Trust and cooperation are at the heart of the two most important approaches to comparative politics - rational choice and political culture. Yet we know little about trust's relationship to political ...institutions. This book sets out a rationalist theory of how institutions - and in particular informal institutions - can affect trust without reducing it to fully determine expectations. It then shows how this theory can be applied to comparative political economy, and in particular to explaining inter-firm cooperation in industrial districts, geographical areas of intense small firm collaboration. The book compares trust and cooperation in two prominent districts in the literature, one in Emilia Romagna, Italy, and the other in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It also sets out and applies a theory of how national informal institutions may change as a result of changes in global markets, and shows how similar mechanisms may explain persistent distrust too among Sicilian Mafiosi.
Do ties between political parties and businesses harm or benefit the development of market institutions? The post-communist transition offers an unparalleled opportunity to explore when and how ...networks linking the polity and the economy support the development of functional institutions. A quantitative and qualitative analysis covering eleven post-socialist countries combined with detailed case studies of Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania documents how the most successful post-communist countries are those in which dense networks link politicians and businesspeople, as long as politicians are constrained by intense political competition. The comparison of original network data sets shows how this combination allowed Poland to emerge with stable institutions. Bulgaria, marred by weak institutions, corruption, and violence, cautions us that in developing economies intense political competition alone is harmful in the absence of dense personal and ownership networks. Indeed, as Romania illustrates, networks are so critical that their weakness is not mitigated even by low political competition.This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.
•The study elucidates the impact of effectuation on SMEs internationalization.•We differentiate business and social networks in effectual internationalization.•Business networks’ circulating ...knowledge governs firms’ effectual behaviour.•Social networking based on non-systematic interactions develops opportunities.•Structural model on 469 SMEs from Brazil, China, and Poland supports findings.
This study investigates the performance implications of the distinct mechanisms represented by business and social networks in the effectual internationalization. Our hypotheses consider the influence of both network types on firms’ decision-making during internationalization, including the use of effectuation’s overarching principle of non-predictive strategy and the analysis of affordable losses as preferred criterion for selecting between action paths. We test our structural model on a sample of 469 SMEs from Brazil, China, and Poland. The analysis demonstrates that the knowledge circulating in the firms’ business networks negatively moderates the relationship between non-predictive strategy and affordable losses, while social networking mediates the relationships between both non-predictive strategy and affordable losses, on the one hand, and international performance, on the other.
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) of the Euphausiidae family comprise one of the largest biomasses in the world and play a key role in the Antarctic marine ecosystem. However, the study of E. ...superba-derived microbes and their secondary metabolites has been limited. Chemical investigation of the secondary metabolites of the actinomycetes Nocardiopsis sp. LX-1 (in the family of Nocardiopsaceae), isolated from E. superba, combined with molecular networking, led to the identification of 16 compounds a–p (purple nodes in the molecular network) and the isolation of one new pyrroline, nocarpyrroline A (1), along with 11 known compounds 2–12. The structure of the new compound 1 was elucidated by extensive spectroscopic investigation. Compound 2 exhibited broad-spectrum antibacterial activities against A. hydrophila, D. chrysanthemi, C. terrigena, X. citri pv. malvacearum and antifungal activity against C. albicans in a conventional broth dilution assay. The positive control was ciprofloxacin with the MIC values of <0.024 µM, 0.39 µM, 0.39 µM, 0.39 µM, and 0.20 µM, respectively. Compound 1 and compounds 7, 10, and 11 displayed antifungal activities against F. fujikuroi and D. citri, respectively, in modified agar diffusion test. Prochloraz was used as positive control and showed the inhibition zone radius of 17 mm and 15 mm against F. fujikuroi and D. citri, respectively. All the annotated compounds a–p by molecular networking were first discovered from the genus Nocardiopsis. Nocarpyrroline A (1) features an unprecedented 4,5-dihydro-pyrrole-2-carbonitrile substructure, and it is the first pyrroline isolated from the genus Nocardiopsis. This study further demonstrated the guiding significance of molecular networking in the research of microbial secondary metabolites.
How can studying paradoxes in business networks help understand the networks' adaptation and survival? IMP identifies three central paradoxes influencing business networks: i) Development of ...Relationships vs. Inability to Change, ii) Controlling vs. Effectiveness, and iii) Stability vs. Change. Studying them seems critical to knowing how interdependent participants in business networks adapt to one another. To do that, we use a co-evolutionary lens to review 41 articles dealing with business network paradoxes from an IMP perspective. Results of the Reflexive Thematic Analysis underline that salient tensions mainly originate from weak coordinating norms, resource misallocation, the relationship of newness and aging, and Machiavellian behaviour. As the main value of our work, we then advance that embracing a co-evolutionary perspective can help shed novel light on these paradoxes by contrasting the factors that make the tensions salient with those able to overcome them. Specifically, we identify moral behaviour, structuration of the network, network capability development, and co-adaptation as four main factors that mitigate the paradoxes and help networks' adaptation and survival. Accordingly, we advocate a co-evolutionary conceptual framework regarding paradoxes and outline five co-evolutionary claims as implications for research and practice.
•The IMP Group identifies three main paradoxes in business networks: Development of Relationships vs. Inability to Change, Controlling vs. Effectiveness, Stability vs. Change.•We reviewed 41 articles, produced by the IMP Group, dealing with three main business network paradoxes.•Thematic analysis' results show tensions mainly from weak norms, resource misallocation, relationship liability of newness and aging, Machiavellian behaviour.•Four factors mitigate paradoxes: moral behaviour, network structuration, capability development, and co-adaptation.•Co-evolutionary perspective helps understand paradoxes by contrasting factors that make tensions salient with those able to overcome them.
Many studies focus on the relationship between social networks and performance. I study networking behavior as an antecedent of tie formation among entrepreneurs in business incubators. I distinguish ...between two types of networking behavior: individual networking orientation or building potentially valuable ties for personal gain, and tertius iungens orientation or facilitating tie formation between others. I find that both types of networking behavior are positively related with the number of business partners to whom entrepreneurs give business assignments. Contrary to expectations, I find no relationship between networking behavior and the number of business partners from whom entrepreneurs receive business assignments.
On the basis of extensive archival research, the essays in this volume examine the minutiae of object transaction in the late nineteenth-century art market within its social network and broader ...historical context.
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