The Typology and the Current Perspectives of Network Organizations (original) (raw)
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The State of Network Organization: A Survey in Three Frameworks
Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 1997
This article reviews the literature on network organizations and interprets explanations for its behaviors in terms of established analytical principles. Tools from computer science, economics, and sociology give three markedly different interpretations of its core attributes but they also settle on a handful of common themes. The proposed benefits are a clarification of what it means for an organization to be network structured, a few insights into its origins, and a suggestion of where the boundaries to some of its different forms might lie.
Network organization – functioning of enterprises in the information area
Ekonomiczne Problemy Usług
is the "place" of the existence / "life" of all the information necessary for the proper functioning of the company. With the development of information technology, and especially the Internet, every participant in the economic life has practically unlimited opportunities to acquire, but, what is very important, also to provide information that influences his competitive position. Management in contemporary reality is associated with using opportunities and avoiding threats. The key factor for success is time, both in terms of taking it and effects. In a global and dynamic reality, one of the most important challenges is to establish cooperation. The aim is to provide the participating entities the opportunity to make better use of their individual attributes and resources-their own and their partners. The operation of each company is based on information. Each action can be seen in the information view, as an action in the information space. The aim of the article is to present the essence, characteristics and advantages of management in the information space. The aim is also to draw attention to the fact that the effectiveness of a network organization as a group of cooperating entities is strictly dependent on the effectiveness of its functioning as a whole and of each of its elements in the information space.
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Managing Networks - a Refection of Corporate Strategy
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Logically it seems that companies pursuing different business strategies would also manage their relationships with other firms accordingly. Nevertheless, due to the lack of research in the field of network strategies, this link still remains inadequately examined. Based on the well-known framework of organisational behaviour developed by Miles and Snow (1978), this paper argues that the patterns of network behaviour practiced by firms greatly depend on the business typology of the company. That is, a company's business typology will to a certain degree dictate the network identity of the company. In this paper evidence is provided, that the relation between a company's strategy, structure and processes in fact have a considerable influence on its pattern of network behaviour. Three case studies from the Danish biotech industry exemplify and illustrate how a company's strategy is directly correlated with how it manages its strategic network relations, which consequently affects its network identity (Eisenhardt 1999). It is argued in this paper that the level of relational embeddedness, incentives for establishing strategic relations and the relation between the number of non-redundant and redundant relations are the most dominant elements distinguishing the types of network behaviour in relation to the business typology. The paper thus strives to argue how different business typologies develop a network identity on the basis of their network behaviour. Due to the correlation between a company's strategy, structure and processes and its pattern of network behaviour, knowing how to manage this relation becomes essential, especially during the development of new strategies.
Network approaches and strategic management: Exploration opportunities and new trends
Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, 2021
PURPOSE: The analysis of the literature shows that the attempts to conceptualize the strategic aspects of the network bring a significant impact on the development of research on organizational networks. This article aims to analyze the new trends in strategic management, and in particular on the possibility of exploring the network approach in strategic management, through the existing literature and the presentation of the new contributions of the following articles published in the current issue. METHODOLOGY: The article is descriptive in character; thus it is based on a literature review and its constructive critics. A narrative literature review was used to present the main assumptions and features of the network approach in strategic management, along with an indication of emerging trends and new directions. Also the identification of theoretical foundations for understanding the processes of strategic change in inter-organizational networks and the proposition of the way to u...
The literature on networks is by now quite extensive. From social networks to organizational networks and beyond, networks have been and continue to be an emerging and developing field of study that has spanned many disciplines, including, but not limited to, organizational theory and behavior, strategic management, business studies, health care †The authors would like to thank Joe Galaskiewicz for his insights and comments during the development of this article. science, physics, and psychology. In recent years, there have been a number of review articles on social and organizational networks, most recently by and by . In general, there has been considerable progress in understanding what networks are, how they are structured, how they operate, and even how they develop.
Impact of Corporate Network Competences on the Competitiveness of Companies
2014
According to our research companies that have closer connections with their clients, suppliers and research institutes use the latest digital/network tools proactively, their organizational and inter-organizational relations are technology oriented, they are more likely to achieve success in research and development (innovation). Existence and development of network competences have a positive impact on corporate culture, inter-organizational technical co-operation, on openness and integration as well as on further innovations. The research plan envisaged making 30 interviews. In the preparation of the sample, we planned to interview in 80% representatives of companies where either digital innovation or the use of digital networks plays a crucial part in their business profile. The remaining 20% were intended to be made up of manufacturing and service companies. The analysis of the sample monitored the way companies and organizations allocated supplementary resources on behalf of information management in order to develop competences and to implement digital innovations. From the results - as suppositions for a future quantitative survey to test - we can state the followings: Using digital network solutions for the purposes of networking is mostly typical of large B2C enterprises, or firms and organizations where the development of (natural) networks plays a crucial part in their business profile (non-governmental organizations). The staff of companies with a “digital profile” play a leading role in terms of utilizing informal professional communities and networks (both online and offline). This mostly involves professional communities, professional platforms and meetings. Authors: Zoltan Veres, Katalin Feher, Adel Balogh Keywords: network, competence, digital embeddedness, education
Network Organizations: Symmetric Cooperation or Multivalent Negotiation?
The Information Society, 2005
The network model of organization plays a central role in recent sociological accounts of the information economy. This model is also often presented in organization and information and communication technologies (ICT) literature with an air of enthusiasm that underscores its advantages-flexibility, cooperative culture, innovativeness, and knowledge and technology intensity. Such themes are usually based on a "networking logic" that assumes the trustful cooperation of large and small production firms in a rapidly changing economic environment. We believe that both the logic and the themes based upon it are too narrow to be able to explain the complex dimensions of interorganizational networking. Using Enron as a case study, our goal in this article is to enrich the logic just described and to develop an extended model of the network enterprise. We argue that this is only possible by extending the unit of analysis beyond the production firm, to include, among others, subsidiaries, banks, investors, auditors, and government agencies. The proposed extended model allows the broadening of many of the aforementioned themes, making it possible to arrive at a realistic picture of the complexities of the network enterprise. The managerial advantages of the model are also discussed. Sociological accounts of the information society are increasingly focused on the networked character of present day societies. Castells (1996, 2000, 2001), for instance, features the network enterprise as the human engine and the centerpiece of an informational economy. The picture presented is one of a multiply nested organization in which divisions of large multinational corporations cooperate on a project-by-project basis with small and medium firms leveraging the advantages of the new information and communication technologies (ICT) (Kraak, 2000). The flexibility and market orientation of the network organization are foregrounded by this characterization. Furthermore, Castells's notion of the network enterprise amplifies the global and international scope of his analysis, as opposed to, for instance, Bell's (1973) national perspective. It provides the big picture-that is, network organization as part of a grand narrative that, in the absence of other comprehensive accounts, is much needed, and for which Castells has deservedly received much acclaim (Staider, 1998; Eades, 2000; Crabtree, 2002; Kling, in press) and a tinge of harsh criticism (Abell & Reyniers, 2000). Castells' account articulates the major background assumptions in many other studies of the network form-for instance, many theoretical studies in the organization and business literature (