Structural Dynamics and Intentional Governance in Strategic Interorganizational Network Evolution: A Multilevel Approach

This article aims to shed light on the drivers underlying the role and scope of intentional governance of the structural dynamics of whole interorganizational networks. Prior research has distinguished networks that are emergent from networks that are orchestrated. While empirical studies have shown situations in which the role and scope of intentional governance of whole interorganizational networks has changed in time, and there is a growing interest regarding the endogenous drivers of network dynamics, the dimensions that influence intentional governance of network structure dynamics and the way this is carried out remain still to be elucidated. In order to pinpoint these drivers, we leverage the models of network structure dynamics elaborated within studies conducted at the intersection between network research and complexity science to propose a multilevel interpretive framework that clarifies the role and scope of intentional agency at different structural levels of interorganizational networks. Our framework advances a twofold conceptual contribution: on one hand, we tackle the change in the role and scope of intentional governance of network structures in both the early stages and the later stages of network evolution. On the other, we interpret the network of formal ties as resembling the accelerating network model, with the network of informal ties being akin to the scale-free (or truncated scale-free) network model of complex networks theory.