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This paper aims to analyze the roles that African suppliers play in global value chains and the strategies that foreign firms adopt to integrate African firms into their supply chains.

The empirical research of this paper is based on a multiple case study and on interview data of foreign buyers and their entry into African supply markets: five Finnish companies and five Chinese companies were interviewed in 2014-2015.

The authors find that Finnish firms make relatively small investments and start sourcing operations on a small scale, whereas Chinese firms are running large infrastructural projects, relying on local sourcing. African firms typically only play modest roles with little value capture in the chain, supplying raw materials and simple products. The African infrastructural and cultural context makes it challenging for foreign firms to provide local suppliers with more strategic roles in their chains, thus hindering integration of local firms into global value chains.

This paper is one of the first to offer a comparison of Finnish (Western) and Chinese (other emerging economy) firms’ sourcing from Africa and provides understanding of the role of African suppliers in current value chains. The authors offer a qualitative exploration of why companies invest in African suppliers and of the scope of African presence in global value chains.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two current transformation processes in the construction industry: the adoption of a novel material, cross-laminated timber (CLT), and the enhancement of digital transformation. This paper depicts the actors and interaction in the business network that is emerging around CLT construction and, in particular, how digital transformation (that is, the deployment of Construction 4.0 solutions) occurs in this business network.

Digital transformation is a relatively new phenomenon in CLT construction, and the authors, therefore, adopt a qualitative inductive research approach and rely on semi-structured interviews.

The findings of this paper suggest that it is critical for actors to adopt an interorganizational perspective in CLT construction, instead of only focusing on internal operations. An interorganizational perspective supports successful CLT construction, as well as the deployment of Construction 4.0 solutions. This will bring about the benefits of digital transformation in the construction industry.

This paper investigates the network created around CLT construction in Finland but more generally illustrates the change toward Construction 4.0 solutions.

For managers, this paper explicates the importance of networking, instead of focusing on the internal development of the company, when adopting novel solutions emerging from both construction and information technology-related advancements.

Stability and traditions are characteristic of the construction industry. New technical solutions and materials, together with calls for sustainability, have challenged the traditional ways of constructing, and for example, the development of CLT construction has led to an emergence of new business networks. This material-related process and the ongoing digital transformation of business form an interesting context for an empirical-based analysis of changing interaction and networks. This paper gives the first insights into how digital transformation can benefit the evolution of the network.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of monitoring and mentoring strategies on sustainability diffusion within supply networks through focal companies and how suppliers engage in implementing these strategies.

The paper reports on three in-depth case studies conducted with focal companies and their suppliers. An interaction approach was adopted to guide the analysis of focal companies’ strategies for implementing and diffusing sustainability in supply networks.

The monitoring strategy impacts sustainability diffusion at the dyadic level, while the mentoring strategy is a prerequisite for the diffusion of sustainability at the supply network level. The findings suggest that coupling monitoring with mentoring can lead to diffusion beyond first-tier suppliers. Interaction intensity, supplier proactiveness and mindset change facilitate sustainability diffusion in supply networks.

The authors suggest more research be conducted on specific practices within monitoring and mentoring, as some of these imply very different levels of commitment and interaction.

The paper suggests that in the future, companies will be increasingly called upon to adopt cooperative initiatives to enable the diffusion of sustainability in supply networks.

The contribution of the paper lies in its identification of the impacts of monitoring and mentoring strategies on the diffusion of sustainability in networks, revealing different supplier engagement in these strategies, which may foster or hinder sustainability diffusion.

Sourcing intermediaries, commonly known as agents or trading companies, represent a useful organisational solution for assisting companies to manage supply risks and to overcome the liability of foreignness. However, the landscape of global business is experiencing rapid and fundamental changes, which leads us to ask whether intermediaries will continue to play a role in global sourcing. This paper aims to understand how sourcing intermediaries ensure a lasting position in the changing setting of global sourcing and information sharing.

This paper investigates the operations of both Chinese and Nordic (Finnish and Swedish) intermediaries in sourcing from China by analysing qualitative data collected over a period of four years.

Through the lens of information asymmetry, this paper identifies four distinct informational roles that are used by intermediaries to reduce information asymmetry between suppliers and buyers located in different countries. The paper also examines intermediaries’ signalling activities under these roles in a cross-border triad.

The paper contributes to the scientific debate on the usefulness of intermediaries by underlining intermediaries’ informational advantage, which provides a new explanation for the survival of intermediaries in a rapidly changing business context. Additionally, this study contributes to research on intermediation strategies by empirically examining both Chinese and Western intermediaries, highlighting the importance of institutional contexts in affecting intermediaries’ informational roles.

This chapter analyses the multiple embeddedness of MNEs, and their participation in solving contemporary societal issues. We aim to increase understanding on the relational processes and network dynamics present in MNEs’ participation in cross-sector partnerships.

Our study addresses the issue of the poor ecological state of the Baltic Sea and illustrates the early developments in cross-sector collaboration. We build on a single exploratory case study of the cooperation of one MNE (IBM) with an environmental NGO (BSAG) in Finland. We analyse how participation in the cross-sector collaboration manifests itself in the external and internal networks of the MNE.

We show that an initiative by the NGO to participate in environmental work was actively adopted within the MNE and led to network changes. These changes concerned both the activation of existing links and the establishment of new links with such actors as authorities and research institutes. The NGO acted as a catalyser and cultural mediator to create a bridge between the MNE and governmental actors.

There is a need to investigate cross-sector collaboration in other contexts – particularly from the perspective of MNEs and (international) business networks. Questions such as how do enduring (business and socio-political) relationships emerge from MNE’s participation in issue networks and how technology that has been developed to solve a specific societal issue may be translated into commercial solutions are especially promising. We also urge scholars to investigate the ties, texture and dynamics (including tensions) of business relationships with those of public actors and civil society.

Participation in cross-sector initiatives may grant an MNE a forerunner position in the creation of new sustainable markets and technologies. It may also create an opportunity to influence policymakers and build new socio-political networks. From the perspective of a subsidiary of an MNE, engagement with cross-sector partnerships may strengthen its voice within the MNE network.

Our study contributes to the understanding of the relationship dynamics between actors in cross-sector collaboration around a societal (environmental) issue. Our analysis illustrates the embeddedness of MNE networks, where actions in the regional and global networks (the representatives of the headquarters) overlap with and strengthen the local actions of the subsidiary.

This 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.

The 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.

Overlapping 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.

The 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.

This 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.

This 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.

Adopts a holistic network approach to analyse a company’s entry into a turbulent market. The entry is examined as a process. The analysis focuses on the temporal context of business interaction; it inspects how the company copes with uncertainty, and proposes that the concept of a focal net be applied for strategic analysis of the context. In the empirical part, the Estonian market exemplifies a turbulent environment, and the entry process of one Western high‐technology company is analysed. It is concluded that, while all interaction on any business market involves elements of the historic background as well as the participants’ expectations of the future, history now seems to dominate the markets of Eastern Europe.

This chapter explores socio-political networks and cross-sectoral co-operation in the context of solving environmental problems in an emerging economy: Russia. The aim is to shed light on key success factors of cross-border co-operation involving public, business and third-sector actors. The case study on protecting the Baltic Sea analyses a Western–Russian partnership between a Finnish non-governmental organisation and a Russian water utility and its embeddedness in business and socio-political networks. We conclude that key factors of success in this case were the successful timing of the NGO's initiative, the historic platform of Finnish-Russian co-operation in the area of clean water, and the gradual building of the actors’ social networks and legitimacy. The chapter contributes to the embryonic area of CSR studies in the emerging market context and extends the legitimation, trust-building and commitment model (Hadjikhani, Lee, & Ghauri, 2008) to the context of CSR in contemporary Russia.

This paper aims to focus on interactions between old and new cultural influences, investigating consumer preferences for a new type of product – the mobile phone – by looking at the cultural and socio‐economic factors that affect these preferences.

A total of 22 Russian experts in design and marketing were interviewed in the spring of 2005. The paper takes the viewpoint of Western firms interested in Russian (mobile phone) markets.

The study shows that the general features (high power distance, femininity, high uncertainty avoidance) characterizing Russian culture affect preferred mobile phone design. Long‐term values are seen, for example, in family orientation, which affects the use of mobile phones. Changing cultural and socio‐economic features are seen in the strict division of consumers into distinct segments. Current aspects of society, such as high level of street crime, are apparent in the desired features of products. The emerging Russian markets seem to consist of very different consumer groups and simultaneously represent both old and new cultural features and norms. Design has become a central tool for affecting product marketing, and an influential community of designers and a design industry are emerging.

Cooperation with the local designers can provide an important competitive edge and support when promoting both industrial and consumer goods in Russia's emerging markets.

Design was earlier neglected and it has only recently started to play a more significant role in production and marketing of products in Russia. Designers can now act as important intermediaries between Russian markets and Western marketers.