The Dark Side of Network Embeddedness in International Business: A Systematic Review and Integrative Framework

Author(s)

Giulia Galizzi, Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki

Abstract

Based on social network literature, firms are embedded within a set of strong social and business networks which favour repeated transactions and high levels of personal interaction among network members (Granovetter, 1985; Uzzi, 1996; 1997). Borrowing from sociology, embeddedness represents the extent to which economic actors, such as firms, are entangled in social structures and the intensity of information and resources exchanged between the parties involved. Despite research on the role of networks on firms’ internationalisation is gaining momentum, little is known about the potential downsides of embeddedness, particularly at the
intersection of the international business field. Prior research has indeed emphasized how deep network ties can lead to more internationalisation (Johanson & Vahlne, 2009; Ellis, 2011), overlooking the phenomenon of over-embeddedness. This systematic literature review presents an analysis of 70 empirical and conceptual articles published over the last 20 years, investigating the negative influence of network embeddedness on internationalisation activities. We contribute to network and internationalisation literatures (Cuypers et al., 2020), by providing a complete overview of the existing body of knowledge on the phenomenon at four levels
of analysis – inter-personal, inter-subsidiary, inter-firm, and inter-location -, as well as a snapshot of the main theoretical pillars and methodologies that have been employed in the international business field. We further advance an integrative framework which summarizes the dark sides of embeddedness at each level together with the main network theoretical lenses applied. We conclude by offering future research avenues for international business scholars.

Organisation(s)

Department of Marketing and International Business

Publication date

07-2022

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

502016 SME-research, 502054 Entrepreneurship

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/the-dark-side-of-network-embeddedness-in-international-business-a-systematic-review-and-integrative-framework(b358c432-286f-4737-b774-2bf2788c4ac4).html