Network picturing: An action research study of strategizing in business networks

Alliance strategy: context, process, and requirements

“…Content is pervasive, complex and layered: it includes specific features (possibly a material existence) and an underpinning idea, or body of thought (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994). Empirically, people can be asked about their mental model of how value is created and how a network works (Abrahamsen et al, 2016). 'A' model would emerge from such research.…”

“…important (Abrahamsen et al, 2016), rather than examining 'a picture' that emerges at some stage. Similarly, network strategizing has been explored to understand how organizations position themselves vis-à-vis other organizations and reconsider possible use of their resources (Gadde et al, 2003).…”

“…Process-centric research at the network level often focuses on interactions (Blaschke et al, 2012), and the pivotal role of agency (Gulati and Srivastava, 2014) and time (Halinen et al, 2012). Networks are discursive constructions in which participants construct meaning (Lowe et al, 2016), 'network pictures' and network strategies (Abrahamsen et al, 2016;Vaara et al, 2004). Research in industrial marketing tends to study buyer-supplier relationships as a default form of networking.…”

“…Moreover, a felt difficulty could concern resource and routine affordances (Van Dijk et al, 2011), strategic options (Keen and Williams, 2013), and a business model's value potential in a network (Gans and Ryall, 2017). Images of future value creation (social cognition in networks (Abrahamsen et al, 2016)) and optimization of network value creation (quantitative cognition (Gans and Ryall, 2017)) can be interrelated, starting from the same felt difficulty and the potentiality of developing solutions. Research embracing ´the possible´ or ´the desirable´ can be critically examined against actual business network practices.…”

“…Process research does pay attention to content when focusing for instance on subjective constructing and interrelating images (Abrahamsen et al, 2016;Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2016). Yet content in the sense of the strategic logic of work and value creation could retreat to the periphery of research efforts.…”