IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v18y2009i1p26-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The perceived usefulness of knowledge supplied by foreign client networks

Author

Listed:
  • Lindstrand, Angelika
  • Eriksson, Kent
  • Sharma, D. Deo

Abstract

The network surrounding a firm's foreign clients has large influence on its ability to act in the market. How firms can utilize the knowledge supplied by client networks is therefore of great importance to their business with clients. Many studies show the usefulness of foreign clients and suppliers, whereas less attention has been given to the usefulness of knowledge supplied by clients' network, such as clients' clients, clients' supplementary suppliers and competitors to the firm. This study contributes to international business research on networks by investigating the knowledge supplied by client networks for a firm doing business with a specific foreign client on a sample of 494 firms. A LISREL analysis demonstrates that knowledge supplied by client networks is more useful the more experienced the firm. Client networks are also more useful the more knowledge the firm has of its client, the more the firm needs knowledge of its clients and suppliers, the higher the cost of the client relationship, and the more standardized the product. A major conclusion is that the client network knowledge is more useful the further a firm's collaboration with the client, presumably as a result of the new, and more embedded business that the firm develops with the client. Implications are that client networks are resources that can be important competitive advantages for the internationalizing firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindstrand, Angelika & Eriksson, Kent & Sharma, D. Deo, 2009. "The perceived usefulness of knowledge supplied by foreign client networks," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 26-37, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:18:y:2009:i:1:p:26-37
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593108001352
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cavusgil, S. Tamer, 1985. "Guidelines for export market research," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 27-33.
    2. Johanson, Jan & Mattsson, Lars-Gunnar, 1987. "Interorganizational relations in industrial systems : a network approach compared with the transaction cost approach," Working Papers 1987:7, Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies.
    3. Fred D. Davis & Richard P. Bagozzi & Paul R. Warshaw, 1989. "User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(8), pages 982-1003, August.
    4. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 1977. "The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 8(1), pages 23-32, March.
    5. Paul Shrivastava, 1987. "Rigor and practical usefulness of research in strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 77-92, January.
    6. Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson & Anders Majkgård & D. Deo Sharma, 2000. "Effect of Variation on Knowledge Accumulation in the Internationalization Process," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 26-44, March.
    7. William H Davidson, 1980. "The Location of Foreign Direct Investment Activity: Country Characteristics and Experience Effects," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 11(2), pages 9-22, June.
    8. Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson & Anders Majkgård & D Deo Sharma, 1997. "Experimental Knowledge and Costs in the Internationalization Process," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(2), pages 337-360, June.
    9. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    10. Stephen J. Mezias & Mary Ann Glynn, 1993. "The three faces of corporate renewal: Institution, revolution, and evolution," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 77-101, February.
    11. Yadong Luo & Mike W Peng, 1999. "Learning to Compete in a Transition Economy: Experience, Environment, and Performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(2), pages 269-295, June.
    12. Sylvie Chetty & Kent Eriksson & Jessica Lindbergh, 2006. "The effect of specificity of experience on a firm's perceived importance of institutional knowledge in an ongoing business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(5), pages 699-712, September.
    13. Bridgewater, Susan, 1999. "Networks and internationalisation: the case of multinational corporations entering Ukraine," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 99-118, January.
    14. George P. Huber, 1991. "Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 88-115, February.
    15. Gilmore, Audrey & Carson, David & Rocks, Steve, 2006. "Networking in SMEs: Evaluating its contribution to marketing activity," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 278-293, June.
    16. Yaakov Weber & Oded Shenkar & Adi Raveh, 1996. "National and Corporate Cultural Fit in Mergers/Acquisitions: An Exploratory Study," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(8), pages 1215-1227, August.
    17. Desirée Blankenburg Holm & Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson, 1999. "Creating value through mutual commitment to business network relationships," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 467-486, May.
    18. Viswanath Venkatesh & Fred D. Davis, 2000. "A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 186-204, February.
    19. Davidson, William H., 1983. "Market similarity and market selection: Implications for international marketing strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 439-456, December.
    20. M Krishna Erramilli, 1991. "The Experience Factor in Foreign Market Entry Behavior of Service Firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 22(3), pages 479-501, September.
    21. Hall, William P., 1984. "The learning curve, demand growth, and market concentration," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 147-157, June.
    22. Blomstermo, Anders & Eriksson, Kent & Lindstrand, Angelika & Sharma, D. Deo, 2004. "The perceived usefulness of network experiential knowledge in the internationalizing firm," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 355-373.
    23. Benjamin M Oviatt & Patricia Phillips McDougall, 1994. "Toward a Theory of International New ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 25(1), pages 45-64, March.
    24. Welch, Catherine & Wilkinson, Ian, 2005. "Network perspectives on interfirm conflict: reassessing a critical case in international business," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 205-213, February.
    25. Blankenburg Holm, Desirée & Eriksson, Kent, 2000. "The character of bridgehead relationships," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 191-210, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hong, Jacky Fok Loi & Snell, Robin Stanley & Easterby-Smith, Mark, 2009. "Knowledge flow and boundary crossing at the periphery of a MNC," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 539-554, December.
    2. Aykol, Bilge & Leonidou, Leonidas C., 2018. "Exporter-importer business relationships: Past empirical research and future directions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1007-1021.
    3. Angelika Löfgren, 2014. "International network management for the purpose of host market expansion: The mediating effect of co-innovation in the networks of SMEs," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 162-182, June.
    4. Welch, Catherine L. & Welch, Lawrence S., 2009. "Re-internationalisation: Exploration and conceptualisation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 567-577, December.
    5. Montoro-Sanchez, Angeles & Diez-Vial, Isabel & Belso-Martinez, Jose Antonio, 2018. "The evolution of the domestic network configuration as a driver of international relationships in SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 727-736.
    6. Hohenthal, Jukka & Johanson, Jan & Johanson, Martin, 2014. "Network knowledge and business-relationship value in the foreign market," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 4-19.
    7. Liliana Pérez-Nordtvedt & Debmalya Mukherjee & Ben L. Kedia, 2015. "Cross-Border Learning, Technological Turbulence and Firm Performance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 23-51, February.
    8. Du, Jian & Xu, Yue & Voss, Hinrich & Wang, Song, 2021. "The impact of home business network attributes on Chinese outward foreign direct investment," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4).
    9. Zahoor, Nadia & Khan, Zaheer & Shenkar, Oded, 2023. "International vertical alliances within the international business field: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(1).
    10. Nell, Phillip C. & Andersson, Ulf, 2012. "The complexity of the business network context and its effect on subsidiary relational (over-) embeddedness," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1087-1098.
    11. Nordman, Emilia Rovira & Tolstoy, Daniel, 2016. "The impact of opportunity connectedness on innovation in SMEs’ foreign-market relationships," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 57, pages 47-57.
    12. María del Pilar Casado-Belmonte & Gema María Marín-Carrillo & Eduardo Terán-Yépez & María de las Mercedes Capobianco-Uriarte, 2020. "What Is Going on with the Research into the Internationalization of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)? An Intellectual Structure Analysis into the State-of-the-Art (1990–2018)," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, February.
    13. Gammelgaard, Jens & McDonald, Frank & Stephan, Andreas & Tüselmann, Heinz & Dörrenbächer, Christoph, 2012. "The impact of increases in subsidiary autonomy and network relationships on performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1158-1172.
    14. Lindstrand, Angelika & Melén, Sara & Nordman, Emilia Rovira, 2011. "Turning social capital into business: A study of the internationalization of biotech SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 194-212, April.
    15. García, Francisco & Avella, Lucía & Fernández, Esteban, 2012. "Learning from exporting: The moderating effect of technological capabilities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1099-1111.
    16. Eriksson, Kent & Jonsson, Sara & Lindbergh, Jessica & Lindstrand, Angelika, 2014. "Modeling firm specific internationalization risk: An application to banks’ risk assessment in lending to firms that do international business," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1074-1085.
    17. Niittymies, Aleksi & Pajunen, Kalle, 2020. "Cognitive foundations of firm internationalization: A systematic review and agenda for future research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    18. Hyun-Jee Kim & Bongsuk Sung, 2020. "How Knowledge Assets Affect the Learning-by-Exporting Effect: Evidence Using Panel Data for Manufacturing Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-14, April.
    19. Casillas, José C. & Moreno, Ana M. & Acedo, Francisco J., 2012. "Path dependence view of export behaviour: A relationship between static patterns and dynamic configurations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 465-479.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eriksson, Kent & Jonsson, Sara & Lindbergh, Jessica & Lindstrand, Angelika, 2014. "Modeling firm specific internationalization risk: An application to banks’ risk assessment in lending to firms that do international business," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1074-1085.
    2. Blomstermo, Anders & Eriksson, Kent & Lindstrand, Angelika & Sharma, D. Deo, 2004. "The perceived usefulness of network experiential knowledge in the internationalizing firm," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 355-373.
    3. Johanson, Martin & Martín Martín, Oscar, 2015. "The incremental expansion of Born Internationals: A comparison of new and old Born Internationals," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 476-496.
    4. Hohenthal, Jukka & Johanson, Jan & Johanson, Martin, 2014. "Network knowledge and business-relationship value in the foreign market," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 4-19.
    5. Piaskowska, D., 2005. "Essays on firm growth and value creation," Other publications TiSEM 89053610-79c6-4c52-9d1c-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Drogendijk, H.J., 2001. "Expansion patterns of Dutch firms in Central and Eastern Europe : Learning to internationalize," Other publications TiSEM 18571cef-0dd0-46ff-82aa-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Hitt, Michael A. & Li, Dan & Xu, Kai, 2016. "International strategy: From local to global and beyond," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 58-73.
    8. Jonsson, Sara & Lindbergh, Jessica, 2010. "The impact of institutional impediments and information and knowledge exchange on SMEs' investments in international business relationships," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 548-561, December.
    9. Vissak, Tiia & Francioni, Barbara & Freeman, Susan, 2020. "Foreign market entries, exits and re-entries: The role of knowledge, network relationships and decision-making logic," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    10. Kotler, Philip & Manrai, Lalita A. & Lascu, Dana-Nicoleta & Manrai, Ajay K., 2019. "Influence of country and company characteristics on international business decisions: A review, conceptual model, and propositions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 482-498.
    11. Daniel R Clark & Dan Li & Dean A Shepherd, 2018. "Country familiarity in the initial stage of foreign market selection," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(4), pages 442-472, May.
    12. Casillas, José C. & Moreno, Ana M. & Acedo, Francisco J. & Gallego, María A. & Ramos, Encarnación, 2009. "An integrative model of the role of knowledge in the internationalization process," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 311-322, July.
    13. Martín Martín, Oscar & Chetty, Sylvie & Bai, Wensong, 2022. "Foreign market entry knowledge and international performance: The mediating role of international market selection and network capability," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    14. Idris, Bochra & Saridakis, George & Khan, Zaheer, 2022. "The Effect of Outward and Inward Internationalisation on Different Types of Innovation: Evidence from UK SMEs," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(2).
    15. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 2006. "Commitment and opportunity development in the internationalization process: A note on the Uppsala internationalization process model," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 165-178, March.
    16. Hernández, Virginia & Nieto, María Jesús, 2016. "Inward–outward connections and their impact on firm growth," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 296-306.
    17. Ganotakis, Panagiotis & Konara, Palitha & Kafouros, Mario & Love, James H., 2022. "Taking a time-out from exporting: Implications for the likelihood of export re-entry and re-entry export performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(5).
    18. Liu, Xiaohui & Gao, Lan & Lu, Jiangyong & Lioliou, Eleni, 2016. "Does learning at home and from abroad boost the foreign subsidiary performance of emerging economy multinational enterprises?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 141-151.
    19. Christian Schwens & Florian B Zapkau & Keith D Brouthers & Lina Hollender, 2018. "Limits to international entry mode learning in SMEs," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(7), pages 809-831, September.
    20. Gerald Yong Gao & Yigang Pan & Jiangyong Lu & Zhigang Tao, 2008. "Performance of Multinational Firms’ Subsidiaries: Influences of Cumulative Experience," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 749-768, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:18:y:2009:i:1:p:26-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.