Knowledge development, social capital and alliance learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elucidate information on what creates the different types of knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach – In the conceptual model it is argued that the concept of social capital provides an interesting view on the creation of market-specific and firm-specific knowledge.

Findings – The major finding from the paper is that knowledge is an important by-product of an alliance forming process, a process commonly termed as alliance learning.

Research limitations/implications – Both market-specific and firm-specific knowledge have implications on two main types of alliance learning, that of mutual and non-mutual learning.

Practical implications – Alliance managers need to be aware that knowledge is a key driver as well as a beneficial outcome in the formation of alliances.

Originality/value – This paper examines how the different types of knowledge evolve and how these different types of knowledge impact upon alliance learning.

A theoretical framework of alliance performance : the role of trust, social capital and knowledge development

While studies on alliances have been substantial in the international business literature, much is still unexplored in understanding what alliance performance really is and how superior alliance performance is facilitated (Das & Teng 2003). Drawing from research on alliances, we develop a theoretical framework to examine alliance performance by integrating a partner analysis approach, focusing on alliance trust, alliance partners' social capital, and knowledge development from alliance relationships. We consider the level of mutual trust between alliance partners to be the precursor to such relationship (Das & Teng 1998). Trust, we argue, subsequently builds and enhances the partners' social capital. Two types of social capital are considered in this article: internal social capital and external social capital. In developing our framework, we further subscribe to the notion that knowledge is a contributing factor to superior alliance performance, and consider how such relationships influence the development of partners' knowledge in terms of the development in the tacit firm-specific and the more explicit market-specific knowledge. Key managerial implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

A resource-based view of small export firms' social capital in a Southeast Asian country

This study empirically examines the social capital that facilitates the flow of export knowledge, thereby supporting the entrepreneurial stance of small export firms. By applying the VRIO (value, rarity, inimitability and organisation of firm resources) framework to the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study suggests that superior performance is a function of resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable and sufficiently organised to develop and sustain the firm's competitive advantage. This study argues that small, resource-constrained export firms in a developing economy are able to adopt entrepreneurial tactics and reap positive rates of return by exploiting their relational capital to acquire export knowledge. A survey of 175 small export firms in the Philippines was conducted, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results suggest positive relationships between the firm's social capital and export knowledge. Export knowledge is associated with entrepreneurial orientation, which then correlates with export performance.

Case study of e-learning experts in Malaysia : impact of social capital and social networks

This paper examines the experiences of selected academics pioneering e-learning in Malaysian tertiary institutions. It begins with an overview of the broad factors shaping the Malaysian educational environment and then proceeds to examine the experience of individual teachers and e-learning programs. It takes an in-depth qualitative approach to engaging with this case study material drawing heavily on semi-structured interviews with key actors.
Conversations with several respondents suggested that the social networks of mentor relations found in the Malaysian case studies might be aptly described as ‘bamboo networks’. Bamboo, which happens to be plentiful in the Malaysian peninsula where these case studies are based, spreads from clump to clump through a series of underground connections involving a mature clump of bamboo sending out a subterranean runner, often over very long distances that then emerge into the open as a new bamboo clump.
All of those interviewed reported that they have found it difficult to find a support base in their first years of pioneering online developments. Consequently, they tended to fall back on their peer networks linked to the institutions at which they had studied. Prominent individuals championing e-learning in the institutions where they teach tend to form small groups for information sharing and networking. They do look to their management for tacit ‘permission’ rather than direct encouragement. Consequently, the active promotion of e-learning in Malaysia can be described as being ‘middle-down’ rather than ‘top-down’ in nature. That is to say, it is mid-level teachers that inspire those below them to join in the development of e-learning programs. They are internally driven and strongly motivated. In time, their activity should produce new generations of locally developed e-learning experts but this has yet to take place in a substantial fashion. This study shows that both men and women ‘academic guanxi’, or peer networks, play a key role in the adoption of online technologies. Key early adopters become change-agents by inspiring a small network of their peers and via their guanxi networks. It was also discovered that motivation is not simply an individual matter but is also about groups and peer networks or communities of exchange and encouragement. In the development of e-learning in Malaysia, there is very little activity that is not linked to small clusters of developers who are tied into wider networks through personal contacts.
Like clumping bamboo, whilst the local clusters tend to be easily seen, the longer-range ‘subterranean’ personal connections are generally not nearly so immediately obvious. These connections are often the product of previous mentoring relationships, including the relationships between influential teachers and their former postgraduate students. These relationships tend to work like bamboo runners: they run off in multiple directions, subterranean and unseen and then throw up new clumps that then send out fresh runners of their own.

Clarifying the link between social capital and MSME innovation performance : the role of absorptive capacity

A conceptual framework is proposed in this article showing how the social capital of a community shapes the innovation performance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through the exercise of absorptive capacity as the mediating phenomenon between the two. Its significance stems from the unprecedented effort of explaining how community social capital matters in the innovation performance of MSMEs, a departure from previous studies which typically examined market-related or hierarchical social capital in the form of formal networks and directly linking them to firm innovation without due regard to knowledge management within the firm as an antecedent of organizational innovation. The aim is to stimulate further thinking and empirical research on the subject of social capital of a community in an MSME and/or entrepreneurial context.

Social capital for knowledge management : the case of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific Region

This article proposes a conceptual framework that explains that the social capital of a community shapes the innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through knowledge management within the firm. The study's significance stems from the unprecedented effort in explaining how community social capital matters in the innovation performance of SMEs, a departure from previous studies that have typically examined market-related or hierarchical social capital in the form of formal networks and directly linked them to a firm's innovation performance without due regard for knowledge management within the firm as an antecedent of organisational innovation performance. The aim is to stimulate further thinking and empirical research on the subject of social capital of a community in the SME and/or entrepreneurial context.

Neighbourhood environments and children's social capital : investigating the pattern of relationships

The main purpose of this work was to investigate the pattern of relationships among three constructs: neighbourhood socio-physical environment, children's social interactions and their social capital. This work was designed as a two-phase mixed-methods research. Phase I included several qualitative studies to develop a scale of neighbourhood socio-physical environment, a scale of children's social interactions and a scale of children's social capital. Phase II was a cross-national survey that used these three scales to collect information from high school students in Beijing and Sydney. The main finding of this work was that there were strong and significant correlations among the three constructs. Children's assessment of their neighbourhood socio-physical environment was positively correlated with their social interactions and social capital, which indicated that children who lived in better neighbourhoods had more social interactions and larger volumes of social capital. Strong positive relationship was also found between children's social interactions and social capital, which implied that better-connected children interacted with their friends more.

Health system reform and social capital

The pressures for health system reform have reached a critical stage over the past ten years as our understanding of the determinants of health has increased and deepened. Far from being conjecture and theory, the evidence for a broad range of determinants of health, from the biological and medical through to a broad range of economic and social determinants, has mounted.

Health system reform and social capital

Jim Hyde suggests that the research on building the capacity of communities and the accumulation of social capital shows that how we organize our health systems - in both micro and macro contexts - is important. He argues that collaboration, flexibility and community participation must become central in health structures.

The first stage of developing the adolescent friendship social capital scale

 The purpose of the study was to generate the candidate items for the Adolescent Friendship Social Capital Scale. Both inductive and deductive approaches were used to generate the scale items. Halpern's conceptual map of social capital served as the theoretical basis of this scale, and guided the development of items. Semi-structured interviews with adolescents in Sydney, Melbourne and Beijing generated the initial pool of scale items. Twenty-six items were generated for the Adolescent Friendship Social Capital Scale. The items are organised in four theoretical constructs: Bonding Networks, Bridging Norms, Bridging Sanctions, and Linking Networks. Each item is a short statement followed by a five-point Likert scale anchored by 1= "Strongly disagree" and 5= "Strongly agree". The scale has several advantages over previous measures of adolescent friendship networks and friendship social capital. The scale has a strong and clear theoretical structure, the scale items demonstrate initial construct and content validity, and the format of the scale enables the collection of continuous data. However, in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the scale, another two stages of research need to be conducted in the future: scale development and scale evaluation.

Making Connections in Geelong : migrants, social capital and growing regional cities

Migration has been increasingly used to compensate for demographic trends and skill shortages in developed countries. This has resulted in policies to encourage migration to regional areas in order to relieve pressures on liveability and infrastructure in big cities. Like many other regional cities in Victoria, Geelong actively encourages migrants from overseas, from Melbourne and from other parts of rural and regional Australia, by promoting workforce participation, and enhancing lifestyles to attract and retain a growing population. A number of countries including Australia, Canada, Italy and Spain have policies to encourage immigration to locations other than large urban centres to stimulate regional economic development and to ensure immigrants fill skill shortages in regional areas. However, migrants do not always stay long in the regional locations where they initially settle, and new migrants are needed to replace their skills. Given the Australian and Victorian government policy imperatives of encouraging regional migration there is a need to understand how migrants and their families make the social connections that contribute to wellbeing and their retention in regional areas such as Geelong. This paper emerges from a research project on this challenge at Deakin University, in Geelong It discusses some of the issues associated with regional migration and describes how a sound, theoretically informed understanding of social capital can assist employers, governments and community groups (formal and informal) to effectively assist migrants to make social connections and therefore remain in regional cities.