Personal relationships and innovation diffusion in SME networks: A content analysis approach

Ceci, Federica; Iubatti, Daniela

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2011.10.003

Cited by 120 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…We showed that localized potential social capital is crucial for knowledge and information flows on involvement in foreign markets, and provided empirical support for this claim. This paper contributes to the theoretical and empirical literature showing that firms benefit from localized spillovers through local social ties (e.g., Breschi & Lissoni, 2009;Ceci & Iubatti, 2012;Cooke et al, 2005;Eapen, 2012;Owen-Smith & Powell, 2004;Porter, 2000;Saxenian, 1994). Although some studies warn about the possibility and report anecdotal evidence of negative effects (e.g., Porter, 2000: 24), to our knowledge no research has demonstrated these effects using a large-scale data set.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Trapped or spurred by the home region? The effects of potential social capital on involvement in foreign markets for goods and technology

2012

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Drawing on social capital theory and the international business literature, we argue that domestic geography, in terms of localized potential social capital, facilitates individual firms' awareness of business opportunities, including knowledge related to involvement in the foreign markets for goods and technology, thereby enhancing firms' involvement in those foreign markets. When potential social capital reaches a certain threshold, it may work to trap firms into operating only within their home regions, thus reducing involvement in foreign markets. We conjecture that firms' research and development investment moderates the relationship between potential social capital and degree of involvement in foreign markets, but given the very different properties of the two markets, with different signs for each market: a positive moderation effect for the markets for goods, and a negative effect for the markets for technology. We find empirical support for our arguments based on a representative sample of around 2000 Italian firms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Trapped or spurred by the home region? The effects of potential social capital on involvement in foreign markets for goods and technology

2012

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“…Although the focus tends to be on networking, cooperation or alliances between businesses, some authors argue that it is the personal relationships between businesses that facilitate the success of diffusion and adaptation of innovation, which in turn increases the competitiveness of firms (Ceci and Iubatti, 2012). In similar fashion, MacGrath and O'Toole (2010) point out that the outcome is heavily dependent on the individual perception of the network as interconnected business relations or on personal contacts built on trust, commitment, and communication.…”

Section: Network As the Theoretical Point Of Departurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sponsor networks and business relations orchestrated by team sports clubs

Wagner

Persson

Overbye

2017

SBM

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate firms’ reasons and motives for becoming sponsors and how they benefit from this networking engagement by exploring sponsorship networks associated with two Danish team sport clubs – a Premier League football club and a second-division handball club. Design/methodology/approach Two online surveys were conducted with firms associated with the networks during the Autumn and Winter of 2013/2014 (n=116). The questionnaire was theoretically anchored in the existing sponsorship literature, business network research, and social capital theory. Findings The results show that business logics were the dominating reasons for joining the network. A large proportion of the respondents reported having increased their number of business (32 percent) and social (26 percent) relations with other network members after joining the network. Furthermore, 37 percent of the respondents reported having made business agreements with companies external to the network via network contacts, which supports ideas of bridging social capital. More than half the respondents (59 percent) preferred doing business with network members rather than with non-members. Originality/value By investigating a local and regional sport club context, the paper adds to our knowledge about sponsorship networks. It emphasizes the potential importance of team sport clubs for the business landscape, thus maintaining that sport clubs fulfill an important role for local communities beyond being mere entertainment industries.

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“…Cooperation among competitors in the provision of industry-specific skills is beneficial to establish training standards and also lowers the costs of investment in skills and information sharing [55]. Such relationships can improve a firm's innovation capability [56][57][58][59] and are the source of "collective efficiency" [60], i.e., competitive advantage generated by the local external economy and joint action. Firstly, firms of the same trade have similar worker skill demands.…”

Section: Inter-firm Relationships and Rumws' Skill Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These communities not only solve accommodation problems, but also provide employment information, offer job opportunities, safeguard economic interests of RUMWs and solve labor-capital disputes. Moreover, social relationships based on similar career experience as RUMWs or fellow townsman associations also provide RUMWs with platforms to share sensitive information and advice, learn skills, and enhance their ability to negotiate with firms to realize increases in income and improvements in work and living conditions [59,69]. However, due to a lack of elites, such communities have a limited effect on the improvement of RUMWs' human capital.…”

Section: Rural-urban Migrant Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustaining Regional Advantages in Manufacturing: Skill Accumulation of Rural–Urban Migrant Workers in the Coastal Area of China

et al. 2017

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Extant research pays little attention to unorganized migrant workers' skill accumulation/upgrading from the perspective of the labor supply. This paper takes China as an example to explore the factors influencing the skill accumulation of rural-urban migrant workers (RUMWs), with the purpose of discovering how to sustain or reshape regional competitive advantages by improving RUMWs' skill accumulation. Structured questionnaire surveys were adopted for data collection in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province and Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province located in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China. In total, 700 questionnaires were issued and 491 effective questionnaires were recovered. It takes the perspective of individual laborers, with special regard to the effects of localization on the laborers' skill accumulation within the context of globalization. It adopts a broad viewpoint including intra-firm skill-biased strategy (as a response to intense competition), inter-firm relationships, and the accessibility of local non-firm organizations. The findings indicate that firms' skill preference, which impacts employees' skills and innovation ability and stimulates them to learn with initiative, have a significant influence on RUMWs' skill accumulation. In terms of collective efficiency based on the co-competitive relationship between local firms, the more intensive interactions are, the more opportunities RUMWs are afforded for skill accumulation. The accessibility of local institutions and favorable policies also benefit RUMWs' skill accumulation. In addition, the place itself, as a synthesized space of a firm's internal labor-management relations and inter-organizational relations, also exerts an influence on and causes regional differences in RUMWs' skill accumulation.

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Personal relationships and innovation diffusion in SME networks: A content analysis approach

Cited by 120 publications

References 94 publications

Trapped or spurred by the home region? The effects of potential social capital on involvement in foreign markets for goods and technology

Trapped or spurred by the home region? The effects of potential social capital on involvement in foreign markets for goods and technology

Sponsor networks and business relations orchestrated by team sports clubs

Sustaining Regional Advantages in Manufacturing: Skill Accumulation of Rural–Urban Migrant Workers in the Coastal Area of China

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