Firms' use of organizational, personal, and intermediary networks to gain access to resources for internationalization

Abstract

This study explores which networks are beneficial for gaining resources for firms' internationalization. Little is known about firms' use of organizational, personal, and intermediary networks to gain access to resources for internationalization. Firms are seeking resources through their organization's relationships (organizational networks) and individuals' personal contacts (personal networks). Governmental and industry actors are implementing networks to promote international growth and act as an intermediary between business actors (intermediary networks). We conduct in‐depth interviews with firms and representatives for intermediary networks complemented with a survey. The findings reveal which resources are accessed through the different networks. We find organizational networks provide considerable access to most resources (except financial resources) that are beneficial for internationalization, whereas intermediary networks provide access to reputational, human, and market resources. Personal networks primarily provide access to human resources. This study contributes to theory by giving a more fine‐grained understanding of how different types of networks give access to different resources valuable for internationalization.

Rethinking a Timely Response of Human Resources to Global Signals: A Case of Organizational Reflexes

“…Due to this modelling, a system of environment communication with the organization is being studied as a latent variable that is operationalized by the cumulative interaction of three variables: assessment of human resources (Hu & Zhao, 2020;Gokalp et all., 2020;Klinck & Swanepoel, 2019;Walker et all., 2014;Pandey & Chandel, 2013;Popa & Demyen, 2012;Dadelo et all., 2012), organizational climate (Riego de Dios, 2020; Akbar et all., 2019;Gaviria-Rivera & Zapata, 2019;Nasreen et all., 2019;Berberoglu, 2018;Phua, 2018;Polat & Iskender, 2018;Naldoken & Tengilimoglu, 2017;Pozveh & Karimi, 2016) and organization's internationalization (Brymer et all., 2020;Andersson & Sundermeier, 2019;Vahlne & Bhatti, 2019;Suseno & Pinnington, 2018;Alon et all., 2018;Godos-Diez et all., 2018;Jankowska & Gotz, 2017;Chen et all., 2016;Kalvionyte & Korsakiene, 2016;Fitzgerald & Rowley, 2016;Babinska, 2013). Variables: assessment of human resources, and organizational climate were analyzed as individual factors.…”

“…The limitation of previous research is that assessment of human resources, the organization's climate, and internationalization were not yet analyzed jointly. The research prior to this time explored the fact that an organization communicates with its outer environment, and the way this is utilized: the internationalization (Brymer et all., 2020;Andersson & Sundermeier, 2019;Vahlne & Bhatti, 2019;Suseno & Pinnington, 2018;Alon et all., 2018;Godos-Diez et all., 2018;Jankowska & Gotz, 2017;Chen et all., 2016;Kalvionyte & Korsakiene, 2016;Fitzgerald & Rowley, 2016;Babinska, 2013) as a connectivity system; the organizational climate as a system that remains responsible for the functionality of the organization (Riego de Dios, 2020; Akbar et all., 2019;Gaviria-Rivera & Zapata, 2019;Nasreen et all., 2019;Berberoglu, 2018;Phua, 2018;Polat & Iskender, 2018;Naldoken & Tengilimoglu, 2017;Pozveh & Karimi, 2016); and the assessment of human resources. The assessment of human resources an organization uses as a tool for directing the personnel's efforts to achieve the organizational objectives during the communication process (Hu & Zhao, 2020;Gokalp et all., 2020;Klinck & Swanepoel, 2019;Walker et all., 2014;Pandey & Chandel, 2013;Popa & Demyen, 2012;Dadelo et all., 2012).The previous researchers sufficiently explored the features of the constructs discussed above, but they also revealed the need for a theoretical modeling of their content's compatibility by assessing how an organization's forms and perception of itself could be important for further study of the organization's functioning principles.…”

“…Analysis of human resources management discourse (Sadowska & Lulek, 2020;Jashary & Kutllovci, 2020;Elrehail et all., 2020;Rodjam et all., 2020;Han et all., 2019;Barrena-Martinez et all., 2019;Shah, 2019;Gunnigle et al, 2019;Chaudhary, 2019;Roscoe et all., 2019;Yang et all., 2019;Li et all., 2018;Vasantha & Kennedy, 2017;Newman, 2016;Tang et all., 2015;Youndt et all., 1996) and review of organizational internationalization theory (Brymer et all., 2020;Andersson & Sundermeier, 2019;Vahlne & Bhatti, 2019;Suseno& Pinnington, 2018;Alon et all., 2018;Godos-Diez et all., 2018;Jankowska, Gotz, 2017;Chen et all., 2016;Kalvionyte & Korsakiene, 2016;Fitzgerald & Rowley, 2016;Babinska, 2013) enabled theoretical modeling of the system that explores the fundamentals of information reception incoming from the global environment in an organization. This finding has led to the development of a concept that describes the ability of a public-sector organization to respond to the tasks related to its internationalization.…”

Sport and International Management: Exploring research synergy

“…Sport, thus, can provide a novel lens for IB researchers to examine a range of topics related to the global mobility of human resources. These include expatriation and repatriation (Bolino, 2007), use of personal employees networks (Andersson & Sundermeier, 2019), global talent management (Abeuova & Muratbekova‐Touron, 2019; Allen, Lee, & Reiche, 2015), global careers (van Bakel & Salzbrenner, 2019), bicultural individuals and acculturation (Szymanski et al, 2019), and the role of language in IB (Harzing & Pudelko, 2013).…”

Business group affiliation and SMEs’ international sales intensity and diversification: A multi-country study

“…In addition, the study contributes to the literature and theory development associated with the impact of networks on internationalization by using a multi-country study to examine how different contextual factors at the organizational, industrial, and national levels determine the impact of networks (e.g., BGs) on the internationalization of SMEs (Sedziniauskiene, Sekliuckiene, & Zucchella, 2019). Furthermore, our study contributes by addressing a gap in the literature regarding the role of different network ties on the internationalization of SMEs, including the diversity of network tie characteristics (Andersson & Sundermeier, 2019).…”