Narrative approach in business network process research — Implications for theory and methodology

Abstract

The continuous development of theoretical and methodological approaches provides novel insights into how to conceptualize and empirically study multilayered and multi-actor network processes. This theoretic-methodological article shows how network processes can be conceptualized, and how the narrative approach advances the empirical study of these processes. The study builds an agency-structure meta-framework that conceptualizes the emergence of network processes in terms of interaction between individuals from different network actor organizations. The narrative research approach is put forward to implement the study of network processes into empirical reality. The narrative approach allows capturing the relevant actors, their multiple motives, interests and activities, and the mutual interplay of these elements with the contextual levels, thus providing an essential understanding of various types of network processes.