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Research Management

The Origin and Evolution of Networks

, by Giuseppe Soda - Direttore di SDA Bocconi, School of Management
The results of a research program led by Giuseppe Soda with Aks Zaheer, begun in 2003, which is going to formally end with the publication of a last article in "Organization Science"

The forthcoming publication of the paper The Genesis and Dynamics of Organizational Networks in Organization Science formally ends the foundational research program on Network Origins and Evolution led by Giuseppe Soda (Department of Management and Technology) and Aks Zaheer (University of Minnesota). The research program began in 2003 and has been supported by the Claudio Dematté Research Division of SDA Bocconi and the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.

The research program aimed to make a keystone contribution to research on organizational and inter-organizational networks. The guiding principle of the program was that, while an extensive body of knowledge existed on network outcomes, such as organization or employee performance, and on how network structures may contribute to the creation of outcomes at different levels of analysis, little was known about how and why organizational networks emerge, evolve and change over time.

During this period, the research program has contributed with several outstanding articles published in the top scientific journals (including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science), has generated a fruitful debate in the organization and management community with several conferences and workshops in the most influential universities and business schools, including a showcase conference on Network Dynamics at SDA Bocconi in June, 2009.

The empirical outputs of the research program demonstrate that investigating network dynamics is important for several reasons, perhaps the most critical being that the understanding of network outcomes is only partial without an appreciation of the genesis of the network structures that resulted in such outcomes.Put differently, understanding the mechanisms that drive network structures is crucial to developing a fuller understanding of their origins, which in turn is vital to better understand their consequences.

The research program has provided answers to the fundamental questions of how and why do organizational (and inter-organizational) networks evolve to take the forms that they do, and what are the consequences of such evolution for the organizations that comprise them.

By using data on Italian industries, the research of Soda and his co-authors showed that networks are mechanisms for the generation and conveyance of social capital – which in turn serves as a basis for social benefits or private advantage.The benefits provided by networks to their constituents and their role as sources of value, up to and including competitive advantage for firms, are dependent upon the network architecture and its evolution over time.Failing to consider changes in network architecture would leave us with a flawed understanding of network benefits and costs and its importance as a source of value for wide a range of network actors, including organizations, organizational units, groups and individual organization members.

The main findings of the research program can be found in the following papers: Gautam Auhja, Soda and Zaheer (2011), Genesis and Dynamics of Organizational Networks, in Organization Science; Soda, Zaheer (2009), Network Evolution: The Origins of Structural Holes, in Administrative Science Quarterly; Soda, Alessandra Carlone and Zaheer (2008), Imitative Behavior: Network Antecedents and Performance Consequences, in Advances in Strategic Management; Soda, Alessandro Usai and Zaheer (2005) Network Memory:The Effect of Past and Current Networks on Performance, in Academy of Management Journal.

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