Governing Complex Strategic Networks: Emergence Versus Enabling Effects

Abstract

In today’s knowledge-based economy, the sources of competitive advantage increasingly lie in webs of relationships between a variety of firms and organizations that, over time, lead to the emergence of strategic networks. As the performances of both the network actors and the whole network are strictly linked with the coordination and governance of network actors and their activities, this study aims to shed light on the ways in which the processes of network coordination and governance take place. Strategic networks are here viewed as complex adaptive systems, and the twin nature of the processes of strategic network coordination and governance is examined. On one hand, I underscore the emergent nature of network interactions stemming from the self-organizing behaviors that spontaneously arise inside the strategic network. On the other hand, I show that the leadership action of network-central firms sparks enabling effects that join the self-organizing network behaviors. The result of these two forces is the expansion of the network’s interaction potential to permit both the network actors and the strategic network as a whole to reach level of performance that would not otherwise be accomplished.