Business Commons^™

How Does Stakeholder Engagement And Social Capital Influence Project Performance Outcomes?, Jesus J. Arias

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Institutions achieve organizational objectives through the legitimization of projects, project organizational culture, and its project actors. These objectives can either mitigate against risk and/or create advantage or opportunities for the organization. This paper reveals how relationships between project actors such as project team members, project managers and project sponsors, influence project performance outcomes. Stakeholder engagement and social capital between project actors are crucial contributors to project performance outcomes as well as completing projects on time, on budget, and within scope. Research also indicates that organizations continue to fail to achieve project outcomes when not taking into consideration the importance of …

When The Weak Are Mighty: A Two‐Sided Matching Approach To Alliance Performance, Darcy Fudge Kamal, Florence Honoré, Cristina Nistor

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Research Summary

Network centrality is an important determinant of alliance performance. However, estimating how each alliance member's centrality affects alliance performance is challenging because the end market might value each partner's contribution differently. We solve this empirical question with a two‐sided matching model that accounts for the partners' endogenous selection and estimates the effect of each side's centrality and input quality on performance. We implement the method in the novel context of the Thoroughbred horse industry, in foal‐sharing alliances between buyers and suppliers. We find that buyer centrality has a larger marginal effect on the alliance performance than the supplier …

On Effectuation And Networks: Three Essays On Their Mutuality, Jon Kerr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The notion of co-creating opportunities positions effectuation as both a network-driving and network-dependent phenomenon. On one hand, networks are products of relational interactions and, therefore, artefactual outcomes of effectual processes. On the other hand, it would seem that understanding networks and network processes is essential to understanding effectuation. Although past research acknowledges this mutuality, recent discourse highlights that our understanding of the relationship between effectuation and networks is far from complete. In this dissertation, I address this knowledge gap through three essays positioned at the interface of effectuation and network theory.

In the first essay, my systematic literature review synthesizes …

Beyond ‘Know-What’ And ‘Know-How’ To ‘Know-Who’: Enhancing Human Capital With Social Capital In An Australian Start-Up Accelerator, Pi-Shen Seet, Janice T. Jones, Lloyd Oppelaar, Graciela Corral De Zubielqui

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study investigates the enhancement of human capital with social capital in a start-up accelerator and how this integration affects the entrepreneurial learning experience. In particular, it examines the relative importance of the three components ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’. The study involved thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with participants in an Australian start-up accelerator that is delivered using ideas such as Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas and Lean Start-up methodology. We find that although the programme emphasised ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’, ‘know-who’ was most significant for participant learning. The results indicate that mentors and experts were especially helpful in shaping …

Game Theory For Security Investments In Cyber And Supply Chain Networks, Shivani Shukla

Doctoral Dissertations

In a constantly and intricately connected world that is going digital, cybersecurity is imperative to not just the success but also the survival of a business. The ubiquitous digital transformation is fueled by a convulsive growth of devices and data that are leading important innovations in the domain of cyber-physical systems. However, this growth has also enabled internal and external threats to skyrocket, depicting the inherent dichotomy. With an evolving threat landscape, a perpetrator has to be successful once, while the defenders have to continually succeed in fending-off attacks to protect critical infrastructure and digital assets. Businesses are facing a …

Exploring The Organizational Effects Of Directors' Embeddedness In Board Networks, Hansin Bilgili

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore how top executives’ and directors’ embeddedness in corporate elite networks within and between organizations’ boards of directors influence organizational strategy and policy. In the first study, I conduct a comprehensive review of the governance literature using both a traditional narrative approach as well as a bibliometric main path analysis, which traces the development and diffusion of scholarly knowledge on corporate elite networks. In the second study, drawing from network theory and behavioral governance research, I introduce a methodology that allows researchers to model intraboard networks by measuring the strength of ties among members of boards …

Ecosystem Advantage: How To Successfully Harness The Power Of Partners, Peter James Williamson, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

Changes in the global environment are generating opportunities for companies to build advantage by creating loosely coupled networks or ecosystems. Ecosystems are larger, more diverse, and more fluid than a traditional set of bilateral partnerships or complementors. By leveraging ecosystems, companies can deliver complex solutions while maintaining corporate focus. This article describes six keys to unlock ecosystem advantage: pinpointing where value is created, defining an architecture of differentiated partner roles, stimulating complementary partner investments, reducing the transaction costs, facilitating joint learning across the network, and engineering effective ways to capture profit.

Essays On Mergers And Acquisitions, Marcin Krolikowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two essays that examine mergers and acquisitions. In the first essay we examine how pay-for-performance influences the quality of merger decisions before and after Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Pay-for performance has a significant positive effect on acquirer returns of 0.9% pre-SOX and 1.1% post-SOX around the three day event window. Bidders with high pay-for-performance pay a 23.3% lower merger premium in listed target acquisitions. The positive effect of pay-for-performance is more important for public target acquisitions overall, for small acquirers pre-SOX, and for large acquirers post-SOX. In the long-run, bidders with high pre-merger pay-for-performance experience 27.6% higher returns after …

A Distributed Consensus Algorithm For Decision Making In Service-Oriented Internet Of Things, Shancang Li, George Oikonomou, Theo Tryfonas, Thomas M. Chen, Li Da Xu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

In a service-oriented Internet of things (IoT) deployment, it is difficult to make consensus decisions for services at different IoT edge nodes where available information might be insufficient or overloaded. Existing statistical methods attempt to resolve the inconsistency, which requires adequate information to make decisions. Distributed consensus decision making (CDM) methods can provide an efficient and reliable means of synthesizing information by using a wider range of information than existing statistical methods. In this paper, we first discuss service composition for the IoT by minimizing the multi-parameter dependent matching value. Subsequently, a cluster-based distributed algorithm is proposed, whereby consensuses are …

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind Committee Membership In Food Networks, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Food Tourism has been recognised as a fast growing niche area where Ireland can gain competitive advantage. In recognition of the importance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the development of food tourism, networks have been identified as essential. This article presents findings from research conducted with three networks and reveals the motivations for committee membership. Data was gathered in 2012 through participant observation and interviews with steering committee members on three food networks using an action research approach.

A framework for examining motivations for collaboration is offered in this article which will contribute to effective network management. Motivations are …

Ethics And Network Organizations, Robert Phillips

Robert Phillips

As value chains become longer with increases in outsourcing and subcontracting, the challenges of fixing responsibility become more difficult. Using concepts from the literature on social networks, this paper considers issues of diffusion of responsibility and plausible deniability in such relationships. Specifi cally, this paper isolates three sources of denial of – or defense against – attributions of responsibility: connection, control and knowledge. It goes on to consider the effects on network density and actor centrality as third parties (tertius illuminans) alter the structure of these networks. Finally, preliminary conclusions are considered including suggestions for addressing these new challenges as …

The Impact Of Early Imprinting On Evolution Of New Venture Networks, Stephanie A. Fernhaber, Hana Milanov

Stephanie A. Fernhaber

Given the argued importance of networks to new ventures, this paper is intended to fill a noted gap in the literature pertaining to the factors that influence the evolution of new ventures' alliance networks. Drawing on the imprinting literature, we propose that one has to look beyond the first partner per se, and instead focus on the extant relationships the initial partner has with other firms. More specifically, we argue and find that the network size and centrality of a new venture's initial alliance partner influence the subsequent size of the new venture's network.

Gift Giving And The Creation Of Trust, Martin Mathews

Martin Mathews

We examine the role that gift giving plays in industrial districts and in particular the role of gift giving in the creation of inter-organisational trust. Inter-organisational exchanges in a mature industrial district are analyzed using Mauss’ theoretical framework of gift-giving, receiving and counter-giving. Actors in embedded network relationships frequently exchange gifts and favours. This gift giving is a fundamental part of the relationship. Gift giving is found to be instrumental in creating and maintaining relationships, defining group and individual identity and resolving conflicts. The originality of our findings lies in the fact that despite the ideology of the purely altruistic …

The Shifting Geography Of Competitive Advantage: Clusters, Networks And Firms, Mark Jenkins, Stephen Tallman

Management Faculty Publications

We consider the dynamics of knowledge-based sources of advantage as they move between geographical locations and multinational and other firm level networks using the specialist context of Formula 1 motor over a fifty nine year period. We suggest that shifts in competitive advantage are underpinned by the movement of both architectural and component knowledge at both the firm and cluster level, and in particular we suggest that isolated firms can both benefit from and add to cluster level knowledge. We conclude by suggesting ways in which MNEs can adapt their approach to both location and knowledge development in order to …

The Impact Of Early Imprinting On Evolution Of New Venture Networks, Stephanie A. Fernhaber, Hana Milanov

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Given the argued importance of networks to new ventures, this paper is intended to fill a noted gap in the literature pertaining to the factors that influence the evolution of new ventures' alliance networks. Drawing on the imprinting literature, we propose that one has to look beyond the first partner per se, and instead focus on the extant relationships the initial partner has with other firms. More specifically, we argue and find that the network size and centrality of a new venture's initial alliance partner influence the subsequent size of the new venture's network.

Inter-Firm Networks And Innovation: The Difference Between The Horizontal And Vertical Type, Yanli Zhang

Department of Management Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The literature has long recognized the important role that the closed kind of Japanese business group network has played in the innovative strengths of Japanese firms, yet at the same time the constraint that this type of network places upon the firms' technological connections to the rest of the world. In this article, this phenomenon is revisited taking into account the critical difference between two types of business group networks: the horizontal type and the vertical type. Using data on the US patents granted to the largest Japanese industrial firms, the results show that there are important differences between the …

Supply Chain Management Diffusion Among Firms In The Republic Of Ireland, Edward Sweeney, Claudia-Maria Wagner, Bernd Huber

Conference papers

The changing business environment has sharpened the focus on the need for robust approaches to supply chain management (SCM). This is particularly the case for Ireland which has a natural disadvantage of a location peripheral to significant markets and sources of raw material which result in higher transport costs. Therefore, in order to gain unique insights of current levels of awareness / diffusion of SCM and the potential impact SCM could have on the competitiveness, a survey was conducted among 776 firms in the Republic of Ireland. The empirical results suggest that there is a need for more widespread adoption …

Dynamic Entrepreneurial Networks: An Investigation Of Entrepreneurs, New Ventures And Their Networks, Diane Sullivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Entrepreneurs need resources to organize new venture offerings into marketplace-acceptable forms. Entrepreneurs use others' assistance via networks to obtain these resources. Research indicates that firms face resource dependencies, that likely change over time, where they must respond to those controlling resources. Although some work has investigated implications of new ventures' networks at one time period, little work has investigated the dynamic nature and associated outcomes of networks as they change due to different resource requirements as the venture develops. This research examines the dynamic nature of networks, due different resource requirements over time, and how these changes impact entrepreneurial outcomes …