Comparisons and Conclusions

Abstract

A theory of inter-organisational networks – one that purports to explain which collaborations form, when and why and with what kind of effects upon performance – should, like any satisfactory theory, strike a reasonable trade-off between the demands of parsimony, causality, generality and accuracy (Przeworski and Teune, 1970; Heckathorn, 1984). The trade-offs between these demands have to be driven by the nature of the problem to be addressed. Typically, the more general the problem, the more appropriate it is to place a premium upon generality, even at the expense of detailed accuracy (in the sense of being able to explain the detail of particular phenomena). The problem of understanding inter-organisational relations has been shown in the preceding chapters to be very general and thus to require a broad theoretical solution. A central weakness of most of the standard theories in this area – those that can distinguish only hierarchies and markets, such as Williamson’s (1985), or hierarchies, markets and ‘networks’ – is precisely that they are insufficiently general. Moreover, because the present theory syntheses insights from these earlier theories, it seeks greater generality; a modest loss of control over details of particular cases may be an acceptable price to pay for such generality in a theory of a phenomenon that is both widespread and varied.