perception

Consumers perceive brand quality from the country of origin of the brand. Global business ecosystems represent multiple countries such as the country of the keystone company and the country of the assembly companies. Thus, the brands of global business ecosystems have multiple countries of origin. This study aims to examine the impacts of the country images of the keystone company and assembly companies on consumers’ brand quality perceptions. In addition, depending on the assembly partner selection strategies of forming a global business ecosystem, the characteristics of the associated countries with the business ecosystem may change. The keystone company may select an assembly partner from a developing country or from a developed country. These two cases are compared to examine the impacts of the combined country images of the keystone and assembly companies. To do so, this study surveys Vietnamese consumers’ perceptions of the brand Hyundai Motor, the country images of South Korea as the country of the keystone company, India as the assembly partner from the developing country, and USA as the assembly partner from the developed country. The collected data were analyzed using a structural equations modeling method and results are discussed with theoretical and managerial implications

Study on Business Ecosystem Research Trend Using Network Text Analysis

The management environment is moving into a new phase with the changing global circumstances. The business ecosystem as a management strategy has been studied for the last 30 years since the concept was introduced. The purpose of this study was to analyze the research trend in business ecosystem by using network next analysis and to understand the concept, being one that is still being actively studied. Network text analysis is a commonly used method to analyze research trends by forming networks based on bibliographic data of the articles, namely, keywords. For the analysis, we collected the data and keywords from 340 research papers published in global academic journals related to business ecosystem on the basis of the Scopus database. Through keywords extraction and cleansing, we found that the keywords of “innovation”, “sustainability”, and “platform” were mentioned most frequently, and the research topics were correlated to each other. Moreover, we conducted degree centrality and betweenness centrality analysis along with clustering analysis by transforming the two-mode network into a one-mode network. Degree centrality involves analyzing the degree to which one keyword links to other keywords, and betweenness centrality shows the mediating effects of a keyword to other keywords. In the centrality analysis results, “innovation”, “sustainability”, “platform”, and “business model” showed the highest degree centrality, and “sustainability”, “innovation”, “China”, and “platform” had the highest betweenness centrality. Then, we classified the clusters of subtopics into five groups. The current study examined accumulated research and suggested a comprehensive understanding of the research trend in business ecosystem by incorporating a method enabling research trend analysis to secure objectivity. This research is expected to help researchers to review the research trend in business ecosystem and identify expandable topics for further studies

Affective Policy Performance Evaluation Model: A Case of an International Trade Policy Implementation

Firms often superficially adopt policies because of governmental rules and regulations, so as to avoid penalties or to gain benefits. However, the evaluation and characterization of those kinds of adoptions as policy performance distorts the true level of policy performance: social sustainability. This study proposes an affective policy performance evaluation model. The attitudes of employees toward adopting a policy are characterized into genuine and superficial compliance. Their behaviors are explained through voluntary and opportunistic adoptions. In order to validate the proposed model, a survey was conducted on an international trade policy target group (n = 216) for the Strategic Trade Control System (STCS), in order to understand their attitudes toward adopting the policy. The survey data was analyzed by a structural equation modeling method. The measures of the factors in the proposed model are adopted and modified from existing studies. The most effective resources of policy implementation on the firms’ genuine and superficial compliance and ultimately on the firms’ voluntary policy adoption are revealed through the analysis. Based on the results, this study presents a strategy for allocating and managing policy implementation resources to exclusively encourage firms’ trade policy adoptions

Personality, Gender, and Age as Predictors of Media Richness Preference

Media richness, the degree to which a specific media transmits information in multiple channels, is an important concept as the number of available multimedia communication methods increases regularly. Individuals differ in their preferences for media richness which may influence their choice of communication multimedia in a given situation. These preferences can influence how successful their communication efforts will be. This exploratory study of 299 adults (ages 16–84) with at least a basic ability to compute examines the relationship between multimedia preference and age, gender, and personality traits. Males and people with higher levels of extraversion and agreeableness were found to have a higher preference for media richness. Age was not a significant predictor of media richness preference