IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/grdene/v18y2009i5d10.1007_s10726-008-9138-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relational Capital: Strategic Advantage for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (SMEs) Through Negotiation and Collaboration

Author

Listed:
  • Theresa M. Welbourne

    (University of Southern California and eePulse, Inc.)

  • Manuela Pardo-del-Val

    (Universitat de València, Facultat d’Economia)

Abstract

Collaborative entrepreneurship research suggests that organizations will soon pursue more collaborative relationships throughout a worldwide network of firms, driving a strategy of continuous innovation, specially small- and medium-size firms (SMEs). Tapping into a body of literature that focuses on the importance of human capital in driving long-term success, we merge ideas of collaborative research with a growing body of work on human capital or human resource management in SMEs. Our paper states that it is not the human, per se, that is the real asset but the relationships those humans have that are the most inimitable and important capital. We will discuss how companies use relational capital as the basis for collaborative entrepreneurship. Consistent with our hypotheses, our exploratory study suggests that smaller firms place more value on relational capital than do larger firms. We also have some indication that the key capital that differentiates low vs. high performance, regardless of firm size, is the relational capital aspect. To sum up, relational capital is a fundamental asset for firms, but especially for SMEs, and high performing companies are those that are able to negotiate with others and develop collaborative agreements, thus placing a high value in relational capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Theresa M. Welbourne & Manuela Pardo-del-Val, 2009. "Relational Capital: Strategic Advantage for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (SMEs) Through Negotiation and Collaboration," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 483-497, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:grdene:v:18:y:2009:i:5:d:10.1007_s10726-008-9138-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10726-008-9138-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10726-008-9138-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10726-008-9138-6?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. Jarillo, J. Carlos, 1989. "Entrepreneurship and growth: the strategic use of external resources," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 133-147, March.
    2. Joel A. C. Baum & Tony Calabrese & Brian S. Silverman, 2000. "Don't go it alone: alliance network composition and startups' performance in Canadian biotechnology," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 267-294, March.
    3. J. Carlos Jarillo, 1988. "On strategic networks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 31-41, January.
    4. Chandler, Gaylen N. & Hanks, Steven H., 1994. "Market attractiveness, resource-based capabilities, venture strategies, and venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 331-349, July.
    5. Roberta Capello & Alessandra Faggian, 2005. "Collective Learning and Relational Capital in Local Innovation Processes," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 75-87.
    6. Gordon Walker & Bruce Kogut & Weijian Shan, 1997. "Social Capital, Structural Holes and the Formation of an Industry Network," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 109-125, April.
    7. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    8. Bharat N. Anand & Tarun Khanna, 2000. "Do firms learn to create value? The case of alliances," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 295-315, March.
    9. John Hagedoorn & Jos Schakenraad, 1994. "The effect of strategic technology alliances on company performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(4), pages 291-309, May.
    10. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and the Sustainability of Competitive Advantage: Reply," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1514-1514, December.
    11. Akbar Zaheer & Srilata Zaheer, 1997. "Catching the Wave: Alertness, Responsiveness, and Market Influence in Global Electronic Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(11), pages 1493-1509, November.
    12. Jay F. Nunamaker & Nicholas C. Romano & Robert Owen Briggs, 2002. "Increasing Intellectual Bandwidth: Generating Value from Intellectual Capital with Information Technology," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 69-86, March.
    13. Nile W. Hatch & Jeffrey H. Dyer, 2004. "Human capital and learning as a source of sustainable competitive advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(12), pages 1155-1178, December.
    14. Ranjay Gulati, 1999. "Network location and learning: the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 397-420, May.
    15. Tim Rowley & Dean Behrens & David Krackhardt, 2000. "Redundant governance structures: an analysis of structural and relational embeddedness in the steel and semiconductor industries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 369-386, March.
    16. J. Carlos Jarillo & Joan Enric Ricart, 1987. "Sustaining Networks," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 17(5), pages 82-91, October.
    17. Mara Olekalns, 2002. "Negotiation as Social Interaction," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 27(1_suppl), pages 39-46, June.
    18. Colin Eden & Sue Jones & David Sims & Tim Smithin, 1981. "The Intersubjectivity Of Issues And Issues Of Intersubjectivity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 37-47, January.
    19. Jean‐Francois Hennart, 1988. "A transaction costs theory of equity joint ventures," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 361-374, July.
    20. Michael A. Hitt & R. Duane Ireland & S. Michael Camp & Donald L. Sexton, 2001. "Strategic entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial strategies for wealth creation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 479-491, June.
    21. Bernadette Power & Gavin Reid, 2005. "Flexibility, Firm-Specific Turbulence and the Performance of the Long-lived Small Firm," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 26(4), pages 415-443, June.
    22. Nitin Nohria & Carlos Garcia‐Pont, 1991. "Global strategic linkages and industry structure," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(S1), pages 105-124, June.
    23. L. Alberto Franco, 2008. "Facilitating Collaboration with Problem Structuring Methods: A Case Study of an Inter-Organisational Construction Partnership," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 267-286, July.
    24. Daniel Druckman, 1994. "Determinants of Compromising Behavior in Negotiation," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 38(3), pages 507-556, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:ris:cieodp:2013_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Almeida, Helena & Peñalver, Briones, 2013. "Organizational Well-being Factors. Determinants of Entrepreneurship in Small and Medium Companies of the Defense Sector," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 1(3), pages 162-178.
    3. Casanueva, Cristóbal & Gallego, Ángeles & Sancho, María, 2013. "Network resources and social capital in airline alliance portfolios," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 441-453.
    4. Park, Gunno & Kim, Marco JinHwan & Kang, Jina, 2015. "Competitive embeddedness: The impact of competitive relations among a firm's current alliance partners on its new alliance formations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 196-208.
    5. Vanhaverbeke, W. & Beerkens, B. & Duysters, G., 2001. "Technological capability building through networking strategies within high-tech industries," Working Papers 01.15, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies.
    6. Coombs, Joseph E. & Mudambi, Ram & Deeds, David L., 2006. "An examination of the investments in U.S. biotechnology firms by foreign and domestic corporate partners," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 405-428, July.
    7. Chi-Yo Huang & I-Ling Tung, 2020. "Strategies for Heterogeneous R&D Alliances of In Vitro Diagnostics Firms in Rapidly Catching-Up Economies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-34, May.
    8. Agarwal, Rajshree & Croson, Rachel & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2007. "Decision Making in Strategic Alliances: An Experimental Investigation," Working Papers 07-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    9. Vanhaverbeke, W.P.M. & Beerkens, B.E. & Duysters, G.M., 2003. "Explorative and exploitative learning strategies in technology-based alliance networks," Working Papers 03.22, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies.
    10. Frank T. Rothaermel & Andrew M. Hess, 2007. "Building Dynamic Capabilities: Innovation Driven by Individual-, Firm-, and Network-Level Effects," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 898-921, December.
    11. Ma, Xufei & Yao, Xiaotao & Xi, Youmin, 2009. "How do interorganizational and interpersonal networks affect a firm's strategic adaptive capability in a transition economy?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 1087-1095, November.
    12. Kyuho Jin & Chulhyung Park & Jeonghwan Lee, 2020. "What Determines Innovative Performance of International Joint Ventures? Assessing the Effects of Foreign Managerial Control," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-20, October.
    13. Devarakonda, Ramakrishna & Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Tadikonda, Harsha, 2022. "Founder social capital and value appropriation in R&D alliance agreements," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    14. Soh, Pek-Hooi, 2003. "The role of networking alliances in information acquisition and its implications for new product performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 727-744, November.
    15. Hao-Chen Huang, 2016. "Entrepreneurial resources and speed of entrepreneurial success in an emerging market: the moderating effect of entrepreneurship," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, March.
    16. Wim Vanhaverbeke & Victor Gilsing & Bonnie Beerkens & Geert Duysters, 2009. "The Role of Alliance Network Redundancy in the Creation of Core and Non‐core Technologies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 215-244, March.
    17. Kim, Chang-Su & Inkpen, Andrew C., 2005. "Cross-border R&D alliances, absorptive capacity and technology learning," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 313-329, September.
    18. Jorge Walter & Christoph Lechner & Franz W. Kellermanns, 2008. "Disentangling Alliance Management Processes: Decision Making, Politicality, and Alliance Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 530-560, May.
    19. Kudic, Muhamed & Guhr, Katja, 2013. "Cooperation Events, Ego-Network Characteristics and Firm Innovativeness – Empirical Evidence from the German Laser Industry," IWH Discussion Papers 6/2013, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    20. Olga A. Novoselova, 2022. "What matters for interorganizational connectedness? Locating the drivers of multiplex corporate networks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 872-899, April.
    21. Kudic, Muhamed & Pyka, Andreas & Günther, Jutta, 2012. "Determinants of Evolutionary Change Processes in Innovation Networks – Empirical Evidence from the German Laser Industry," IWH Discussion Papers 7/2012, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

    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:spr:grdene:v:18:y:2009:i:5:d:10.1007_s10726-008-9138-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.