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- Markets-as-networks theory: a reviewPublication . Sousa, Filipe J.This paper exposes the development of markets-as-networks theory from formal inception in the mid-1970s until 2010 state-of-the-art, en route presenting its historical roots. This largely European-based theory challenges the conventional, dichotomous view of the business world as including firms and markets, arguing for the existence of relational governance structures (the so-called ‘‘interfirm cooperation’’) in addition to hierarchical and transactional ones.
- Anatomy of relationship significance: a critical realist explorationPublication . Sousa, Filipe J.; Castro, Luís M. deMarkets-as-networks (MAN) theorists contend, at least tacitly, the significance of business relationships to the firm – that is, business relationships contribute somewhat to corporate survival or growth. One does not deny the existence of significant business relationships but sustain, in contrast to the consensus within the MAN theory, that relationship significance should not be a self-evident assumption. For significance cannot be a taken-for-granted property of each and every one of the firm’s business relationships. The authors adopt explicitly a critical realist metatheoretical position in this conceptual paper and claim that relationship significance is an event of the business world, whose causes remain yet largely unidentified. Where the powers and liabilities of business relationships (i.e., relationship functions and dysfunctions) are put to work, inevitably under certain contingencies (namely the surrounding networks and markets), relationship effects ensue for the firm (often benefits in excess of sacrifices, i.e., relationship value) and as a consequence relationship significance is likely to be brought about. In addition, relationship significance can result from the dual impact that business relationships may have on the structure and powers and liabilities of the firm, that is, on corporate nature and scope, respectively.
- The "missing" perspective in strategic managementPublication . Sousa, FilipeThe firm is not an independent entity striving for survival in a hostile environment. Instead, the firm is embedded in intricate business networks while operating in competitive markets. The firm is strongly connected to several counterparts via lasting cooperative relationships and engaged in purely arm’s-length relations with some of its suppliers and customers. Since all firms are interdependent, their strategy cannot be a tool deployed at will in zero-sum games. A new, essentially relational conception of strategy is in demand. This conceptual paper aims to consolidate the so-called ‘missing’ perspective in the Strategic Management field. By building upon the realistic premise of a ‘co-opetitive’ business world wherein inter-firm competition and cooperation coexist, that missing perspective ought to depict strategy as a pattern of decisions and actions with a twofold purpose: firstly, the firm’s (reactive) adaptation to a largely anonymous and unresponsive environment; and secondly, the (proactive) interrelation of the firm with and the shaping of a full-faced and changing business context.
- Meta-theories in research: positivism, postmodernism, and critical realismPublication . Sousa, Filipe J.No scholar or researcher is able to provide robust evidence that counters the scant reflection on metatheory – mostly ontology and epistemology – underlying management studies in general, and industrial marketing and purchasing research in particular. This paper is a contribution to the indispensable discussion of metatheoretical alternatives in research, and most importantly, the strengths and shortcomings thereof, and respective implications on research questions, objectives, and findings.
- Boundary decisions of the firm: make, buy, cooperatePublication . Sousa, Filipe J.Firms are not atomistic hierarchies only linked with one another at arm’s-length distance in markets. Instead, a myriad of long-lived, highly cooperative relationships between suppliers and customers are pervasively found in the B2B world. And it is within those enmeshed relationships and networks that the co-evolution of capabilities and business specialisms is brought about and developed. If that is the actual ‘topography’ of the business landscape, then the coordination of economic activities in general, and the boundary decisions of each and every firm in particular, are unlikely to be reduced to a (dual) choice between ‘making’ or ‘buying’. Inter-firm cooperation is in itself a third governance structure, in alternative to the hierarchical and the market modes of coordination. And, what is also equally important to note, it is through the make-or-buy-or-cooperate decisions that the (embedded) firm is able to change its nature and scope, redefine its (fuzzy) boundaries, and thus adapt to an ever-changing business setting.