Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of the institutional environment on strategic networks including their cohesiveness as well as institutional entrepreneurship activities conducted by members of these networks.

The paper presents a case study of the trade association Pharma Industry Finland (PIF) and its institutional environment.

Institutional environment and institutional entrepreneurship of a strategic network are intertwined in various ways. Changes in the institutional environment influence the strategic cohesiveness of the network and the mutual goals of its network members. As a result, PIF proactively engages in entrepreneurial activities to realize its interests.

The paper of one network and one institutional environment is limited in generalizability. Further research is needed to explore if similar results can be obtained in other contexts.

In order to be successful, companies should be able to sense and evaluate which matters can be effectively addressed through collective institutional entrepreneurship and/or the company's own entrepreneurial activity.

This empirical study contributes to discussions on the theoretical understanding of strategic networks in relation to institutional environments, institutionally bounded strategizing in networks, and institutional entrepreneurship in business networks.

Long‐run corporate success requires engagement in two types of innovative activities: exploitation and exploration. However, earlier research has focused on exploration and exploitation concerning a firm's technologies. The purpose of the present article is to explicitly examine exploration and exploitation related to customers and markets.

The article is conceptual in nature, based on marketing, strategic management, and organization literatures.

The article explains the logic of exploration‐exploitation with respect to two market‐related resource classes – the firm's knowledge of markets and customers (market/customer intelligence) and market actors' knowledge of and bonds to the firm (brands/bonds) – as viewed in combination with the resource class of technologies, processes, and products (technologies/processes). The distinction of these three resource classes enables a three‐dimensional conceptualization of the ideal types of a firm's business development projects, which are seen as combinations of exploration and exploitation of resources across the three classes. The article also introduces the notions of multidimensionality of exploration‐exploitation within the resource classes and relativity of resource newness.

The article explicates how firms can orient their exploration and exploitation strategies not only on the technology dimension but also on the dimensions of market/customer intelligence and brands/bonds.