IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v139y2022icp1451-1462.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How B2B relationships influence new product development in entrepreneurial firms? The role of psychological tension

Author

Listed:
  • Zheng, Leven J.
  • Zhang, Yameng
  • Zhan, Wu
  • Sharma, Piyush

Abstract

Although tension commonly exists in business-to-business (B2B) relationships, past research pays little attention to the potential dark side effects of psychological tensions, especially those between entrepreneurial firms and their client firms, despite their significant impact on these firms’ performance. We address this important research gap by exploring the nature and impact of psychological tensions between entrepreneurial firms and their client firms during the conceptualization and commercialization stages of the new product development (NPD) process. We employ a qualitative approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with 19 entrepreneurial firms operating in the artificial intelligence field in China, and identify two types of psychological tensions at the conceptualization stage (fear of losing the B2B relationship and divergent expectations) and one type of psychological tension at the commercialization stage (attention embeddedness). We also find that fear of losing the B2B relationship and divergent expectations lead to technological decontextualization, while attention embeddedness yields singular learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng, Leven J. & Zhang, Yameng & Zhan, Wu & Sharma, Piyush, 2022. "How B2B relationships influence new product development in entrepreneurial firms? The role of psychological tension," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1451-1462.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:139:y:2022:i:c:p:1451-1462
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321007827
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.059?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Martin Hemmert & Adam R. Cross & Ying Cheng & Jae-Jin Kim & Florian Kohlbacher & Masahiro Kotosaka & Franz Waldenberger & Leven J. Zheng, 2019. "The distinctiveness and diversity of entrepreneurial ecosystems in China, Japan, and South Korea: an exploratory analysis," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(3), pages 211-247, July.
    2. Liu, Zhiqiang & Yan, Miao & Fan, Youqing & Chen, Liling, 2021. "Ascribed or achieved? The role of birth order on innovative behaviour in the workplace," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 480-492.
    3. Richard A. Bettis & Constance E. Helfat & J. Myles Shaver & Massimo G. Colombo & Kourosh Shafi, 2016. "Swimming with sharks in Europe: When are they dangerous and what can new ventures do to defend themselves?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(11), pages 2307-2322, November.
    4. Zheng, Leven J. & Fan, Youqing & Wang, Huan & Liu, Wei, 2021. "Born innovator? How founder birth order influences product innovation generation and adoption in entrepreneurial firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 414-430.
    5. Noordhoff, C.S. & Kyriakopoulos, K. & Moorman, C. & Pauwels, P. & Dellaert, B.G.C., 2011. "The Bright Side and Dark Side of Embedded Ties In Business-to-Business Innovation," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2011-008-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    6. Luis Diestre & Nandini Rajagopalan, 2012. "Are all ‘sharks’ dangerous? new biotechnology ventures and partner selection in R&D alliances," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(10), pages 1115-1134, October.
    7. T. K. Das & Bing-Sheng Teng, 2000. "Instabilities of Strategic Alliances: An Internal Tensions Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(1), pages 77-101, February.
    8. Marion, Tucker J. & Eddleston, Kimberly A. & Friar, John H. & Deeds, David, 2015. "The evolution of interorganizational relationships in emerging ventures: An ethnographic study within the new product development process," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 167-184.
    9. Zheng, Leven J. & Xiong, Chang & Chen, Xihui & Li, Chung-Sheng, 2021. "Product innovation in entrepreneurial firms: How business model design influences disruptive and adoptive innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    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. Bag, Surajit & Sabbir Rahman, Muhammad & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Srivastava, Gautam & Kilbourn, Peter & Pisa, Noleen, 2023. "How COVID-19 pandemic has shaped buyer-supplier relationships in engineering companies with ethical perception considerations: A multi-methodological study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    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. Zheng, Leven J. & Fan, Youqing & Wang, Huan & Liu, Wei, 2021. "Born innovator? How founder birth order influences product innovation generation and adoption in entrepreneurial firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 414-430.
    2. Ferretti, Marco & Guerini, Massimiliano & Panetti, Eva & Parmentola, Adele, 2022. "The partner next door? The effect of micro-geographical proximity on intra-cluster inter-organizational relationships," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    3. Xia, Huosong & Wang, Yuan & Zhang, Justin Zuopeng & Zheng, Leven J. & Kamal, Muhammad Mustafa & Arya, Varsha, 2023. "COVID-19 fake news detection: A hybrid CNN-BiLSTM-AM model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    4. Anokhin, Sergey & Morgan, Todd & Schulze, William & Wuebker, Robert, 2022. "Is a reputation for misconduct harmful? Evidence from corporate venture capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 65-76.
    5. Massimo G. Colombo & Massimiliano Guerini & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra & Andrea Bonaccorsi, 2022. "The “first match” between high-tech entrepreneurial ventures and universities: the role of founders’ social ties," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 270-306, February.
    6. Veer, Theresa & Yang, Philip & Riepe, Jan, 2022. "Ventures' conscious knowledge transfer to close partners, and beyond: A framework of performance, complementarity, knowledge disclosure, and knowledge broadcasting," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3).
    7. Jeon, Euiju & Maula, Markku, 2022. "Progress toward understanding tensions in corporate venture capital: A systematic review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).
    8. Brinster, Leonhard & Tykvová, Tereza, 2021. "Connected VCs and strategic alliances: Evidence from biotech companies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Xiong, Chang & Zheng, Leven J. & Germon, Rony & Susini, Jean-Paul & Chang, Victor, 2021. "Telling “white lies” within the entrepreneurial firm: How rationalized knowledge hiding between founder CEO and founder CTO influences new product development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 431-439.
    10. Xue, Jinjie & Yuan, Hongping & Shi, Benshan, 2016. "Investigating partners' opportunistic behavior in joint ventures in China: The role of transaction costs and relational exchanges," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 6067-6078.
    11. Colombo, Massimo G. & Foss, Nicolai J. & Lyngsie, Jacob & Rossi Lamastra, Cristina, 2021. "What drives the delegation of innovation decisions? The roles of firm innovation strategy and the nature of external knowledge," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    12. Leonidou, Leonidas C. & Aykol, Bilge & Fotiadis, Thomas A. & Christodoulides, Paul, 2018. "Betrayal intention in exporter-importer working relationships: Drivers, outcomes, and moderating effects," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 246-258.
    13. Massimo G. Colombo & Evila Piva, 2019. "Knowledge misappropriation risks and contractual complexity in entrepreneurial ventures’ non-equity alliances," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 107-127, June.
    14. Pedro Valadas Monteiro, 2016. "The role of knowledge-intensive service activities on inducing innovation in co-opetition strategies: lessons from the maritime cluster of the Algarve region," International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1), pages 78-95.
    15. Henry M. H. Chan & Vincent W. S. Cho, 2022. "An Empirical Study: The Impact of Collaborative Communications on New Product Creativity That Contributes to New Product Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    16. Anna Adamik & Michał Nowicki, 2019. "Pathologies and Paradoxes of Co-Creation: A Contribution to the Discussion about Corporate Social Responsibility in Building a Competitive Advantage in the Age of Industry 4.0," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-38, September.
    17. Gianluca Marchi & Giuseppe Nardin, 2014. "Alleanze internazionali e mercati emergenti: l?esperienza del distretto ceramico di Sassuolo," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(2), pages 44-54.
    18. Ashwin W. Joshi, 2017. "OEM implementation of supplier-developed component innovations: the role of supplier actions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 548-568, July.
    19. Malik, Ashish & Mahadevan, Jasmin & Sharma, Piyush & Nguyen, Tuyet-Mai, 2021. "Masking, claiming and preventing innovation in cross-border B2B relationships: Neo-colonial frameworks of power in global IT industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 327-339.
    20. Zhiang (John) Lin & James A. Kitts & Haibin Yang & J. Richard Harrison, 2008. "Elucidating strategic network dynamics through computational modeling," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 175-208, September.

    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:jbrese:v:139:y:2022:i:c:p:1451-1462. 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/locate/jbusres .

    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.