The origin of strong ties: the role of weak ties in the evolution of alliance networks

Studies on the structure of alliance networks have explained how the formation, maintenance, and decay of local within cluster ties and shortcuts with semi-distant and distant organizations drive the emergence and evolution of small world architecture in such networks. Interorganizational ties are distinguished into strong and weak on the basis of their strength. Nonetheless, by focusing mainly on strong alliances ties, previous research has fallen short to explain the role of weak ties among organizations for the evolution of alliance networks. With the aim of scrutinizing the role of weak ties in the establishment, maintaining, and transforming of alliance ties, we develop a conceptual fr…

Le politiche per l'innovazione in Sicilia: origini, attività e limitazioni

Policies for Innovation in Sicilia: Origins, Activities and Limits. This article examines origins, activities and limitations of the regional policies for fostering innovation conceived and implemented in Sicily during the last decade, by focusing on three relevant sectors of Sicilian economy: agrifood, industrial manufacturing and tourism. The study moves from the observation of the mounting relevance that innovation diffusion policy has assumed in regional territorial contexts, which have the greatest meaning in times of global-local dialectic (“glocalization”). In particular, the leading hypothesis is that for Sicilian micro, small and medium-sized firms operating in international settin…

The origin of strong ties: The role of weak ties in the emergence and evolution of alliance networks

Interorganizational ties are distinguished into strong and weak on the basis of their strength. By focusing mainly on strong alliances ties, previous research has fallen short to explain the role of weak ties among organizations for the evolution of alliance networks. With the aim of scrutinizing the role of weak ties in the establishment, maintaining, and transforming of alliance ties, we develop a conceptual framework that looks at networks of interorganizational weak ties as conduits for the dissemination of information about (valuable) knowledge sets that supports the processes of opportunity discovery and/or creation. The exploitation of the discovered or created opportunities leads to…

The Power of Weak Ties: Leveraging Weak Ties in the Evolution of Alliance Networks

In today's knowledge-based economy, the sources of competitive advantage lie more and more in webs of relationships among a variety of firms that over time originate the emergence of interfirm strategic networks. The paper aims to shed light on the role of complex leadership exerted by network central firms in promoting and supporting network interactions and the ensuing processes of knowledge and resource transfer and diffusion. Processes on which the network-based sources of competitive advantage are rooted. In the attempt to make the proposed contribution, on the one hand, we underscore the emergent nature of network interactions stemming from the self-organizing behaviors that spontaneo…

Disruptive power of digital startups

The image of the new digital entrepreneur has turned into an iconic image that concerns their status, celebrity, identification, and imitation. New digital entrepreneurs, who have recently started their hi-tech business in a profitable manner, are seen in the collective imagery not only as smart and successful individuals, but as real superstars, the great witnesses of our time, and the exceptional candidates for guest starring a range of video and radio shows, who are liable of wide admiration and ample emulation. Just think of Facebook’s Mark Zuckenberg or Tesla’s Elon Musk. This chapter is aimed to supplement the debate in management and entrepreneurship on the role and impact of digital…

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESOURCE BASED FIRM BETWEEN VALUE APPROPRIATION AND VALUE CREATION

Various authors have brought forth the idea that the increase in context turbulence and the relentless change in today’s economic and competitive environments have rendered it essential for an effective firm strategy to combine both value appropriation and value creation (Porter, (1996); Moran & Ghoshal, (1999); Venkataraman & Sarasvathy, (2001); Hitt et al., (2001b). Nonetheless, the methodological bases and the assumptions that characterize contributions concerning value appropriation and value creation are notably different and in many respects opposite to one another. These profound methodological differences hinder the possibility of a combined consideration of value appropriation and …

Surviving learning races: An analysis of strategic alliance evolution capabilities

This paper is aimed to identify and understand the main dimensions and processes that underlie the capacity of weaker firms in an initially unbalanced strategic alliance to purposefully channel the fruitful evolution of the alliance by creating, extending or modifying its scope in order to perceive and grasp new value creating opportunities which they would not be able to seize on their own. We call this capacity an alliance evolution capability and intend it as a particular type of dynamic capability of the firm (Teece, Pisano & Schuen, 1997; Helfat et al., 2007). The motivation for this paper is threefold: (1) to understand how weaker firms may survive learning race alliances (Hamel, 1991…

Le alleanze strategiche quali percorsi di creazione di valore: un’indagine qualitativa sulle alliance evolution capabilities

INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORK AND INNOVATION: A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF PAST STUDIES AND A RESEARCH AGENDA

This paper aims to provide a systematic overview of studies performed on the relationship between interorganizational networks and innovation in an attempt to isolate the origin of innovation networks. We assess strengths and weaknesses of existing research body, provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of business actors’ goals on innovation networks and clarify how a partial convergence of interests among the key network actors may influence the development, adoption and diffusion of innovation. On the basis of a bibliometric investigation, we shall manage to visualize a map of extant literature, discuss novel trends, and propose an agenda for the future research.

Between Self-Organizing and Accelerating Networks: Untangling the multilevel of strategic networks

This paper aims to detect the crucial determinants and processes that shape the emergence and evolution of interfirm network cognitive morphology. We pinpoint three relatively distinct but coexistent levels which define the fundamental structure of the network: the microsystemic (or the single firm) level; the mesosystemic (or the groups of firms within the network) level; and the macrosystemic (or the overarching network) level. Then, we integrate the complex system perspective (Morin, 1977; Prigogine and Stengers, 1984; Anderson, 1999) applied to networks with studies regarding theoretical models that elucidate network structuring and dynamics cultivated in the new “science of networks” (…

The managerial alternative: profili genetici ed evolutivi del paradigma Risorse-Competenze-Performance in strategia d’impresa

Learning to synthesize contradictions: An Austrian Approach to Bridging Time Concepts in the Theory of the Firm

By analysing the implcit assumptions regarding time underlying the theories of the resource based firm, and analysing the views they portray, we propose a theoretical framework which allows to bridge balue creation and value appropriation issues in strategy studies.

Institutional Contexts, the Management of Patent Portfolios, and the Role of Public Policies Supporting New Entrepreneurial Ventures

The paper aims to increase our understanding of the relationships between firm strategies, the design of institutional contexts on behalf of public agents, and the stimulation of diffused entrepreneurship within the economic system. In particular, it analyzes the way in which firm patent portfolio management strategies may systematically hinder the emergence of entrepreneurial endeavours within the economic system and, on this basis, critically discusses how the acknowledgement of these interactions should influence the design of public policies at the economic system level.