The Knowledge Based View of Embedding Strategy for Platforms Enterprises

Dialectically linking with heterogenous suppliers, manufacturers, consumers and resources, emerging e-commerce platforms achieve and maintain competitive advantage. Based on different levels of innovation network content and structure, YEATION and YOUPIN, two typical ecommerce platforms, adopt different strategies involving the promotion of value-seeking. Many decisions concern how companies perceive the innovation environment and how to engage in the innovation network. Knowledge base view provides useful theoretical lens to understand the network embedding approach for electric business platform enterprises. To put forward, enterprises with wide breadth should adopt structural strategy give priority to relational embeddedness, on the other hand, enterprises of which the depth of knowledge base is deep and width of insufficient shall adopt strategy give priority to the embedding of structure. It is also proposed that platform enterprises should not adopt a single embeddedness strategy but should adopt auxiliary embeddedness strategy in a timely manner.

The drivers of the post-entry internationalisation commitment of small and medium-sized enterprises

By integrating relational embeddedness in international strategic alliance networks (ISANs) and the dynamic capability perspective, this article presents an examination of the drivers of the post-entry internationalisation commitment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, we investigated the mediating effect of opportunity-sensing capabilities (OSCs) on the relationship between ISAN relational embeddedness and the post-entry internationalisation commitment of SMEs. We also examined the moderating impact of strategic adaptiveness on the relationship between OSCs and post-entry internationalisation commitment. An analysis of 320 UK-based SMEs, performed using structural equation modelling, revealed that OSCs are an important mechanism through which the ISAN relational embeddedness leads to increased post-entry internationalisation commitment. Furthermore, strategic adaptiveness strengthens the positive relationship between OSCs and post-entry commitment to foreign markets. This article extends the existing SME venturing and internationalisation literature to the domain of SME post-entry internationalisation commitment.

How Do Network Embeddedness and Environmental Awareness Affect Farmers’ Participation in Improving Rural Human Settlements?

Based on social embeddedness theory, this paper aims to explore the influence mechanism of network embeddedness and environmental awareness on farmers’ participation in improving rural human settlements (IRHS). This research applies the Logit model and the Bootstrap method, using survey data from 495 farmers in Hubei Province, China. The results show that: (1) relational embeddedness has a significant negative impact on the centralized treatment of farmers’ domestic sewage, implying that strengthening the relationship between farmers and households helps to provide them with centralized treatment for domestic sewage; (2) environmental awareness has a significant positive impact on the centralized treatment of farmers’ domestic sewage, implying that the enhancement of farmers’ environmental awareness increases the promotion centralized treatment for domestic sewage; and (3) structural embeddedness can further affects farmers’ environmental awareness and then affects their participation in the centralized treatment of domestic sewage, implying that environmental awareness has a mediating effect between structural embeddedness and the centralized treatment of farmers’ domestic sewage. Overall, it is necessary not only to encourage the establishment of extension and discussion networks for farmers (relational embeddedness) to participate in IRHS but also to improve environmental education for farmers, especially by increasing their access to environmental knowledge and information (environmental awareness in mountainous areas, and, finally to support farmers. The relationship between the members and the village cadres (structural embeddedness) can further improve farmers’ awareness of participation in IRHS to better guide them in the centralized treatment of domestic waste and domestic sewage.

How Do the Determinants of New Product Development Matter in the International Context? The Moderating Role of Learning Orientation

New product development provides a resource for enterprises to gain competitiveness, especially for enterprises that are exploring the international market. It is necessary to understand how the strategic behaviors, cultures, and capabilities of international enterprises are critical factors in improving innovation and new product development. From an external perspective this study argues that firms can facilitate the development of dynamic internationalization capabilities through knowledge acquisition in the organizational learning literature via social networks. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among relational embeddedness, export market orientation, dynamic internationalization capability and new product development, as well as the moderating effect of learning orientation. This study empirically verifies its research framework from 217 Taiwanese internationalized enterprises. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to detect the relationships between the variables in the model. Many items must be taken into consideration regarding specific facet scales. Our research results confirm previous studies that indicate positive correlations between relational embeddedness and international exploration as well as export market orientation. The results also suggest that international exploration and international exploitation have positive effects on new product development. Learning orientation plays a moderating role in terms of the relationships among relational embeddedness, export market orientation, international exploration, international exploitation, and new product development. Based on the empirical results, research conclusions and theoretical implications are proposed.

Retailer-reseller embeddedness and price-setting in the informal economy

Purpose This study aims to investigate how and why retailers and resellers in sample firms of the informal economy set prices and the performance implications for the firm’s pricing efforts. Design/methodology/approach The author generated their insights through an inductive qualitative study of four organizations operating within the informal economy in the Nigerian retailing sector. Findings The study found that some organizations within the informal economy set prices in different ways i.e. negotiated pricing and fixed pricing. The contracting criteria between the retailers and resellers determine the pricing strategy. Contractual terms based on relational ties between both facilitate negotiated price-setting, while contractual terms based on non-relational ties promote fixed pricing. The type of price-setting arrangement of the sampled retailer relates to the organization’s performance within its industry. Particularly, the study found that retailers that adopted negotiated pricing performed above the industry average for their product category. In contrast, the retailers that adopted fixed pricing performed below the industry average for their product category. Originality/value As far as the author knows, this is the first study to investigate pricing methods within the informal economy. This is also the first known study to investigate price-setting arrangements between retailers and resellers within the informal economy. Another unique contribution of this paper is that it is the first study that focuses on pricing interactions among business-to-business firms within the informal economy. The study contributes to the work on relational embeddedness, relational contracting and informal economies.

The Complex Impact of Relational Embeddedness on Enterprise Value: The Moderating Effect of Environmental Dynamics

Based on social network theory and dynamic capability theory, a theoretical model is constructed that specifies the process through which relational embeddedness affects enterprise value. The authors selected 612 Shenzhen and Shanghai A-share manufacturing enterprises in the CSMAR database as sample enterprises, and a multiple regression analysis method was used to test hypotheses. The results show that (1) there is an inverted “U” relationship between relational embeddedness and enterprise value; that is, the enterprises’ relational embeddedness has an “inflection point” effect on the enterprise value; (2) the enterprises’ resource integration capability plays an intermediate role in the impact of relational embeddedness on enterprise value; (3) the market environmental dynamics and technology environmental dynamics play negative regulatory roles in the inverted “U” relationship between relational embeddedness and enterprise value, and they play different regulatory roles before and after the enterprise relational embeddedness reaches the “inflection point”; that is, before the relational embeddedness reaches the inflection point, the technology environmental dynamics plays a major negative regulatory role, while after the relational embeddedness reaches the inflection point, the market environmental dynamics plays a major negative regulatory role. Compared with the market environmental dynamics, the impact of technology environmental dynamics on the relationship between relational embeddedness and enterprise value is more significant; that is, the effect of relational embeddedness on enterprises value is more sensitive to the technology environmental dynamics.

Research on the Effect of Knowledge Network Embedding on the Dynamic Capabilities of Small and Micro Enterprises

In the complex and dynamic economic environment, the growing pain of small and micro enterprises is long-standing. It is urgent to strengthen the research on the endogenous growth mechanism of small and micro enterprises. Based on the background of the era of knowledge-driven economy, this paper explores the relationship between knowledge network embeddedness and dynamic capabilities of small and micro enterprises with environmental munificence as the regulating variable. We have the structural equation empirical research with the data from 260 questionnaires of small and micro enterprises. The results show that structural embeddedness and relational embeddedness have a positive driving effect on the dynamic capability of small and micro enterprises, and environmental munificence plays a positive regulatory role in the positive impact of knowledge network embedding on the dynamic capability. The research conclusion is helpful for the small and micro enterprise to develop dynamic capacity and for the supportive policy making as well.

Relational Embeddedness and BOP-Oriented Dynamic Capability—A Multi-Case Study

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) market is composed of a large number of low-income groups around the world and contains huge wealth that has not yet been discovered. An exploratory multi-case study was conducted to analyze the impact of relational embeddedness on dynamic capability (DC). On the basis of theoretical presuppositions, based on the intra- and inter-case analysis of six companies in the China BOP market, this paper explores how relational embeddedness affects the DC of companies through exploitative learning and exploratory learning. Twelve research propositions are presented and the theoretical framework of relational embeddedness affecting the DC of enterprises is constructed. The study found that mutual trust and reciprocity norms in the BOP cooperation network can promote the acquisition and utilization of existing knowledge and new knowledge of the enterprise, thereby enhancing the enterprise environmental sensing, environmental adaptive, and environmental shaping capabilities.

The Value Cocreation Influence Mechanism of Network Freight Transport Platform in IoT-Based Environments: Under the Service-Dominant Logic

The Internet of Things (IoT) has brought many benefits to the development of industries, from manufacturing to services. In the context of IoT, the network freight transport platform is equivalent to an integrator, integrating the scattered resources such as carriers and shippers in the supply chain, providing a solution, improving the use efficiency of vehicles, effectively reducing logistics cost, and creating value for the freight transport platform and bilateral customers. The purpose of this research is to explain the influence mechanism of transport demand subjects’ participation in value cocreation (VCC) under the service-dominant logic (SDL). We proposed a conceptual framework and 10 hypotheses and used SEM to measure the direct and mediating relationship among SDL, transport demand subject (TDS) participation, relational embeddedness (RE), platform VCC, and TDS value in the online business environment. The findings show that (1) SDL, TDS participation, and RE do not directly affect the TDS value, but indirectly through platform VCC; (2) SDL affects platform VCC not only directly but also indirectly through TDS participation and RE; (3) TDS participation affects platform VCC not only directly but also indirectly through RE; (4) RE indirectly affects TDS value by affecting platform VCC; and (5) platform VCC plays a mediating role in SDL, TDS participation, RE, and TDS value. Hence, transport enterprises should pay attention to the innovation concept, guide TDS participation, jointly improve platform VCC, give play to the network effect of the freight transport platform, and achieve TDS value through the deepening of TDS relationship embedding.