Understanding interorganizational network evolution

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the available insights regarding interorganizational network evolution. The research questions being addressed are as follows: What is the nature of interorganizational network evolution? And what causes interorganizational network evolution? The review hence focuses on the nature of interorganizational network evolution (at the ego-network level and whole-network level) and the causes of interorganizational network evolution (firm-related causes and environmental causes). This paper highlights relevant gaps in the existing literature on interorganizational network evolution while outlining a research agenda by identifying key research questions and issues requiring further scholarly contributions to stimulate research in this field.

Design/methodology/approach

An extensive review of scholarly peer-reviewed English language journal articles was conducted in the subject areas of economics, sociology, business and management (including entrepreneurship) while excluding articles in the domain areas of computer science that dealt with computer networks and the health field that addressed neural networks to obtain articles on interorganizational network evolution for the period 1970-2019. Various journal databases such as EBSCO, ScienceDirect (Elsevier), Emerald, JSTOR and ABI/INFORM and Ebook Central on ProQuest were used to extract relevant articles using specific keywords.

Findings

To better understand this phenomenon of interorganizational network evolution, there is a need for future studies to focus on the less researched areas such as the “nature of evolution” of EINR1, EINR3 and EINR4 and the “causes of evolution” of FRC3, FRC5, FRC7 and FRC8. Further, over the years, in comparison to the evolution of interorganizational network relationships (EINR), fewer works have considered the evolution of overall interorganizational network structure (EINS). The research studies on environmental causes (EC) have been less in number in comparison to firm related causes (FRC), and this could be an area for further research. Also, studies on interorganizational network evolution have not examined the impact of FRC1 on EINR 3 and only a few studies have examined the impact of FRC1 on EINR1 and EINR4. Less attention has been given to the impact of FRC2 on EINR1, EINR3, EINR4 and EINS. Additionally, the impact of FRC3 on EINR1, EINR3 and EINS needs more in-depth examination. The impact of FRC4 on EINR4; FRC5 on EINR1, EINR2 and EINR4; FRC6 on EINR1 and EINS; and FRC7 and FRC8 on all forms of “nature of interorganizational network evolution” requires more research work. Finally, the impact of EC on EINR3 and EINR4 is also a less researched stream in the literature needing more scholarly contribution to better understand the phenomenon under consideration in this study. Some of the least explored theoretical lenses and relevant questions that can be addressed using these lenses to advance research on network evolution have also been discussed.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this paper is that it provides a comprehensive literature review, collating the dispersed knowledge on interorganizational network evolution – nature of evolution and causes of evolution, identifying areas that require further research attention for the development of this domain.

Citation

K.N., H. and Thomas, M.T. (2021), "Understanding interorganizational network evolution", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 12, pp. 2257-2275. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-05-2019-0263