IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v9y2000i2p191-210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The character of bridgehead relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Blankenburg Holm, Desirée
  • Eriksson, Kent

Abstract

A supplier's development of a foreign market can be better understood when examined in the context of bridgehead business relationships between a supplier and a foreign customer. In addition to intrarelationship factors, the network of business relationships connected with a supplier and its foreign customer is also important in understanding the supplier's bridgehead relationships. The results from a LISREL analysis of 142 international business relationships show that the supplier's bridgehead relationships are conditioned by the personal relations with the foreign customer. The supplier's bridgehead relationships are also dependent on mutual commercial dependence between the supplier and the foreign customer. The results show that the supplier views the foreign customer as a conduit for foreign market development and will commit itself to the business relationship for this reason. A further finding is that the network of business relations connected with a supplier and its foreign customer constitutes an important setting for the supplier's bridgehead relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Blankenburg Holm, Desirée & Eriksson, Kent, 2000. "The character of bridgehead relationships," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 191-210, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:9:y:2000:i:2:p:191-210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593199000360
    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. Marjorie A Lyles & Jane E Salk, 1996. "Knowledge Acquisition from Foreign Parents in International Joint Ventures: An Empirical Examination in the Hungarian Context," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(4), pages 877-903, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Shige Makino & Andrew Delios, 1996. "Local Knowledge Transfer and Performance: Implications for Alliance Formation in Asia," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(5), pages 905-927, December.
    4. Desirée Blankenburg Holm & Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson, 1996. "Business Networks and Cooperation in International Business Relationships," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(4), pages 1033-1053, December.
    5. Desirée Blankenburg Holm & Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson, 1996. "Business Networks and Cooperation in International Business Relationships," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(5), pages 1033-1053, December.
    6. Hans B. Thorelli, 1986. "Networks: Between markets and hierarchies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 37-51, January.
    7. Calof, Jonathan L. & Beamish, Paul W., 1995. "Adapting to foreign markets: Explaining internationalization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-131, 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. Blois, K J, 1972. "Vertical Quasi-Integration," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 253-272, July.
    10. Jean-Emile Denis & Daniel Depelteau, 1985. "Market Knowledge, Diversification and Export Expansion," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 16(3), pages 77-89, September.
    11. 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.
    12. Calof, Jonathan L., 1993. "The mode choice and change decision process and its impact on international performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 97-120.
    13. Gary Hamel, 1991. "Competition for competence and interpartner learning within international strategic alliances," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(S1), pages 83-103, June.
    14. Brian Toyne, 1989. "International Exchange: A Foundation for Theory Building in International Business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, March.
    15. Marjorie A Lyles & Jane E Salk, 1996. "Knowledge Acquisition from Foreign Parents in International Joint Ventures: An Empirical Examination in the Hungarian Context," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(5), pages 877-903, December.
    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. 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.
    2. Jan Johanson & Martin Johanson, 2021. "Speed and synchronization in foreign market network entry: A note on the revisited Uppsala model," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(8), pages 1628-1645, October.
    3. 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.
    4. Nordman, Emilia Rovira & Tolstoy, Daniel, 2014. "Does relationship psychic distance matter for the learning processes of internationalizing SMEs?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 30-37.
    5. Bai, Wensong & Kao, Pao & Wu, Jie, 2021. "Returnee entrepreneurs and the performance implications of political and business relationships under institutional uncertainty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 245-256.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Bianchi, Constanza & Abu Saleh, Md., 2020. "Investigating SME importer–foreign supplier relationship trust and commitment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 572-584.
    9. Andersen, O. & Buvik, A., 2002. "Firms' internationalization and alternative approaches to the international customer/market selection," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 347-363, June.
    10. Saleh, M. Abu & Ali, M. Yunus & Mavondo, Felix T., 2014. "Drivers of importer trust and commitment: Evidence from a developing country," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2523-2530.
    11. Bartosz Deszczyński & Krzysztof Fonfara & Adam Dymitrowski, 2017. "The role of relationships in initiating the internationalization process in B2B markets," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 5(4), pages 91-109.
    12. 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.
    13. Chetty, S. & Eriksson, K., 2002. "Mutual commitment and experiential knowledge in mature international business relationship," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 305-324, June.
    14. Eriksson, Kent & Chetty, Sylvie, 2003. "The effect of experience and absorptive capacity on foreign market knowledge," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 673-695, December.
    15. Andersen, Poul Houman & Christensen, Poul Rind, 2005. "Bridges over troubled water: suppliers as connective nodes in global supply networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1261-1273, September.

    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. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. Kolloge, Konstantin, 2009. "Die Messung des Kooperationserfolges in der empirischen Forschung: Ergebnisse einer Literaturstudie," Arbeitspapiere 76, University of Münster, Institute for Cooperatives.
    4. Jan Hendrik Fisch & Bjoern Schmeisser, 0. "Phasing the operation mode of foreign subsidiaries: Reaping the benefits of multinationality through internal capital markets," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-33.
    5. Jan Hendrik Fisch & Bjoern Schmeisser, 2020. "Phasing the operation mode of foreign subsidiaries: Reaping the benefits of multinationality through internal capital markets," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(8), pages 1223-1255, October.
    6. 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.
    7. Lindstrand, Angelika & Hånell, Sara Melén, 2017. "International and market-specific social capital effects on international opportunity exploitation in the internationalization process," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 653-663.
    8. Chetty, S. & Eriksson, K., 2002. "Mutual commitment and experiential knowledge in mature international business relationship," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 305-324, June.
    9. G. Tomas M. Hult & Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez & Katarina Lagerström, 2020. "The theoretical evolution and use of the Uppsala Model of internationalization in the international business ecosystem," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(1), pages 38-49, February.
    10. 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.
    11. Milanov, Hana & Fernhaber, Stephanie A., 2014. "When do domestic alliances help ventures abroad? Direct and moderating effects from a learning perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 377-391.
    12. 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.
    13. Mikael Hilmersson & Roger Schweizer & Sylvie Chetty, 2022. "The Relationship Between Timing, Speed, and Performance in Foreign Market Network Entry," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 325-349, June.
    14. Iavor Marangozov, 2005. "From Practice to Theory of the International Joint Ventures," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 44-77.
    15. Marshall S. Jiang & Preet S. Aulakh & Yigang Pan, 2007. "The nature and determinants of exclusivity rights in international technology licensing," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 869-893, December.
    16. Wrona, Thomas & Trąpczyński, Piotr, 2012. "Re-explaining international entry modes – Interaction and moderating effects on entry modes of pharmaceutical companies into transition economies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 295-315.
    17. Jan Johanson & Martin Johanson, 2021. "Speed and synchronization in foreign market network entry: A note on the revisited Uppsala model," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(8), pages 1628-1645, October.
    18. Pak, Yong Suhk & Ra, Wonchan & Lee, Jong Min, 2015. "An integrated multi-stage model of knowledge management in international joint ventures: Identifying a trigger for knowledge exploration and knowledge harvest," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 180-191.
    19. Lívia Lopes Barakat & Torben Pedersen & Marcio Amaral-Baptista & Sherban Leornardo Cretoiu & Paulo Bento, 2022. "Too Much of Two Good Things: Explicating the Limited Complementarity Between Drivers of MNC Headquarters’ Absorptive Capacity," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 393-426, June.
    20. Samiee, Saeed & Walters, Peter G. P., 1999. "Determinants of structured export knowledge acquisition," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 373-397, August.

    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:9:y:2000:i:2:p:191-210. 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.