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Network orchestration has received widespread attention from scholars engaged in network-relationship governance research. This study aims to explore progress in network orchestration research and future prospects.

In this study, 105 articles related to network orchestration from the Web of Science Core Collection Database for the period 2006–2022 are collected as sample data, and bibliometric relationship maps of network orchestration research are visually presented using the CiteSpace software.

First, this study presents distributions of articles, methods, journals, authors, institutions and countries/regions in network orchestration research. Second, based on a reference co-citation analysis, three articles are identified as the key literature in network orchestration research. Based on a keyword co-occurrence analysis, the hotspots are found to include studies related to overall network and individual levels. A cluster analysis reveals six themes: innovation ecosystem, sustainable development, product development, sourcing, hub firm and innovation network. From a burst detection analysis, three frontiers emerge: organisation, collaboration and governance. Finally, some future research directions are proposed and important issues are raised.

This study is the first to reveal the progress of network orchestration research using quantitative bibliometric methods, and it provides insights to scholars and offers practitioners with a better understanding of network orchestration.

Disasters are growing in frequency and scale, unmasking the systemic vulnerabilities of modern supply chains and highlighting the need to understand how to respond to such events. In the context of an extreme event such as the COVID-19 pandemic, this research focuses on how networks of organizations leverage their combined resources and capabilities to develop, manufacture and deliver new products outside their traditional markets.

Following a theory elaboration process, the authors build on resource orchestration theory to develop data collection and analysis protocols to support a multi-case study research design. This research investigates four cases of newly formed networks that emerged in four different countries – Colombia, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom–in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These four networks in the investigation share common characteristics in terms of motivation and approach, creating patterns from which theoretical generalizations are developed into a series of propositions regarding the process of network-level resource orchestration under extreme uncertainty.

The research shows how networks and the organizations within them can streamline processes, swiftly build new relationships and develop a balanced risk management approach to extreme uncertainty.

This research contributes to theory by extending the resource orchestration model to a network level and showing how extreme uncertainty can lead to the emergence of networks and alter the motivations and goals of the member organizations, allowing them to be more responsive.

As inter-company cooperation and competition grow, orchestration capability plays an increasingly important role. This paper aims to present an overview of orchestration capability in the business and management field, identify the current state and explore future research trends.

This literature review is based on 132 papers collected from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection data (1997–March 2021). HistCite was used to analyze the year of publication, leading scholars, influential articles, key journals, top countries and institutions. Research streams were identified from analysis of co-citation, bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence by HistCite and VOSviewer.

This paper finds that Hitt MA is the most prolific scholar, and the Strategic Management Journal is the most dominating publication among the orchestration capability publications. The USA and Texas A&M University are the most influential countries and institutions, respectively. Three major clusters are identified based on citation mapping, bibliographic coupling analysis of documents and keywords co-occurrence analysis: dynamic capability and resource-based view, resource orchestration and network orchestration. Based on the three clusters, the authors analyze how resource orchestration and network orchestration research develops over time and summarize the evolutionary path of orchestration capability literature.

This article builds on data from WoS Core Collection, and some new but important articles may not be analyzed, since bibliometrics consider high citation as an indicator to select influential articles.

With the rapid development of the digital economy, the frequent interactions between companies pose many challenges for businesses. Enterprises can take orchestration actions effectively and efficiently from various perspectives and continuously improve their orchestration capabilities in collaboration with partners to achieve and sustain competitive advantages.

This paper provides a systematic review of orchestration capability using bibliometric analysis, which has not been employed in previous studies. Besides, this article presents a broad understanding of how scholars have researched the subject over the years.

Few papers address innovation activities among tourism entities. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the extent to which the theoretical framework of network orchestration can explain the system of relations underlying roles and behaviors of tourism actors in collaborative innovation settings.

Using interview data collected from destination management organizations and their destination partners within two polar-sampled North American destinations, this study identifies relationships which underlie the behaviors of tourism and hospitality actors engaged in collaborative innovative activities. To understand these relationships, this study abductively imposes the emergent theoretical framework of network orchestration and offers practical implications for conducting successful innovation among tourism collaborators.

First, orchestration of knowledge mobility processes in collaborative innovation settings is associated with trust, perceived fairness and the search for experts within the network. Second, orchestration of innovation appropriability processes is associated with forging shared ownership and knowledge exchange with “dissimilar” partners. Third, orchestration of network stability processes is associated with enhancing the reputation of influential actors within the tourism destination, and shared visioning of future innovation outcomes.

This paper contributes to the collaborative innovation landscape by testing the emerging theoretical framework of network orchestration and proposing practical implications for hospitality and tourism actors engaged in innovative activities. The research further demonstrates the value of abductive reasoning for elucidating theory from interview evidence and proposes a model for future studies on collaborative innovation networks.

This paper investigates the roles and activities of the orchestrators of innovation networks constituted within cities. In this sense, the authors expected to contribute for research related to the roles and activities of the orchestrators of innovation networks constituted in the scope of cities given the large number and diversity of complex and multiple dimensions social actors (Castells & Borja, 1996; Reypens, Lievens & Blazevic, 2019).

The authors conducted an exploratory research with a single case study in depth. The case chosen for the paper is the case of Pacto Alegre. The case selection criterion was the relevance of the Pacto Alegre Case in the construction of an innovation network in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The Pacto Alegre network was proposed by the Alliance for Innovation (composed of the three main Universities in the city: UFRGS, PUCRS and UNISINOS) and by the Municipality of Porto Alegre. In addition to these actors, the network counts on financial and development institutions as sponsors, with media partners, with design partners, with an advisory board (composed of five professionals considered references in different themes) and composed by more than 100 companies, associations and institutions from different areas (Pacto Alegre, 2019). Data were collected from 09/20/2020 to 11/30/2020 through in-depth interviews, documentary research and non-participant observation.

In this research, the authors highlighted the city as a community that involves and integrates various actors, such as citizens and companies, to collaborative innovation activities. For this, they proposed a framework on innovation networks and network orchestration. In this direction, seven dimensions of the “orchestration of innovation networks” were assumed as a result of the combination of previous studies by Dhanaraj and Parke (2006), Hurmelinna-Laukkanen et al. (2011) and da Silva and Bitencourt (2019). In the sequence, different roles of orchestrators associated with the literature were adopted based on the work by Pikkarainen et al. (2017) and Nielsen and Gausdal (2017).

The authors’ results advance in relation to other fields by promoting the expansion of the “orchestration of innovation networks” model with the combination of distinct elements from the literature in a coherent whole (agenda setting, mobilization, network stabilization, creation and transfer of knowledge, innovation appropriability, coordination and co-creation) and in the validation of its applicability in the context of the innovation network studied. In addition, when relating different roles of orchestrators to the seven dimensions studied, it was realized that there is no linear and objective relationship between the dimensions and roles of the orchestrator, as in each dimension there may be more than one role being played in the orchestration.

Therefore, the findings suggest two theoretical contributions. First, the authors identified a role not discussed in the literature, here called the communicator. In the case analysis, the authors observed the communicator role through functions performed by a media partner of the innovation network and by a group of civil society engaged in the city's causes. Second, the authors indicated a new dimension of orchestration related to the management of communication in the innovation network and its externalities such as p. ex. civil and organized society, characteristic of an innovation network set up within a city.

Although several studies have proposed advances in the understanding of the orchestration of innovation networks (Dhanaraj & Parkhe, 2006; Ritala, Armila & Blomqvist, 2009; Nambisan & Sawhney, 2011; Hurmelinna-Laukkanen et al., 2011), the discussion on the topic is still a black box (Nilsen & Gausdal, 2017). More specifically, the authors identified a gap in the literature about the role and activities of actors in the city level. Few studies connected the regional dimension with the roles and activities of the orchestrators (Hurmelinna-Laukkanen et al., 2011; Pikkarainen et al., 2017), raising several challenges and opportunities to be considered by academics and managers.

This study aims to present a theoretical analysis on the capabilities (at the organizational) and skills (at the individual level) of the hub organization (orchestrator) in an innovation network.

The authors conducted literature reviews on the orchestration of innovation networks; and networking capabilities.

This study presents a theoretical model and a research agenda.

In interorganizational relations, a central actor can stand out the role of intentionally creating, extracting and distributing value in the network, generating gains for all members. Literature recognizes this set of intentional and deliberate actions as the “orchestration” of resources in the network. Despite the increasing interest regarding the theme, the phases and specific capabilities for orchestration still lack further investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how coordination has evolved in humanitarian logistics (HL), what were the triggers for change and how have they been facilitated.

This paper applies a systematic literature review of academic journals.

This is the first paper to discuss the concepts of network orchestration and choreography in a humanitarian context. The research revealed that network coordination has moved on in the commercial sector to include orchestration and now, choreography concepts which have not been tested in HL literature. This reveals a lag exists between HL research and practice.

This paper represents an exploratory study and provides the basis for further research on the concepts of orchestration and choreography in HL. The paper sets a research agenda for academics.

This paper is the first to discuss the concepts of network orchestration and choreography in a humanitarian context.

The areas of orchestration and choreography have received limited consideration within the humanitarian aid logistics literature to date. This paper is designed to redress this shortfall. As a result, it is hoped that it will act as a catalyst for further research and to widen and deepen the resultant debate with a view to improving the outcome for those affected by current and future disasters.

This study aims to define orchestrator roles and related orchestration capabilities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) to understand how companies (especially small and medium-sized enterprises and startups) could benefit from the surrounding ecosystem to develop their business.

A qualitative case study of the regional ecosystem built around health technology is researched to get an in-depth understanding of the orchestration roles taken by actors in the ecosystem and, likewise, related bundles of orchestrator role-specific capabilities.

Altogether, eight roles and related orchestration capabilities are defined. First, “opinion leaders,” “business facilitators” and “regulation informants” provide resources for participants. Second, “relationship promoters,” “coordinators” and “commanders” create prerequisites for collaboration. Finally, “integrators” and “complementors” help to create concrete offerings. The roles taken can be simultaneous, and they are in constant change as positions and resources of actors change.

Theoretically, this study contributes to the existing EE and orchestration capability research by studying orchestrator roles and related capabilities in the context of an entrepreneurial health tech ecosystem, a phenomenon that has not received sufficient research attention yet.

Managers will be able to use the lessons learned from this study in understanding, using and developing their capabilities, positions and activities in the network. For policymakers, understanding EE reality and dynamics is useful when developing policies for regional growth, likewise in constructing and developing industrial ecosystems to support entrepreneurship in the region.

The study provides novel in-depth knowledge of orchestration in regional, EEs. It complements the currently dominating conceptual research and brings a micro-level perspective that has mostly been lacking in EE studies.

This paper aims to investigate the management process in company networks. A new information support service can assist network managers in the complex task of orchestrating members of the network to so‐called network actor sets (NAS) that deliver the “best fit” for incoming inquiries.

A corresponding conceptual framework and system approach is developed. The proposed system employs a pragmatic two‐phase multi‐criteria scoring scheme for orchestrating NAS under consideration of the specific needs of inquiries and, too, the company network as a whole.

The research indicates that the orchestration of NAS may be effectively performed by a corresponding information technology (IT) support service. Through the service orchestration decisions may become less influenced by human factors. The service will also lead to better transparency, traceability, and analytical possibilities regarding the inquiry management process. Networks with a high number of members and with many overlaps in company profiles and competences will find this service useful.

Further orchestration criteria will be explored in the future by a simulation study.

The paper presents recommendations for structuring the inquiry management process in company networks to improve effectiveness by the use of IT. Also, it contains a sound framework for the implementation of the proposed service as part of IT infrastructures for company networks.

The paper presents major insights, concepts, and a system approach for a novel information support service for network moderators.

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of service innovation in networks. Especially the most loosely coupled forms of innovation networks, innovation communities, can be valuable in service innovation, but may not be manageable in the traditional sense. Rather, they may require orchestration characterized by discreet guidance that also accommodates the specific nature of services. Through informed orchestration, it is possible to deal with several contingencies, and influence the absorptive capacity at the network level to generate new service innovations.

These issues are examined through literature review and a case study.

The findings suggest that individual orchestration mechanisms may be more closely connected to certain contingencies than others, and that both orchestration mechanisms and contingency factors have a role in absorptive capacity development within service innovation networks.

While the case study approach limits the possibility to make wide generalizations, the in-depth insights provide valuable knowledge.

There has been a shift from inter-firm competition towards competition between networks of organizations, increasing relevance of absorptive capacity at the network level.

Despite the recent increase in service innovation literature, research on service innovation taking place in networks is scant. Knowledge on some aspects can be derived from more traditional notions on technological innovation, but both the distinctive features of services and central characteristics of innovation networks make it necessary to reconsider some of the established views. In particular, managing – or rather orchestrating – service innovation is still a challenging area.