Bridging ties: a source of firm heterogeneity in competitive capabilities

What explains differences in firms’ abilities to acquire competitive capabilities? In this paper we propose that a firm’s embeddedness in a network of ties is an important source of variation in the acquisition of competitive capabilities. We argue that firms in geographical clusters that maintain networks rich in bridging ties and sustain ties to regional institutions are well‐positioned to access new information, ideas, and opportunities. Hypotheses based on these ideas were tested on a stratified random sample of 227 job shop manufacturers located in the Midwest United States. Data were gathered using a mailed questionnaire. Results from structural equation modeling broadly support the embeddedness hypotheses and suggest a number of insights about the link between firms’ networks and the acquisition of competitive capabilities. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  David Miller.  Strategy Making and Structure: Analysis and Implications for Performance , 1987 .

[2]  R. R. Russell,et al.  Testing for the Effectiveness of Wage-Price Controls: An Application to the Carter Program , 1985 .

[3]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[4]  C. Sabel,et al.  The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity , 1984 .

[5]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  Organization-Sets, Action-Sets, and Networks: Making the Most of Simplicity , 1981 .

[6]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[7]  J. March,et al.  Handbook of organizations , 1966 .

[8]  M. Hannan,et al.  The Population Ecology of Organizations , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[9]  R. Eccles,et al.  Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action , 1992 .

[10]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[11]  M. Lieberman,et al.  Firm-Level Productivity and Management Influence: A Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Automobile Producers , 1990 .

[12]  Michael E. Porter,et al.  The Competitive Advantage of Nations. , 1990 .

[13]  Bruce C. Straits,et al.  Approaches to social research , 1993 .

[14]  Nilson Arrais.  Quality control handbook , 1966 .

[15]  P. Dicken.  The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography Global-Local Tensions: Firms and States in the Global Space-Economy , 1994 .

[16]  P. Krugman.  Geography and Trade , 1992 .

[17]  R. Gulati.  Network location and learning: the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation , 1999 .

[18]  Allen J. Scott,et al.  The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography The Collective Order Of Flexible Production Agglomerations: Lessons for Local Economic Development Policy and Strategic Choice , 1992 .

[19]  R. Gulati.  Does Familiarity Breed Trust? The Implications of Repeated Ties for Contractual Choice in Alliances , 1995 .

[20]  R. Pouder,et al.  Hot Spots and Blind Spots: Geographical Clusters of Firms and Innovation , 1996 .

[21]  A. Zaheer,et al.  Catching the wave: alertness, responsiveness, and market influence in global electronic networks , 1997 .

[22]  S. Siegel,et al.  Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences , 2022, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[23]  C. Perrow,et al.  The New Competition: Institutions of Industrial Restructuring. , 1991 .

[24]  Raymond W. Smilor,et al.  The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship , 1986 .

[25]  I. Cockburn,et al.  Measuring competence?: exploring firm effects in pharmaceutical research , 1994 .

[26]  Noah E. Friedkin,et al.  A test of structural features of granovetter's strength of weak ties theory , 1980 .

[27]  Banri Asanuma.  Manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan and the concept of relation-specific skill , 1989 .

[28]  Robert E. Hoskisson,et al.  BOARD OF DIRECTOR INVOLVEMENT IN RESTRUCTURING: THE EFFECTS OF BOARD VERSUS MANAGERIAL CONTROLS , 1993 .

[29]  J. Dutton,et al.  Advances in strategic management , 1994 .

[30]  P. Bentler,et al.  Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1980 .

[31]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[32]  D. Campbell,et al.  Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. , 1959, Psychological bulletin.

[33]  David Krackhardt,et al.  COMMENT ON BURT AND KNEZ'S THIRD-PARTY EFFECTS ON TRUST , 1996 .

[34]  E. Rogers,et al.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1964 .

[35]  J. Hackman,et al.  Total Quality Management: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues , 1995 .

[36]  R. Grant.  Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, Techniques, Applications , 1991 .

[37]  M. Best,et al.  The new competition , 1990 .

[38]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[39]  Philip Shapira,et al.  New public infrastructures for small firm industral modernization in the USA , 1995 .

[40]  Joel A. C. Baum,et al.  Institutional Embeddedness and the Dynamics of Organizational Populations , 1992 .

[41]  J. Galaskiewicz.  Social Organization in an Urban Grants Economy , 1985 .

[42]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994, Structural analysis in the social sciences.

[43]  L. Phillips.  Assessing Measurement Error in Key Informant Reports: A Methodological Note on Organizational Analysis in Marketing , 1981 .

[44]  B. Uzzi,et al.  Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness , 1997 .

[45]  M. Lazerson,et al.  Organizational Growth of Small Firms - An Outcome of Markets and Hierarchies , 1988 .

[46]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[47]  F. Aguilar.  Scanning the business environment , 1967 .

[48]  Michael Schwartz,et al.  The structural embeddedness of business decisions : the migration of manufacturing plants in New York State, 1960 to 1985 , 1995 .

[49]  A. Marshall.  Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume , 1949 .

[50]  Bennett Harrison,et al.  Industrial Districts: Old Wine in New Bottles? , 1992 .

[51]  G. Hamel.  Competition for competence and interpartner learning within international strategic alliances , 1991 .

[52]  A. Scott,et al.  The Southern Californian medical device industry: Innovation, new firm formation, and location , 1992 .

[53]  G Kishi,et al.  Reliability and Validity , 1999 .

[54]  Mark S. Granovetter.  The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[55]  Paul Chalmer,et al.  Assessment of pollution prevention and control technology for plating operations , 1995 .

[56]  A. Chandler,et al.  Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 , 1994 .

[57]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  Entrepreneurship Through Social Networks , 1986 .

[58]  R. Nelson.  Why do firms differ, and how does it matter? , 1991 .

[59]  J. Barney.  Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy , 1986 .

[60]  石川 馨.  What is total quality control? : the Japanese way , 1985 .

[61]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[62]  P. David.  Clio and the Economics of QWERTY , 1985 .

[63]  Edward G. Carmines,et al.  Reliability and Validity Assessment , 1979 .

[64]  John M. Bryson,et al.  Leadership for the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in a Shared-Power World , 1992 .

[65]  Barton A. Weitz,et al.  Forward Integration into Distribution: An Empirical Test of Transaction Cost Analysis , 1988 .

[66]  Roger G. Schroeder,et al.  Relationship Between JIT and TQM: Practices and Performance , 1995 .

[67]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[68]  C. Sabel.  Studied Trust: Building New Forms of Cooperation in a Volatile Economy , 1993 .

[69]  Peter V. Marsden,et al.  The reliability of network density and composition measures , 1993 .

[70]  W. Diebold,et al.  The Second Industrial Divide , 1985 .

[71]  Marcel Côte,et al.  Growing the next Silicon Valley , 1987 .

[72]  Bruce Kogut,et al.  Learning, or the Importance of being Inert: Country Imprinting and International Competition* , 1993 .

[73]  Industrial Districts and Interfirms Cooperation in Italy , 1991 .

[74]  A. Meyer,et al.  Organizational Assimilation of Innovations: A Multi-Level Contextual Analysis , 1988 .

[75]  D. Dillman.  Mail and telephone surveys : the total design method , 1979 .