ABSTRACT. The rapid technological advancements and the lengthy pandemic have sparked a new wave of healthcare innovation based on networking across national, organizational and occupational boundaries. With its numbers of involved actors from different societal spheres, pluralistic organizations and strong professional hierarchies, healthcare networks are complex settings for collaborative innovation. International collaborations are searched for but simultaneously seen challenging due to the cultural-historical nature of the healthcare activity. To enhance understanding in the international, healthcare innovation networks, we examine the changing activities in a Nordic innovation-facilitating network. We set particular attention to the historically developed patterns of activities in the members’ local communities that have an influence on their perceptions about previous achievements and beliefs about future possibilities. We aim to contribute to knowledge on the development of international networks in the healthcare sector. We expand on issue network research by taking an object-oriented network view, which accounts for historically evolving collaboration and is gaining proponents in explaining innovation processes. Considering the international context, an activity-theoretical analysis allows attention to be paid to the ways the local differences across cultures and social groups come to the fore in the collaborative activity. We employ a qualitative inquiry to interpret a case study of a network of Nordic partners from renowned healthcare institutions and testing hubs for healthcare technologies. The historical reconstruction of the network activity on the basis of archival and interview data, reveals several phases of network development that are characterized by varying goals and behaviors. The activity of the network parties is influenced by background experiences and by the contexts developed within the network. They form sub-networks based on specific expertise and this way bridge the fragmented character of the interaction in the broader issue network.

ABSTRACT. Healthcare innovators have recently relied on AI algorithms, big data analytics, and many other digital technologies to achieve significant improvements and breakthroughs in healthcare products, systems, and delivery models. The industry has demonstrated its ability to innovate effectively and quickly in the face of the unprecedented demands and pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals, a central component of the healthcare supply chain, are rediscovering their patients’ needs and reimagining their supplier relationships as most of these have been reshaped by the pandemic. As such, hospital purchasing and supply management (PSM) organisations are critical in innovation and solving emerging problems that significantly impact performance. Design Thinking (DT) has increasingly attracted the interest of practitioners and researchers as an empathy-driven process that takes a user-oriented approach to developing innovative solutions to complex problems. DT has drawn significant attention to redesigning the patients’ experience in hospitals. However, suppliers’ experience in the purchasing process has attracted relatively little attention in academic research and managerial practice. Against this backdrop, the objective of this paper is threefold: (1) to understand the current and potential role of DT in hospital-buyer supplier relationships, (2) to explore how PSM organisations in hospitals innovate to enhance suppliers' experience, and (3) to investigate the main drivers and challenges for the adoption of DT by hospitals’ PSM organisations. A multiple case study methodology is adopted in this study, wherein data is collected through semi-structured interviews with PSM managers in six hospitals in the UAE. This paper concludes with avenues for future research and practical implications for PSM managers.

ABSTRACT. Health technology represents an emerging, important, and fast-growing business field that is socially significant both in terms of economic growth and health promotion. Health technology SMEs are innovative and growth-seeking companies, but their focus on rapid growth and the development of new technological solutions can reduce the focus on the customer and customer value. The purpose of this study is to find out how customer orientation is perceived in health technology SMEs, what are the key challenges in developing customer orientation and how they can be overcome. To answer these questions, we take customer value research as a theoretical starting point and conduct qualitative research with 19 managers of health technology SMEs in Finland. Based on our results, customer orientation is seen in health technology SMEs in different ways; others are mentally and operationally very customer-oriented, while others still have product orientation at the center of their operations. However, common to all studied SMEs is their effort to understand and fulfill customers' needs. Identified challenges are related to getting customers to use their time for collaboration, identifying key decision makers in the customer organization, understanding the customer's needs in the company, and getting employees dedicated to customer orientation. The means to overcome these challenges are e.g. making the value of participation in collaboration more visible to the customers, increasing resources for marketing, investing in collecting and sharing information, using suitable CRM/software tools, and collecting and systematically utilizing customer feedback. The study contributes to existing research on value creation and customer orientation in B2B relationships by empirically examining customer orientation in the important and timely, yet little studied context of health technology SMEs. The research offers entrepreneurs and SME managers insights into why customer orientation is so important and how it could be developed to ensure future competitiveness.

ABSTRACT. This study combines to sustainable trends in our society, that of circularity and electrification of vehicles. The paper focuses on a start-up’s network for a circular business model. We conduct a case study of a start-up and two of its customers to explore the start-up’s customer relationships. This is an on-going study, where we so-far have conducted five interviews, three at the start-up and two interviews with the customers. The study shows how an innovative start-up takes an alternative approach to the transition towards electromobility by relying on a network of actors to enable their circular business model. The paper to contribute to the literature on circularity by providing an example of hos firms are transforming to fossil free transport by upgrading diesel vehicles to electric vehicles, providing a new way of extending the life of the vehicle. The case study shows that firms have several motivations for upgrading vehicles, including a combination of environmental and cost benefits, innovative reasons and a drive to be in the forefront and to motivate others in the industry to transform to fossil free transport. The study demonstrates that market and future regulatory demands act as incentives for testing new solutions, such as the circular approach. The customers’ point of view revealed that they were open and positive to try innovative circular solutions that had not yet been proved.

ABSTRACT. Consistent increases in industrial activities have put immense pressure on the environment, leading to the consideration of supporting sustainable development through a closed-loop circular economy (Mahanty et al. 2021). Servitization may extend product life cycles and reduce environmental influence of product use, thereby enabling firms to achieve competitive advantages and create value (Doni et al. 2019). As services are designed to retain ownership and provide access, service-centric business models may help improve circularity (Bressanelli et al. 2018). However, services are extremely complex and varied in nature, requiring various changes in value chains and capabilities (Story et al. 2017). Furthermore, firms are still inexperienced regarding circular economy transitions and how services can contribute to circularity (Ho et al. 2022). As such, the research question is as follows: How do firms work within their network to use services to invoke greater circularity? This research will use analysis of documents as a starting point for primary data collection. This will involve looking at online resources such as, websites of different companies in more detail to gain an understanding of their existing practices and how they are working within their boundaries and network to develop product-service systems that may contribute to circular practices. This study aims to contribute to literature by demonstrating the exploration of services for a circular economy within the whole ecosystem instead of simply from a focal firm perspective or on a simple dyadic level.

ABSTRACT. This empirical study explores ethical value co-creation in the context of a circular economy (CE) ecosystem that is generally aimed for reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste. Since industrial ecosystems involve a variety of business and institutional actors, ethical principles become initially embedded in the social interaction and ties development. This research adopts conceptual ethical embeddedness framework that reflects organizations disposition to ethical and economic value co-creation in the interrelated actors` networks. Placed in the context of an industrial ecosystem, this framework represents organizations` ethical identity, their proactive and reactive roles, ethical position, and characterizes ethical atmosphere prevalent in the ecosystem business relationships management. The empirical case of this study is focused on the Finnish textile and fashion industry. Despite numerous environmental and social challenges faced globally by the textile producers and fashion brands, the Finnish textile CE ecosystem becomes a forerunner for circularity implementation for textile recycling, reuse, and resale. This study highlights the necessity of trust, openness to collaboration, ability to influence and motivate actors and consumers for ethical actions among other ethical considerations. This study results contribute to the general business ethics studies in the scopes of CE and empirically illustrate CE ecosystem orchestration and its business relationships management. Managerial implications of this study highlight the strategic collaboration of various actors to implement circularity in the business processes and in society in general.

ABSTRACT. The paper aims to identify how both social and inter-organizational relationships contribute to sustainable entrepreneurship by considering the importance of the three dimensions of sustainable activities framed as Triple-Bottom-Line (economic, social, and environmental). The paper presents the initial findings of a study and interviews conducted with owners of vegan restaurants in Poland. The preliminary contribution of the paper is twofold. First, it points to the importance of the complexity of relationships (both social and inter-organizational) for undertaking sustainable entrepreneurship activities and their impact on the three dimensions of sustainable activities (Triple-Bottom-Line). Second, the preliminary results allowed us to identify the importance of entrepreneurs’ motivation and beliefs for social and environmental TBL outcomes and developed or utilized relationships.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents a systematic literature review addressing the notion of embeddedness and sustainable entrepreneurship. It covers the analysis of main themes within 28 papers covering the aspects of embeddedness, sustainability, and entrepreneurial activities. By underlining the three general perspectives on embeddedness, that is social, inter-organizational network, and territorial, it provides a multidimensional conceptualization of sustainable entrepreneurship and identifies the avenues of further research on sustainable entrepreneurship focusing on networks and relationships.

ABSTRACT. Social media (SM) continues to change the industrial marketing landscape. Whilst the volume of research on implementing SM in the business-to-business (B2B) domain is growing, studies linking SM to supply chain management are rare. We address this gap by analysing how SM is mobilised as a resource in interaction to enhance supply chain management processes (SCM) in an entrepreneurial context. Our findings suggest that SM can enhance the three parts of the SCM framework put forward in the classic paper by Lambert and Cooper (2000). Whilst we primarily focus on one aspect, supply chain business processes, our findings suggest the three elements can take place concurrently, rather than separately, using SM as a resource mobilised in interaction. This paper contributes to our understanding of SM resources and how they are mobilised by entrepreneurial firms and their web of network actors for SCM purposes. We also respond to calls to adopt longitudinal data collection techniques and the use of case studies to better understand the processes of entrepreneurial firm supply chain management within a SM B2B context.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to investigate inter-firm practises of firms operating in Saudi automotive industry – a sector that faces copious sustainable challenges – to explain how businesses respond to global climate change regulations in emerging markets. This study adopts a network approach as an intellectual lens and behavioural concepts to explain the underpinning mechanisms of firms’ responses to climate change regulations. Through interviews with senior managers and policy-makers of Saudi automobile networks, our findings distinguish between swift and delayed corporate responses to the country’s climate change framework. Specifically, we demonstrate that behavioural biases at the network level hinder the swift response. Loss aversion, present bias and focal point are the cognitive biases and errors that underpin actors’ interactions leading to delayed response. Our study advances extant knowledge by demonstrating that business responses to new environmental regulations are contingent on the network actors’ practices and the inter-firm interactions within the global supply networks.

ABSTRACT. Production flows stretch across firm boundaries, making suppliers vital and the network in which they operate pivotal, and as production is not confined to one firm, its performance can be understood as a function of its network. Thus, developing capabilities with suppliers is of utmost importance. However, certain issues that need to be considered tend to be disregarded. One issue is that mobilizing activities and resources across organizational boundaries brings challenges to a firm’s operations, relationships, and strategic choices. While learning is inseparable from gradual change within focal buyer-supplier relationships, so is learning between connected relationships. In a networked environment, it can be worthwhile to study the role and influence of the third party as a bridge/mediator/facilitator to (1) develop a dyadic relationship due to its importance in developing buyer-supplier relationships and (2) advance how firms shape others’ relationships. Thus, this study explores how buyers engage in strategic purchasing and develops their suppliers directly and indirectly through their connections with third parties. A case study explores buying firms’ approaches to sourcing and how their interconnections affect supplier development in networks. We use a triadic setting as the unit of analysis to explore and capture the direct and indirect business relationships and the ensuing connections between the buyer, supplier, and third party. The results show that connectedness is pivotal for supplier development and learning: in the present case, it is mediated by a third party whose core knowledge resides outside the buyer’s organization. In some cases, the buyer may need additional competencies to develop its suppliers, thus turning to different types of third parties to assist in the SD process. Additionally, we find that the third party is used as a much-needed resource and a lever to meet the buyer’s goals in the short term; however, in the long term, this creates interdependencies that need to be managed, and even if the buyer has a long-term vision for the roles the third party can play.

ABSTRACT. Among business-to-business marketing scholars, the ways to achieve sustainable development has recently become major concern. Indeed, most articles bridging marketing and sustainability deal with consumers and business-to-consumers strategies and practices often overlooking business-to-business importance. Likewise, the relative paucity of work done in B2B marketing research regarding clean and affordable energy does not reflect the importance of the societal stake expressed in the 17th UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). Arguably, greener energy implies deeper changes in purchasing practices, which questions market-shaping strategies developed by concerned managers. This study leverages and re-problematizes the market-shaping literature to analyse how B2B actors involved in professional energy buying legitimize the emergence of a business market for green energy. While doing so, we answer the following question: Through which market practices B2B actors involved in energy purchasing decisions legitimize their concerns and market vision towards green energy? The paper is based on a multi-sector qualitative study in France. Twenty managers involved in the purchasing decisions of green energy for public administration, SMEs and large groups were interviewed at the end of the Covid-19 pandemics. Findings demonstrate the crucial importance played by the ongoing practices necessary for managers to legitimize their market-shaping strategies by articulating their 1/ market-shaping intentions and 2/ the sustainability awareness. The data exhibits the ascent of legitimation work towards survivable supply chains based on green energy purchasing as phenomena that allows to alleviate tensions stemming from conflictual logics regarding green energy purchasing in B2B. This encompasses for purchasing managers opportunities to go beyond resilience, operational efficiency, classification of energy types (e.g., nuclear power), towards the repurposing and advancing of organizational practices and culture.

ABSTRACT. Relationships dynamics influence, and are influenced by, the configuration of their boundaries. In particular, some changes could characterize the structure design of Strategic Nets considering the interconnections not only within its members (inside perspective) but also those concerning external actors belonging to the wider network (outside perspective). These actors, could be considered as supporters that, on the basis of previous relationships activated with the members of the Strategic Net, can be inolved in the same. The case study concerns an emblematic Strategic Net made up by SMEs belonging to Wood Industry that activated the Net, supporting the development of innovative projects.

ABSTRACT. This paper discusses the potential benefits of joint service portfolio creation for multiple regional educational institutes. In this paper, the authors employ the concept of the entrepreneurial university ecosystem, which is focused on promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development within its community and beyond. This study also expands this entrepreneurial university ecosystem concept to other regional educational institutes. The authors argue that establishing collaboration with other educational institutes as a part of the entrepreneurial university ecosystem demands creating a joint service portfolio- While the literature on entrepreneurial universities and portfolio management exists, this paper contributes to the discussion by focusing on collaboration between multiple educational institutes. A constructive research approach is employed with a single case study methodology.

ABSTRACT. The increasing adoption of digital technologies by companies in business-to-business (b2b) opens for some opportunities for start-ups that due to their liabilities are generally not well equipped on their marketing and commercial side but are at the same time often digitally skilled. Although the role of social media for start-ups in b2b contexts has been increasingly examined, we have limited understanding of whether start-ups are aware of the potential of new technologies for developing customer relationships and how these are eventually used vis à vis other, more personal (face-to face), methods of contact/communication in different ‘phases’ of the selling process, but also more in general in their communication activity. Drawing on 19 semi-structured interviews with founders and managers of 10 start-ups companies and other actors operating in the aerospace sector from Italy, we have examined how the start-ups evaluate what methods of contact to use when they approach potential customers and when communicating externally The study contributes to the IMP literature on start-ups by zooming into a micro process such as start-ups’ decisions on contact methods and content strategy in relation to potential customers and other stakeholders

ABSTRACT. This study seeks to understand the changes concerning the business incubation industry due to the needs and challenges posed by the transition towards a more sustainable economy. The race to sustainability is progressively changing many aspects of the contexts and processes related to new business development: legislative elements are changing, the quality and direction of investments for new businesses are changing, economic policies are changing, technology and innovation are changing, and - in a broader sense - society's expectations towards new business are changing. Despite scholars and policymakers agree to emphasize the crucial role of business incubation industries in supporting sustainability-driven new business development and innovation, it still needs to be determined how and to what extent these industries are dealing with and impacting the emerging priorities of sustainability. The present research aims to provide an evidence-based map of the primary responses and changes emerging in the business incubation industries concerning the impelling needs of sustainability. The study is based on a literature review conducted within the IMP’s literature and the analysis of 25 interviews collected from a panel of industry experts and key informants involved in incubating and accelerating new businesses.

ABSTRACT. There is limited research on the impact of barriers to innovation and, as a consequence, value co-creation in a multi-actor context, such as strategic nets. A case study approach has been adopted to explore six strategic nets in Manchester’s creative, digital and media sector that were involved in either incremental or radical innovations with the aim of understanding, in a multi-actor context, innovation barriers and how they are overcome. We identify a range of barriers within the net that can be divided into five overarching categories (distance, knowledge transfer & learning, resourcing, structural & cultural, lack of strategy). We also show that the barriers are common to both radical and incremental innovations but that the means to overcome them varies according to innovation type. We contribute to inter-organizational innovation management literature by identifying barriers to innovation development in strategic nets. We illustrate how value co-creation in strategic nets can be achieved in both incremental and radical innovation through orchestration, use of shared knowledge and coordinated actions.

ABSTRACT. How organizations combine economic value creation with environmental and social value creation has been studied in research streams such as hybrid organizations, social and green enterprises, and sustainable, green or hybrid business models. Even though such research streams acknowledge the importance of stakeholders and interaction with them for value creation, the mechanisms through which hybrid organizations create value with their stakeholders need further attention. Also, less attention has been paid to hybrid organizations creating environmental value. Hence, there is a limited and fragmented understanding on how environmental hybrid organizations co-create value in interaction with their stakeholders. Therefore, we adopt an integrative literature review to synthesize the extant empirical findings on this topic. Our preliminary findings present a categorization of mechanisms that environmental hybrid organizations apply for co-creating value with a varied set of stakeholders. The categorization follows the varying degree of cooperative and collaborative elements of value creation implemented by the hybrid organizations and its stakeholders. Our findings bring out the scarcity and fragmentation of research focusing on creation of environmental value in general and suggest opportunities for further research. Particularly, there is need for conceptual development of environmental value creation.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the project was to explore the strategies used by New Zealand firms in environments of long-term supply chain disruption. Long term supply chain disruptions are caused by disease or natural disasters; they are not only difficult to predict, but their effects could be devastating. We investigated businesses common patterns of behaviour to cope with such situations. Previous research on supply chains’ disruptions, found that short term disruptions were best dealt with by building resilience capabilities (Sheffi & Rice Jr, 2005), a wealth of knowledge on businesses strategies facing unexpected but significantly disruptive incidents was developed, (e.g., Sharma, Rangarajan, & Paesbrugghe, 2020; Sheffi, 2015; Van Der Vegt, Essens, Wahlström, & George, 2015) however, later research found that when the cause for the disruption is of long term, those capabilities were not sufficient (Panwar, Pinkse, & De Marchi, 2022; Sheffi, 2021). Thus, we visited the empirical arena to uncover other forms of reaction that extant research has not identified yet. The main research question for New Zealand firms has been: “what did you do to survive these long-term supply chain disruptions?” Two particular events were the focus of our investigation, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Christchurch Earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Drawing on interpretivist qualitative research; exploratory in nature, data were collected through semi-structured interviews of 15 firms that manufacture or assemble in New Zealand utilising overseas procured parts or raw materials. Using a convenience sampling strategy, participants were invited to share their experience on facing disruption. A common strategy of firms to cope with disruption was to increase orders’ size, beyond the actual needs of the firms. This had helped building some inventory, but caused increased shortage problems to other parties. However, firms appear to have acted on a single focus of solving their immediate problems despite the consequences on other members of the supply chain. For those with enough operating capital, hoarding was the common practice, however, the increased costs made the strategy hard to sustain in the long run. As some of these strategies started to build stocks, expiry dates issues started to emerge, for which some firms moved from marking their products with and expiry date to marking “period after opening” extending this way the life shelf of their products. Another common practice was to find suppliers located in diverse geographic locations aiming to balance the severity of the disruption in different parts of the world. Some were prepared to utilise the “gray market” for urgent supplies. Loyalties and even ethics considerations appear to have moved to lower priority. Ultimately those able to change its production matrix move to manufacturing different products, basically accommodating to the existence of materials, but not aligned with their core competencies. The consequences of firms’ strategies to cope with disruption are about to be seen. The damage to reputation and to relationships with previous business partners, suppliers and partners could have long term effects on the firm’s competitiveness. We aim to create a model of supply chain responsiveness capable of explaining what firms do to cope with long term unexpected disruption.

ABSTRACT. The concept of Supply Chain Management is crucial for the efficient flow of goods and services from production to consumption. The implementation of an effective SCM can result in improved customer satisfaction, cost reduction, increased market share, and overall business profitability. The international marketing and purchasing group have been at the forefront of SCM research for several decades, providing valuable insights into the dynamics of global supply chains. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of resilient and sustainable supply chains, particularly in the food sector. Governments worldwide have been forced to consider strategies to ensure food security during disruptions, and researchers have responded by increasing publications on SCM management during pandemics. The need for sustainable and resilient food supply chains has become a pressing concern, with the potential for future pandemics, wars, and natural disasters to disrupt global trade. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 40 articles on sustainable and resilient food supply chains during pandemics. The analysis highlights the importance of resiliency and sustainability in supply chain disruptions and distinguishes research objectives, methodologies, and threats. The findings suggest that further research is needed to examine the connection and influence of sustainable and resilient food supply chains during disasters. The review also emphasizes the need for collaboration between supply chain actors, including suppliers, producers, distributors, and retailers, to achieve resilient and sustainable food supply chains. This paper highlights the importance of sustainability and resiliency for food supply chains during pandemics. It provides insights into the current state of research on the topic and identifies areas for future research.

ABSTRACT. The sharing economy (SE) constitutes an emerging phenomenon that is receiving significant attention from both the public and academic community. The SE model has disrupted well-established industries, by enabling companies to access resources without having the responsibility of ownership. The SE offers an innovative model that maximises the utilisation of idle assets, however the risks associated with participating in the SE are assumed to be much higher compared to the conventional two-sided B2B markets. The characteristics that differentiate SE B2B relationships from its conventional counterparts, make it an interesting perspective to study. In this conceptual paper, we draw on Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) and SE literature, cluster theory and empirical insights from a B2B SE case, to develop a conceptual model showing the complexities associated with B2B SE relationships. We explore important intrinsic phenomena of the SE that identify several factors that are expected to influence the nature of the B2B SE relationships, and explore how e.g., power asymmetry, trust, and opportunism contribute to our understanding of SE concepts. At the core of a typical SE business model, facilitators act as intermediaries, which in addition to lowering the transaction costs, are also responsible for mitigating risks and build trust among participants. In this paper we present several mechanisms that could be used to help facilitate successful sharing relationships between firms. The conceptual model presented in this paper contributes towards combining the emerging SE literature with IMP and cluster research. By understanding the complexities associated with B2B relationships in the SE, practitioners are in a better position to respond to and manage B2B SE relationships.

ABSTRACT. The issue of acting in B2B settings according to rationalities and logics is an academic matter that is evident in arguments that Western and Eastern logics can gain by incorporating each other. To our understanding the rationalities and logics we apply to represent our world are always later interpretations, actions have begun to move us forward into new rationalities and logics before we are aware. We can plan according to a new rational, but we cannot accordingly action completely, others are involved. This is a central tenet of a network understanding. We introduce temporal dialogical ontology as a waypoint in our understanding the place of rationality and logics in dominating B2B activity. In this paper we explore the distinctions between Yin-Yang thinking and Western Cartesian modes of theorizing according to different ways of conceptualizing dimensionalities. Our temporal process ontology allows elaboration of a different perspectives as contextual constructions of meanings. We complete the paper with managerial and theoretical implications concerning the dynamics of business to business (B2B) relationships in a geopolitically sensitive international business world.

ABSTRACT. The present paper focuses on the emerging of mutual knowledge in a setting of cultural differences. Knowledge and the interaction process are continually influencing each other and create a mutual knowledge of the involved actors, who have the same, Western perspective. Following Burgess and Steenkamp (2006) the question may arise how this mutual knowledge does create a business relationship in an emerging market context? The purpose of this research is to discover how mutual knowledge emerges in business relationships between actors having traditional and Western perspectives in the Rwandan pottery industry. Our research questions are the followings: 1) How does mutual knowledge emerge between the parties having different, traditional, and Western perspectives of business? 2) What are the characteristics of mutual knowledge, that emerged from the interactions? As a case of illustration, this paper studies potters belonging to the Batwa community in Rwanda and their business relationships. Rwanda forms an interesting research setting characterized by a mixture of traditional and Western business approaches. The Batwa pottery is an excellent example of this mixture. This research is still ongoing and data collection is planned to be finished this year. So, in this paper, we use only the results of the empirical data collection of our pilot study. In our pilot case, mutual knowledge was created based on mutual experiences gained during increasingly frequent and deeper interactions between the two organizations. In addition to mutual knowledge of persons, this mutual knowledge means mutual knowledge of each other's activities and each other's behavior. This mutual knowledge is activated and at the same time activates the business relationships throughout the organizations’ interaction processes. Although the relationship was not adapted to the Western-type contract, the traditional, i.e., informal, relationship remained. At the same time, this traditional, informal relationship already contains common elements that come from the West.