Contacts and Contracts: Cross-Level Network Dynamics in the Development of an Aircraft Material

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Berends, Hans; van Burg, Elco; van Raaij, Erik M.
• 署名单位: Eindhoven University of Technology; Erasmus University Rotterdam; Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1100.0578
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 940-960
• 关键词: multilevel; Network dynamics; PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT; STRUCTURATION

摘要

In this paper, we investigate how interorganizational networks and interpersonal networks interact over time. We present a retrospective longitudinal case study of the network system that developed a novel aircraft material and analyze change episodes from a structurationist perspective. We identify five types of episodes in which interpersonal and interorganizational networks interact (persistence, prospecting, consolidation, reconfiguration, and dissolution) and analyze conditions for these episodes and sequences among them. Our findings advance a cross-level perspective on embeddedness and show how individuals may draw on relational and structural embeddedness as distributed resources. The multiple levels of embeddedness impact network dynamics by introducing converging and diverging dialectics, thereby limiting path dependence and proactive network orchestration.