Showing papers on "Embeddedness published in 2002"

Global production networks and the analysis of economic development

Abstract: This article outlines a framework for the analysis of economic integration and its relation to the asymmetries of economic and social development. Consciously breaking with state-centric forms of social science, it argues for a research agenda that is more adequate to the exigencies and consequences of globalization than has traditionally been the case in 'development studies'. Drawing on earlier attempts to analyse the cross-border activities of firms, their spatial configurations and developmental consequences, the article moves beyond these by proposing the framework of the 'global production network' (GPN). It explores the conceptual elements involved in this framework in some detail and then turns to sketch a stylized example of a GPN. The article concludes with a brief indication of the benefits that could be delivered by research informed by GPN analysis.

Tribal marketing: The tribalisation of society and its impact on the conduct of marketing

Abstract: This paper presents an alternative, “Latin” vision of our societies. Here the urgent societal issue is not to celebrate freedom from social constraints, but to re‐establish communal embeddedness. The citizen of 2002 is less interested in the objects of consumption than in the social links and identities that come with them. This Latin view holds that people like to gather together in tribes and that such social, proximate communities are more affective and influential on people’s behaviour than either marketing institutions or other “formal” cultural authorities. There is also an element of resistance and re‐appropriation in the acts of being, gathering and experiencing together. This view of the shared experience of tribes sets it apart from both Northern notions of segmented markets and one‐to‐one relationships. In this Latin view, the effective marketing of 2002 and beyond is not to accept and exploit consumers in their contemporary individualisation, as Northern approaches might. Rather the future of marketing is in offering and supporting a renewed sense of community. Marketing becomes tribal marketing. In a marketing profession challenged by the Internet phenomenon, tribal marketing is by no means just another passing fad but a Trojan horse to induce companies to take on board the re‐emergence of the quest for community.

Institutional effects of interorganizational collaboration: The emergence of proto-institutions

Abstract: We argue that collaboration can act as a source of change in institutional fields through the generation of “proto-institutions”: new practices, rules, and technologies that transcend a particular collaborative relationship and may become new institutions if they diffuse sufficiently. A four-year study of the collaborative activities of a small nongovernmental organization in Palestine suggests that collaborations that are both highly embedded and have highly involved partners are the most likely to generate proto-institutions.

Reinventing Institutions: Bricolage and the Social Embeddedness of Natural Resource Management

Abstract: This study challenges the oversimplified way in which abstract and bureaucratic 'design principles' derived from resource management literature are translated into development policy and practice, in pursuit of robust and enduring institutions. Drawing on research in the Usangu Basin, Tanzania, it explores the socially embedded nature of institutions for common property resource management and collective action. The concept of 'institutional bricolage' is outlined; a process by which people consciously and unconsciously draw on existing social and cultural arrangements to shape institutions in response to changing situations. Contrary to much theory, this study shows that institutions formed through bricolage are a dynamic mixture of the 'modern' and 'traditional', 'formal' and 'informal'.

Strong ties, weak ties and islands: structural and cultural predictors of organizational innovation

Abstract: How does the tendency of entrepreneurs to engage in innovation relate to their structural and cultural embeddedness? Using micro-data on entrepreneurial teams and the organizational innovations they attempt to develop, this article presents a predictive model of creative action to address this question. Capacity for creative action is seen to be a function of the ability of entrepreneurs to (i) obtain non-redundant information from their social networks; (ii) avoid pressures for conformity; and (iii) sustain trust in developing novel—and potentially profitable— innovations. Probit analyses of over 700 organizational startups suggest that these mechanisms exercise effects on innovation via the network ties and enculturation of entrepreneurs.

Knowledge spillover in corporate financing networks: embeddedness and the firm's debt performance

Abstract: Building on social embeddedness theory, we examine how the competencies and resources of one corporate actor in a network are transferred to another actor that uses them to enhance transactions with a third actor—a strategic process we dub ‘network transitivity.’ Focusing on the properties of network transitivity in the context of small-firm corporate finance, we consider how embedded relations between a firm and its banks facilitate the firm's access to distinctive capabilities that enable it to strategically manage its trade-credit financing relationships. We apply theory and original case-study fieldwork to explore the types of resources and competencies available through bank–firm relationships and to derive hypotheses about how embedded bank–firm relationships affect the strategy of small- to medium-sized firms. Using a separate large-scale data set, we then test the generalizability of our hypotheses. Our qualitative analyses show that embedded bank–firm ties provide special governance arrangements that facilitate the firm's access to bank-centered informational and capital resources, which uniquely enhance the firm's ability to manage trade credit. Consistent with our arguments, our statistical analyses show that small- to medium-sized firms with embedded ties to their bankers were more likely to take lucrative early-payment trade discounts and avoid costly late-payment penalties than were similar firms that lacked embedded ties—suggesting that social embeddedness beneficially affects the financial performance of the firm. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Interfirm Alliances in the Small Business: The Role of Social Networks

Abstract: In light of the increasing importance of strategic alliances in shaping competition, this study explored whether the social network of small firm executives can be leveraged to facilitate the establishment of interfirm alliances. Analyses are based on a mail survey of 149 small manufacturing firms in the northeast United States. Results indicate that the social networks of senior executives account for 11–22 percent of the variance in the degree to which firms engage in alliances, depending on the type of alliance. Results also show that the number of interfirm alliances is positively related to several networking properties (propensity to network, strength of ties, and network prestige). Findings are discussed in the context of network theory, social embeddedness, and the overall implications for management researchers and practitioners.

The institutional embeddedness of local inter-firm networks: a leverage for business creation

Abstract: There is an increasing concern for the notion of ‘embeddedness’ of economic activity; yet the conceptualization of the concept and its operationalization remain underdeveloped. First, embeddedness may concern, on the one hand, the structure of relations that tie economic actors together (structural embeddedness) and, on the other hand, the social strands supplementing economic strands in each relation (substantive embeddedness). In this paper, a network framework is outlined which proposes several layers or ‘orders’ of embeddedness. Focusing on small firms, the point of departure is individual exchange relationships as personal ties combining economic and social concerns. First-order embeddedness concerns the localized business networks created by combining these dyadic relations. Second-order embeddedness is achieved when considering also the memberships of business persons in economic and social local institutions while third-order embeddedness concerns the special cases where these institutions bridge ...

The Institutional Embeddedness of Project Networks: The Case of Content Production in German Television

Abstract: Project networks are an organizational form of production and exchange among functionally interdependent but legally autonomous firms and individuals. Although these networks are of limited duration, co-ordination of actors and activities takes place with respect to past experiences and future expectations. Project networks depend on supportive institutions in the surrounding organizational field to provide the regulative and normative resources within which practices are given meaning. In this paper, we explore the role of 'institutional thickness' for the performance of project networks in television content production in two media regions in Germany. We use GIDDENS', 1984, structuration perspective, to emphasize the dynamics and ambiguities of institutional processes. The analysis suggests that the two media regions differ in institutional thickness in ways which explain, at least in part, differences in the growth and viability of project networks. Les reseaux de projet constituent une forme organisat...

Tell me a good story: using narrative analysis to examine information requirements interviews during an ERP implementation

Abstract: This paper reports on a participant-observation study examining how clients use narratives to convey information during ERP requirements analysis interviews. Techniques drawn from narrative analysis are used to analyze the structure and content of different types of narratives clients tell during requirements analysis interviews. First, findings reveal that interviewees organized their experience, sought to persuade listeners, and conveyed information to analysts using "stories," "habitual," and "hypothetical" narratives. We argue that cClient narratives provide a pragmatic view of the information system, offering insight into the ways the system is actually used and the habitual practices of the work environment. Second, narratives function to signal the embeddedness of the information system in its larger organizational and social context.While analysts may be inclined to dismiss narratives as messy or asuncodeable data, we argue that the insights they provide merit attention. To the degree that narratives give insight into users' perspectives on organizational issues, they provide knowledge that is essential to any information systems project. This is especially true for ERP projects that, unlike other systems projects, seek to integrate processes spanning the entire organization. ERP projects typically require departments with very different priorities and vocabularies to radically rethink the organization and its habitual practices. Work habits, values, and dilemmas faced by users as recounted in narratives are likely to carry over after the legacy system has been removed. Hence, a sound grasp of these factors is surely advantageous for analysts in assessing the current and future environment of the organization. Future implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Embedded trust: Control and learning

Abstract: This paper discusses two mechanisms through which social embeddedness can affect trust among actors in cooperative relations. Trust can be based on past experiences with a partner or trust can be built on possibilities for sanctioning an untrustworthy trustee through own or third-party sanctions. These two mechanisms are labeled learning and control. The mechanisms are often left implicit or discussed in isolation in earlier research. Learning and control can operate at different levels: at the dyadic level and at the network level. We argue that for understanding trust the two mechanisms should be studied simultaneously, theoretically as well as empirically. We show that this is more easily said than done by addressing some of the theoretical as well as empirical issues. We offer preliminary evidence of the simultaneous working of the learning and control mechanisms at the dyadic level and the network level.

The Socio-Cultural Embeddedness of Individuals' Ethical Reasoning in Organizations (Cross-cultural Ethics)

Abstract: While models of business ethics increasingly recognize that ethical behavior varies cross-culturally, scant attention has been given to understanding how culture affects the ethical reasoning process that predicates individuals' ethical actions. To address this gap, this paper illustrates how culture may affect the various components of individuals' ethical reasoning by integrating findings from the cross-cultural management literature with cognitive-developmental perspective. Implications for future research and transnational organizations are discussed.

Globalization or Internationalization? Foreign Footballers in the English League, 1946-95

Abstract: This article challenges the idea that globalization is an inexorable free market process that fundamentally changes the nature of economic competition. Using evidence on hiring practices from the English football league (1946‐95) it presents a case study of a labour market where globalization might reasonably be expected. In finding that the market is characterized by a process of internationalization, the article goes on to show how this process is influenced by a range of economic, social and political factors that have distinctly national or British origins. More specifically, it argues that the recent expansion in overseas recruitment is shaped by the risk averse way in which employers deal with that which makes labour unique as a commodity: its variability and plasticity. Consequently, English clubs tend to draw heavily on those foreign sources that most resemble local sources in terms of climate, culture, language and style of football (for example, Scotland, Ireland, Australia and northern Europe, especially Scandinavia). Accordingly, the article concludes that radical notions of labour market globalization are fundamentally flawed since they fail to account for the ways in which labour market behaviour is socially embedded.

Project organization, embeddedness and risk in magazine publishing

Abstract: This paper focuses on the relationship between project forms of organization and new forms of employment, risk and exploitation in magazine publishing, and the ways in which these are embedded in place and social networks. It considers the organizational practices of the industry arguing that they represent a form of 'neo-industrial organizing', where, at the blurred boundaries of the 'firm', production is organized as 'project'. Evidence from interviews with 41 magazine industry workers reveals that key amongst the foundational mechanisms of this project form of organization are constructions of project workers as simultaneously highly responsible and insecure. This is brought about through the interplay of asymmetric power relations in highly socialized networks, geographical clustering and the transfer of risk from capital to labour at the margins of the firm. Cet article focalise sur le rapport entre l'organisation de projet et les nouvelles formes d'emplois, de risque et d'exploitation dans l'edition...

The economic embeddedness of immigrant enterprise in Britain

Abstract: Immigrant‐owned business in Britain is reviewed in the light of both cultural and structural economic perspectives. The latter view is emphasised. Concentration in trades which are in decline, or are labour intensive, or both, creates acute competitive pressures which are exacerbated by the growing presence of corporate rivals in many markets. Real and perceived bias on the part of banks helps to limit diversification. Attempts to move away from characteristic activities, both geographically and sectorally, have had only limited impact. Accumulation of class resources holds the greatest promise for entrepreneurial success.

Readings in Economic Sociology

Abstract: List of Contributors. Acknowledgments. Preface. Part I: Foundational Statements. 1. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith) 2. Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy Selections from the Chapter on capital (Karl Max) 3. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (Max Weber) 4. The Great Transformation (Karl Polanyi) Part II: Economic Action. 5. Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness (Mark Granovetter) 6. Making Markets: Opportunism and restraint on Wall Street (Mitchel Y. Abolafia) 7. Auctions: The Social Construction of Value (Charles Smith) 8. the Structural Sources of Adventurism: The Case of the California Gold Rush (Gary G. Hamilton) 9. The Separative Self: Andocentric Bias in Neoclassical Assumptions (Paula England) Part III: Capitalist States and Globalizing Markets. 10. Weber's Last Theory of capitalism (Randall Collins) 11. Markets as Politics: A Political-Culture Approach to Market Institutions (Neil Fligstein) 12. Rethinking Capitalism (Fred Block) 13. Developing Difference: Social Organization and the rise of the Auto Industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Argentina (Nicole Woolsey Biggart and Mauro F. Guillen) 14. Learning from Collaboration: Knowledge and Networks in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries (Walter W. Powell) Part IV: Economic Culture and the Culture of the Economy. 15. The Forms of Capital (Pierre Bourdieu) 16. Money, Meaning, and Morality (Bruce G. Carruthers and Wendy Nelson Espeland) 17. The Social Meaning of Money (Viviana A. Zelizer) 18. Opposing Ambitions: Gender and Identity in an Alternative Organization (Sherryl Kleinman) 19. Greening the Economy from the Bottom Up? Lessons in Consumption from the Energy Case (Loren Lutzenhiser) Index.

Temporary organizations and spatial embeddedness of learning and knowledge creation

Abstract: It is the overall aim of this article to investigate theoretically how spatial embeddedness of learning and knowledge creation might be challenged by alternative organisational forms (i.e. temporary organisations). The article presents development coalitions as an alternative to projects as a form of temporary organisation. They are potentially able to combine the promotion of radical change with collective and localised learning, thus eliminating some of the characteristic shortcomings of project organizations with regard to collective learning and transfer of knowledge.

Tribal marketing: The tribalisation of society and its impact on the conduct of marketing

Abstract: This paper presents an alternative, “Latin” vision of our societies. Here the urgent societal issue is not to celebrate freedom from social constraints, but to re‐establish communal embeddedness. The citizen of 2002 is less interested in the objects of consumption than in the social links and identities that come with them. This Latin view holds that people like to gather together in tribes and that such social, proximate communities are more affective and influential on people’s behaviour than either marketing institutions or other “formal” cultural authorities. There is also an element of resistance and re‐appropriation in the acts of being, gathering and experiencing together. This view of the shared experience of tribes sets it apart from both Northern notions of segmented markets and one‐to‐one relationships. In this Latin view, the effective marketing of 2002 and beyond is not to accept and exploit consumers in their contemporary individualisation, as Northern approaches might. Rather the future of marketing is in offering and supporting a renewed sense of community. Marketing becomes tribal marketing. In a marketing profession challenged by the Internet phenomenon, tribal marketing is by no means just another passing fad but a Trojan horse to induce companies to take on board the re‐emergence of the quest for community.

Conventions and Structures in Economic Organization: Markets, Networks and Hierarchies

Abstract: Contents: Introduction Emmanuel Lazega and Olivier Favereau 1. No Man is an Island: The Research Program of a Social Capital Theory Henk Flap 2. Conventionalist Approaches to Enterprise Francois Eymard-Duvernay 3. Institutional Embeddedness of Economic Exchange: Convergence Between New Institutional Economics and the Economics of Conventions Christian Bessy 4. Transaction Cost Economics and Governance Structures: Applications, Developments and Perspectives Didier Chabaud and Stephane Saussier 5. Organizational Ecology David N. Barron 6. Interdependent Entrepreneurs and the Social Discipline of their Cooperation: A Research Programme for Structural Economic Sociology in a Society of Organizations Emmanuel Lazega and Lise Mounier 7. Employer/Employee Relationship Regulation and the Lessons of School/Work Transition in France Alain Degenne 8. Where Do Markets Come From? From (Quality) Conventions! Olivier Favereau, Olivier Biencourt and Francois Eymard-Duvernay 9. Market Profiles: A Tool Suited to Quality Orders? An Empirical Analysis of Road Haulage and the Theatre Olivier Biencourt and Daniel Urrutiaguer 10. Solidarity, its Microfoundations and Macrodependence. A Framing Approach Siegwart Lindenberg Conclusion: Quality is a System Property. Downstream Harrison C. White Index

Trust and Exchange : Effects of TemporalTrust and Exchange : Effects of Temporal Embeddedness and Network Embeddedness on Providing and Dividing a Surplus

Abstract: Mutually profitable cooperation is characterized by the fact that the combined efforts of the cooperating parties generate a certain surplus. The first part of the book studies the production of a surplus as a trust problem between two actors. Should an actor provide resources if the other actor can decide on the division of the surplus if it materializes? Under which conditions is trust in a reasonable division of the surplus warranted? We study the effects of `temporal embeddedness'. If both actors interact repeatedly, they can learn something about the other actor's trustworthiness from past interactions. And, they can control their relation by facilitating or hampering future exchange in which both actors should be interested. The first part of the book studies the effects of such `temporal embeddedness' on the provision of a surplus between two actors. Hypotheses are derived on the basis of a simple social capital stock model. These hypotheses are tested using experiments as well as survey data. The second part of the book studies the division of a given surplus. We consider the case where actors are embedded in a network structure and connected actors can engage in dyadic negotiations on the division of a surplus. We show how the actors' network embeddedness determines their success in bargaining. We thus provide predictions on the actors' shares of their surpluses from bilateral negotiations with their partners. Further, we specify conditions for a decay of a negotiation structure into substructures by showing that it is sometimes favorable for an actor not to utilize possible negotiation ties. Predictions on the division of a surplus and on `network breaks' are tested using evidence from laboratory experiments.

Mixed embeddedness: Does it really explain immigrant enterprise in Western Australia (WA)?

Abstract: Kloosterman, van der Leun and Rath assert they conceptualised the “mixed embeddedness” hypothesis to overcome the shortcomings characteristic of earlier theoretical models of immigrant business enterprise. This article assesses the relevance of this theoretical perspective to explaining immigrant entrepreneurship in a specific host setting with reference to research that spans a number of economic periods and includes both genders and a number of generations. It is argued that, while the “mixed embeddedness” explanation gives a more comprehensive explanation than previous models, it nonetheless fails to explain the wide‐ranging inter‐ethnic variation in entrepreneurial concentration observed among immigrant groups around the world. It contends that the reasons for this are the model’s lack of historical perspective and focus on the lower end of the market. It also demonstrates how the study of immigrant enterprise is advanced by incorporating the agency of individuals into the explanatory process.

Money mosaics: financial choice and strategy in a West Delhi squatter settlement

Abstract: This paper examines the financial services and devices used by dwellers of Kalibasti, a squatter settlement in West Delhi. It discusses to what extent people are able to put together effective money management strategies through available devices and to what extent we might perceive ‘service’ or ‘product gaps’ which point to where new or existing providers could step in. It highlights the embeddedness of financial devices used by residents in wider kinds of relationships with relatives, co-residents, employers, ‘patrons’ and others. The paper concludes that access to adequate services does not necessarily correspond with access to formal or semi-formal services as is often presented by microfinance advocates. Rather it reflects people's awareness, job and income security, and capacity to leverage personal networks, all of which contribute to the capability of squatter residents to make financial relations and services work for them. The paper ends by making some tentative suggestions as to how our findings might be of interest to prospective microfinance providers in squatter settlements such as Kalibasti. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Advancing socio-economics : an institutionalist perspective

Abstract: Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Advancing Socio-Economics Part 3 Part I: On Socio-Economic Concepts and Methods Chapter 4 On Multi-Level Analysis Chapter 5 Towards a Socio-Economic Paradigm Chapter 6 The Future of Socio-Economics and of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Chapter 7 On Socio-Economic Embeddedness Part 8 Part II: On Institutions Chapter 9 On Institutional Embeddedness Chapter 10 Actors, Paradigms, and Institutional Dynamics: The Theory of Social Rule Systems Applied to Radical Reforms Chapter 11 Institutional Blindness in Modern Economics Chapter 12 Market Institutions as Communicating Vessels: Changes between Economic Coordination Principles as a Consequence of Deregulation Policies Chapter 13 Civil Society and Social Order: Demarcating and Combining Market, State, and Community Part 14 Part III: On Social Systems of Production-and Beyond Chapter 15 Social Systems of Production and Beyond Chapter 16 Globalization and Economic Adjustment in Germany Chapter 17 National Institutional Frameworks and High-Technology Innovation in Germany: The Case of Biotechnology Chapter 18 The Financial System of Industrial Finance in the Social System of Production, 1924-1990 Chapter 19 The Role of Institutional Processes in the Formation of Worker Cooperatives in Israel Chapter 20 Exporting the American Model-Historical Roots of Globalization Chapter 21 Institutional Pathways, Networks, and the Differentiation of National Economies

Trust and Exchange: Effects of Temporal Embeddedness and Network Embeddedness on Providing and Dividing a Surplus

Abstract: Dissertation of the University of Utrecht Mutually profitable cooperation is characterized by the fact that the combined efforts of the cooperating parties generate a certain surplus. The first part of the book studies the production of a surplus as a trust problem between two actors. Should an actor provide resources if the other actor can decide on the division of the surplus if it materializes? Under which conditions is trust in a reasonable division of the surplus warranted? We study the effects of `temporal embeddedness'. If both actors interact repeatedly, they can learn something about the other actor's trustworthiness from past interactions. And, they can control their relation by facilitating or hampering future exchange in which both actors should be interested. The first part of the book studies the effects of such `temporal embeddedness' on the provision of a surplus between two actors. Hypotheses are derived on the basis of a simple social capital stock model. These hypotheses are tested using experiments as well as survey data. The second part of the book studies the division of a given surplus. We consider the case where actors are embedded in a network structure and connected actors can engage in dyadic negotiations on the division of a surplus. We show how the actors' network embeddedness determines their success in bargaining. We thus provide predictions on the actors' shares of their surpluses from bilateral negotiations with their partners. Further, we specify conditions for a decay of a negotiation structure into substructures by showing that it is sometimes favorable for an actor not to utilize possible negotiation ties. Predictions on the division of a surplus and on `network breaks' are tested using evidence from laboratory experiments.

Techniques for Measuring Substrate Embeddedness

Abstract: : The degree to which fine sediments surround coarse substrates on the surface of a streambed is referred to as embeddedness. Although the term and its measurement were initially developed to address habitat space for juvenile steelhead trout, embeddedness measures have been used to assess fish spawning and macroinvertebrate habitat, as well as substrate mobility. Embeddedness is used as a water quality indicator in some areas. No publication provides a comprehensive description of embeddedness, and the sampling methodology is far from standardized. This technical note represents a compendium of embeddedness measurement techniques, compiled from journal papers, agency reports, and personal files of those involved in the development of the techniques and their applications. This technical note also documents the definitions and usage of the term "embeddedness," describes the development of embeddedness measurement techniques, provides guidelines for the application of measurement techniques, and summarizes the existing literature. The information presented here is derived from a study by Sylte (2002) and accompanies an assessment of the methods reported by Sylte and Fischenich (in preparation).