Håkan Håkansson

BI Norwegian Business School | BINBS · Department of Innovation and Economic Organization

Purpose This paper centers round outsourcing. The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to outsourcing in the public sector and focus on what could be special when considering outsourcing in such contexts. The authors try to portray the business activities in private and in public sector settings and identify some similarities and – more imp...

Purpose The prestigious policy advisor, World Economic Forum (WEF), underlines that “governments, businesses and civil society organisations” must find “new ways of tackling the systemic risks that affect us all”. Paradoxically, policy’s and politicians’ great trust in the basic forces of the business world is accompanied with a disinterest in how...

Purpose One of the most salient contemporary societal trends is the increasing amount of public–private collaborations. In spite of the increasing awareness of the need to scrutinise the promises of public–private partnership (PPP), there is an important but seldom-asked question: How does the assumed interaction pattern behind PPP correspond with...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that if the authors want to understand the role of heaviness, space and journey in innovation, the authors have to start with the interaction itself, that is the exchange process taking place between economic actors. Three major aspects will be considered: the first is that heaviness, space and journey...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the development of research based on the IMP approach during the four decades since the inauguration in 1976. The paper presents a network analysis of IMP research based on one of the central IMP frameworks: the ARA model. Design/methodology/approach The main activity analysed is the annual IMP...

The first and most basic issue is the position and role of Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) research in relation to contemporary economic research, where the authors raise the issue of phenomenon-driven theory development. The discussion hinges on the methodological implications of phenomenon-driven research and emphasizes the interplay of...

Purpose This article presents a longitudinal case study of a regional innovation policy initiative, in which ideas with regard to how innovation might be facilitated were changing over time. Through the scrutiny of insights in industrial network studies (IMP), the authors seek to shed light on the challenges created by policy interventions aimed a...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the roles of deals in innovations processes, based on the definition of a deal as the interaction of social-material value-creating processes with money-handing processes. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a study of the historical emergence of transaortic valve implantation (TAVI)...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between social-material interaction and the monetary aspects of business relationships in the construction industry. The authors term the formal financial agreements necessary for such activities “deals”, and this paper seeks to open a research avenue to further investigate the m...

Purpose Behind the simple connotation “business exchange” a complex empirical phenomenon can be observed, including using, producing and developing activities, taking place in different contexts, influenced by ideas stemming from both practice and mainstream economic thinking. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methodological challenges of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how different policy perspectives or logics regarding industry organising affect network interaction, with particular focus on how the availability of resources is organised. Design/methodology/approach – To examine this, the authors compare two cases from the Norwegian seafood industry: in the pel...

Purpose – In this paper, the authors will argue that owners as one type among many other types of actors is essential to bring into the picture when analyzing developments in industrial and other kinds of business networks. The direct relationship between owners and the business unit, the firm, is one type of relationship. But owners, as well as th...

Purpose – The authors argue that the construction industry is characterised by a fragmented business context with three main features: the project-based character, the strong focus on price in all parts of the supply chain along with the great importance of suppliers. This fragmentation has been identified as problematic for the industry’s ability...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address three aspects of the managerial challenge that arises from the process of business interaction: the diversity of interaction; the dynamic effects of interaction; and the integration of interaction into company operations and strategy. The paper develops a typology which characterizes different types...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the phenomenon of customer-supplier interaction and integration from a resource perspective. In economic terms, a fish may be seen as a more or less homogeneous resource. If the herring is seen as a homogeneous resource, a market should be the best way to handle the selling and buying. However, if the...

An important aim of this special issue is to contribute to the interdisciplinary research literature on marketing and accounting. This is important also from a practical point of view since both the marketing and accounting functions are often ‘under attack’ within companies. Drawing on previous research and the individual contributions to the spec...

When innovation in construction is viewed from an industrial network perspective, the interorganisational and interactive nature of innovation processes comes to the fore. Construction companies are generally thought of as poor at innovating, and there tend to be weak linkages between different construction actors. We propose that innovation is rel...

In this article we attempt at interpreting and conceptualizing the roles of monetary processes and business deals in relation to IMP methodology and theory. This suggests that we have to separate the way that money is handled. We point to the need to analyze the specific situations within which money is involved as “deals”. Each deal has its own hi...

Buyer-seller relationships on industrial markets often are characterized by a complex communication pattern. Efficency and effectiveness in such a relationship is very much dependent on the quality of the exchange of information. This paper explores the nature of the information exchange, identifying three important roles of communication; coordina...

In order to mobilize the necessary resources for innovation forecasts are unavoidable. However, a forecast is never a neutral or objective assessment. Given an interdependent business landscape, there are at least two major context-related aspects that affect an innovation forecast. First, the actor that makes the forecast is embedded into a specif...

Recent decades have witnessed a growing interest in the importance of science and technology for business development and how they affect the positions of individual companies and their economic performance. Over the years the discussion involved R&D people and general managers from industry, researchers and administrative managers from universitie...

Denne forskningsrapporten er sluttrapport for prosjektet “Økt integrasjon og samarbeid mot eksisterende og nye målmarkeder for pelagisk industri”, gjennomført av Morten H. Abrahamsen og Håkan Håkansson ved Handelshøyskolen BI på oppdrag for Fiskeri- og Havbruksnæringens Forskningsfond (FHF). Norsk pelagisk industri ønsker i dette prosjektet å se på...

Most of those who write about marketing or strategy appear to view competition as the overarching logic of business. Commentators have usually associated competition with improved economic efficiency and customer well-being: they have regarded it as “a good thing”, at least in the abstract or when it only affects others. In contrast to the widespre...

Industrial marketing and purchasing is an interesting phenomenon. On the surface it appears as very mundane, a simple day-to-day activity performed by purchasers, sales personnel, and technical specialists; i.e. most often by professions representing ‘middle management’. As such, it is not surrounded with any of the greater prestige ascribed to mor...

The construction industry has developed a certain economic logic that reflects the way in which tasks, parts, and units are organized and related to each other in order to create economic benefits in the construction process. Four different models in the literature portray this logic. We examine how they complement and constitute alternatives to un...

The construction business network is generally seen as conservative and non-innovative, for which a number of reasons have been identified. One of these reasons relates to the special inter-organizational setting that exists within the industry. The starting point of our study was to investigate whether there is any truth in this perceived lack of...

Innovation is to a large extent about trying out new combinations. Often it means bridging different types of gaps, which becomes more problematic in cases of radical innovation, as well as in cases of highly specialized actors. Starting with a case where salmon was planned to be used as an input into salami but instead became a special high-qualit...

How should a company act when faced with several possible options for network development? Should it support the changing forces in the network, or should it conform to the established practices? In this paper we look deeper into these questions. Our empirical setting is the Japanese seafood distribution network where foreign exporters are trying t...

Business network research, service-dominant logic and service system thinking all reflect an interactional interpretation of value creation as the fundamental approach to understanding modern economies and business behavior. This paper aims at contributing to an integrative debate about innovation and value creation by analyzing innovation manageme...

The article debates the main forces driving change in the processes of technological development through resource combination. It discusses the role of resource interfaces and particular attention is given to the concept, borrowed from physics, of friction as a relational, time dependent and transforming concept. Friction is used metaphorically and...

This paper analyses the forces changing how Norwegian suppliers of salmon distribute their produce to Japan, and how the relationships involved are maintained, developed, and changed. The research methodology is based on semi-structured interviews with five of the major seafood exporters in Norway and seven large seafood importers in Japan. There a...

This chapter reviews the interorganizational accounting literature. There are two different types of interorganizational settings that have been covered within the literature: dyadic relationships between two collaborating companies and networks where a relationship is seen as embedded in a set of relationships. The emphasis on intensive and long-t...

Purpose The paper seeks to provide an example of how new business unit resources can activate previously passively connected networks of resources. Design/methodology/approach Two case studies are used, both of which are examples of new business unit resources being embedded into, and also changing, existing resource networks. The cases are organi...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to re‐examine the challenges that were made in the original International Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) project, in the light of all the changes that have occurred in the business world since 1982. Design/methodology/approach – Although some of these challenges have been widely accepted, some have not and mu...

Based on data collection 1 undertaken in the UK, together with secondary data sources, we use what we call a marketing network framework to trace an empirical route from the consumer to fish entering the UK. As we chart the characteristics of this marketing network, we note that significant changes have taken place during the past five years or so...

Purpose Arising from systematic empirical observations' aims to fulfil the need to review and refine existing market models and tools. Design/methodology/approach The article includes a critical analysis of existing marketing models, which mainly originate from the marketing mix (the 4Ps) model, which in turn has a clear micro economic “allocation...

From a practical perspective the construction industry is interesting for a business researcher in that it does not have had very positive economic development in terms of productivity and the degree of innovation is characterised as low. From a theoretical point of view the industry is interesting in that prior research has taken different perspec...

Accounting and the classical coordination forms of hierarchy and market are closely related concepts. New forms of coordination, including alliances and close cooperation between companies have opened up new challenges to how accounting should be designed and practised. In the first part of this paper the theoretical basis for the connection betwee...

A major assumption in the supply chain management literature is that there is an economic rationale to the integration of processes across firm boundaries. In essence, it is assumed that there is a benefit in adapting and coordinating the activities carried out in sequence by the actors in the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to further d...

In this article we discuss supply networks and how a buying firm may create and manage in such networks. We present a case study of a main contractor within the construction industry who has tried to develop a supply network. We pay particular attention to the early stages of the development, i.e. how the supply network is created, and how it is ma...

This paper provides an overview of the implications for strategizing offered by an industrial network perspective and a comparison of this view with strategic management thinking. We argue that it is crucial for a company to relate its activities to those of other firms in order to enhance its performance, and it is through the continuous combining...

This article focuses on how the phenomenon of conflict between buyer and seller in complex projects can be approached from a theoretical and a methodological angle. Two paradigms for approaching conflict are discussed: conflict as a problem to be removed and conflict as a resource and tool for improvement. Constructs to be used include conflict eve...

In this paper, we present and discuss different frameworks for initiating a supply network. Thus, we try to understand how a firm designs a process of establishing a supply network and monitoring the network in the start-up phase, i.e. we study a firm's effort at initiating and operating a supply network. Furthermore, we discuss different opportuni...

This paper presents the theoretical background for a recently initiated research programme on the utilisation and development of logistics resources in supply and distribution networks. The paper opens with a discussion of previous approaches to logistics with a particular focus on whether and how resources have been dealt with. We conclude that at...

The existence and importance of path dependence has been observed in a number of technological studies. The main effect of path dependence has been described in terms of restrictions or as something that is hindering the development of new innovations and new products. In this paper, based on a case where IKEA is demanding a new “green” catalogue p...

The terms “relationships” and “networks” are widely used in academic discussion of business practice and have become increasingly common in the conversions between managers themselves. This paper starts with a description of some aspects of business networks and relationships and highlights the questions that they pose for practitioners. The paper...

During the past decades business relationships have received much attention in the literature and in practice. Business relationships is a key concept in industrial network studies, but it has also been an important ingredient in a number of other fields of research. In this paper we discuss how relationships are conceptualised in three fields of r...

The IMP perspective: Assets and liabilities of business relationships A keynote speaker addressing some 200 participants from more than 15 countries at the 12th annual conference of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany in the fall of 1996 declared the IMP to be “a well-known trademark that ha...

During the last decades, competence and knowledge have become increasingly focused as means for increasing the competitiveness of industrial companies. Organizational learning accordingly has become an important issue both in research and in managerial considerations. One important way to learn is through others. Companies have as one consequence d...

In international business studies, as well as in political science, the influence of political rules on business firms is assumed to be homogeneous and unidirectional. However, if the relationship between the political and the business actors is seen as an interaction, a different conclusion will be reached. We would like to add more knowledge to i...

In business-to-business settings, dyadic relationships between firms are of paramount interest. Recent developments in business practice strongly suggest that to understand these business relationships, greater attention must be directed to the embedded context within which dyadic business relationships take place. The authors provide a means for u...

In business-to-business settings, dyadic relationships between firms are of paramount interest. Recent developments in business practice strongly suggest that to understand these business relationships, greater attention must be directed to the embedded context within which dyadic business relationships take place. The authors provide a means for u...

The competitive pressures that act upon firms have led to major changes in the way in which purchasing is perceived - from a money-saving activity to a resource-planning function. In this paper the authors discuss some of the changes that purchasing has undergone and identify key concerns for the future, as purchasing moves towwards a new strategic...

Discusses marketing strategy of a future steelworks and its product choice by use of a theoretical framework based on the nature of relationship between sellers and customers. Identifies certain key factors which must be incorporated in strategy development to enable competitive strength to the seller. Describes marketing as a competitive strategy...