Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2010, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (3): 199-225.

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Research on Organizations’ Network Forms: Reviews and Prospects

Li Guowu,Sociology Department, Central University of Finance and Economics   

  1. Li Guowu,Sociology Department, Central University of Finance and Economics
  • Online:2010-05-25 Published:2010-05-25
  • Contact: Li Guowu,Sociology Department, Central University of Finance and Economics E-mail:E-mail: leeguowu@126.com
  • Supported by:

    Project suppoted by Ministry of Education 2006 Humanities and Social Sciences Fund(06JC840006)

Abstract:

Abstract: This paper provides a review of selected empirical studies about organizations’ network forms in other countries during the recent couple of decades. Organizational networks represent an organizational form that differs from those that are based on market and rank hierarchy. The roles of trust and reciprocity within such networks are particularly emphasized by sociologists. To a firm, entering a specific network helps promote learning and innovation, enhance its legitimacy and status, and reap economic gains. And those are also the important reasons for organizations connecting with one another. Academic scholars have discussed how a nation’s institutional context, industrial properties, firm attributes, social structural and network position, and trading characteristics affect the formation of organizational networks from perspectives of institutionalism, resource dependence, social network and transactional costs, respectively. The author contends that future studies should pay more attention to the evolution and performance of interorganizational networks, the variations between different organizational network types, and the integration of different theoretical perspectives. Furthermore, empirical studies on the interorganizational networks in China need to be strengthened.

Key words: network forms of organization ,  resource dependence ,  social network ,  positive research