Network structure and innovation: The leveraging of a dual network as a distinctive relational capability

“Firms that manage for stakeholders are in a favorable position to manage the flow of this sort of information because stakeholders are more likely to trust that such a firm will act responsibly with regard to their own interests (Capaldo, 2007).”

“Further, previous studies have limited the analysis of social capital to its relational dimension (Cousins et al., 2006; Johnston et al., 2004), structural dimension (Capaldo, 2007), or a combination of the two (Autry and Griffis, 2008; Lawson et al., 2008).”

“…a GVC can typically be conceptualized as an asymmetrical or high centrality network with a lead firm at its centre (Kano, 2018), these networks can also be heterogeneous in terms of such characteristics as depth, density, openness, and the presence of structural holes (Capaldo, 2007; Rowley, 1997).”

“…strong dyadic ties can affect a focal firm’s innovative capabilities positively if they are trust based, knowledge intensive, and reinforced through the development of social content between alliance partners, relationship-specific investments, and the deepening of mutual knowledge (Capaldo, 2007).”

“Having interorganizational ties with firms operating within supply chains is important but so is having intersectional ties (ties across sectors) (Capaldo, 2007).”

“The strength of an actor’s relationship with contacts, however, is conceptually distinct from network closure or correspondingly a lack of structural holes (Capaldo, 2007; Granovetter, 1973; Reagans & McEvily, 2003; Zheng, 2010).”

“Recentmarketing andmanagement literature thus investigate a leadfirm's ability to structure andmanage its network to enhance its innovativeness and overall results (Capaldo, 2007; Dhanasai & Parkhe, 2006; Perks & Moxey, 2011).”

“Asymmetrical networks are deliberately designed, structured, and managed by entrepreneurial orchestrating firms (Capaldo, 2007), who act as champions to convince potential network members of”

“Although there are sectoral specificities, networking (along with proximity) is an essential strategy for SMEs’ innovation in general (Freel, 2003; Capaldo, 2007).”

“When applying social network theory in the context of innovation, it has been suggested that stimulating innovation within networks requires a combination of both strong and weak ties (Abrahamson & Rosenkopf 1997; Capaldo 2007; Michelfelder & Kratzer 2013).”

“This information helps managers explore new ways of doing things, reduces redundancy, and enhances their firms’ knowledge diversity (Capaldo, 2007; Hansen, 1999).”

“Although rarely referenced directly in the context of industrial services, the enabling effects of network capabilities have been demonstrated in prior studies on new product development, innovation and innovation success (Capaldo, 2007; Ritter & Gemünden, 2004; Theoharakis et al., 2009), long-term orientation (Jiang…”

“…and intense collaboration, and repeated partnering over time—increase innovation adoption (Goes & Park, 1997; Kraatz, 1998), knowledge transfer (Simonin, 1999; Tiwana, 2008; Williams, 2007), and organizational knowledge creation (Capaldo, 2007; Lavie, Lechner, & Singh, 2007; Sampson, 2007).”

“(Capaldo, 2007) and actual innovations adopted (Moran,”

“Having strategic inter-sectional nd inter-organizational bonds within supply chains is important Capaldo, 2007 ; Gölgeci and Kuivalainen, 2020 ).”

“As Capaldo (2007) suggests, when strong ties exist, the network develops a high degree of trust and it encourages partners to make greater resource commitments to the relationships.”

“Entities involved in such activity have been referred to as network entrepreneurs (Burt, 2000), hub firms (Dhanaraj & Parkhe, 2006), lead organizations (Provan & Kenis, 2008), champions or triggering entities (Doz et al., 2000), network administrative organizations (Human & Provan, 2000), and…”

“diversified resources and reliable information [17, 109].”

“6 ties are inclined to produce stronger and trusting relationships (Capaldo, 2007), which may decrease the cost of opportunism associated with the transmission and sharing of knowledge and interconnections for local organisations.”

“Extant research offers a number of explanations of the relationships between knowledge-intensive alliances and several performance outcomes, including alliance governance (Dyer and Singh, 1998; Sampson, 2004), the characteristics of the search processes conducted within the alliances (Capaldo and Messeni Petruzzelli,…”

“5 in conjunction with others in their network (Capaldo, 2007).”

“The particular way these processes interact will influence network resilience and robustness (Capaldo 2007).”

“The literature on the strength of ties and innovation debates the merits of two alternative hypotheses (Bryson & Daniels, 1998; Burt, 2005; Capaldo, 2007; Hansen, 1999; Obstfeld, 2005).”

“…companies has an inverted-U impact on their further alliance formation (Chung, Singh, & Lee, 2000; Gulati, 1995b) because repeated partnerships lead to diminishing marginal returns (Rothaermel, 2001) and firms want to balance the amount of embedded ties and weak ties (Capaldo, 2007; Chung et al.).”

“Thus, IS research may provide insight into how individual firms can engage in environmental, collaborative, and network-based strategic action more broadly (Capaldo, 2007; Vangen & Huxham, 2012; Wassmer et al., 2014).”

“Most of these investigations, however, address design as the aesthetic and symbolic dimension of products, i.e., design as “form”, identity, and emotions, which gave design a marginal role in the realm of innovation studies (Capaldo, 2007; Dell’Era and Verganti, 2010).”

“As a result, diverse networks are often characterized as rich and fertile areas for innovation (Capaldo, 2007).”

“, 2001), although the debate on relational capabilities is still in its infancy (Capaldo, 2007).”

“Since previous research has found that the strong interpersonal ties emerging in such clusters are positively associated with firm innovativeness (Capaldo, 2007; Singh, 2008), a firm's propensity to develop RI may be influenced by its location in a specific region.”

“, 2006; Dyer and Chu, 2003) and innovation performance (Carey et al., 2011; Capaldo, 2007).”

“Firms and individuals may undertake strategic activities to sidestep structures that inhibit network transformation (Capaldo 2007, Rosenkopf et al. 2001), proactively manage relationships through subsequent stages (D’Aunno and Zuckerman 1987, Jap and Anderson 2007), or steer relationship…”

“Such relationships may become a burden for the firms involved, hampering their innovation activities (Håkansson and Ford, 2002; Capaldo, 2007).”

“On the other hand, such factors as embeddedness and interdependence appear to bring in considerable rents to each party in terms of their innovative capabilities (Capaldo 2007).”

“Research in network theory in multiple studies shows that a network of relationships produces a number of positive outcomes, including increased access to novel and diverse information (Burt, 1992; Granovetter, 1985; Hansen, 1999), increased access to resources (Gnyawali & Madhavan, 2001), more efficient knowledge tra…”

“…of network competence (e.g., Ritter, 1999; Ritter and Gemünden, 2003, 2004), networking capability (e.g., Mitrega et al., 2012; Mort and Weerawardena, 2006), relational capability (e.g., Capaldo, 2007), and alliance capability (e.g., Draulans et al., 2003; Kale et al., 2002; Kauppila, 2013).”

“In addition, our study informs research on balancing exploration and exploitation (Capaldo, 2007; Gupta, Smith, & Shalley, 2006; Lavie, Stettner, & Tushman, 2010; March, 1991) by showing how such balance can be achieved when searching for knowledge over time.”

“The family group offers the benefits of resource leveraging and strong levels of support and trust, but it is also a close and intense groupwhosemember relationships can be locked in a limited, closed circle (Capaldo, 2007; Maurer & Ebers, 2006).”

“The common theme in the defi-nitions is relational capability (Capaldo, 2007; Lorenzoni and Lipparini, 1999).”

“, Russo & Fouts, 1997), RV has gained increasing recognition and use in management and strategy (Acquaah, 2007; Capaldo, 2007; Leischnig, Geigenmueller, & Lohmann, 2014; Zahra, 2010).”

“Second, B2B literature has revealed that firms fear data privacy and opportunistic behavior when engaging target audiences (Capaldo, 2007; Fang, 2008).”

“networks, firms are advised to establish heterogeneous alliance portfolios consisting of both strong and weak ties (Ahuja 2000; Capaldo 2007; Hansen 1999; Obstfeld 2005; Reagans and McEvily 2003; Tiwana 2008).”

“Finally, we show that intentional whole network governance activated by one or more lead organizations may be able to improve the efficiency (Capaldo, 2007) and speed of network knowledge processes (Lipparini et al., 2014; Lorenzoni & Baden-Fuller, 1995) and structural dynamics (Paquin &…”

“debate on relational capabilities is still in its infancy and detailed studies of what exactly constitutes a networking capability are scarce [7], [11].”

“According to Burt’s (1992) principles of network building, when a focal firm adds weak ties to its network, it is likely that nonredundant contacts will be added, therefore increasing diversity in terms of direct contacts (Capaldo, 2007).”

“lack internally to realize strategies that they cannot accomplish on their own (Capaldo, 2007; Diestre & Rajagopalan, 2012; Eisenhardt & Schoonhoven, 1996; Teng, 2007).”

“…Sebestyén and Varga, 2013), as well as indicating that within the network capital conceptual framework the structural tie component of such capital is likely to be as, if not more, important than the tie strength component (Borgatti and Halgin, 2011; Capaldo, 2007; Huggins and Thompson, 2014).”

“As we have mentioned, to reconcile the debate, researchers recently have argued that advantages from network closure and from structural holes can be complementary in nature (Capaldo, 2007; Greve & Salaff, 2003; Rothaermel & Deeds, 2006).”

“Consequently, to maintain a high innovative capability over time will likely require a network architecture that allows combining dense networks and structural holes (Pavlovich, 2003; Capaldo, 2007).”

“Previous research that has investigated trust in networks has typically drawn attention to trust within the individual dyadic relationships the examined networks were composed of (e.g., Capaldo, 2007; Zaheer et al., 1998).”

“This mechanism was illustrated empirically in the context of manufacturing companies when they stuck in close supply relationships restricted in terms of product innovations (Capaldo, 2007; Dittrich & Duysters, 2007).”

“However, the partner's ability to operate within a strategic network and its relational capability (Capaldo, 2007; Dyer & Singh, 1998; Lorenzoni & Lipparini, 1999) can only be thoroughly evaluated after the collaboration has been initiated.”

“…for the firm as it seeks, establishes, manages and leverages inter-organizational ties in order to obtain fine-grained information, resources, and support to facilitate its engagement in the design of new services and the refinement of existing services (Capaldo, 2007; Lorenzoni & Lipparini, 1999).”