Position Matters: Firms Relational Performance in Regional Clusters

Abstract:

A firm’s conduct and relational performance can be more fully understood by examining its embeddedness within an interorganizational network. This paper focuses on the extent to which a firm’s position, within a network structure, affects the firm’s dyad-level of prosocial behavior. We focus on two network characteristics at the firm level: in-degree centrality and triad embeddedness. Empirically, it combines network data and questionnaires from two regional clusters in Norway. The data from two regional clusters shows that (1) there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between in-degree centrality and prosocial behavior; (2) triad embeddedness is positively correlated with prosocial behavior.