Managing networks

David Ford, Håkan Håkansson, Ivan Snehota and Lars-Erik Gadde

The paper was published at the 18th IMP-conference in Perth, Australia in 2002.

The main aim of the paper is to bring together some ideas of "What we know about networks" and present these as a model of Managing in Networks. The paper uses a case study based on the well known retailer, IKEA to illustrate the model. We then drawfrom this model a series of ideas on the dynamics of business networks and what these mean for the concepts of management and strategy.