The Influence of Intangible Factors in the Strategic Network Configuration on Operations Performance

The configuration of global production networks is influenced by numerous tangibles (e.g. wage and transportation costs) as well as intangibles (e.g. employee qualification and political stability). However, due to the difficulty of quantifying intangibles, they are often neglected in decision-making resulting in not optimal configuration decisions. For this reason, this paper examines the role of intangibles in strategic network configuration in relation to corporate performance. 13 influencing factors are analyzed regarding their perceived relevance and consideration as well as the corporate network and competitive capabilities. The results show statistically significant relationships between intangibles and performance.