Business networks as breeding grounds for entrepreneurial options: organizational implications

Abstract

This study proposes an original configurational view of the organizational logics of business networks. It develops a set of 18 operationalizable propositions, clustered around a typology of six networking logics, that allow to measure the extent to which each networking logic is active at the level of a specific network organization. In addition, this study leverages degree-of-freedom analysis to inductively develop a model of how different possible combinations of these six networking logics may transform networks into effective institutions for the creation, recognition, and seizing of entrepreneurial options. These contributions can be used for future larger configurational studies on network organizations as option-creating and resilience-generating institutions.