Christopher John Medlin

Christopher John Medlin
University of Adelaide · Adelaide Business School

PhD

About

84
Publications
45,507
Reads
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1,695
Citations
Introduction
In business network research: - Time - Competition and cooperation - Innovation - Entrepreneurship - Endings - Beginnings.
Additional affiliations
August 2018 - December 2025
Aalborg University
Position
  • Visiting Professor
Description
  • Business-to-business researcher
January 2018 - December 2025
Uppsala University
Position
  • Associate Researcher
July 1993 - August 2020
University of Adelaide
Position
  • Professor
Description
  • Emeritus

Publications

Publications (84)
Article
Full-text available
Our focus is on understanding the interplay of social structure and human agency in business networks. Our solution is to propose a contextual logics perspective, by asking: How do contextual logics emerge and decay within different parts of the network, and what is their role in the mobilization of resources, activities and business relationships?...
Article
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Start-up firms are notoriously resource and time poor. One way of addressing these deficits is to develop strategic capability to access, activate and co-shape resources with other firms in the start-up's network. The capability literature assumes such a development is inevitable, provided a start-up survives. But developing network capability depe...
Article
Changes in relational governance have mainly been documented in the form of relationship building, developments and repairs related to tensions, or break-ups of otherwise strong relationships. In this paper, we take a closer look at the relational governance of long-distance international exchanges between producers and importers of fine wine. We c...
Article
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Constructivist and realist research is undertaken in the business relationship and network approach of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group. These two divergent research perspectives seek a different form of contextual understanding vs. general knowledge. They are not incommensurable as one can gain insights from the other. But a researche...
Article
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Researchers socially accepted understandings, including those embraced from specific academic communities, are critical in how they conduct research and in the way their intuition leads to research questions and methods. An issue is that understandings are often based on unknown and unsuspected presuppositions inculcated in academic communities. Th...
Article
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Business markets, relationships and networks have been researched for over 40 years, along an alleged dimension from realist to relativist. But whereas some researchers have held steady and been true to their espoused perspective and rarely questioned the historical epistemological and ontological assumptions brought into studies, others have slipp...
Article
Although previous studies have focused on companies that for some reason cease business operations, and on the ending of business relationships, less is known about once ceased business operations that are resumed at a later stage, embedded in the same or similar business network structures. Especially, there is little research on situations where...
Article
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In this research, we wish to address the tension tucked away in scholarly work: the simultaneous need to break in and break out of academic communities and their ways of thinking. More precisely, we are interested in social re-search (i.e., searching again) processes and how scholars authenticate their research within an established cultural conven...
Cover Page
Full-text available
Business markets, relationships and networks have been researched for over 40 years, along an alleged dimension from realist to relativist. But researchers have quite rarely questioned the historical epistemological and ontological assumptions brought into studies, while others have slipped into and out of diverse perspectives (Andersen et al. 2020...
Article
We contribute to the business network literature by presenting and introducing a radical constructivist research approach, in which we foreground sharing the context of an actor's understanding of interaction. We elaborate the approach by illuminating the problematic issue of boundaries in business network research. We conceptualize boundaries as i...
Research
Full-text available
The parallax nature of studying business markets, relationships and networks Deadline for submission: March 30 th , 2021 Overview and Purpose Business markets, relationships and networks have been researched for over 40 years, along an alleged dimension from realist to relativist. But researchers have quite rarely questioned the historical epistemo...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Introduction article for the Special Issue on "Process thinking in dynamic business networks” in the Industrial Marketing Management journal.
Chapter
Angesichts disruptiver Technologien entstehen neue Geschäftsmodelle. Dies hat Auswirkungen auf die Markenpolitik sowie die Bedeutung von Marken und deren Markenwert. Netzwerke und damit verbundene Marketingtheorien wie die Service Dominant Logic (SDL) werden zum zentralen Bezugsrahmen moderner Markenpolitik. Durch das innovative von der SDL abgelei...
Chapter
Full-text available
With innovation and entrepreneurship lauded as important contributors to economic futures, there is a pressing need to unravel the complexities of entrepreneurial ecosystems as a context for cultivating new businesses initiatives. This chapter reports on the deconstruction and analysis of the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept, through a hermeneutic...
Article
Full-text available
A new theoretical framework is developed to scrutinize the strategic advantage for branding. The theoretical framework applies both at the firm level, for the marketing of individual brands and corporate brands, and also to branding where a marketing agent plays a facilitating role within a community or industry. The framework presents branding as...
Article
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Interactive processes constitute a core notion in business exchange, leading to the concepts of relationships and networks. The constitution of process, comprising unfolding events, activities, and connected structures, relies on difference in space and time. While research has been devoted to time, the concept of space has thus far remained largel...
Chapter
Angesichts disruptiver Technologien entstehen neue Geschäftsmodelle. Dies hat Auswirkungen auf die Markenpolitik sowie die Bedeutung von Marken und deren Markenwert. Netzwerke und damit verbundene Marketingtheorien wie die Service Dominant Logic (SDL) werden zum zentralen Bezugsrahmen moderner Markenpolitik. Durch das innovative von der SDL abgelei...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The network approach to business marketing is based on the conceptual tenets of interaction processes and the developing value-alignments between connected firms. The theoretical perspective of interaction rests on time, process and network context elements that drive research towards undertaking deep case studies. The strong element of change aris...
Conference Paper
The network approach to business marketing is based on the conceptual tenets of interaction processes and the developing value-alignments between connected firms. The theoretical perspective of interaction rests on time, process and network context elements that drive research towards undertaking deep case studies. The strong element of change aris...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
A hallmark of the industrial network approach is substantive and ongoing interaction in business relationships. Thus, managers are involved in developing and changing relationships from within and by implication their business networks. We refer to this changing from within, as managers handling change endogenously. However, theoretical and methodo...
Article
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A business network is a dynamic organizational form, ever shifting and changing. Capturing conceptually the dynamics of a network is difficult. We seek to explicate and understand how transient commitments focused on instrumental activities unfold and how they lead to network dynamics. We study this using the activity and actor dimensions of a dyna...
Conference Paper
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Innovations are increasingly developed and commercialized within networks. However, few firms have the capability to manage by themselves throughout the entire innovation process; from visioning and developing to commercializing Therefore this study analyzes the process of how divergent collaborative organizations explore and exploit their resource...
Conference Paper
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The role of institutions in providing a past and future loaded network for supporting and shaping business interactions has received limited attention within a process ontology. Institutionalization theory proposes that actors gain legitimacy through pragmatic, social and cognitive processes. However, the interaction processes between actors that l...
Article
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We seek to understand how ambidexterity of exploring and exploiting is managed in an innovation context. We contribute to the literature by elaborating exploring and exploiting as three processes shared between actors in a dynamic business network. An innovator firm needs to (1) explore the current business network to find partners and gain access...
Article
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Competition is considered a driving force of markets, but how competing shapes the business network is not so clear. We contribute to the literature by exploring competing as a firm process. We analyze business competition literature according to a structural and social constructivist dichotomy. This highlights firm behavior and priority of goals a...
Chapter
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In an exploratory study involving both sides of cross national dyads, two propositions were examined relating to the notion that culture would influence the concept of ‘ideal’ relationship and that initial differences would be reduced over the duration of the alliance. Both propositions received support and there was further evidence that other fac...
Article
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We contribute to the literature, firstly by elaborating sensemaking as an inter-organizational process. Second, we contribute by displaying how processual research captures reality in flight. Third, an interest model is developed in conjunction with how managers jointly develop an understanding and adapt their surrounding business network, so as to...
Article
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Many inter-firm network initiatives supported by government funds are based upon the idea that benefits rise incrementally as more actors connect with each other. This paper takes the stand that self-interest and collective-interest are evident in how firms participate in network activities, and how these activities are related to the development o...
Article
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Different forms of interaction between firms are at the heart of a relationship and network perspective of business-to-business markets. This paper presents a dyadic research program based upon an Interaction Possibility Space, defined by the interactions between firms using potentially different coordination modes.That firms may have different per...
Article
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Purpose - Value appropriation is a central, yet neglected aspect in business exchange research. The purpose of the paper is to generate an overview of research on active value appropriation in business exchange and provide the foundation for further research into value appropriation, as well as some initial guidance for managers. Design/methodolog...
Conference Paper
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The roles of managers in business network development and change is scrutinized by examining the emergent process of developing a business venture from R&D relationships. Both individual and corporate actors play parts in developing the network. A model is presented that links individual managers with network development. The interests and connecti...
Article
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Project management literature tends to focus on the early phases of a project and on the associated generic project management competences, such as planning, scheduling, budgeting, resourcing and motivating. Only a small fraction of the discussion is devoted to project closure and to the competences needed when a project fails to reach the goals an...
Conference Paper
The IMP notions of business markets see relational interaction processes being at the heart of business exchange, so leading to the concepts of business relationship and network. The constitution of processes, consisting of events and activities, relies on difference in space and time. While time has been discussed, the concept of space has thus fa...
Article
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Purpose The paper aims to consider the underlying premises of Peter Drucker's managerial writing and focuses on three main aspects: humans and relations, an evolutionary perspective and a pragmatic perspective. These ontological views are taken to a new level and applied to explore the world of networked firms. Design/methodology/approach The pape...
Article
Despite their crucial contributions to the prosperity of national economies worldwide, there is limited knowledge on the international operations of professional service firms (PSFs). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of export success of PSFs, taking into account both firm characteristics and market characteristics. Resea...
Article
Full-text available
Business and customer relationships build on interactions between the parties. However, the marketing literature does not pay much attention to the concept of interaction. Interaction is a central construct of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group as a result of a strong empirical focus on interfirm relations. However, even this research do...
Article
Business closure and ending-competence are highly relevant concepts in a globalizing world economy where structural change is common. However, ending-competence in business closure situations is a rarely studied phenomenon, and prior theoretical development is modest. In this paper a conceptual model of ending-competence in business closure is deve...
Article
Full-text available
This Special Issue of Industrial Marketing Management brings together a range of articles by authors who have undertaken the difficult task of researching time and process in business networks. Understanding interaction processes within a business relationship and network perspective requires the elaboration of time, the central construct by which...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Sensemaking is a micro-mechanism where managers interpret cues and socially construct meaning to undertake action. Originally conceptualized as an organizational process concerning strategies to deal with the environment, this paper extends sensemaking to business relationships and a network context. The two firm sensemaking model supplements the i...
Article
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This paper discusses relationship performance, a construct that can help in examining similarity and difference of perspective by firms in a relationship. Thus, each party has an understanding of how the relationship is performing and there is no reason why these may not be different. In fact, differences of opinion on relationship performance migh...
Chapter
Full-text available
Inter-firm alliances are an effective means of globalising, with each firm providing an element of the final product and receiving a share of total profit. However, activating and maintaining an inter-firm alliance is fraught with governance difficulties. Governance within inter-firm alliances refers to oversight of strategic direction and the mec...
Chapter
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Governance is the process of directing human organisations. The dictionary definition of governance is the “direction and control of the activities, affairs, policies and functions of an organisation”. Thus, governance is concerned with directing present day activities, so as to arrive at organisational goals. However, the nature of the goals varie...
Chapter
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This chapter elaborates network governance on the basis of information and influence. A network structure is defined in terms of boundaries and differentiation of interdependencies between firms. Two hypotheses allow examination of the relative role of relational versus hierarchical governance, through the mechanisms of information sharing versus i...
Book
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Table of Contents attached Abstract The globalisation of commerce and science means that new structures of governance are required to handle new and novel situations, such as across state and institutional boundaries. Sound governance, including elements that encourage foresight, is an important ingredient of managing global and local crisis situat...
Conference Paper
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This paper presents an inter-linking framework between the Interaction and Actor-Resource-Activity (ARA) frameworks. These two frameworks have aided many researchers to understand business relationships and change in business networks, yet they appear largely independent. An inter-linking framework offers researchers additional constructs and the a...
Book
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The turbulence in world markets follows from changes in expectations based on variations in trust between many stakeholders. In a time of global crisis and turbulence, without equivalent since the great 1929 depression, it is important to revisit and analyse the role of trust in the world economic system. Trust is central to economic exchange and p...
Chapter
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Past research on inter-firm trust has noted two dimensions, benevolence and credibility. The credibility dimension of trust has been operationalized variously as a combination of honesty, reliability and expectancy; while benevolence has rarely been examined as a unique dimension. We examine the two trust dimensions with empirical data of inter-fir...
Chapter
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Many constructs such as influence, trust and trade can be considered as important in network organizations. Here we examine trust by measuring ‘influence’ as forms of cross-shareholdings and use inter-firm trade as a proxy for interdependence. We introduce the Keiretsu of Toyota, a typical network organization, and focus on a theoretical discussion...
Article
The role of trust, commitment and satisfaction in a buyer-supplier relationship are examined within an interaction framework, so that effects between firms from each side of a buyer-supplier relationship are modelled. An empirical study is undertaken in the context of firms commercialising products (buyers) with university research entities (suppli...
Chapter
Full-text available
In a time of global economic crisis and turbulence, without equivalent since the great 1929 depression, it is important to revisit and analyse the role of trust in the world economic system. Trust is central to economic exchange and plays an important facilitation role in the global economy, enhancing inter-firm interactions and also exchanges betw...
Article
The global hedge fund industry, a technology-based network of varied organisational forms and relationships, was chosen for this research in order to gain theoretical insight into relationships, networks and markets. Hedge funds are investment vehicles which are global, privately owned, based off-shore, and not required to reveal their investment s...
Article
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This paper examines the concept of joint action by introducing the construct of a 'double perspective', where a business relationship is composed of the perspectives of two firms. In the double perspective each firm looks to the self-interest of the other firm in addition to their own and also to their different collective interests. This cooperati...
Article
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Business relationships are a central feature of industrial networks. However, each firm in a relationship necessarily has a different perspective simply because of the complementary nature of the association, different firm history and different place of each partner within multiple perspectives of the network and the different boundaries. Further,...
Chapter
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Understanding internationalizing business relationships requires data from each party and a data analysis that considers firms from both their specific and shared characteristics. This complexity means that single models to explain all cases usually have a low fit. An efficient solution to this research dilemma is a segmentation analysis that diffe...
Chapter
Consumer segmentation aims at identifying groups of consumers for which it is profitable to design a specific strategy. The cost and the strategic purpose of a segmentation implies to identify lasting segments. This robustness is particularly difficult to achieve nowadays, when billions of consumers from emerging economies are exposed to new consum...
Article
Full-text available
Interaction has been a central construct of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group from the earliest research (Håkansson 1982). Empirical research derived a framework where interaction between firms within ‘episodes’ lead to the development of an ‘atmosphere’ that conditioned the nature of on-going cooperation. The IMP framework develo...
Article
Interaction is the basis of business relationships, where the parties undertake collaborative activities in pursuit of self-interest. This entwinement of self and collective interest provides a partial understanding of the dynamic underlying business relationships. This paper examines the self-interest constructs of a firm's economic goals and the...
Chapter
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As a step to determine how differences between international business partners influence their relationship performance, a new quantitative methodology for examining partnerships is proposed. It is based upon two models for each firm: a “self-model” that reflects how a firm’s characteristics explain its perspective of relationship performance, and...
Article
The complexity of business markets, resulting from different levels of organization and the ways social constructs combine across levels, means no clear theory of relational coordination has been developed. The relationship and network framework of the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) group provides a means of handling this complexity. Thi...
Article
Interaction is central to the relationship framework in business markets. Yet there is some theoretical imprecision with regard to the way interaction works in time. Clarification of this nexus further develops the interaction concept and provides theoretical support for the dynamic view of business relationships being developed by the industrial m...
Article
The research on business relationships has focused on socio-psychological constructs, such as trust and commitment, to explain either satisfaction with the relationship, or strategic/economic performance of the firm. However, there has been little critical discussion of the reasons for choice of a dependent variable, nor the cause-effect associatio...
Article
That firms undertake strategies in conjunction with each other is central to a relationship and network framework. However, the decisions to allocate resources and undertake activities are necessarily based upon the abilities of individuals who jointly and individually direct the firms' actors, activities and resources. Early empirical work by IMP...
Article
In this paper two perspectives of relationship marketing are highlighted and then reasons for variation in relationship types according to industry, product/service blend and customer orientation are discussed. Further, interaction and management purpose enter into development of relationships. Together these ideas suggest that no single relationsh...
Article
Empirical work by the IMP Group suggests that actor bonds are formed by trust and identity, yet no theoretical grounds have been offered for these conclusions. This paper proposes a specific definition of actor and actor bonds within contexts defined by time variance with regard to the object of interaction and the commanding capability of the acto...
Article
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Trust is an essential construct of actor bonds in the IMP framework (Håkansson and Snehota 1995), and is also known to be important for inter-firm relationships (Håkansson and Snehota 1995; Morgan and Hunt 1994). Trust has been conceptualised as a multi-dimensional construct in previous business-to- business research, with the two dominant theoreti...
Article
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An important aspect of business-to-business marketing involves the development over time of privileged bonds between firms. Research has identified the complexity of such bonds and emphasised the need for closer scrutiny of the different mechanisms at work in successful and mutually beneficial business relationships. Actor intention and actor bonds...
Article
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In business science, the studied objects are often groups of partners rather than independent firms. Extending classical segmentation to these polyads raises conceptual problems, principally: defining what should be considered as common or specific at the partners’ and at the segment levels. The general approaches consist either in merging partners...
Conference Paper
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This paper compares two survey methodologies. The mechanics of running a World Wide Web survey are described and the advantages and disadvantages of this technique are compared with a mail survey. In addition, an experiment comparing a World Wide Web and a mail survey of firms working internationally in the computer software industry is reported. I...
Conference Paper
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This paper defines E-commerce within the context of the Marketing discipline. This allows an examination of the applicability of the World Wide Web as a research tool for business decisions in the Marketing area. The mechanics of running a World Wide Web survey are then examined. The advantages and disadvantages of a WWW survey instrument are compa...
Article
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The industrial network framework is discussed from the perspective of capital investment theory. To our knowledge this is the first time that these academic fields are considered together. The theory and method described allow an understanding of the forward projection of firm networks from a specific time, so providing a new way to examine the dyn...
Article
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This paper explores the interplay between value creation and appropriation of value by firms within a business network context. These two value processes are inter-linked. Collectively firms create a product of value to an end consumer and a part of that value is appropriated by each firm in the network. Value appropriation is composed of a number...
Article
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Past research has characterized business relationships using perceptual and sentiment constructs. This research has relied on an underlying assumption that 'structure', in the form of channel role, is more likely to explain firm behaviour in relationships than 'strategy' or any other formulation. A re-examination of the literature throws doubt on t...
Article
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In the past few decades, global competition and market integration have created substantial opportunities for businesses. At the same time, service exporters have been strong contributors to both national and global economies. Nevertheless, the majority of exporting research has been on manufacturing industries. Very limited research attention has...
Article
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Continuing restructure of business driven by global economic change and new technology often requires closure of existing manufacturing facilities. In cases where these terminations are unexpected and premature, the understanding and skills of project management can be applied to the closure. A network perspective that accounts for the influence of...
Article
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The "product" concept has been integral to marketing management theory. However, each theoretical lens brings a shift in definition simply by the change in context and so change in associated constructs. Examining the product construct in relationship marketing and network theories opens a number of new research questions concerning the limits of a...

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