J. Tuomas Harviainen, Miikka J. Lehtonen and Sören Kock
This article aims to examine instances of timeliness and temporality in information sharing conducted by members of the Finnish game design community. By doing so, it provides new…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine instances of timeliness and temporality in information sharing conducted by members of the Finnish game design community. By doing so, it provides new knowledge into the ways in which organizational information practices may take place on an individual and interpersonal level, and the ways in which timeliness impact information sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on three sets of interviews, gathered in 2012–2014, 2017–2018 and 2018–2020.
Findings
The authors identify six themes of information sharing and show that time is strongly tied to the ways in which people in the Finnish game development industry share information outside of their own companies.
Originality/value
This type of information sharing has not been previously researched. This study brings forth new knowledge on how timeliness influence information sharing within creative industries.
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Henrik Virtanen and Soren Kock
The purpose of this study is to elaborate on the management, sources, levels of strength and dynamics of inherent tension in coopetition between small- and medium-sized firms…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to elaborate on the management, sources, levels of strength and dynamics of inherent tension in coopetition between small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
An embedded single-case design is applied in the study. Two manufacturing SMEs in coopetition are studied. The units of analysis are their past dyadic coopetition with other competitors, their present coopetition with each other and their view of possible dyadic coopetition with other partners in the future.
Findings
This study addresses the call for more research on coopetition and tension dynamics. It gives longitudinal insight into the changes of a coopetitive relationship through the evolution of tension inherently present in the relationship. Furthermore, the results show that a partial separation of the cooperative and competitive dimensions enables entrepreneurs’ integration of a contradictory logic. The successful management of tension also relies on mechanisms for mutual value appropriation, which eventually enhances the ability to embrace contradictions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the limited knowledge on tension management by showing how partners in coopetition apply different tension management principles or combinations of principles due to how the tension in the relationship evolves. Furthermore, on a practical level, it introduces a mapping or configuration scheme to identify the sources and levels of strength of inherent tension, enhancing coopetition partners’ ability to monitor their relationship over time.
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Cristina I. Fernandes, João J. Ferreira, Pedro M. Veiga and Carla Marques
The purpose of this paper involves evaluating the impact of coopetition on the innovation activities and innovation performance of companies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper involves evaluating the impact of coopetition on the innovation activities and innovation performance of companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study deployed data from the Community Innovation Survey – CIS 2012 and subject to the application of different multivariate statistical analysis processes.
Findings
The authors furthermore conclude that coopetition and the transfer of knowledge to and from competitors generates a statistically significant positive impact on company innovation-related activities and performance.
Originality/value
This work enriches the theory of innovation from the perspectives of game-theoretic strategic and resource theory approach. Moreover, the findings provide several recommendations for managers to effectively conduct firm’s coopetition strategy on innovation performance.
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Sören Kock, Johanna Nisuls and Anette Söderqvist
The purpose of this paper is to study international opportunities gained through co‐opetitive relations in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study international opportunities gained through co‐opetitive relations in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as to examine the influence of different levels of co‐opetition on international opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to achieve the purpose, multiple in‐depth case studies are conducted in four SMEs.
Findings
The results reveal a paradigm shift in competition in an international context. Co‐opetition has provided international opportunities for the case companies, though to varying degrees and character. Furthermore, international opportunities can be found in strong and weak cooperation‐dominated relations as well as in equal relations between competitors. However, the different levels of co‐opetition influence the characteristics of the international opportunities in terms of continuity and scope.
Research limitations/implications
The results highlight the importance of taking co‐opetitive relations in general as well as the different levels of co‐opetition within these relations into consideration when analyzing the exploration and exploitation of international opportunities in SMEs. The results are, however, limited by the number of cases analyzed and further research on a larger scale is needed in order to draw additional conclusions.
Practical implications
The influence of various co‐opetitive relations found on international opportunities and competitiveness brings to light the value for companies to focus on and to develop these relations as well as to maintain a variety of cooperative relations with their competitors in the internationalization process.
Originality/value
The paper increases the knowledge on a yet largely unexplored, but significant topic, which is valuable both from a practical‐ and a research‐oriented perspective.
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Richard A. Owusu, Maqsood Sandhu and Sören Kock
The aim of the paper is to elaborate a framework of project business as a distinct mode of internationalization. The uniqueness and complexity of project business as a core mode…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is to elaborate a framework of project business as a distinct mode of internationalization. The uniqueness and complexity of project business as a core mode are portrayed by comparing it with other internationalization modes. It is agreed that a single project sale is a discrete form of direct involvement in a foreign market. However, this provides opportunities for network interactions that can facilitate further project business openings in a foreign market and on a global level.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the abductive method, the paper constructs a comparative framework of project business and other forms of internationalization. It illustrates the discussion with a longitudinal case study of a company that uses project business as its strategic choice for its internationalization.
Findings
The paper finds that, using project business as its core internationalization mode, the company has expanded its global business as well as entering and succeeding in foreign business networks. It proposes that the network and relationship‐based project business approach is viable as a strategic alternative for internationalization on its own or in combination with other modes.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides a framework for positioning project business as a separate internationalization mode. It provides a comparative framework for internationalization modes.
Practical implications
This study provides managers with an understanding of project business as a distinct and profitable mode of internationalization. It illuminates the network and relationship‐building aspects of project business.
Originality/value
According to the research, this is the first study that proposes project business as a distinct mode of internationalization. Much previous research has either not mentioned project business or subsumed it as an unimportant part of exports. The framework developed in this study should spur new research on the issue.
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Jørn Flohr Nielsen, Viggo Høst, Jan‐Erik Jaensson, Sören Kock and Fred Selnes
Neither market orientation nor the possible link to performance is easily achieved and in various countries companies may organize differently to cope with the…
Abstract
Neither market orientation nor the possible link to performance is easily achieved and in various countries companies may organize differently to cope with the information‐processing and customer‐responding challenges. Nationwide surveys in banks in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden indicate that a path to performance involves innovations such as “supported empowerment” though there are differences in the antecedents of market orientation. Thus the most distinct Scandinavian ways to improvements may be found in Sweden. Especially Swedish banks and to a lesser extent Finnish banks are upfront in their use of “the technology of customer‐focusing”. Nevertheless, the overall analyses based on rigorous structural equation modeling lead to the estimation of a model reflecting causal relationships which seem to be independent of nationality.
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Maria Bengtsson and Sören Kock
Traditionally the relationships between competitors in the industrial market have been based on competition. The network approach and literature about strategic alliances have…
Abstract
Traditionally the relationships between competitors in the industrial market have been based on competition. The network approach and literature about strategic alliances have provided new insights into cooperation between firms based on the value chain. The empirical findings from two in‐depth studies, the rack and pinion industry and the lining industry, show that a firm can be involved in four different types of horizontal relationships at the same time. Apart from relationships consisting of competition or cooperation, a firm can live in symbiosis by coexisting with other relationships, or being involved in a relationship simultaneously containing elements of both cooperation and competition. Consequently, a successful firm needs to focus on relationship management in order to achieve a portfolio consisting of the four types of relationships to other horizontal firms.
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Ingmar Björkman and Sören Kock
Suggests that most research on internationalization of service firms has investigated how companies over time have developed their outward business operations. Finds, however…
Abstract
Suggests that most research on internationalization of service firms has investigated how companies over time have developed their outward business operations. Finds, however, that some service firms, especially within the tourism industry, have chosen another way of handling international business operations, namely by marketing their services abroad, often helped by middlemen such as tour operators and travel agents, expecting customers to come to their home country where services are produced and consequently must be consumed. Uses three cases to describe and analyse the process of “inward internationalization”, and to illustrate how the inward international activities may be carried out.
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Aims to increase the knowledge about benefits and drawbacks when aservice firm implements activity‐based cost systems as a managerial toolfor calculating the costs of different…
Abstract
Aims to increase the knowledge about benefits and drawbacks when a service firm implements activity‐based cost systems as a managerial tool for calculating the costs of different services. States that an activity‐based costing system has its starting‐point in a customer′s total perceived service quality as the needs of the customers must be met; otherwise the service firm is unable to produce the right services at the right quality level. Claims that in service firms a common problem is that overhead costs are extensive and that it is difficult to allocate costs to the right services as many activities must be carried out to produce a service. States that in some service firms it is, however, quite easy to trace costs to the right service, e.g. a bookkeeping firm.
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Jutta Haider, Veronica Johansson and Björn Hammarfelt
The article introduces selected theoretical approaches to time and temporality relevant to the field of library and information science, and it briefly introduces the papers…
Abstract
Purpose
The article introduces selected theoretical approaches to time and temporality relevant to the field of library and information science, and it briefly introduces the papers gathered in this special issue. A number of issues that could potentially be followed in future research are presented.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review a selection of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of time that originate in or are of particular relevance to library and information science. Four main themes are identified: (1) information as object in temporal perspectives; (2) time and information as tools of power and control; (3) time in society; and (4) experiencing and practicing time.
Findings
The paper advocates a thorough engagement with how time and temporality shape notions of information more broadly. This includes, for example, paying attention to how various dimensions of the late-modern time regime of acceleration feed into the ways in which information is operationalised, how information work is commodified, and how hierarchies of information are established; paying attention to the changing temporal dynamics that networked information systems imply for our understanding of documents or of memory institutions; or how external events such as social and natural crises quickly alter modes, speed, and forms of data production and use, in areas as diverse as information practices, policy, management, representation, and organisation, amongst others.
Originality/value
By foregrounding temporal perspectives in library and information science, the authors advocate dialogue with important perspectives on time that come from other fields. Rather than just including such perspectives in library and information science, however, the authors find that the focus on information and documents that the library and information science field contributes has great potential to advance the understanding of how notions and experiences of time shape late-modern societies and individuals.