Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Knowledge in Three Network Types

The study of how various types of networks foster the management and organization of knowledge has been conducted under three banners: social networks, alliance networks, and organizational networks. The origins of the different research streams, as well as their applications, contributions to knowledge research, main parameters, and performance implications are listed in Table 22.1.

Table 22.1 Research on networks: Three types

Social network perspective

Having its origins in sociology and anthropology, the study of social networks goes by the notion that ‘the structure of any social organization can be thought of as a network’ (Nohria and Eccles 1992: 288), and that the actions of network actors are shaped and constrained because of their position and embeddedness in the network (Nohria, 1992). Or, as Lincoln (1982: 26) argues, ‘to assert that an organization is not a network is to strip of it that quality in terms of which it is best defined: the pattern of recurring linkages among its parts.’ A social network perspective entails not only that all organizations are social networks, but also that the environment is a network of other organizations. With that, social network analysis provides management scholars with a tool to examine relations ...