Paper info

Questions about Network Dynamics: Characteristics, Structures,and Interactions

Jule Gassenheimer, Linda Peters and Wesley Johnston

The paper was published at the 21st IMP-conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2005.

Hakansson and Ford (2002) raised some fundamental, yet essential, questions regardingnetworks. Specifically, they asked “What is a network?” and “How should companies interact inbusiness networks?” By raising and examining these questions the authors demonstrate anumber of paradoxes intrinsic to the nature of business networks for practitioners. In an attemptto continue this analysis of networks and the conundrums they present to managers and theircompanies, this paper raises further questions about networks. The questions address yetunanswered issues regarding network characteristics, interactions, structures and theirassociated dynamics. The speculation regarding these questions leads the reader further into therealm of managing within networks and the concomitant realization of markets as networks.