My PhD study, ‘Strategic Responses to Predicted Events - The case of the banning of CFCs', was a comparative study of the differences in the responses of industrial organisations to the ‘same' environmental change. My approach was to blend the strategic management and industrial marketing and purchasing literatures in providing a theoretical framework. Afterwards, I was a Lecturer in Industrial Marketing in the Department of Marketing at Lancaster University in the UK. Here I developed my existing interests in network change. Further, I became interested in the role of contracts in business relationships whilst conducting a study involving Marks and Spencer disengaging from various supplier relationships.
In August 2001 I moved to BI. Subsequently, I have been involved in 3 main projects, all of which were in the area of resource development, before obtaining a formal position as an Associate Professor in September 2004.
Research areas
I am broadly interested in the area of inter-organisational relationships. I have published papers in the areas of network change and dynamics, the role of contracts in business relationships, relationship dissolution, and resource development. My current research projects and interests are within the areas of user networks, strategy as practice/strategizing, and inter-organisational routines.
Teaching areas
My current responsibilities for teaching can be summarised as follows:
Industrial Networks (MSc course within the Supply Chains and Networks programme).
Managing in Networks (part of the Supply Chain Management programme, taught to professional managers).
Strategy Organisation (MSc course with the Strategy programme).
Strategic Leadership (Third year sivil økonomi course).
Supervision of master students' theses.
The importance of resources as an essential component in value co-creation processes is core to multiple perspectives in management and marketing. These include the Resource-Based View, Resource Integration within Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL), Resource Dependence Theory, Resource Advantage Theory, and Resourcing. In this Editorial we compare Resource Interaction in Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) with these other perspectives, stressing both differences and complementarities. The comparison includes an explanation of why Resource Interaction in IMP is unique when utilized to explain the dynamics of change in business networks. We also introduce and synthesize seven new articles included in this Special Issue, all of which combine Resource Interaction in IMP with other theoretical perspectives in addressing themes such as supply chain management, entrepreneurship and innovation management. We conclude with a proposed agenda for further research, which provides extensive suggestions for underexplored empirical and conceptual themes.
Tunisini, Annalisa; Harrison, Debbie & Bocconcelli, Roberta (2023)
Handling resource deficiencies through resource interaction in business networks
This paper conceptualizes how to handle resource deficiencies due to disruption and turbulence in supply chains from an Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective. A conceptual framework explores how three resource deficiencies, resource scarcity, resource quality, and lack of availability, impacts upon, and is mitigated via, resource interaction. There is a need for reconfiguring resources to cope with both temporary and permanent disruptions in handling resource deficiencies in complex, turbulent contexts. The three deficiencies can occur within a business network both separately and in combination. The paper outlines a dynamic capabilities perspective on resource deficiencies in business networks by linking resource interaction and capabilities. The reality of resource deficiencies requires a sense of urgency; they are disruptive and most likely unplanned. This challenges mainstream IMP understanding about the dynamics of resource development.
Harrison, Debbie; Munksgaard, Kristin B. & Prenkert, Frans (2022)
Coordinating Activity Interdependencies in the Contemporary Economy: The Principle of Distributed Control
This study addresses the lack of knowledge about inter-organizational activity coordination in the contemporary economy. Existing understanding of economic coordination within inter-organizational research is based on the three modes of organization, market, and cooperative relationship. We extend the framework of Richardson that analyses specialization and complementarity within the industrial division of labour in terms of these three coordination modes. We propose a novel mode of coordinating economic activity, namely multi-actor arrangements, which is based on the coordination of very dissimilar yet complementary activities, grounded in the principle of distributed control. This fourth mode is necessary to explain contemporary phenomena such as the circular economy and blockchain because these involve interdependencies that were previously framed as too different or unrelated to coordinate. The extension is important because it changes our understanding of mixed-mode coordination. Our proposed fourth mode enables the conceptualization of how activity interdependencies are coordinated within inter-organizational relationships and networks undergoing transformation.
Bærekraft er et ord som favner bredt. Faglitteraturen kaller det den tredelte bunnlinjen, der bærekraft skal gi positive gevinster på samfunns-, bedrifts- og individnivå. For bedrifter innebærer det at man skal realisere gevinster for bedriften selv, men også for miljøet og samfunnet. Denne kompleksiteten gjør det krevende å konkretisere og gjennomføre nye løsninger, og resultatet blir at bærekraft er noe det er lett å snakke om, men vanskelig å gjøre. I denne artikkelen tar vi utgangspunkt i et samarbeid mellom tre aktører om en ny løsning for bærekraftig massehåndtering[1] til og fra bygg- og anleggsprosjekter (BA) i Oslo. Gjennom å mobilisere sine respektive ressurser har aktørene utviklet en løsning som involverer gjenvinning av slike masser og mindre CO2-utslipp knyttet til transport av disse. Men aktørene har støtt på utfordringer i økosystemet rundt, og løsningen er enda ikke realisert. Vi diskuterer dette eksempelet i lys av et industrielt nettverksperspektiv og argumenterer for at mobilisering av ressurser på det vi kan kalle bedriftsnivå, ikke er tilstrekkelig for å realisere bærekraftige løsninger – det må også skje i det omliggende økosystemet. Mobilisering på bedriftsnivå kan imidlertid skape ny dynamikk og gi utviklingsmuligheter som på lengre sikt kan bidra til å realisere slike bærekraftige løsninger.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art comparison of the conceptualization of resources in ‘Resource Interaction’ (IMP) and ‘Resource Integration’ (SDL). Both are engaged with understanding how value is (co)-created, but with different emphases. Existing comparisons are limited and out of date. We trace how each has evolved over time by analyzing key developments. The focus of SDL has shifted from operant resources towards resource integration, and from a dyadic view towards ecosystem contexts. Within IMP, research takes a network perspective in investigating the nature of resource interaction in a variety of empirical contexts. An analysis of similarities and differences highlights key assumptions, the classification of resources, and the role for the actor. The comparison offers a thorough understanding of Resource Interaction and Resource Integration. The paper concludes by proposing suggestions for further research for Resource Interaction.
Harrison, Debbie; Hoholm, Thomas, Prenkert, Frans & Olsen, Per Ingvar (2018)
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of boundary objects in interaction processes within business networks. From a single case study in the grocery retail industry, we find that such objects are used within interaction processes for collaboration, but are also used extensively for handling conflict, facilitating economic negotiations, and power execution. As such, network-level boundary objects do not require broad consensus by all the involved actors, but instead narrow consensus in a particular interaction process.
Aarikka-Stenroos, Leena; Jaakkola, Elina, Harrison, Debbie & Mäkitalo-Keinonen, Tiina (2017)
How to manage innovation processes in extensive networks: A longitudinal study
La Rocca, Antonella; Snehota, Ivan & Harrison, Debbie (2017)
Starting-up: relating to a context in motion
Aaboen, Lise; La Rocca, Antonella, Lind, Frida, Perna, Andrea & Shih, Tommy (red.). Starting Up in Business Networks Why Relationships Matter in Entrepreneurship
Dahle, Håkon; Aghanim, Nabila, Guennou, L., Hudelot, P., Kneissl, R., Pointecouteau, E., Beelen, Anita, Bayliss, M, Douspis, M., Nesvadba, N., Hempel, A., Gronke, Max Balthasar, Burenin, R., Dole, H., Harrison, Debbie, Mazzotta, P. & Sunyaev, R (2016)
Discovery of an exceptionally bright giant arc at z = 2.369, gravitationally lensed by the Planck cluster PSZ1 G311.65 - 18.48
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of networked power in a concentrated business network. Power is a long standing theme in inter-organizational research, yet there is a paucity of studies about how power emerges and is constructed over time at the network level. The paper adopts process, systems and network theory to interpret a rich single case study from the food industry. Three power mechanisms are identified, gatekeeping, decoupling and resource allocation, which form the basis of a model of networked power dynamics. Empirically tracing the dynamics of networked power highlights the economic contents of interactions. The paper extends current understandings of power as ‘conflict and coercion’ to include influencing, leveraging and strategic maneuvering in the actual performance of networked power.
Harrison, Debbie (2012)
Being a networking firm on a day-to-day basis: customer and suppier routines in the Global Fish case
In this paper we contend that there is little idiographic empirical research that considers the issue of deliberate networking action in full-faced network contexts. We address the issue through the use of strategic initiatives as a form of deliberate networking action. IMP research argues the ability of an organisation to manage in a network context that involves the pull of the network and the action of the individual organisation (Håkansson & Ford 2002; Möller & Halinen 1999; Möller & Svahn 2003; Ritter, Wilkinson & Johnston, 2004; Zolkiewski 2007). Yet the paradox logic reminds us that a firm still needs to act, to try and control and influence, to suggest ideas and initiatives, to set limits and to seek opportunities. Strategic initiatives allow for conscious strategising at the same time as ongoing adaptations in activities and resources occur. Based on two complementary case studies we suggest five approaches for deliberate strategising in full-faced network contexts. These are i) strategising based on network pictures in the absence of direct interaction, ii) strategising in the presence of a network audience, iii) strategising among deliberate equals, iv) strategising among imaginative equals, and v) strategising as open and absorptive bystander. The five approaches can be used separately or in combination.
Finch, John & Harrison, Debbie (2009)
How a new resource emerged in a network setting and how the emergence of new resource bound a network together
Håkansson, Håkan (red.). Use of science and technology in business
Harrison, Debbie & Finch, John (2009)
New Product Development When You Have To: Frames and Temporary Collaboration in Industrial Nets
The IMP Journal, 3(3), s. 35- 52.
Harrison, Debbie & Prenkert, Frans (2009)
Network strategising trajectories within a planned strategy process
Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Introduction to the special issue
Journal of Business Research [Kronikk]
Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Flygansvær, Bente Merete & Harrison, Debbie (2021)
RESOURCE INTERACTION AS THE MISSING LENS IN COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR GRAND CHALLENGES
[Academic lecture]. EGOS 2022.
Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Flygansvær, Bente Merete, Harrison, Debbie & Soldal, Olav B. (2021)
Hvordan få til sirkulær massehåndtering for bygg- og anleggsprosjekter i Oslo-området?
[Report]. BI Norwegian Business School.
Dette forprosjektet har hatt som formål å identifisere interessante aspekter og problemstillinger knyttet til spørsmålet: Hvordan kan man få til sirkulær massehåndtering til og fra bygg- og anleggsprosjekter i Oslo-området? For å svare på spørsmålet, har vi ved Handelshøyskolen BI gjennomført en casestudie av et konsept for massehåndtering på Grønlia i Oslo havn i regi Skanska Industrial Solutions (SIS) i samarbeid med Oslo Havn KF og AF Decom. Konseptet er fortsatt ikke realisert, og ligger til politisk klagebehandling etter avslag i plan- og bygningsetaten i Oslo kommune, men caset representerer et interessant eksempel på hva som skal til for å utvikle og implementere sirkulære løsninger for massehåndtering. I tillegg til Grønlia-konseptet, er det flere andre pågående initiativer som er satt i gang i løpet av de siste årene med tanke på å håndtere utfordringen med masser i Oslo-området. Dette vitner om at problemstillingen har blitt satt på agendaen, både på politisk- og næringsnivå samt blant ulike interessegrupper. Grønlia-caset må dermed sees på som en del av et større økosystem for massehåndtering i Oslo og omegn.