Defining social capital in terms of the information benefits available to a firm due to its strategic alliances we present a theory of social capital that conceptualizes it as a multidimensional construct. We draw from the literature to argue that social capital yields three distinctly different kinds of information benefits in the form of information volume, information diversity, and information richness. This extends current theoretical and empirical research by specifying and empirically demonstrating three interrelated yet distinct dimensions of social capital. Firms vary in their levels of social capital not just on their structural position in an alliance network but also in the dynamics that underlie alliance formation and maintenance. More importantly, the different dimensions of social capital theoretically provide differential benefits. We establish the construct validity of our proposed three-dimensional conceptualization of social capital using longitudinal data on the population of strategic alliances formed during the period 1980-94 by firms in the global steel industry. In addition, we establish predictive validity by demonstrating that the information dimensions have differential effects on firm performance, using firm nationality as a contingency.The rapid proliferation of strategic alliances has been one of the more enduring features of the business environment over the last two decades. This trend of multiple alliances with multiple partners has embedded firms in intricate webs of interfirm networks. Recognizing the complex interdependencies between firms, strategy researchers have increasingly moved from a dyadic level of analysis to a network level in order to understand the nature and effect of such networks (Shan, Walker, and Kogut, 1994;Madhavan, 1996;Ahuja, 2000). Such research has explicitly but more often implicitly focused on the notion of social capital to explain the nature and benefits to firms through these networks.

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Afield study was conducted to investigate changes in the importance of project critical success factors across four stages in the project life cycle. A total of 408 project managers or project team members cur-rently involved in a project responded to the questionnaire. Ridge regression analysis was performed on the initially derived ten critical success factors, reducing the final number of critical success factors to eight. A stepwise regression was then done on the critical success factors at each of the four stages in the project life cycle. Results indi-cated that the relative importance of several of the criticalfactors change significantly based on life cycle stages.

Cross-functional teams can greatly facilitate the successful implementation of projects. This study examined the influence of a set four antecedent constructs (superordinate goals, accessibility, physical proximity and formalized rules and procedures) on the attainment of both cross-functional cooperation and perceived project outcomes. Through the use of path analysis, the results indicated that superordinate goals, physical proximity and project team rules and procedures have significant direct and/or indirect effects on project outcomes through influencing cross-functional cooperation. Further, cross-functional cooperation was a significant predictor of both perceived task and psychosocial project outcomes. Directions for management practice and future research are discussed.project management, project implementation, cross-functional cooperation, team building and development

Alliance networks are strategic decisions involving trade‐offs between two stylized structural design choices: prominent and entrepreneurial. Prominent alliance networks emphasize benefits arising out of multiple access and affiliation to other prominent firms in the network. An entrepreneurial position, on the other hand, emphasizes brokerage and diversity benefits arising out of access to nonredundant and diverse information. We demonstrate that the performance benefits of each type of alliance network are contingent on environmental change and strategy, and are thus time dependent. Following an environmental change event in the steel industry, alliance networks that were more entrepreneurial performed better, while those that were more prominent suffered performance decline. However, when the change was radical, both types of alliance networks were negatively related to performance. We suggest that following a radical change, industry alliance networks may not have the requisite information necessary for quick and effective strategic responses. Firms pursuing an analyzer strategy performed better when emphasizing a prominent, and to a lesser extent, entrepreneurial alliance network. However, firms that develop an alliance network high on both prominent and entrepreneurial structural positions had lower relative performance. Our results indicate the need for managers to assess their alliance portfolio over time and redesign it based on environmental and strategic contingencies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.