Heléne Lundberg

Designing for commitment in regional strategic networks

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to model the impact of structural factors and activities on commitment in a regional strategic network (RSN) context. Design/methodology/approach - A longitudinal case study examines two regional strategic networks acting in different business areas in mid Sweden. Findings - Competition-neutral, social, and personal goals were found to be powerful drivers promoting shared values and commitment among competitors, whereas business-related goals worked well for complementary firms, providing a more stable basis for network commitment. In the RSN with a large number of members, sensitivity to absence was low, but it took longer for members to get to know one another, slowing commitment development. The RSN including members with complementary resources proved a more favorable setting than did the RSN including competitors, and frequent activities that favored social relationship development increased commitment. Research limitations/implications - This study identifies important factors influencing the development of commitment in network contexts, but is limited to two cases. The topic merits further research: other factors need consideration, and the factors discussed here should be evaluated in other contexts. Practical implications - The impact on network commitment of the factors discussed here needs to be considered by RSN initiators and hubs. Originality/value - Few studies treat commitment in RSN contexts. This paper addresses this deficit by identifying structural factors and activities that influence commitment development.

Triple Helix in practice: the key role of boundary spanners

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to generate additional insight into how the Triple Helix approach can be practiced in a regional context.Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes an attempt to develop innovation in a Swedish region, using the Triple Helix approach. The case study is based on a variety of data sources, including a number of semi‐structured interviews.Findings – In implementing the Triple Helix approach, a key role was that of boundary spanners who scanned and pooled ideas for, and interest in, specific projects, building relevant networks and bridging the various involved cultures by semantically translating domain‐specific knowledge. The case also illustrates institutional entrepreneurship as the actors changed the system in which they acted.Research limitations/implications – The data come from one country and one region only. The use of other data and other research methods would shed more light on the studied issues.Practical implications – The driving and integrating r...

Strategic networks for increased regional competitiveness: two Swedish cases

Purpose – Clusters and networks have become cornerstones of regional development efforts. This paper discusses the ability of regional strategic networks (RSN) to bring about cluster effects and how structural factors will affect performance of RSNs.Design/methodology/approach – The paper compares structural aspects of prosperous clusters, as identified in cluster theory, with characteristics of RSNs. A theoretical discussion is supplemented with a study of two Swedish cases with structurally different settings.Findings – It is found that membership in a RSN may increase the competitiveness of individual firms and thereby also have a positive impact on regional competitiveness. However, a RSN cannot fully reproduce or create cluster conditions. The main outcome in the cases concerned visibility aspects of firm membership.Practical implications – Network initiators and coordinators will benefit from awareness of implications for outcomes caused by the member composition of RSNs.Originality/value – By analy...

Time, Temporality, and Internationalization: The Relationship Among Point in Time of, Time to, and Speed of International Expansion

Speed of internationalization is a multidimensional concept with performance consequences, but little is known about the interrelatedness between different time-related concepts. The authors address this deficiency by developing three hypotheses, which are confronted with a data set collected on site at 203 small and medium-sized enterprises. The analysis reveals that (1) the longer the time to internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion; (2) the earlier the point in time when internationalization starts, the lower the speed of international expansion; and (3) there is an antagonistic interaction effect revealing that the negative effect on the speed of international expansion caused by a longer time to internationalization is moderated by the point in time when internationalization starts. The study contributes to theory by examining the interrelatedness between temporal concepts in the internationalization literature and by showing how the underlying mechanisms influencing internationalization speed change over time. For managers, insights into the importance of time and temporality for successful international expansion are provided.

Transaction convenience in the payment stage: the retailers’ perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light upon how retailers view alternative payment forms and to what extent they are willing to risk offending their customers by imposing payment restrictions. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study consists of three consecutive parts: first, 100 situations of paying for goods or services; second, interviews with 25 of these 100 retailers; and third, observations at a meeting between retailers and bank representatives on various aspects of card and cash payments. Findings – Retailers are unwilling to risk offending their customers and do not normally undertake any actions to affect the customers’ choice of payment form, except for proactively or reactively excluding the use of certain expensive credit cards, and card payments for small amounts. The retailers only take the risk of causing customer dissatisfaction when they feel that the sacrifice for not doing so is too costly, and in these cases the salespersons act very late in the purchase pro...

Challenges, Complexities and Advantages of Regional Strategic Networks

Interaction between companies cannot be taken for granted even when cluster conditions seem to be at hand as exemplified by Claus Steinle, Holger Schiele and Kai Mietzner in Chapter 4. In response to such interaction deficits, networking is frequently used by national and regional policymakers as a way to ‘engineer’ regional development. This book presents relevant cases from around the world, the similarities of which are pronounced. These attempts to promote networking meet with difficulties, while presenting various potential advantages for companies that choose to participate actively in them. The chapters provide examples of various outcomes in terms of marketing cooperation, production cooperation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge development, all of which likely support regional development.

Why Expatriates’ Private Relations Matter

Due to increasing globalisation it follows that a growing number of expatriate managers, that is, individuals having a managerial position in a foreign country, play a critical role within multinational corporations (MNCs), acting as a link between headquarters and the international units (Au and Fukuda 2002). In order to perform well in this role, they need to align their behaviour with the host country’s cultural norms and values. The larger the cultural differences, the more demanding this task is likely to be. The expatriates need both a willingness to adapt as well as information regarding local conditions. Such information can be gained from various sources: the human resource department of the MNC in questions, locally from co-workers, other expatriates or personal friends among host country nationals. In total, the latter relationships constitute their social network which, in line with Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl (2008: 33) in the context of expatriates, is defined as ‘relational ties between the expatriate and other individuals, such as family, peer expatriates, local working partners, or local friends’.