The Role of Intangible Influencing Factors in Strategic Network Decision-Making [in press]

The strategic configuration of global production networks is shaped by a variety of influencing factors and strategic motives. In addition to cost factors, intangible factors such as employee qualification and supplier reliability in particular influence the network configuration. This paper examines the relevance of 30 influencing factors on network configuration as well as their consideration in decision-making. The study shows that intangible factors are often only included through managers’ gut feelings, although they have a significant influence on network performance. However, it can be shown that with increasing perceived relevance, intangible factors are included more systematically in the decision-making process.