Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of
triad structures, and the management mechanisms adopted by the focal company,
affect cooperative performance. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a
social network perspective to examine the triad management phenomenon in the
military avionics maintenance context, which is closely associated with the
field of operations management. Findings – This paper demonstrates that
different triad structures and management mechanisms influence perceived
cooperative performance. Four main findings emerged: in a triad, a firm playing
a bridging role perceives higher cooperative performance than when playing a
peripheral role in the triad or being located in a fully connected triad. When a
firm plays the bridging role in a triad, and has a high level of trust, this
leads to higher perceived cooperative performance. When a firm plays a
peripheral role in a triad, high levels of coordination mechanism combined with
high levels of trust result in higher levels of perceived cooperative
performance. In a fully linked triad, when the coordination mechanism is well
developed, the level of trust is high, so that the resulting level of perceived
cooperation is high. Originality/value – This paper extends the knowledge of
triad management by providing an in-depth study of a well-defined network
setting with exceptionally high-level access to the most senior executives. In
practice, this paper shows how to manage differen
