The Relationship between Managers’ Network Awareness and the Relational Strategic Orientation of their Firms: Findings from Interviews with Polish Managers
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Relational View of Competitive Advantage
- Resource effects, including access to various types of resources from partners, in particular knowledge, resource sharing, or the creation of common resources [38]. Cooperating entities can form a relationship with a convergent resource configuration, thereby obtaining the same benefits of scale or create these on the basis of resource complementarity. On one hand, cooperation makes it possible to fill resource gaps, but on the other hand, it permits the exchange or sale of resources and capabilities that are either unused or unimportant, thereby creating at the same time a source of income [8,70];
- Financial effects, which are the reverse of obtained benefits, and thus are manifested by the increase in the costs of operation or the reduction of revenues [72];
- Organisational effects, which similarly have reversed effects, i.e., a reduction of the quality of executed processes or the reduction of flexibility [72];
- Positional effects, which are manifested by the reduction of negotiating power relative to entities outside of the interorganisational system, and which can be analysed relative to suppliers or clients [75].
2.2. The Strategic Orientation of a Firm from the Relational View Perspective
2.3. Managers’ Network Awareness as an Antecedent of a Firm’s Relational Strategic Orientation
- (a)
- The higher the managers’ network awareness, the more interorganisational relations with different partners are formed by a company,
- (b)
- The higher the managers’ network awareness, the more partners’ expectations are included in a company’s strategy.
3. Methodology
3.1. Sample
3.2. Method of Research
3.3. Methods of Data Analysis
4. Findings and Discussion
4.1. Findings of the Qualitative Data
4.2. Findings of the Quantitative Data
5. Conclusions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Metrics | All Firms | Employing from 50 to 70 People | Employing from 71 to 200 People | Employing from 201 to 249 People |
---|---|---|---|---|
Firm’s age | ||||
up to 5 years | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
from 6 to 10 years | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
from 11 to 20 years | 17 | 6 | 7 | 4 |
over 20 years | 31 | 13 | 8 | 10 |
Total | 53 | 21 | 16 | 16 |
Dominant type of activity | ||||
production | 28 | 12 | 8 | 8 |
services | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
trade | 14 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
Total | 53 | 21 | 16 | 16 |
Dominant share of capital | ||||
only Polish | 43 | 16 | 12 | 15 |
only foreign | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
dominant Polish | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
dominant foreign | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Total | 53 | 21 | 16 | 16 |
Market scope | ||||
local | 15 | 10 | 0 | 5 |
national | 20 | 9 | 6 | 5 |
international | 12 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
global | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
Total | 53 | 21 | 16 | 16 |
Items | Factor Loading | Reliability | Convergent Validity | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A manager’s network awareness (MNA) | MNA 1. Cooperation with parties in the environment is a source of additional benefits | 0.750 | Cronbach’s alpha = 0.821 CR = 0.838 | AVE = 0.567 | |
MNA 2. Cooperation with parties in the environment influences the competitive advantage of our company | 0.876 | ||||
MNA 3. Goals realisation and the long-term development of the firm depends on forming and maintaining interorganisational relations and the way they are used | 0.792 | ||||
MNA 4. Interorganisational relations support taking advantage of opportunities | 0.854 | ||||
Strategic relational orientation of the firm (SRO) | PR | SRO 1. We form relations with many parties in the environment | 0.932 | Cronbach’s alpha = 0.849 CR =0.838 | AVE = 0.752 |
SRO 2. We form relations with various parties in the environment | 0.932 | ||||
PE | SRO 3. We know the expectations of our direct market partners (suppliers, clients, competitors, complementors) | 0.913 | Cronbach’s alpha = 0.939 CR = 0.940 | AVE = 0.796 | |
SRO 4. Our strategy considers the needs of our market partners who we cooperate with, and is based on them | 0.929 | ||||
SRO 5. Our cooperation partners’ expectations are considered in our company’s vision/mission | 0.984 | ||||
SRO 6. Our activity meets the needs of our market partners | 0.907 |
Constructs | MNA | PR | PE |
---|---|---|---|
MNA | 0.753 | ||
PR | 0.677 ** | 0.867 | |
PE | 0.351 * | 0.283 | 0.892 |
Variables of MNA | Sd | M | IQR | MNA1 | MNA2 | MNA3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MNA 1 | 5.70 | 0.89 | 6 | 1 | |||
MNA 2 | 5.23 | 1.29 | 5 | 1 | 0.577 * | ||
MNA 3 | 5.11 | 1.37 | 5 | 1 | 0.368 * | 0.507 * | |
MNA 4 | 5.66 | 0.87 | 6 | 1 | 0.516 * | 0.575 * | 0.563 * |
Variables of SRO | Sd | M | IQR | SRO 1 | SRO 2 | SRO 3 | SRO 4 | SRO 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SRO 1 | 5.41 | 1.31 | 6 | 1 | |||||
SRO 2 | 5.28 | 1.29 | 6 | 1 | 0.772 * | ||||
SRO 3 | 4.91 | 1.15 | 5 | 2 | 0.138 | 0.239 | |||
SRO 4 | 4.83 | 1.08 | 5 | 2 | 0.215 | 0.281 * | 0.787 * | ||
SRO 5 | 4.81 | 1.04 | 5 | 1 | 0.179 | 0.204 | 0.809 * | 0.907 * | |
SRO 6 | 4.92 | 1.02 | 5 | 2 | 0.129 | 0.306 * | 0.791 * | 0.782 * | 0.784 * |
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Zakrzewska-Bielawska, A. The Relationship between Managers’ Network Awareness and the Relational Strategic Orientation of their Firms: Findings from Interviews with Polish Managers. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2691. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082691
Zakrzewska-Bielawska A. The Relationship between Managers’ Network Awareness and the Relational Strategic Orientation of their Firms: Findings from Interviews with Polish Managers. Sustainability. 2018; 10(8):2691. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082691
Chicago/Turabian StyleZakrzewska-Bielawska, Agnieszka. 2018. "The Relationship between Managers’ Network Awareness and the Relational Strategic Orientation of their Firms: Findings from Interviews with Polish Managers" Sustainability 10, no. 8: 2691. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082691