Sergey Anokhin

Quality Meets Structure: Generalized Reciprocity and Firm-Level Advantage in Strategic Networks

In this paper we extend previous research by combining network structural and network process approaches. Specifically, in a six-year, three-wave study of 41 firms in two strategic networks, we found that the interaction between generalized reciprocity among a focal firms partners and network tie intensity and betweenness centrality improved firm performance. No influences were observed for the interaction involving degree centrality and generalized reciprocity. Our research suggests that managers in strategic networks may need to consider the balance between relationship-extensive and relationship-intensive strategies.

Managing Maturing Government‐Supported Networks: The Shift from Monitoring to Embeddedness Controls

In formal inter‐firm networks backed with significant financial support by policy‐makers, network boards are typically established to monitor network activities and to manage the tension between organizational and collective interests. This approach to network governance, however, builds mainly upon agency logic. We integrate agency with embeddedness theory to offer insights into the effectiveness of monitoring as a governance mechanism as networks mature and member firms become embedded. The analyses focus on two issues: (1) how network board characteristics typically associated with monitoring – board independence, board size and board compensation – influence network performance; and (2) how these effects are moderated by network age. The model is tested with longitudinal data on 53 government‐supported networks. In addition to the direct effects of board characteristics, network board size and board compensation have a stronger positive impact on network performance in younger networks than in more mature networks. This study provides insight into why the instituting of boards may prove successful for network‐level performance in newly formed government‐supported networks, but also explains why the positive effects from network board monitoring may diminish as networks grow older.

Measuring Arbitrage Opportunities: A Minimum Performance Inefficiency Estimation Technique

Entrepreneurs respond to opportunities that come in two basic forms: innovation and arbitrage. This article presents a technique called the minimum performance inefficiency (MPI) estimation method that could be used to estimate arbitrage opportunities. The technique has several advantages over the conceptually similar data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other techniques. The authors validate the technique with a well-known data set and illustrate its use based on secondary data from the publishing industry.

Using Decision Sciences to Enhance Entrepreneurial Foresight: The Comprehensive Situation Mapping Approach

The theoretical simplicity of contrasting the notion of energetic search of Baron and Fiet with that of alertness (without search) of Kirzner have been winning over more complex yet more actionable formulations. In contrast, this paper introduces a less dogmatic and more actionable integrated framework that could be viewed as either passive search or active alertness. By investigates how the thinking and methods of decision sciences can assist with capturing alertness, the paper shows how foresight can be implemented in practice through a newer form of causal mapping, Acar’s Comprehensive Situation Mapping (CSM). This is an enhanced form of causal mapping that lends itself to dialectical debate and assumption analysis. It also possesses computational properties that allow it to devise and compute change scenarios. Bringing CSM into the field of entrepreneurship augments the latter’s analytical capability for opportunity recognition and contributes an actionable approach to entrepreneurial strategy selection.

Supporting innovation in government-sponsored networks: The role of network board composition

With growing public and private support of networks of small and medium-sized firms, many networks rely on network boards to ensure effective governance. By integrating agency and embeddedness reasoning, this article argues that network board composition aimed at effective monitoring may be at the cost of lost ability to strategize. In this study, longitudinal data of Swedish government-supported innovation networks demonstrate that network innovation improves as network board size increases, but that returns to such increases diminish when boards become overly large. Similarly, network board independence is beneficial up to a certain threshold, after which further increases in independence become detrimental. The study clarifies how agency and embeddedness theory can be combined to explain boards’ abilities to combine monitoring and strategizing at the network level in increasing the levels of network innovation.

Costly Ties: Social Capital as a Retardant of Network‐Level Entrepreneurial Orientation

Challenging social capital research, we argue that network top management teams (s) established to support entrepreneurship in strategic multipartner networks should be careful in developing ties to outside organizations and networks. We suggest that such ties limit the network s ability to engage in the strategy‐making processes needed to facilitate entrepreneurial orientation on a network level. Based on five‐year panel data from 53 formalized networks of small and medium‐sized enterprises, we demonstrate that homogenous and highly educated network s can compensate the negative effects of ties to other organizations, but not the negative effects of interlocking directorates.

Entrepreneurial Orientation, Firm Market Power and Opportunism in Networks

Purpose – This study aims to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation, firm market power and their interaction on opportunism in horizontal exchange networks. The aim is to investigate how entrepreneurial orientation and market power individually can lead to opportunism, but possessing both characteristics will mitigate such behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Based on an analysis of 108 firms in 25 networks using a panel-corrected standard errors approach, the study tests hypotheses regarding how entrepreneurial orientation, firm market power and their interaction impact opportunism within a focal horizontal network. Findings – The results of the analysis show that entrepreneurial orientation and firm market power are both positively related to network opportunism, but when firms possess both characteristics, opportunism toward fellow network actors is mitigated. Research limitations/implications – Research on entrepreneurial orientation has primarily examined the positive outcomes of the st...

Venture migration: a quest for a low-hanging fruit?

Venture migration, in addition to firm entry and exit, affects business stock in a region. This study draws on mainstream entrepreneurship and economic geography literatures to explore the factors explaining net venture migration. Using a data-set on 88 Ohio counties during 2000–2006, it suggests that venture migration is largely a quest for a low-hanging fruit. Relocating firms are drawn to areas with higher sales tax rates that give them access to interest-free financing, higher unemployment rates and better-qualified workforce as well as ample arbitrage opportunities. At the same time, innovative opportunities do not attract migrating ventures.

Coopetition in corporate venture capital: the relationship between network attributes, corporate innovativeness, and financial performance

We analyse corporate venture capital (CVC) as a characteristic form of coopetition. In doing so, we apply the network perspective and examine the influence of three important network attributes - namely centrality, subgroups, and structural holes - on a coopetitors innovativeness and subsequent financial performance. We test our hypotheses with the data from CVC investments of 162 corporations operating in a variety of industries over the course of six years. Our results show that a coopetitors centrality in the respective CVC network positively affects corporate innovativeness, whereas belonging to a restricted subgroup suppresses innovativeness. In turn, innovativeness is positively related to subsequent financial performance. Thus, by strategically managing its position in a CVC network, coopetitors increase their own innovativeness that lead to superior financial outcomes.

The dark side of multi-unit franchising: The drawbacks of local responsiveness

In attempting to solve agency issues associated with single-unit franchising and international adaptation issues with company-owned outlets, franchisors engage in multi-unit franchising. Extant research has examined the antecedents and positive outcomes of multi-unit franchising, but the dark side has largely been neglected. In a sample of 16 corporations that operate 25 brands from the period of 2005–2012, we examine how the density of multi-unit franchising impacts overall franchise system growth and internationalization growth. The results of our study show that multi-unit franchising negatively impacts franchise system growth and a franchise system’s internationalization efforts. While benefits of multi-unit franchising have been explicated by previous research, our results show that companies should be concerned about the long-term impact of multi-unit franchising and that there is indeed a dark side.