Paper info: Identifying Firms Positions in Business Networks
Title
Identifying Firms Positions in Business Networks
Authors
Cheng-Wen Chang, David Chiang and Fan-Yun Pai
Place of Publication
The paper was published at the 27th IMP-conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2011.
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Lately, business practices and researches have been focused on understanding a firm's position, especially in network environment, where the essence of network manifests the complexity. Therefore, it is hard to identify positions, because all firms with multiple interrelations were characterized by multilayer network organizations and multilateral interactions. This study proposes a quantitative method to measure a firm's position in business networks. Based on the relations and power of business networks, the graph theory is applied to configure the firms' positioning. Then, the advantageous and disadvantageous positions of each firm can be ranked, compared and revealed. Furthermore, managerial interpretation can identify the firm's direct or indirect competitions and the firm's network relationship type in the business network.
Lately, business practices and researches have been focused on understanding a firm's position, especially in network environment, where the essence of network manifests the complexity. Therefore, it is hard to identify positions, because all firms with multiple interrelations were characterized by multilayer network organizations and multilateral interactions. This study proposes a quantitative method to measure a firm's position in business networks. Based on the relations and power of business networks, the graph theory is applied to configure the firms' positioning. Then, the advantageous and disadvantageous positions of each firm can be ranked, compared and revealed. Furthermore, managerial interpretation can identify the firm's direct or indirect competitions and the firm's network relationship type in the business network.