Building Ties that Bind: Hub Firms and Collaborative Capacity in Inter-Organizational Networks

Abstract

This conceptual paper focuses on the role of central “hub” organizations in inter-organizational networks building Collaborative Capacity (CC), or the ability to engage in inter-organizational systems with collective outcomes (Ostrom, 1999; Bardach, 2001; Hocevar et al., 2006). Within the context of the nonprofit sector, central capacity building “hub” organizations take on orchestrating roles within inter-organizational nonprofit networks by providing channels of communication, knowledge creation, and shared resources for network members. Network, stakeholder, and institutional theory approaches help to explore the influence of hub organizations on increased CC within networks and to examine CC as both an outcome (Ahuja, 2000; Weber, Lovrich, & Gaffney, 2007) as well as a driving force (Hocevar et al. 2006; Weinberg et. al., 2011) of an organizations’ network participation. Within this model, hub firms serve bridging and bonding roles for network participants (Burt, 1997), depending on the level of colla...