Alliance Network Research Articles

Do Institutional Reforms Perpetuate or Mitigate the Matthew Effect? Intellectual Property Rights and Access to International Alliances

Institutional reforms can profoundly alter the competitive positions of firms. Yet there has been limited research on which firms benefit most from these reforms: are the opportunities they create seized primarily by the most prominent firms, thus perpetuating a ‘rich get richer’ dynamic, or by previously peripheral firms, thus leveling the playing field? We address this question by exploring how intellectual property rights (IPR) reforms affect access to international alliances, a valuable channel of resources for firms in emerging markets. We find a significant increase in the number of international alliances formed by firms from the reforming countries corresponding precisely with the timing of IPR law improvements. This increase is strongest for firms that were ‘peripheral’ pre-reform: those that were of low status in the global alliance network and those located outside major cities in the reforming countries. Peripheral firms also benefitted the most from IPR improvements in terms of the quality of their alliance portfolios, gaining partners of higher status, from technologically stronger countries, and from a wider diversity of countries. Our study suggests that institutions play a role in mitigating the Matthew effect in global alliance networks.

Current Status and Challenges of a Computerized Clinical Pathway for Gastric Cancer in a Regional Alliance Network

Current Status and Challenges of a Computerized Clinical Pathway for Gastric Cancer in a Regional Alliance Network

Analysis of the Terrorist Organization Alliance Network Based on Complex Network Theory

Preventing terrorist attacks is crucial to the development and safety of a country. Therefore, studying the law and the occurrence of terrorist attacks enable the countries to develop steadily. Specially, we have noticed that over time, terrorism has gradually shown the characteristics that are manifested as vast and hidden geographical distribution and can be modeled as networks. Based on such characteristics, the traditional method of analyzing individual terrorist organizations no longer serves the needs of anti-terrorism security research under the new situation. Since the terrorist organizations can be modeled as networks, terrorists use their associated networks, which is aimed to achieve the greater and more rapid criminal activity. In view of the above characteristics of the terrorist organization in the new era, in this paper, we introduce the social network theory to analyze the regular patterns of the terrorist attacks. First, we analyze the terrorist attacks in the data set. If two or more terrorist organizations participate in the certain terrorist attack at the same time, they will establish a side-by-side relationship and increase the weight of one side. In this way, the terrorist organization network is constructed and the statistical analysis can be carried out. Then, we divide the organization of the terrorist organization network by means of community division method and the terrorist organization is classified in detail. Here, the classification of terrorist organizations into 13 categories laid the foundation for subsequent analysis. The experimental results verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed analysis.

An Integrated Core Competence Evaluation Framework for Portfolio Management in the Oil Industry

The proponents of resource-based theory argue that efficient management of core competence portfolio provides sustainable competitive advantages. However, literature demonstrates little evidence regarding (i) how to identify core competence, specifically for a company operating in the oil sector, (ii) how to identify tangible and intangible resources related to the core competence of the company, and (iii) how to manage a company’s competence portfolio more efficiently by forging network alliances with collaborating firms. Drawing upon resource-based theory this paper presents a core competence evaluation framework for managing the competence portfolio of an oil company. The paper introduces a network typology to illustrate how to form different types of strategic alliance relations with partnering firms to manage and grow the competence portfolio. The framework is tested using a case study approach involving face-to-face structured interviews with twenty-five divisional managers of a large oil company in the Middle East. We identified purchasing, refining and sales and marketing as strong candidates to be the core competencies of the company. However, despite the company’s core business of refining oil, the core competencies were identified to be their research and development and performance management (PM) capabilities. We further provide a procedure to determine different kinds of physical, intellectual and cultural resources making a dominant impact on company’s competence portfolio. In addition, we provide a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to develop core competence further by forging a partnership alliance choosing an appropriate network topology. The paper makes many contributions to the field of strategic management and core competence evaluation in the oil sector. The guidelines provided can assist practitioners with devising appropriate network relationships with partnering companies in order to outsource, divest, protect and/or develop their core competence portfolio.

Building a Cross-Sectoral Interorganizational Network to Advance Nonprofits: NGO Incubators as Relationship Brokers in China

In light of the recent rise of Chinese nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and the significant roles that they are playing to advance nonprofit and voluntary activities, this article explores the network dynamics of emerging NGOs in China, known as NGO incubators. NGO incubators were birthed to provide services to civil society actors, including capacity-building training, fundraising, information support, and network formation guidance. This study examines the evolution of the organizational network of the largest Chinese NGO incubator over its 6-year formative period and provides fresh empirical evidence to illustrate how NGO incubators can powerfully bridge structural holes and build cross-sectoral alliance networks in a nascent civil society. Theoretical and practical implications for NGO development are discussed.

Role of Tribes in Current Libyan Conflict

The article explores tribal aspect of Libyan policy. Cases of Warfalla and Tuareg tribal groups show an important role of tribal entities in modern Libya. In focus are activity of Social Council of Warfalla Tribes as an influential political actor with its own armed force and successful fight of Tuareg militias over control of huge El Sharara oilfield as well as their confrontation with Tubu tribal militias. The main sources for the research are information from such Internet-journals as Reuters, The Economist, Al-Monitor, The Libya Observer, etc. as well as reports from expert groups such as Country of Origin Information (COI) and Global Security. The research led to the conclusion that tribal political actors play an independent role in the process of civil confrontation in Libya. By the manipulation of loyalties and maneuvering among official political actors they protect their own kind of “hidden sovereignty” over territories and resources. Main political leaders of the country, Khalifa Haftar and Fayez al-Sarraj, are actually dependent on complicated mosaic of tribal interests which determines changing loyalties of tribal actors. At the same time tribal actors often have links over the borders of the state. Tuareg are fine example of this phenomenon, while Tuareg tribal militias are allied with armed tribal movements of their kinsmen in Mali and Niger. The case of Social Council of Warfalla Tribes appears to be very helpful example. The institutions of governance as well as network of alliances developed by tribal actors in fact create a spontaneous institutional alternative to a project of centralized nation-state in Libya. Representatives of these unofficial non-state institutions work in different social spheres on a grassroots level.

Dynamics of Cooperation in Minority Games in Alliance Networks

Alliance networks are the underlying structures of social systems in business, management, and society. The sustainability and dynamics of a social system rely on the structural evolutions of the topologies. Understanding the evolution sheds light on the dynamics and sustainability of a social system. Minority game models have been successfully applied across social science, economy, management, and engineering. They provide simple yet applicable modeling to articulate the evolutionary cooperation dynamics of competitive players in binary decision situations. By extending the minority games played in alliance networks, the cooperation in structured systems of different network topologies is analyzed. In this model, local and global score strategies are considered with and without cooperation rewiring options. The cooperation level, the score, and the topological properties are investigated. The research uses a numerical simulation approach on random networks, scale-free networks, and small-world networks. The results suggest that the network rewiring strategy leads to higher systemic performance with a higher score and a higher level of stability in decision-making. Competitive decision-making can lead to a higher level of cooperation from a poor initial start. However, stubbornness in decision-making can lead to a poor situation when cooperation is discouraged. Players with local or global information adopt local and global score strategies. The results show that local strategies might lead to imbalance, while a global strategy might achieve a relatively stable outcome. This work contributes to bridge minority games in structured networks to study the cooperation between formation and evolution, and calls for future minority game modeling on social networks.

“How Little Progress”? A Political Economy of Postcolonial Nutrition

“How Little Progress”? A Political Economy of Postcolonial Nutrition

Creating a shared past: The representation of Medici–Habsburg relations in the wedding celebrations for Eleonora de Toledo and Cosimo I de’ Medici

AbstractIn the summer of 1539, an elaborate, ephemeral programme of decoration was constructed in Florence to celebrate the wedding of Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora Álvarez de Toledo. Through an interplay of painting, sculpture, heraldry, and classical allusions, the programme constructed a narrative of the marriage as the culmination of a history of mutual support between the Medici family and the Spanish monarchy. In so doing, this article argues, it revealed the dynamic by which the network of political alliances and exchanges that made Spanish hegemony on the Italian peninsula possible operated. The narrative re‐presented the distant and recent history of Medici–Spanish relations and re‐created Florence as a middle ground between Spanish imperialism and Italian resistance and autonomy. It revealed the way in which Spanish Habsburg hegemony in Italy relied on dialogue, accommodation, mutual reciprocity, and a creative interpretation of the past and present.

Networks of collaborative alliances: the second order interfirm technological distance and innovation performance

Studies have typically focused on the relationship between technological distance between partners in alliances, and innovation performance, from a direct tie or dyadic perspective. This paper explores the ego network set up in order to disclose how the second order technological distance, which is the distance between the partner and the partner’s partner, affects the innovation performance of the focal firm. To accomplish it, the network of alliances is built using biotechnological joint patents. The main result of this research is the finding of a positive quadratic relationship between the innovative performance of firms and second-order technological distance. This result has two implications. The first one is that the innovative performance of each firm embedded in a network cannot be optimized simultaneously. The second one, is that firm’s decision makers should consider the second-order neighborhood of the focal firm to establish optimal alliance in terms of innovation and enhance firm’s competitive advantage. Overall, this research set a new perspective to understand and improve the role of individual firms in collaborative networks, and help to complement the dominant view emphasizing the role of indirect ties in order to innovate.

Domestic alliance networks and regional strategies of MNEs: A structural embeddedness perspective

We draw on a social network perspective to explain multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) propensity to distribute their operations unevenly across various regions of the world. We focus on how the positioning of MNEs in their domestic network of strategic alliances affects their geographic scope, i.e., whether they concentrate on their home region or expand beyond it. We theorize that embeddedness in alliance networks constitutes a double-edged sword to the geographic scope of MNEs. Strong embeddedness in domestic alliance networks drives the development of location-bound firm-specific advantages (FSAs), which may narrow down MNEs’ geographic scope. In contrast, moderate embeddedness leads to more non-location-bound FSAs, which reduce liability of foreignness, and hence motivate MNEs to widen their geographical scope. We thus predict a non-linear relationship between domestic alliance network embeddedness and MNE geographic scope. Furthermore, the impact of the domestic alliance network on MNE geographic scope hinges on the organizational ability to efficiently and effectively absorb resources stemming from the network. We test our hypotheses using FDI data from 302 US MNEs in the information and communication technology industry for the period of 2001–2008, and generally find robust support for the hypothesized relationships.

Structural anatomy and evolution of supply chain alliance networks: A multi-method approach

We investigate the evolution of supply chain alliance networks with a focus on the influence of structural, firm-, and industry-level mechanisms. While several structural supply chain characteristics have been found to be significant drivers of firm innovation and performance, a dearth of studies exists examining how these characteristics change over time by influencing one another. We develop and empirically test hypotheses on the impact of prior structural configurations and the moderating roles of absorptive capacity and industry growth on the temporal trajectory of supply chain alliance network structures. Adopting a multi-method approach, we jointly use econometric analyses and simulation experiments to examine our hypotheses from complementary angles. Specifically, we characterize the dynamic relationship between the structural mechanisms on a longitudinal dataset of 2221 unique firms and 13,668 firm-year observations spanning 25 years. We find empirical support for negative crossover effects between two key structural properties of supply chain alliance networks, a positive moderation of a firm's absorptive capacity, and a negative moderation of industry growth on the structural reinforcement. We conduct corresponding simulation experiments based on a separable temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) to track the temporal changes in the simulated networks' key measures. The simulation results concur with most of our empirical findings and provide additional insights complementary to our econometric analysis results. By focusing on the mechanism of temporal changes in network structural properties, our study contributes to supply chain management research with a supply network perspective and interfirm alliance network research by broadening its scope into structural dynamism. Our multi-method approach demonstrates how multiple complementary methodologies can foster a more nuanced understanding of managing supply chain alliance network management.

R&D Networks: Theory, Empirics, and Policy Implications

We analyze a model of R&D alliance networks where firms are engaged in R&D collaborations that lower their production costs while competing on the product market. We provide a complete characterization of the Nash equilibrium and determine the optimal R&D subsidy program that maximizes total welfare. We then structurally estimate this model using a unique panel of R&D collaborations and annual company reports. We use our estimates to study the impact of targeted versus nondiscriminatory R&D subsidy policies and empirically rank firms according to the welfare-maximizing subsidies they should receive.

UNASCO: exploring the market for sustainable business

Subject area Growth strategies, marketing strategy, resources-based value theory, alliance network model, logistic and supply chain. Study level/applicability This case can be used in undergraduate and graduate classes as well as development programmes for managers in small to medium-size enterprises. The case suits courses in business, strategy, marketing and freight forwarding. Case overview Union National Air, Land and Sea Shipping Co (LLC) (UNASCO) is a small to medium-sized freight forwarding company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It has three offices, two in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. UNASCO handles commercial imports/exports from/to many destinations, including Europe, Asia, the USA, India, the Far East, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Middle East (ME) and Africa. UNASCO has been in business for more than 35 years and has run the business smoothly. Recently, the company has faced several internal and external challenges that impact business performance. These challenges are high operating expenses, stiff competition and low market demand. Due to these challenges, the sales staff is being pressured to generate more income to ensure that the company is not experiencing a loss. Now, UNASCO is uncertain how to sustain the business. Expected learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: to learn about the freight forwarding industry, the competitive landscape and the challenges surrounding it; to enable the participant to generate a list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) for UNASCO and to gain skill at using SWOT analysis; to increase the participant’s ability to evaluate a situation and effectively communicate remedies about it both in writing and verbally; to enable the participant to analyse a problem using the Fishbone Diagram cause and effect tool; to enable the participant to use the Six Thinking Hats technique to make more reliable and sounder decisions; to gain skill at using Porters Five Forces tool, understand the competitiveness of UNASCO’s business environment, and identify the potential for business growth; and to gain skills at developing a marketing strategy using the 4Ps model. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

Multistep Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Corporation Networks: When Do Subsidiaries Benefit From Unconnected Sister Alliances?

In this paper, we explore under which conditions subsidiaries of multinational corporations can benefit from the external networks of sister subsidiaries in terms of new knowledge generation. We focus on the phenomenon of unconnected sister alliances—that is, alliances of sister subsidiaries with whom the focal subsidiary lacks a recent history of internal R&D collaboration. Whereas unconnected sister alliances provide knowledge recombination opportunities for the focal subsidiary, realizing them is challenging because of particular knowledge transfer frictions. In this paper, we theorize on how particular conditions (i.e., headquarters proximity, knowledge overlap, size of focal subsidiary’s own alliance network) influence the strength of these frictions, resulting in hypotheses on how these conditions moderate the relationship between the number of unconnected sister alliances and the generation of new knowledge by focal subsidiaries. We rely on a panel data set of 2,258 R&D subsidiaries belonging to 118 firms in the pharmaceutical industry to empirically test our hypotheses. Jointly, our findings enrich our current theoretical understanding of how different types of external linkages and their interactions shape subsidiaries’ generation of new knowledge. We also illuminate the opportunities and challenges that multistep knowledge transfer processes entail.

A Network Perspective of Organizational Innovation

Current explanations undertheorize success across the broad stages of innovation, which include product invention, development, implementation, and success. While existing scholarship typically examines one, sometimes two, of these stages, innovation must be viewed more broadly with success resulting from the involvement of a wide range of actors including the firm, alliance partner, and overall network. In this article, I apply a network perspective to explain success across these stages. The argument I develop is that different types of networks are more relevant to certain stages of innovation. Network activity that increases from lower to higher levels of analysis is associated with success across the stages of innovation. Specifically, firm inventors influence product invention, successful product development and implementation are associated with dyadic‐level relationships between strategic alliance partners, and product success is impacted by a firm's central location in its entire network of strategic alliances. Results from regression models provide broad support for network approach advocated in this article.

Balance and frustration in signed networks

The frustration index is a key measure for analysing signed networks, which has been underused due to its computational complexity. We use an exact optimisation-based method to analyse frustration as a global structural property of signed networks coming from diverse application areas. In the classic friend-enemy interpretation of balance theory, a by-product of computing the frustration index is the partitioning of nodes into two internally solidary but mutually hostile groups. The main purpose of this paper is to present general methodology for answering questions related to partial balance in signed networks, and apply it to a range of representative examples that are now analysable because of advances in computational methods. We provide exact numerical results on social and biological signed networks, networks of formal alliances and antagonisms between countries, and financial portfolio networks. Molecular graphs of carbon and Ising models are also considered. The purpose served by exploring several problems in this paper is to propose a single general methodology for studying signed networks and to demonstrate its relevance to applications. We point out several mistakes in the signed networks literature caused by inaccurate computation, implementation errors or inappropriate measures.

Open versus Closed Alliance Networks as a Precaution for Organizational Disruptions

This study explores effective alliance network structures that prevent organizational disruptions by focusing on two types of structures: open and closed alliance networks. Open and closed alliance networks both have potential effects that may help organizations prevent unexpected disruptive events. The former offers organizations great accessibility to diverse knowledge throughout the alliance network that may lead to organizational learning for the prevention of disruptions. The latter generates a social sanction that makes the organization mindful against disgraceful disruptions that may harm their trustworthiness in the alliance network. This study hypothesizes that the latter is more essential for preventing disruptions, and tests the hypothesis using longitudinal data of airline accidents or incidents and code-sharing alliances in the global airline industry. The analysis results show that (1) organizations in a closed alliance network are less likely to experience disruptions, and that (2) such a tendency strengthens when the organizations are stigmatized by their own previous disastrous events, and ultimately disappears when the industry is stigmatized by a disastrous event at the institutional level. The implications for the literature on organizational disruptions and strategic alliances are that organizational mindful behaviors to maintain trustworthiness are an important mechanism for preventing organizational disruptions, and that strategic alliance networks induce such a mechanism.

Nested Embeddedness: How Alliances Impact the Innovation Benefits of Entrepreneurs’ Social Capital

This study advances research on networks and innovation of entrepreneurial firms by examining how industry-level alliance networks influence the optimal configuration of entrepreneurs’ personal networks. Specifically, we hypothesize that new venture innovation increases when entrepreneurs form managerial ties to either firms with brokerage positions in the industry’s alliance network (i.e., “brokers”) or firms that have no alliances (i.e., “isolates”). We also argue that a focal venture’s alliance network centrality increases the innovation benefits of managerial ties to brokers, yet diminishes the value of managerial ties to isolates. Implications for research on networks and innovation in entrepreneurship are discussed.

Asymmetry in network positions and value gains in alliances: The role of institutional distance

We investigate how firm’s asymmetric positioning in the alliance network vis-a- vis its partners translates into gains in shareholder value from subsequent alliances. We specifically point to the e...