Hannu Makkonen

Industrial buyers' use of references, word-of-mouth and reputation in complex buying situation

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to provide understanding on how the buyer can mobilize experience-based information scattered around the business network, by means of customer references, word-of-mouth and reputation, and how this facilitates the buying process. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative study scrutinizes eight cases comprising buyers of knowledge intensive services and technology innovations. The paper draws on the literature on buying and purchasing, customer references, word-of-mouth and reputational information. Findings – The findings identify the different roles of references, word-of-mouth, collegial advice networks, and reputation, and suggest that experience-based information provides information on offerings, suppliers and the problem solving situation in complex buying per se. Research limitations/implications – The articles contribution is to provide a framework depicting the employment of experience-based information in complex buying, which ensues through focal and co...

Innovation adoption and diffusion in business-to-business marketing

Purpose – The current knowledge concerning how organizations adopt innovations is considerably less than the sum of its parts. The aim of this paper is to review the innovation adoption and diffusion approach and connect it with the main related theoretical fields within business-to-business marketing. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a conceptual discussion, the aim being to develop an integrative conceptual framework. Findings – The adoption and diffusion approach gives little indication of the effects on adoption of the established relationships and the wider relational setting comprising the direct and indirect influences between the network actors. It is rather the innovation and the related communication that are in focus. As a result, the innovation and its adoption and diffusion are considered unique phenomena, the actors are assigned the static roles of opinion leaders and change agents, social system can be defined, and there is no competition. The current theoretical approaches within the business-to-business marketing could provide support in building a more realistic view of adoption and diffusion in industrial context. Originality/value – The contribution of the proposed conceptual model lies in its capacity to take into account organizational behavior in the form of individual-level actions that underpin the adoption process and relate this intra-firm behavior to its wider network context, thereby facilitating the production of a system-level account and a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of adoption.

Social capital approach on Enterprise 2.0: a multiple case study

The goal of Enterprise 2.0 is to create a collaborative work environment and facilitate knowledge sharing. However, organisations report both increases and decreases in productivity associated with Enterprise 2.0. The focal qualitative case study adopts the social capital approach as a theoretical lens to provide a holistic account of Enterprise 2.0. The study reveals the multilevel and multifaceted nature of Enterprise 2.0 and shows how it associates with individual employees’ behaviours, their mutual work- and non-work-related relationships and knowledge sharing patterns, as well as managerial processes. Thus, the study continues and contributes by going beyond the mere operational use and benefits of Enterprise 2.0, and approaches it as a holistic socio-technical phenomenon that largely intertwines with organisational realities and strategic management. Furthermore, the study provides a discussion on Enterprise 2.0 as a driver of social change, and what kind of managerial action and involvement is required for its success.

The potential of network pictures for international alliance and network research

International alliance and network research has largely focused on finding one-dimensional correlation between alliance/network characteristics and internationalization variables. This has resulted in a dearth of holistic studies to increase our understanding on co-evolving network processes and structures. In this chapter, we discuss the limitations of the research domain, and assess how network pictures could advance international business (IB) network research. The notion of network pictures builds on and encapsulates wide areas of literature with regard to sensemaking, cognition, and mental maps, with an aim to further understanding on the dynamics between individual network actors, their intentions and actions, and the structural and processual elements of their surrounding business networks. In particular, we focus on how network pictures could advance IB network research in terms of managerial sensemaking, multi-level research and temporal dimension. This consideration provides a basis from which to outline a systematic, general research framework for international alliance and network studies, linking together the (cultural, national, organizational, and network) context, network pictures and networking activities underpinning the international network development. We describe the possibilities for utilizing the broad network picture framework in various IB-related studies, that is, we discuss the potential use of network pictures in further international alliance and network research.