Entrepreneurs’ Networking Styles and Normative Underpinnings during Institutional Transition

Existing network research has mainly adopted functional and/or structural approaches to study the instrumental goals behind entrepreneurs’ networking as well as the influence of personal position on access to resources and eventual performance. The variety of entrepreneurs’ networking styles and their normative underpinnings have not been adequately explored. Contextualized in China, this study asks: How do entrepreneurs’ understandings of social norms shape their networking styles? Through an inductive comparison of two entrepreneur generations in China, we identify three networking styles: guanxi-oriented networking, market-based networking, and mixed networking. We theorize that three types of norms shape these styles: market-inferred norms, dyadically formed norms, and identity-induced norms. This study provides new insights into the understanding of Chinese entrepreneurs’ distinctive networking styles and their normative underpinnings. Further, it suggests implications both for the wider study of entrepreneurs’ networking behaviors in transition economies, and for practitioners wishing to enhance their network building in China.

How to Study Online Networking

Social media and social networks are pervasive in the daily use as well as in a number of applications. Social media and social networks are also intertwined, as the social medial platforms also offer the opportunity to develop and analyze social networks. Over the past two decades, there has been an explosion of interest in network research through social network analysis. Network research is “warm” today, with the number of articles on the topic of social media and social networks nearly tripling in the past decade. This interweaving has been a further breakthrough within field research yielding explanations for social phenomena in a wide variety of new ways. Social network analysis (SNA) has been recognized as a powerful tool for representing social network structures and information dissemination on the web. Here, the authors review the kinds of things that sociologists have tried to explain using social network analysis and provide a nutshell description of the basic assumptions, goals, and explanatory mechanisms prevalent in the field, with emphasis on SNA research methodology.

Power and Conflict

Most network research reflects a positive bias, suggesting that organizations can accomplish more by working together than they can by working alone. However, networks can also catalyze conflict between partners. This chapter identifies the various forms of power and describes how power imbalances can increase the potential for conflict in networks. It introduces a typology of conflict occurring at three interfaces. Micro-level conflicts take place at the interface between individuals and organizations. Meso-level conflicts occur between the organization and the network. And, macro-level conflicts are those in which the network conflicts with the broader community or system in which it resides. The chapter uses examples of network conflict from case studies, noting the consequences of the conflict. The chapter identifies different ways that networks can successfully manage conflict. Finally, the chapter includes two tools for addressing power and conflict: the stakeholder participation tool and the VOICE heuristic.

The Role of Digital Platform in Waste Recovery in the Food Supply Chain

Food waste is generally seen as highly unethical. Recycling food waste requires establishing information-sharing channels in the food supply chain. However, the lack of relationship between suppliers and potential demanders hinders the delivery of waste products, conceptualized as "structural holes" in social network research. The food recovery digital platform in the food supply chain acts as a market intermediary to bridge the communication at the two ends of the structural holes, fulfilling the function of "brokers", which has been proven in the transaction cost theory to reduce the transaction costs and improve the performance of the supply chain. However, related research on digital platforms and supply chains ignores this new type of brokerage. This research combines network research, transaction cost research, and supply chain research and explores the role of food recovery platforms in food waste problems in the food supply chain.

PESQUISA EM REDE SOBRE A PROFICIÊNCIA DO PENSAMENTO ESPACIAL NOS CURSOS DE GRADUAÇÃO EM GEOGRAFIA:

Esse artigo é resultado de uma pesquisa em rede que teve como objetivo identificar em que medida os cursos de graduação em Geografia de cinco Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) brasileiras contribuem para a proficiência do pensamento espacial dos seus estudantes. Essa investigação se estabeleceu a partir de aplicações do instrumento denominado Teste de Aptidão do Pensamento Espacial (Spatial Thinking Ability Test - STAT, em inglês), elaborado por Lee e Berdnaz (2012), para graduandos iniciantes e finalizantes do curso de Geografia, preferencialmente, licenciandos. A aplicação focada nesses dois grupos, destinou-se a identificação de conhecimentos referentes ao pensamento espacial ao longo da formação de futuros geógrafos. Como resultado, a análise global dos dados indica uma diferença de performance bastante modesta entre alunos do primeiro e do quarto ano da graduação em Geografia e um desempenho inferior ao esperado em termos de percentuais de acertos dos dois grupos em competências avaliadas através de situações-problema que entendemos como mais fáceis. Todo esse esforço investigativo assentou-se no reconhecimento de que o pensamento espacial é uma das condições intelectuais fundamentais para que, posteriormente, os alunos venham produzir a interpretação geográfica de situações problematizadas. Palavras-chaveEnsino de Geografia, STAT, Formação de professores, Inteligência espacial. NETWORK RESEARCH ON SPATIAL THINKING PROFICIENCY IN UNDERGRADUATE GEOGRAPHY COURSES: first approximations Abstract This article is the result of a network research that aimed to identify to what extent the undergraduate courses in Geography from five brazilian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) contribute to the spatial thinking proficiency of their students. This investigation was established through applications of the instrument named Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT), elaborated by Lee and Bednarz (2012), for beginners and final-year undergraduate students of the Geography course, preferably, undergraduates. The application focused on these two groups, and was intended to identify knowledge regarding to spatial thinking throughout the training of future geographers. As a result, the global analysis of the data indicates a very modest difference in performance between first and fourth-year undergraduate students in Geography and a lower than expected performance in terms of the percentage of correct answers of both two groups in competences assessed through problem-situations that we understand to be easier. All this investigative effort was based on the recognition that spatial thinking is one of the most fundamental intellectual conditions for, subsequently, students become to produce the geographical interpretation of problematic situations. Keywords Geography Teaching, STAT, Teacher training, Spatial intelligence.