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On this page you find some more recent dissertations, published by IMP members in the 2000s. By entering a search-criteria in the text field below you can limit the displayed dissertations to those matching the search.


Presented 2009

Title

Sensemaking in networks:Using network pictures to understand network change

Author

Morten Abrahamsen

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Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analysing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the sense that research question, methodology, theory and context are revised as an integral part of the research process.

Although considerable research exists on explaining business network structures in different research traditions, changes within networks are less well researched. This thesis analyses changes in networks in terms of the industrial network approach. This approach sees networks as connected relationships between actors, where interdependent companies interact based on their sensemaking of their relevant network environment. The thesis develops a concept of network change as well as an operationalisation for comparing perceptions of change, where a template model of dottograms is introduced to systematically analyse differences in perceptions. The model is then applied to analyse findings from a case study of Norwegian/Japanese seafood distribution, and the thesis provides a rich description of a complex system facing considerable pressure to change. In-depth personal interviews and cognitive mapping techniques are the main research tools applied, in addition to tracer studies and personal observation.

The dottogram method represents a valuable contribution to case study research as it enables systematic within-case and cross-case analyses. A further theoretical contribution of the study is that it suggests that network change is about actors seeking to change their network position in order to get access to resources. Thereby, the study also implies a close relationship between the concepts network position and network change which has not been discussed within the network approach in great detail.

Another main contribution is the analysis of the role which network pictures play in actors’ efforts to change their network position. The study develops seven propositions in an attempt to describe the role of network pictures in network change. So far network pictures have mainly been discussed as a theoretical concept. Finally, important implications for management practice are presented.