Introduction

Abstract

Historically, networks have existed for a long time. It suffices to point to the Silk Route as an ancient example of the global supply chain or to the existence of trading between Asia and Europe by the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie during the Golden Age of the Republic of the Netherlands (16^th and 17^th centuries), see Dekkers (2005, p. 14). Even then, the contextual environments, i.e. the social environment in which the networks existed, determined for a large part the transactional environment of trading relationships. Social-economic historians have investigated this domain to understand the networks that were present during the Commercial Revolution in the Middle Ages, an era that saw the resurgence of Mediterranean and European long-distance trading (e.g. Greif, 1996). Later, the global supply chains, focusing on basic needs, agricultural goods and raw materials, were affected by the First Industrial Revolution (Brasseul, 1998, p. 8). Firstly, the growing demand during that period increased the volume of trade. Secondly, the capability of sources (regions and nations) to produce their own intermediaries or products preluded the emergence of industrial networks. This only tells us that during the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions, trade and industry increasingly relied on the networks they created to sustain competitive advantage.