Paper info

Orchestration and relationship and network capabilities: exploring the conceptual distinctions

Woonho Kim and Chris Medlin

The paper was published at the 34th IMP-conference in Sri Lanka in 2018.

The business literature on orchestration, network and relationship capabilities is diverse, but evident is that the latter two concepts are used in mixed ways. We conduct a search of the literature defining the three concepts. The study shows that researchers define relationship capability clearly, although ontologies vary, whereas network capability has mixed definitions according to a single or multiple firm focus. Network orchestration definitions vary according to the purpose attributed to the collective of firms. We discuss the theoretical issues and suggest directions for theoretical development. A key is to consider the meaning of a business network, because each ontological assumption changes the nature of what is a capability