The Emergence of Interorganizational Networks: A Pluralistic Perspective

Abstract

Despite the recent attention of management scholars towards the pluralistic and multilevel nature of interorganizational relationships and networks, we still have a limited account of the initial moment of network emergence and its impact on subsequent network evolution. I seek to shed some light on this point through a reinterpretation of a classic model of network formation to investigate the emergence of an interorganizational network from a pluralistic point of view: the existence of an underlying network of social interactions influences the genesis of a business network. Results of the model indicate that an underlying social level of interaction can play an enabling but also a detrimental role, in terms of architectures, dynamics and performance of the business network. Positive social exchanges favor multiplexity, while previous negative connections impede it, making it more difficult to obtain inclusive architectures. Social relationships mediate environmental conditions, and influence trajectories of network evolution in both a serendipitous and a path-dependent way, posing challenges to the governance of the network. The impact of social relationships on business ones is particularly relevant in terms of the interorganizational network performance, which is complexly shaped by both the density of the social ties and their strength, with a complementary effect at the network level but a substitutive effect at the ego level.