Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- Chapter 1 Coordination of Economic Actors and Social Systems of Production
- PART I THE VARIETY OF INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS AND THEIR COMPLEMENTARITY IN MODERN ECONOMIES
- Chapter 2 The Variety and Unequal Performance of Really Existing Markets: Farewell to Doctor Pangloss?
- Chapter 3 A Typology of Interorganizational Relationships and Networks
- Chapter 4 Associational Governance in a Globalizing Era: Weathering the Storm
- Chapter 5 Constitutional Orders: Trust Building and Response to Change
- PART II HOW AND WHY DO SOCIAL SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION CHANGE?
- PART III LEVELS OF SPATIAL COORDINATION AND THE EMBEDDEDNESS OF INSTITUTIONS
- PART IV CONCLUSION
- Index
Chapter 3 - A Typology of Interorganizational Relationships and Networks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- Chapter 1 Coordination of Economic Actors and Social Systems of Production
- PART I THE VARIETY OF INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS AND THEIR COMPLEMENTARITY IN MODERN ECONOMIES
- Chapter 2 The Variety and Unequal Performance of Really Existing Markets: Farewell to Doctor Pangloss?
- Chapter 3 A Typology of Interorganizational Relationships and Networks
- Chapter 4 Associational Governance in a Globalizing Era: Weathering the Storm
- Chapter 5 Constitutional Orders: Trust Building and Response to Change
- PART II HOW AND WHY DO SOCIAL SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION CHANGE?
- PART III LEVELS OF SPATIAL COORDINATION AND THE EMBEDDEDNESS OF INSTITUTIONS
- PART IV CONCLUSION
- Index
Summary
AN EVOLUTIONARY TYPOLOGY OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND NETWORKS
Interorganizational networks have been one method of coordinating prices, wages, and purchases for some time. The most common examples were agricultural cooperatives, cottage industries, and cartels – types of coordination commonly found in Europe and Asia. These associations of organizations, frequently called obligational linkages (Williamson, 1985), were found even in the industrial age, which saw the emergence of large corporations and the vertically integrated firm in the United States (Aldrich, 1979; Chandler, 1962, 1977; Williams, 1975). Large companies were created in a number of countries through mergers as managers attempted to drive down costs, eliminate competition, and achieve large economies of scale by means of stable and large production runs. The dominant concern of vertically integrated hierarchies was to increase productivity by reducing transaction costs vis-à-vis their suppliers or customers (Williamson, 1975), thus earning a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Now many small firms can survive in specialized niches, but they frequently join in joint ventures with large companies that produce and/or market their products (Powell and Brantley, 1992). Even more complex alliances involving large numbers of organizations are being formed to accomplish tasks and objectives that no single firm could achieve on its own, such as establishing industrial standards, developing complex products such as automobiles, semiconductors, and aircraft, and expanding the pool of industrial knowledge (Alter and Hage, 1993; Wikstrom and Normann, 1994).
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- Information
- Contemporary CapitalismThe Embeddedness of Institutions, pp. 94 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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