ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would neither have been initiated nor completed without the contribu-
tion of many people, to whom I owe great thanks. Firstly, I would like to give special
thanks to the director of this study, Bruce Cronin. Secondly, I would like to name a
few scholars who have influenced my thinking of research practice. I am grateful to
meet and discuss in various occasions with Tony Fang, Lars-Erik Gadde, Anton Kriz, Sid
Lowe, Katy Mason, Victor Newman and Hanna Yakavenka, among others.
I gratefully acknowledge the valuable feedback received from reviewers to my work
submitted to various international conferences and top-tier journals (e.g. Journal of
Business Research; Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Journal). In particular, I thank
reviewers and audience for providing comments and engaging in valuable discussions
on my work presented three times at the international conferences of the Industrial
Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) research group; Manchester Business School (Man-
chester 2007), Uppsala University (Uppsala 2008) and Euromed Management School
(Marseilles 2009). Further, I am grateful to Alexandra Waluszewski and Enrico Baraldi,
for their multiple reviews of my submission to the special issue on innovation net-
works of the IMP Journal, whose comments were also elaborated in an open-review
seminar, at the University of Uppsala (April 2011).
I am grateful to all research participants and especially the gatekeepers, such as Zhe,
Molly, Susan, Sunny, Sakis, Yannis and Max, who opened up many doors and provided
access to their interpersonal networks, both intra-organisational and inter-organisa-
tional. I thank them for enabling a rich data set to be collected and note that with
participants I spent the most exciting part of this research. Their time, interest, trust
and openness are very much appreciated.
Further, I deeply thank the examiners, Prof. Mouzas and Dr. Wynn-Williams, for their
interest in this research and for enabling interaction of the highest forms of knowl-
edge to take place during the time of the viva voce. I acknowledge the value of de-
tailed comments provided in the form of the examiners’ report to further advance the
value and contribution of this research to society and the business world.
Last but not least, I shall express my gratitude to my father, a law scholar, for providing
financial assistance, high-level guidance and psychological support as well as pressure.
