Title: Entrepreneurial collaboration for performance in the labour brokerage industry

Authors: James A. Downing; Mark Shanley

Addresses: College of Business Administration, California State University, 400 West First Street, Chico, CA 95929-0031, USA ' College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 South Morgan Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA

Abstract: This research examines individual entrepreneurial collaborations through a strategic group theoretical application in the fragmented labour brokerage industry. We describe the nature of collective strategy and strategic group activity to understand the behaviour of individuals' collaborations on service transactions. The interfirm and intrafirm collaborative behaviour of entrepreneurs are observed using a multi-level fixed effects linear regression model with 445 firms and over 30,000 transactions. We find internal collaborative activity will not necessarily increase performance but it may assist in higher quality deal flow. This study suggests the entrepreneurial behaviour of individuals operating in a fragmented industry will be to collaborate for more quality deals as opposed to more quantity deals. This behaviour is similarly to participation in strategic groups at the firm level of analysis.

Keywords: entrepreneurial collaboration; strategic groups; entrepreneurial market-making; labour brokerage industry; interfirm collaboration; intrafirm collaboration; fragmented industry; professional services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSBA.2017.089839

International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances, 2017 Vol.6 No.1/2, pp.18 - 39

Received: 03 Nov 2016
Accepted: 03 Jun 2017
Published online: 13 Feb 2018 *

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