Strategic Seminar（2013-07）

Topic：Will You Get What You Want? Managerial Ties, Knowledge Acquisition, and Firm Performance in China

Speaker:Weiguo Zhong,City University of Hong Kong

Time:: Tuesday, 24 December,10:00-11:30am

Location:Room217, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract：

Firm managers develop their personal ties with external entities in order to facilitate interfirm resource acquisition and collaboration. These managerial ties reflect a micro-macro link and exert a strong bearing on firm outcomes. However, the intervening process connecting managerial ties to firm performance has been critically underexplored. Based on the knowledge-based view and resource-dependence theory, this study proposes that the utilization of business ties differs significantly from that of political ties in acquiring external knowledge, subsequently affecting firm performance in supplier-distributor alliances. Specifically, the utilization of business ties enables a supplier to access deeper knowledge from its primary distributor, while the utilization of political ties may drive the distributor to respond to the request strategically, and hence enable the supplier to acquire broader knowledge from its primary distributor. This knowledge acquisition further mediates the influences of managerial ties on firm performance. The power structure between the supplier and its primary distributor additionally moderates the impact of managerial ties on knowledge acquisition, contributing by introducing the power-dependence view to the managerial ties literature. Our analyses of matched supplier-distributor dyads in China largely support our theses.

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