
Contents
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21.1 Introduction 21.1 Introduction
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21.2 The New Network Industrial System 21.2 The New Network Industrial System
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21.3 The Argument: Technology, Institutions, and Forms of Knowledge 21.3 The Argument: Technology, Institutions, and Forms of Knowledge
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21.4 Networks and Technology 21.4 Networks and Technology
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21.4.1 Interorganizational Technological Networks and Partnerships 21.4.1 Interorganizational Technological Networks and Partnerships
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21.4.2 Information and Communications Technologies and Networks 21.4.2 Information and Communications Technologies and Networks
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21.4.3 Commodity or Value-Chains as Networks 21.4.3 Commodity or Value-Chains as Networks
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21.5 Networks and Institutions 21.5 Networks and Institutions
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21.5.1 Networks of Interdependent Firms as Institutions 21.5.1 Networks of Interdependent Firms as Institutions
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21.5.2 Are Knowledge Networks Effective as Institutions? 21.5.2 Are Knowledge Networks Effective as Institutions?
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21.5.3 Embeddedness and Weak and Strong Ties 21.5.3 Embeddedness and Weak and Strong Ties
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21.6 Evolution, Biology, Complexity, and the Self-Organization of Networks 21.6 Evolution, Biology, Complexity, and the Self-Organization of Networks
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21.7 Conclusions: The Fate of Industrial Districts and Other Implications of Internationalization 21.7 Conclusions: The Fate of Industrial Districts and Other Implications of Internationalization
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References References
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21 Interfirm Relations as Networks
Get accessGrahame F. Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at the Open University in England. His main research interests are in the political economy of the international system and the theme of globalization. In particular this concentrates upon the possible limits to globalization and on the notion of global corporate citizenship. In addition, he is working on related issues around different forms of coordination and governance. His most recent books are Between Hierarchies and Markets: The Logic and Limits of Network Forms of Organization (2003) and Politics and Power in the UK (edited with Richard Heffernan, 2004). In 2004 he will be Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Warwick. email: [email protected]
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Published:02 September 2009
Cite
Abstract
There are a number of ways that interfirm relationships can be conceived and organized. The classic dichotomy is between a market form of organization and a hierarchical form. Considered in terms of this continuum, the market appears towards the coordination end while hierarchy appears towards the governance end. This article concentrates on how cooperation and governance are organized in interfirm networks and what networks offer that is different from either strictly market or hierarchical relations between firms. Thus, networks are not seen as simple hybrid organizational forms — occupying a space between markets and hierarchies and involving aspects of them both — but as distinctive, new organizational forms in their own right. They have their own unique characteristics and logic of operation. After setting out an argument to this effect, the discussion critically interrogates evolutionary and biological approaches to understanding networks.
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