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PurposeThis study addresses the research question: How does the experiential knowledge, superstitious knowledge and the wisdom of CEOs influence the internationalization behaviour of SMEs?Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory qualitative study is used. Longitudinal case studies of two Swedish life science companies are analysed.FindingsAn individual's prior experiential knowledge influence the newly started SME's market commitments and internationalization behaviour. Such prior experiences can enable early and rapid resource commitments in the newly started SMEs. Relying upon such prior experiential knowledge in deciding upon the company's market commitments however heightens the risk of superstitious learning. The findings illustrate how wisdom can work as an antidote to superstitious learning. Wisdom lures even experienced CEOs away from believing they know more than they actually know.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes to extend the Uppsala model by incorporating the role of individual-level experiential knowledge. The study also adds value to the literature on small firm internationalization by providing propositions for how the prior knowledge of individual key decision makers influences SMEs' internationalization behaviour. The propositions provide new input to the ongoing discussion in the literature and help to guide future research.Originality/valueGiven the fact that the Uppsala model is centred upon a firm-level view on experiential knowledge, our theoretical understanding is still limited regarding how individual-level experiential knowledge influences the internationalization behaviour of SMEs. This study addresses calls for research on how individuals' prior knowledge influences small-firm internationalization.

PurposeContemporary public service innovations to an important degree are initiated and enabled by digitalization. Digitalization stimulates entry of new firms (start-ups) based on innovative implementation of digital technology for public services. The interwoven digitalization and innovation processes involve interaction and interdependencies between private business actors and public service providing actors. In this paper, the authors take the perspective of a start-up business actor that tries to develop and implement a viable business model in the very dynamic context of digital transformation of public education. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the instability of a startup firm’s business model during public service innovation can be explained. The research question is: “How can business modeling by a start-up firm be explained by tensions between its business model and public service provision models?”Design/methodology/approachBased on an abductive logic, the authors choose a single-case study of a start-up firm’s development in 2010-2018 and its interaction with public actors. Information about the firm acquired in the first phase of the study showed that it frequently changed its business model. A general analytical framework was developed to aid in efforts to answer the research question.FindingsThe case showed that a business model could be seen as a temporary outcome of a business modeling process, and that also concurrently public actors change their public actors’ service provisioning models. Public-private interaction reveals tensions that drive business modeling.Originality/valueThe study contributes to empirical knowledge about private-public interaction in the dynamic and complex context in which digital transformation in society drives public service innovations. The conceptual contribution rests more generally in the analytical framework and how it frames public actor’s “service provision modeling” as a driver of business modeling.

In market economies production and consumption are dependent on exchanges between market actors providing and using resources. We argue, in line with the “whole-of-government” perspective, that interaction between market actors and policy actors are crucial to achieve sustainable development goals, in our case climate mitigation. Technical, economic and policy innovations are needed for the market to be able to perform fossil-free market exchanges. We use “roadmaps” emanating from a non-traditional Swedish government committee named “Fossil-free Sweden” (FFS) and the government’s climate action plan as empirical focus. The roadmaps for specific industries/sectors are developed by market actors and submitted by FFS to government. With the aim of furthering the knowledge of how interaction between government and business promotes sustainable market exchange, we adopt a conceptual model that identifies three categories of market practices; representational, normalizing and exchange practices; that are interlinked by translation. Our policy practice approach refers to a “whole of government” perspective. We analyse one of the roadmaps, “Construction”, in terms of how policy innovations, as identified in the climate action plan, may promote technical and economic innovations and development of fossil-free market exchanges.

Purpose – Recently, increased interest has been devoted to discuss theory development in relation to business-to-business (B2B) marketing. The purpose of this paper is to explore these thoughts through describing and analyzing research on the internationalization of firms from an Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective. The authors ask: to what extent have these studies resulted in a theory of internationalization? Design/methodology/approach – The paper is conceptual and frames research on the internationalization of firms by means of definitions, domains, relations of variables and predictions. It looks into research on internationalization based on an IMP-inspired network perspective to see to what extent research has resulted in theories of internationalization. Findings – While there have been substantial efforts on theorizing related to IMP-based internationalization studies, the research has not yet resulted in theory. Research limitations/implications – In this paper one phenomenon was selected that has already been addressed in IMP research, namely, the internationalization of firms. Had the authors chosen another phenomenon previously studied in IMP the findings might had turned out differently. Originality/value – The paper makes a contribution to understanding how ideas are developed, used and referenced in long-term research development for the specific phenomenon of internationalization. The paper contributes to the debate on theories within B2B research.

Business markets are characterized by interdependences between business actors. How these actors make sense of such interdependencies is a matter of both theoretical and practical importance. Research on cognitive foundations for competition in business markets, based on organization and strategic management, has evolved considerably since the 1980s. Also, researchers on business markets that are based on marketing and adopt a network perspective, have become increasingly interested in cognition and sense-making over the last two decades. The concepts network pictures and network understanding have been in focus for this research, which has resulted in a demand for improved clarity of the interplay between cognition, action and outcome, as well as for a stronger integration between parallel research developments from related disciplines and research approaches. A better understanding of how individual and collective views are developed is also required. This Special Issue, originated in the network perspective of business markets, is aimed to address these issues.

Competition and cooperation are two fundamental market processes and are often viewed as independent opposites. However, there is evidence that they are interdependent, and this interdependence affects market dynamics. To understand market dynamics, we need to explicitly consider the interaction between competition and cooperation. A philosophy that might be helpful is Taoism according to which opposite elements of Yin and Yang continuously interact. The purpose of this article is to investigate how Yin–Yang principles in terms of the interaction between competition and cooperation might improve our understanding of market dynamics. The theoretical reference frame is based on a business network perspective on markets and literature on the interaction between cooperation and competition. An exploratory case study of relations between four Finnish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is also used. Based on the Yin–Yang principles, the literature, and the case study, propositions about the nature of interaction between competition and cooperation are developed. These propositions are then used as a basis to outline further research opportunities on market dynamics.

The issue dealt with in this chapter is the role of management in developing and maintaining business relationships among companies. Interdependent business network structures result from interactions in dyads between single actors and interactions among all involved actors collectively. Managers as ‘architects and constructors’ of business relationships, involved directly in developing the relationships between customers and suppliers, are mostly middle-management positions rather than top management. Purchasing managers, sales managers and technical managers are fundamental for the development of business relationships as they create value in business relationships. Relationships between companies cannot be developed unilaterally; they have to be developed jointly. Since value creation requires involvement of others, motivating other actors and mediating are fundamental in developing relationships and creating value. The effective development of business relationships of value hinges on the capability and skills of management to work with and through others, to relate to others and to cope with interdependencies that arise in relationships. However, the capability of a company to interact and create value in business relationships is not simply a sum of individual managerial skills; it is an issue of organising the interfaces in relationships to other business.

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the important and changing role of personal networks for transformation in Russia, and the related challenges for management. Formal institutions supporting the transformation to a market economy have been weak and Russian managers still tend to rely on personal networks. While these networks are important in all economies, they play a different role in full‐fledged market economies than in planned economies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual and is based on literature on the nature of markets, the Soviet planned economy, and the transformation process in Russia. A business network approach is used to understand markets and focus on the dynamics of overlapping business and personal networks.FindingsOverlapping between business networks involving non‐Russian networks and between personal and business networks are important drivers of transformation. The challenges for management in Russia are both organizational and strategic, and transformation implies substantial changes in the network structures.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors recommend further empirical analysis of the role that the overlapping of business and personal networks plays in transformation, as well as its managerial implications.Practical implicationsThis paper shows why firms must build business relationships during transformation that are integrated in nature and in which personal relations support the technical, logistical, financial, and knowledge exchange dimensions.Originality/valueThis paper challenges the dominating view of transformation, which says that market exchange is transactional, impersonal, and competition‐driven. The paper analyzes transformation in Russia as a network overlapping process in which the role of personal relations changes.

This is a book aimed at a management audience. The message is that the sales organization, with its direct interaction with customers, must be given a much more strategic role in the company. Sales...

Business cycles are not a new phenomenon. Firms have in the past found ways to, more or less successfully, adjust their resources to such cyclical changes. However, the combination of a global crisis in financial markets and a severe down turn in demand on globally interdependent markets in the “real” economy is unprecedented which suggests that established business practices to handle cyclical variations are challenged. In this article we focus on temporal aspects of resource adjustments, taking into account also network interdependencies in contemporary markets. We develop a conceptual framework towards understanding how business actors construct temporality of resource adjustment activities. We relate temporal orientation of actors to temporal profiles of activities, seeing them as both influenced by actors' network orientation.

The vocabulary used in economic and business analyses of information and communication technology (ICT) developments comprises terms such as business models, ecosystems and platforms. Such terms require clarification and translation to concepts used in general economic and business analyses. The process that interests us in this chapter is the intermediating role of platforms for service innovation. Examples include mobile phone-based platforms that enable innovation in payment processes and related service transactions; hotel booking sites that enable innovation in several related tourist services; and technical platforms for development of services related to ‘smart homes.’ As illustration we use platforms developed to connect vehicles with a variety of actors and resources.

PurposeIn 1982 two books published in Sweden suggested a network perspective on markets and marketing. The purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence in Sweden of the network perspective.Design/methodology/approachProvides an examination of research in industrial marketing and related fields during the 1970s and the roles of the societal and academic contexts for the research.FindingsClose relations between academic research and business was particularly crucial since it provided access to industry on all organisational levels and business relevance of the research. Three areas of research seem to have been especially important in the development: supplier‐customer interaction, strategy and organisation of the firm and the interconnectedness between markets. The emergence of the network perspective is seen as a result of a conceptual compromise between a group engaged in dyadic business relationship research and another group that had a wider systems interdependence view on markets. The paper shows that the development can be regarded as a discovery process.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to the development in Sweden during the 1970s and leading to the publication of two books that suggested a network perspective. A result of the paper is that the development during the period is only the first phase in the discovery of market networks. This suggests that analysis of the later development may be fruitful.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates the roots of the network perspective on markets and marketing and contributes to the understanding of the development of new paradigms in general.

We apply a markets-as-networks perspective in seeking to understand how cooperation and competition between firms drive the reconfiguration of markets under conditions of collective competition. More specifically we focus on strategic actions undertaken by firms with a view to establishing, maintaining and changing strategic alliances for performing coordinated but spatially dispersed activities in the international goods transport market. We suggest that a particular alliance process is interdependent with other reconfiguration processes within the market context of which it is a part. We identify and analyse a number of such interdependent network processes. We specifically discuss interactions between cooperation and competition, alliance stabilization and strategic actions under conditions of collective competition, and formulate a number of associated propositions.

Globalization of markets is a phenomenon that has received much attention and been extensively debated both at general societal/institutional/cultural levels and at market and business levels. In any globalization process, distribution of goods and services between and within local industrial and consumer markets is of great importance. Globalization of markets and reorganization of distribution are mutually dependent processes that involve changes in market structures. Contemporary examples of this are the emergence of global supply chains, internationalization of wholesale, retail and transportation firms and the development of sales via the Internet. The nature of the interdependence between globalization of markets and the reorganization of distribution is discussed, applying a network view of markets with reference to the cultural dimensions. Supply chain management issues are intimately related to these general development trends. The article concludes with some observations on the need, in practice and in research, to consider supply chain management in its dynamic context.

The theme of the book suggests that international interdependence between firms and within industries is of great and increasing importance. Analyses of international trade, international investments, industrial organisation and international business behaviour attempt to describe, explain and give advice about these interdependencies. The theoretical bases and the level of aggregation of such analyses are naturally quite varied.

Predating the increased attention by marketing academics on relationship marketing, European marketing scholars developed a network approach to the study of industrial markets that is also based on relationships between seller and buyer as a fundamental concept. This article aims to analyse the similarities and the differences between relationship marketing studies and network studies. After comparative analyses of definitions, empirical and research foundations, attributes related to governance structures and to the marketing mix approach and of major issues addressed in the research agendas, the conclusion is: relationship marketing in its limited interpretation is just a development within the marketing mix approach. Relationship marketing in its extended interpretation is, or rather could become, close to the markets‐as‐networks approach. However the basic attribute in network studies of “embeddedness” is largely missing in relationship marketing. To develop relationship marketing as a generic concept...

Management, over time, takes a series of specific strategic actions. As strategic actions we define actions aimed at influencing how the actor is related to other actors. We propose that when a strategic action is committed affects the outcome of the action. An important reason for this is that strategic actions over time can be regarded as interdependent sequences of actions. Timing and sequences may be more or less – or is not at all – preplanned by an actor. In a network perspective a focal actor is dependent on other actors that commit strategic actions. This creates interdependencies that vary over time, which a focal actor influences in a proactive, interactive and/or reactive way. The timing of strategic actions is a general, quite complex and elusive phenomenon to be handled in practice and theory. Despite its importance, very little research has been published.

The network perspective on industrial marketing is based on two propositions about industrial markets. First, transactions in the market to a very important extent are episodes in dynamic exchange relationships between sellers and buyers. Second, there are to an important extent interdependencies between exchange relationships, e. g. between the seller and other customers, between the customer and the customer’s customers, between the customer and a competitor. Thus exchange relationships are connected, directly or indirectly. These two propositions lead to a general conclusion that the over all context for industrial marketing is regarded as complex networks of connected exchange relationships between industrial actors. The connectedness implies both cooperation and competition between firms. Such networks have been labelled “industrial networks”, “business networks” or “markets-as-networks”. In the network perspective, industrial marketing is a networking activity.

Stresses the embeddedness of the individual firm in the network of firms with which it necessarily has ties; this ‘markets‐as‐networks’ approach interprets the generic governance structure for production systems to be multidimensional exchange relationships between actors, typically firms. A key notion here is one of coordination and interdependence in these long‐term—but by no means static—relationships, but in turn, it is argued, there are dynamic, indirect, and direct interactions between such relationships, and in a fundamental way, the relationships determine the constraints and opportunities under which the firm operates. The markets‐as‐networks approach is thus designed to incorporate both change and stability. The issue of different types of overlap between networks is singled out for scrutiny, especially as it relates to the international context. Applying these constructs, the author finds the approach to be especially well suited to improve understanding of the dynamic interaction between the international firm, and the international markets and industries.

Philip Kotler, in a speech to the trustees of the Marketing Science Institute, said that the paradigmatic orientation of marketing moves from transactions to relationships to networks [Kotler 1991]. From this perspective, it is worth considering a network approach to marketing developed by Swedish marketing researchers during the last decade. This approach was first presented in two books published in Swedish in 1982 [Hagg and Johanson 1982;Hammarkvist, Hakansson, and Mattsson 1982]. Both groups of authors included members from Uppsala University and the Stockholm School of Economics. A decade later, Swedish researchers are basing a substantial and growing number of studies in marketing and related subjects on the network approach. One can even talk about the evolution of a research tradition, directly and indirectly linked to international research developments, but still based largely in Sweden. This tradition in marketing predates much of the recent surge in network thinking among management and social science researchers.

A large and increasing share of company resources is devoted to marketing activities. To a large extent those activities are of a long term nature. There are long term, intertemporal dependence relations between marketing activities and their consequences. It is important both for marketing practice and marketing theory to develop tools for analyses of such relations in marketing. In business, intertemporal relations are frequently analysed within an investment process framework and it seems fruitful to apply such a framework to the analysis of marketing activities. The main purpose of this article is to make such an analysis.

Most studies analyzing stability in relations between supplier and customer firms take the durability of individual dyads as the point of departure. Our empirical results, however, show that if the individual dyad is put in its network context, it is possible to identify quite dramatic changes in seemingly stable relations. We therefore argue that more attention should be devoted to analysis of stability and change from a network point of view.

A network approach, as it is developed by some Swedish researchers inindustrial marketing and international business (see e.g. Hagg &Johanson (ed.), 1982 and Hammarkvist, Hakansson & Mattss ...

In this paper we present some reflections on the development and state of research in marketing in Europe. After briefly putting European research in a historical perspective, we devote a major section to discussing the institutional setting in which research takes place. We believe that the institutional setting is a crucial determinant of research. We then discuss numumber of European research accomplishments. We essentially limit ourselves to marketing models and industrial marketing, our own major areas of interest. In the final section we list some challenges for the future and discuss how they could be turned into opportunities.

Systems selling is a concept that many firms have adopted in recent years to guide their product and marketing strategy. In this paper by Lars-Gunnar Mattsson, economic consequences of systems selling for the industrial goods seller are analyzed. Four different types of revenue consequences are identified. It is argued that the seller should let its market analysis be influenced by which of these four consequences are consistent with its objectives in choosing a systems selling approach. It is shown that systems selling increases product differentiation and barriers to entry into a market, thus increasing the system selling firm’s profit opportunities. Cost consequences are analyzed in terms of size of investments needed and heterogeneity of customers’ needs, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the factors influencing the relative advantage for systems selling in the international market.

This study was inspired by some recent changes in organization and structure of the distributive trades in Sweden. Attention is focused on various aspects of integration in marketing systems consisting of retail and wholesale units. Three main types of integration concept are defined, their interrelations discussed and their relations to efficiency in the systems analysed. The three are: institutional integration, decision integration and execution integration. The last of these contains four variables: activity transference, internalization, exclusiveness and homogeneity.In a comparative study of four marketing systems in the food trade, representing different degrees of institutional integration, the decision integration and execution integration of various marketing activities are measured.