With whom do firms form ties? A meta-analysis on the influence of embeddedness and proximity on inter-organizational tie formation

Abstract

We meta-analyze the influence of various forms of embeddedness and proximity on interorganizational tie formation with a dataset that encompasses 256,529 ties from 73 studies.First, we uncover the unparalleled importance of relational embeddedness, while the influence of structural and positional embeddedness turns out to be highly dependent on the context. Second, we show that various forms of proximity positively influence tie formation and have unique explanatory power in addition to the embeddedness dimensions. Last, we explore to what extent these effects are contingent on the type of tie, resource munificence, status orientation, level of individuality, and intellectual property regimes. Our study introduces a preliminary contingency theory of interorganizational tie formation and provides directions for future research.

Network of Networks: Preliminary Lessons from the Antwerp Port Authority on Crisis Management and Network Governance to Deal with the COVID‐19 Pandemic

“…In addition, previous research on organizational and network design may guide us in how to design institutions and structures on authority and collaboration that can act as structural inter‐ and intra‐faces that a network of networks selectively can employ to achieve a field‐level purpose (Albers, Wohlgezogen, and Zajac 2016; Gulati, Puranam, and Tushman 2012; Moynihan 2009; Kenis and Raab 2020). Specific attention should be given to the influence of various forms of embeddedness and proximity on interorganizational tie formation and dissolution to explain subset and superset relations between various networks understood as smaller systems embedded in the larger, complex system of the organizational field (Mannak et al 2019; van Zelst, Mannak, and Oerlemans 2017).…”