Showing papers on "Embeddedness published in 2004"
TL;DR: In this paper, an exploratory analysis, involving interviews with MNC managers, original case studies, and archival material, indicates that the transnational model of national responsiveness, global efficiency and worldwide learning may not be sufficient.
Abstract: With established markets becoming saturated, multinational corporations (MNCs) have turned increasingly to emerging markets (EMs) in the developing world. Such EM strategies have been targeted almost exclusively at the wealthy elite at the top of the economic pyramid. Recently, however, a number of MNCs have launched new initiatives that explore the untapped market potential at the base of the economic pyramid, the largest and fastest-growing segment of the world's population. Reaching the four billion people in these markets poses both tremendous opportunities and unique challenges to MNCs, as conventional wisdom about MNC global capabilities and subsidiary strategy in EMs may not be appropriate. How MNCs can successfully enter these low-income markets has not been effectively addressed in the literatures on global and EM strategies. An exploratory analysis, involving interviews with MNC managers, original case studies, and archival material, indicates that the transnational model of national responsiveness, global efficiency and worldwide learning may not be sufficient. Results suggest that the success of initiatives targeting low-income markets is enhanced by recognizing that Western-style patterns of economic development may not occur in these business environments. Business strategies that rely on leveraging the strengths of the existing market environment outperform those that focus on overcoming weaknesses. These strategies include developing relationships with non-traditional partners, co-inventing custom solutions, and building local capacity. Together, these successful strategies suggest the importance of MNCs developing a global capability in social embeddedness.
1,426 citations
TL;DR: The authors studied the influence of implicit and explicit knowledge transfer in the transfer of knowledge from the foreign parent to the international joint venture (IJV) managers and found that implicit learning is accumulative, assists in explaining explicit knowledge, and is enhanced by social embeddedness.
Abstract: Drawing on organizational learning and economic sociology, we address how relational embeddedness between the foreign parent and international joint venture (IJV) managers influences the type of knowledge (i.e., tacit and explicit) transferred to the IJV, and how the importance of relational embeddedness varies between young and mature IJVs. We also examine the influence of tacit and explicit knowledge on IJV performance. Our results show the importance that tie strength, trust, and shared values and systems play in the transfer of tacit knowledge, especially for mature IJVs. Our findings are consistent with Uzzi's tenets: tacit learning is accumulative, assists in explaining explicit knowledge, and is enhanced by social embeddedness. We also find that the influence of transferred tacit knowledge on IJV performance stems principally from its indirect effect on the learning of explicit knowledge.
965 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors extend theory and research on job embeddedness, which was disaggregated into its two major subdimensions, on-the-job and off-thejob embeddedness.
Abstract: This study extends theory and research on job embeddedness, which was disaggregated into its two major subdimensions, on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness. As hypothesized, regression analyses r...
820 citations
TL;DR: The concept of embeddedness has gained much prominence in economic geography over the last decade, as much work has been done on the social and organizational foundations of economic activities and regional development.
Abstract: The concept of embeddedness has gained much prominence in economic geography over the last decade, as much work has been done on the social and organizational foundations of economic activities and regional development. Unlike the original conceptualizations, however, embeddedness is mostly conceived of as a ‘spatial’ concept related to the local and regional levels of analysis. By revisiting the early literature on embeddedness in particular the seminal work of Karl Polanyi and Mark Granovetter and critically engaging with what I will call an ‘overterritorialized’ concept, a different view on the fundamental categories of embeddedness is proposed. This reconceptualization then is illustrated using the poststructuralist metaphor of a rhizome to interpret the notion of embeddedness and its applicability to different geographical scales.
815 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the extent and mechanisms through which academic scientists contribute not only human capital but also social capital to entrepreneurial firms and found that scientific careers are central in shaping an academic's social capital which can be translated into critical scientific networks in which entrepreneurial firms become embedded.
509 citations
Book•
16 Dec 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the role of women in financial markets and discuss the relationship between women in finance and their roles in the financial services industry, including the roles of women on the trading floor.
Abstract: Introduction SECTION I: INSIDE FINANCIAL MARKETS 1. The Embeddedness of Electronic Markets: The Case of Global Capital Markets 2. How Are Global Markets Global? The Architecture of a Flow World 3. How a Super-Portfolio Emerges: Long Term Capital Management and the Sociology of Arbitrage 4. How to Recognize Opportunities: Heterarchical Search in a Trading Room 5. Emotions on the Trading Floor: Social and Symbolic Expressions 6. Women in Financial Services: Fiction and More Fiction SECTION II: THE AGE OF THE INVESTOR 7. The Investor as a Cultural Figure of Global Capitalism 8. The Values and Beliefs of European Investors 9. Conflicts of Interest in the US Brokerage Industry SECTION III: FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE 10. Interpretive Politics at the Federal Reserve 11. The Return of Bureaucracy: Managing Dispersed Knowledge in Global Finance 12. Enterprise Risk Management and the Organization of Uncertainty in Financial Institutions 13. Managing Investors: How Financial Markets Reshaped the American Firm 14. Nothing But Net? Networks and Status in Corporate Governance
394 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a critical examination of farmers' markets (FMs) is carried out to examine the engagement of producers and consumers, both with each other, but also with the exchange context of FMs.
Abstract: In recent years we have witnessed the development of numerous alternative strategies (AS) within the UK agro-food system intent on overcoming, or at least circumventing, some of the problems associated with the globalisation of food production and consumption. Within these AS, there is an intention to reconnect food to the social, cultural and environmental context of its production, leading to considerable interest in their potential to engender sustained change within the food system. However, it is apparent that AS are likely to face various pressures on their underlying integrity and alterity, and their possible re-incorporation within mainstream processes. There is a need, therefore, to interrogate the durability of AS, which this paper does through its critical examination of farmers' markets (FMs). Drawing upon a number of FM cases studies, it examines the engagement of producers and consumers, both with each other, but also with the exchange context of FMs. The resultant data are assessed within the conceptual domains of embeddedness and regard as a means of better understanding the nature of FMs as an AS. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of this research for our comprehension of AS more broadly.
327 citations
TL;DR: A series of case studies from a range of political and cultural contexts as discussed by the authors explore the interfaces between different forms of public engagement, including representation, inclusion and voice, about the political efficacy of citizen engagement as well as the viability of these new arenas as political institutions.
Abstract: Across the world, as new democratic experiments meet withand transformolder forms of governance, political space for public engagement in governance appears to be widening. A renewed concern with rights, power and difference in debates about participation in development has focused greater attention on the institutions at the interface between publics, providers and policy makers. Some see in them exciting prospects for the practice of more vibrant and deliberative democracy (Fung and Wright 2003; Gaventa, forthcoming).Others raise concerns about them as forms of co-option, and as absorbing, neutralising and deflecting social energy from other forms of political participation (Taylor 1998). The title of this Bulletin reflects some of their ambiguities as arenas that may be neither new nor democratic, but at the same time appear to hold promise for renewing and deepening democracy. Through a series of case studies from a range of political and cultural contexts – Brazil, India, Bangladesh,Mexico, South Africa, England and the United States of America, contributors to this Bulletin explore the interfaces between different forms of public engagement. Their studies engage with questions about representation, inclusion and voice, about the political efficacy of citizen engagement as well as the viability of these new arenas as political institutions. Read together, they serve to emphasise the historical, cultural and political embeddedness of the institutions and actors that constitute spaces for participation.
321 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how the most influential business-to-business (B2B) customers, both existing and potential, involved in providing input to a new product development (NPD) project influence new product advantage.
277 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that a firm's embedded relationships influence prices by prompting private-information flows and informal governance arrangements that add unique value to goods and services, and they test their arguments with a separate longitudinal dataset on the pricing of legal services by law firms that represent corporate America.
Abstract: The determination of prices is a key function of markets, yet sociologists are just beginning to study it. Most theorists view prices as a consequence of economic processes. By contrast, we consider how social structure shapes prices. Building on embeddedness arguments and original fieldwork at large law firms, we propose that a firm's embedded relationships influence prices by prompting private-information flows and informal governance arrangements that add unique value to goods and services. We test our arguments with a separate longitudinal dataset on the pricing of legal services by law firms that represent corporate America. We find that embeddedness can significantly increase and decrease prices net of standard variables and in markets for both complex and routine legal services. Moreover, results show that three forms of embeddedness—embedded ties, board memberships, and status—affect prices in different directions and have different magnitudes of effects that depend on the complexity of the legal service.
268 citations
TL;DR: The use and abuse of the embeddedness concept in economic sociology was discussed in a conference in April 2002 as discussed by the authors, which is intended to illuminate current debates about the use of embeddedness in economics.
Abstract: This conversation, transcribed from a conference in April 2002, is intended to illuminate current debates about the use and abuse of the embeddedness concept in economic sociology.
TL;DR: Using social embeddedness arguments, the authors examines how the mobility of managers in professional service and client firms affects dissolution among their firms' market ties for that service, and concludes that the mobility affects dissolution of their market ties.
Abstract: Using social embeddedness arguments, this study examines how the mobility of managers in professional service and client firms affects dissolution among their firms' market ties for that service. M...
TL;DR: This article reviewed the disciplinary situation and practices of economic geographers in the light of the social embeddedness of knowledge and highlighted some of the major tasks ahead for economic geography in the phase of post-late capitalism.
Abstract: The paper opens with a statement on the social embeddedness of knowledge. The disciplinary situation and practices of economic geographers are reviewed in the light of this statement. The rise of a new geographical economics is noted, and its main thrust is summarized in terms of a description of the core model as formulated by Krugman. The geographers’ reception of the new geographical economics is described, and some key aspects of this reception are assessed. I then subject the core model itself to critical evaluation. Its claims about pecuniary externalities in the context of Chamberlinian competition provide a number of useful insights. However, I argue that the model is deficient overall in the manner in which it tackles the central problem of agglomeration. The discussion then moves on to consideration of the recent interest shown by many economic geographers in issues of culture. After a brief exposition of what this means for economic geography, I offer the verdict that this shift of emphasis has much to recommend it, but that in some of its more extreme versions it is strongly susceptible to the temptations of philosophical idealism and political voluntarism. In the final part of the paper, I attempt to pinpoint some of the major tasks ahead for economic geography in the phase of post-‘late capitalism’. I suggest, in particular, that a new cognitive map of capitalist society as a whole is urgently needed, and I offer some brief remarks about how its basic specifications might be identified.
TL;DR: Examination of social context shaped experiences and perceptions pertaining to sexual behaviour among 18-24 year olds living in two Canadian communities finds two central processes appeared to be important to the experiences of youth and their recollections about their adolescent sexual experiences.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an empirically-grounded analysis of networking, trust and embeddedness among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Aberdeen oil complex.
Abstract: Over the last decade or so, networking has become a ‘vogue concept’ in small business research, connecting with wider debates on learning and regional development. Participation in inter-firm networks is seen to provide small firms with access to a broader pool of resources and knowledge, helping them to overcome size-related disadvantages. In particular, the role of such networks as channels for innovation and learning within regions and localities has been emphasized in the context of an apparent shift towards a knowledge-driven economy. In this paper, we provide an empirically-grounded analysis of networking, trust and embeddedness amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Aberdeen oil complex. Drawing upon survey and interview data, it is argued that connections to extra-local networks play a crucial role in providing access to wider sources of information and knowledge. At the same time, an Aberdeen location still matters to oil-related firms because of the access it offers to crucial ...
TL;DR: In this paper, a longitudinal case study of the networks of an exporting firm is presented, which contributes to a deeper understanding of the political embeddedness concept, and suggests that the interpenetration of marketing and policy exchange is a feature of networks in “politically salient” industries.
Abstract: The concept of “embeddedness” is central to industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) theories. This paper is concerned with one form of embeddedness, namely the political embeddedness of business networks. Existing IMP literature on political embeddedness is reviewed and four dimensions of political embeddedness identified: political institutions, political actors, the political activities of firms and political resources. Research into each of these dimensions of political embeddedness is extended in this paper by analysing the findings from a longitudinal case study of the networks of an exporting firm. The case contributes to a deeper understanding of the “political embeddedness” concept, and suggests that the interpenetration of marketing and policy exchange is a feature of networks in “politically salient” industries.
TL;DR: New insights are provided about the processes of interorganizational transfer of knowledge: the unique combination of a specific social context with a specific type of social capital means firms can achieve equally effective yet highly differentiated approaches to different modes of knowledge integration.
Abstract: This paper argues that social contexts and social capital enable knowledge integration; that different social contexts combined with different types of social capital enable different types of knowledge integration. Four types of social contexts are distinguished based on the extent of social embeddedness and closeness of interorganizational coupling; four types of social capital are also described. Based on the diversity of knowledge streams, the extent of tacitness of knowledge to be exchanged, and value created through such exchanges, four modes of knowledge integration are identified, namely frontier, incremental, combinative, and instrumental. This paper provides new insights about the processes of interorganizational transfer of knowledge: the unique combination of a specific social context with a specific type of social capital means firms can achieve equally effective yet highly differentiated approaches to different modes of knowledge integration.
TL;DR: In an ethnographic study of an indigenous beaver trapper belonging to the Cree Nation, Whiteman and Cooper introduced the concept of ecological embeddedness as mentioned in this paper, which is a model that reverses the traditional practice of viewing managers as primitives and applying concepts employed in studying native communities to organizations.
Abstract: Sustainability and sound ecological management of the natural environment, allied to the expanding body of work on managing tacit and explicit knowledge, has led to an increased interest in the contribution which anthropology can make to the practical adaptation of indigenous environmental knowledge and practice to the improvement of organization in western societies. In an exemplary ethnographic study of an indigenous beaver trapper belonging to the Cree Nation, Whiteman and Cooper introduced the concept of ecological embeddedness. Their study could be considered a model that reverses the traditional practice of viewing managers as though they were primitives and applying concepts employed in studying native communities to organizations. They consider indigenous practitioners as managers, identify their management practices, and then reconsider contemporary management practice towards the environment in this light. They argue that to be ecologically embedded as a manager is to identify personally with th...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on social networks and business success among a sample of small-scale entrepreneurs operating in the wood business in the coastal town of Tanga, Tanzania, and adopt a holistic approach and theoretical triangulation when trying to empirically integrate the entrepreneurial process and its context.
Abstract: I Introduction DEVELOPING ECONOMIES TODAY ARE CHARACTERIZED BY dramatic changes in the direction of liberalization and globalization, not least in Africa. Business entrepreneurs have increased opportunities to enact their business environments and develop profitable enterprises with a wide geographical range. Obviously, opportunities are not equal for all, and we see clear tendencies toward increasing social differences with recent economic growth on the African continent. Local and small-scale entrepreneurs are easily marginalized in open competition with "alien" businesspeople (Kilby 1983) or foreign investors. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are clear indications that enterprises owned by Asians and Europeans are bigger, more innovative, and faster growing than neighboring firms owned by native Africans (Ramachandran and Shah 1999). Also, differences are seen in business performance of entrepreneurs from various domestic ethnic groups. It is a recognized fact in socioeconomic research that social networks create social capital of importance for business development. Networks represent a means for entrepreneurs to reduce risks and transaction costs and improve access to business ideas, knowledge, and capital. A social network consists of a series of formal and informal ties between the central actor and other actors in a circle of acquaintances. Social networks are channels through which entrepreneurs get access to the necessary resources for business startup, growth, and success. Social capital is defined as an attribute created in the interaction between people, which increases the strength and value of personal qualities such as intelligence and work experience, and represents a resource for collective as well as individual action (Coleman 1988). Social capital is manifested in norms and networks that enable people to act collectively (Woolcock 1998). According to Lin (1999), the value of a person's social capital is determined by qualities of her or his social network. We shall argue that social networks are also determined by an initial basis of social capital. The national cultures of the East African countries are fragmented, and ethnicity, religion, and class are only three common bases for faction. Culture, in our perspective, may be usefully defined as a collective subjectivity: a shared set of values, norms, and beliefs. Subcultures within national African contexts are probably of vital importance for the development of value systems, trust, and social networks, and thereby also for business success. In this paper, focus is set on social networks and business success among a sample of small-scale entrepreneurs operating in the wood business in the coastal town of Tanga, Tanzania. The objective of our research is to indicate any correlation between sociocultural contexts, personal relationships, and the ability to enact one's environment and make a success in business. Complementing theoretical perspectives on social embeddedness (Nobria and Gulati 1994), we argue that entrepreneurs also have an opportunity to develop social relations and to modify cultural bonds. Enacting the business environment, however, also needs resources and certain cognitive frames. We adopt a holistic approach and theoretical triangulation when trying to empirically integrate the entrepreneurial process and its context. The aim is a "combination of theoretically creative and empirically grounded" analysis (Zafirovski 1999, p. 588), closer to "story-telling" than the mathematical line of economic sociology. Few studies are made specifically of the role of social networks in African business, and we use a qualitative methodology to expand theory, rather than proving by statistics the existing theory. The paper is organized in six parts. After this introduction follows a brief presentation of findings on relations between social networks and business success, mostly from Europe and the United States. …
14 May 2004
TL;DR: The extent to which universities and their internationalisation activities have truly changed due to processes of globalisation and regionalisation is a core question that will be addressed by looking at the ways in which universities cooperate across borders as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The extent to which universities and their internationalisation activities have truly changed due to processes of globalisation and regionalisation is a core question that will be addressed by looking at the ways in which universities cooperate across borders. Contemporary international collaborative activities can be assumed to reach deeper at the hart of the university than earlier, more marginal activities. Consequently, these activities present more challenges to existing structures and routines. In this way, the study of international arrangements among universities can be considered a microcosm for studying the impact of globalisation and regionalisation on universities.
TL;DR: The authors endorses recent pleas for an "institutional turn" within economic geography, revealing and connecting the coherence and distinctiveness of dissenting institutional economic experts. But they do not discuss the role of economic geography.
Abstract: This paper endorses recent pleas for an ‘institutional turn’ within economic geography. In particular, it reveals and connects the coherence and distinctiveness of dissenting institutional economic...
TL;DR: This article used debates around affirmative/positive action to offer insights into the usefulness and limitations of discourse approaches to policy analysis, and argued that a particular understanding of affirmative action as preferential treatment has become hegemonic.
Abstract: This paper uses debates around affirmative/positive action to offer insights into the usefulness and limitations of discourse approaches to policy analysis. It illustrates that a particular understanding of affirmative action as preferential treatment has become hegemonic. This understanding relies upon a view that background social rules are generally fair, and that members of groups targeted by affirmative action need "special help' to succeed. The basis of the privilege of dominant social groups is invisible in this conceptualization. The ubiquity of this understanding reveals the extent to which large numbers of social actors, including many who claim to be committed to substantive structural change, accept the premises of equal opportunity. My goal is to achieve a rebalancing in thinking about the relationship between discourse and political subjectivity by emphasizing the embeddedness, the taken-for-granted status, of certain belief systems. This rebalancing signals the need for reformers to interro...
23 Apr 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, a regional development platform method is proposed to assess the regional innovation environment, and five regional dynamic capabilities are highlighted: leadership capability, visionary capability, learning capability, networking capability, and innovative capability.
Abstract: The study focuses on building a regional innovation policy tool that takes into account the demands of the present techno-economic and socio-institutional paradigms. Regions are seen to be strongly dependent on their history. The competitiveness of a region is based on the regional resource configurations. In a turbulent world these resource configurations have to be renewed over time setting demands for regional dynamic capabilities. This study emphasises five regional dynamic capabilities: leadership capability, visionary capability, learning capability, networking capability and innovative capability. The study takes a holistic point of view in assessing the regional innovation environment. This environment is seen as a system of innovation networks and institutions located within a region, with regular and strong internal interaction that promotes innovativeness and is characterised by embeddedness. Innovations are increasingly seen to be the results of non-linear processes deeply embedded in normal social and economic activities. The non-linear and interactive nature of the innovation processes sets new demands for social cohesion in the regional innovation system. The new era is crying out for innovation policy tools that foster the visionary, leadership, networking and learning activities in the process of designing and implementing innovation policies and strategies. In this study a new tool for regional innovation policy – the Regional Development Platform Method – is designed and tested. The main aspects behind the creation of this innovation policy tool are: (i) understanding the effects of the changing techno-economic-paradigm
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the nature and potential impact from the voluntary associations of rank-and-file members with the panoply of organizations in their daily lives, including churches, PTAs, and sports teams, is neglected.
Abstract: Prevailing conceptions of organizational embeddedness emphasize linkages to exchange partners via elites and contracts. What is neglected, the authors argue, is the nature and potential impact from the voluntary associations of rank-and-file members with the panoply of organizations in their daily lives, including churches, PTAs, and sports teams. The functions of these organizations provide contexts in which individuals trade information and form opinions about organizations and their members. By participating, individuals embed their own organizations in a broader organizational culture. This article treats the embeddedness of unions in the interorganizational network as a factor that has impacted and varied with the decline of organized labor. Organizational affiliation networks containing 18,263 individuals, drawn from the 1974-1994 General Social Survey data, show the isolation of unions in American organizational culture despite their relatively high rates of membership. Chronic aspects of the probl...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the nature of the relation between an innovation system and regional economic growth, and how to organize the transfer of information and knowledge in a research organization.
Abstract: Research organizations within enterprises and universities are part of a (regional) innovation system (RIS). An important question concerns the nature of the relation between an RIS and regional economic growth. To be more specific: how to organize the transfer of information and knowledge? How is this related to embeddedness? Networks are organizational configurations that perform two functions: co-ordination and transmission. Both are important for the generation and transfer of knowledge. Networks consist of 'nodes', 'connections' and 'intensities of transfer'. Firms can be conceived of as 'nodes' consisting of 'bundles' of functions, forms of organizations, and technologies. Different parts of firms can participate differently in different networks. The transfer of knowledge is only one aspect of the functioning of firms and networks. Relations between firms are not static; 'embedded relational dynamics' would be a better description. The changing 'selection environment' requires the continuous adjust...
Book•
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: A sociological view of the economy can be found in the work of Frank Dobbin this article, who discusses the social construction of organizations and markets, and how social relations and networks benefit Firms Seeking Financing.
Abstract: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix CHAPTER 1 The Sociological View of the Economy Frank Dobbin 1 INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER 2 From The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber 49 CHAPTER 3 Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony by John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan 86 CHAPTER 4 The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields by Paul J.DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell 111 CHAPTER 5 From Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children by Viviana A. Zelizer 135 CHAPTER 6 The Social Construction of Organizations and Markets: The Comparative Analysis of Business Recipes by Richard Whitley 162 CHAPTER 7 The Declineand Fall of the Conglomerate Firm in the 1980s: The Deinstitutionalization of an Organizational Form by Gerald F. Davis, Kristina A. Diekmann, and Catherine H. Tinsley 188 NETWORKS CHAPTER 8 From The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim 227 CHAPTER 9 Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness by Mark Granovetter 245 CHAPTER 10 Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action by Alejandro Portes and Julia Sensenbrenner 274 CHAPTER 11 A Structural Approach to Markets by Eric M. Leifer and Harrison C. White 302 CHAPTER 12 From Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition by Ronald S. Burt 325 CHAPTER 13 Embeddedness in the Making of Financial Capital: How Social Relations and Networks Benefit Firms Seeking Financing by Brian Uzzi 349 POWER CHAPTER 14 From The German Ideology by Karl Marx 387 CHAPTER 15 From The Transformation of Corporate Control by Neil Fligstein 407 CHAPTER 16 From Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in America by William G. Roy 433 CHAPTER 17 From City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution by Bruce G. Carruthers 457 COGNITION CHAPTER 18 From The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Emile Durkheim 485 CHAPTER 19 From The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann 496 CHAPTER 20 From Organizations: Cognitive Limits on Rationality by James G. March and Herbert A. Simon 518 CHAPTER 21 From Sensemaking in Organizations by Karl E. Weick 533 INDEX 553
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on identity and identification on a network level of analysis, with an explicit focus on boundaries that are activated, questioned and moved, and propose an approach that encourages an enhanced awareness of interdependence and embeddedness, which in turn promotes a more comprehensive sense of belonging and a new perception of goal compatibility.
TL;DR: The emergence of a few "Bioscience Megacentres" as discussed by the authors for basic and applied bioscience medical and clinical research (molecular, post-genomic, proteomics, etc.), biotechnology research, training in these and related fields, academic entrepreneurship and commercial exploitation by clusters of 'drug discovery' start-up and spin-off companies, along with specialist venture capital and other innovation system support services.
Abstract: Changes in epistemology in biosciences are generating important spatial effects. The most notable of these is the emergence of a few 'Bioscience Megacentres' for basic and applied bioscience medical and clinical research (molecular, post-genomic, proteomics, etc.), biotechnology research, training in these and related fields, academic entrepreneurship and commercial exploitation by clusters of 'drug discovery' start-up and spin-off companies, along with specialist venture capital and other innovation system support services. Large pharmaceutical firms that used to lead such knowledge generation and exploitation processes are becoming increasingly dependent upon innovative drug solutions produced in such clusters, and megacentres are now the predominant source of such commercial knowledge. 'Big pharma' is seldom at the heart of megacentres such as those the paper will argue are found in about four locations each in the USA and Europe, but remains important for some risk capital ('milestone payments'), mark...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors construct and validate empirically a theoretical model that allows performance and competitiveness in firms located in industrial districts to be explained from the strategic perspective adopted, economic revenues are explained by three types of advantage: shared advantages, competitive advantages, and comparative advantages.
Abstract: The author's aim is to construct and validate empirically a theoretical model that allows performance and competitiveness in firms located in industrial districts to be explained. From the strategic perspective adopted, economic revenues are explained by three types of advantage: shared advantages, competitive advantages, and comparative advantages. Neither integration in the district, nor its attraction due to the shared competences within it, are significant predictors of performance. Empirical results indicate that organisational performance is largely explained by the joint effect of firm distinctive competences and cluster-shared competences. It was also found that the greater the degree of a firm's embeddedness in an industrial district, the greater the effect of its distinctive competences on organisational performance. This evidence suggests that firms which are better endowed with resources and capabilities find the development of sustainable competitive advantages easier when they locate in indu...