Three approaches for comprehension of network organization

Complexity and dynamics of most branches of world economy are constantly growing, which stimulates companiesto search for new ways to fit the shifting conditions. In the last decades one of the most popular ways is inter-firm cooperation -creation and development of different forms of network organizations. Although the researches of network organizations are notably indemand, at present, only several aspects of their functioning are well grounded. Those are the classification of inter-firm network, benefitsand value interrelations for partners and consumers, interdependences, concentration and allocation of resources flow between partners,the role of knowledge and competence interchange. This is connected, at least, with two main reasons. First of all, it is the universalnature of the network principle. Since a network is a complex of firm relations between objects (which preserve relative independencefrom one another), the notion is applicable to a broad circle of objects and phenomena. Within network organizations strictly, thisprinciple is used for a whole complex of relations between companies in and out of partnerships. Secondly, network organizations arecomplicated and multilateral objects of analysis, since we deal with a combination of several complex systems and, as a result, get a newsystem with features unequal to the total of features of source elements. In practice, this means that any form of companies integrationhas a variety of aspects, which are not regular for a single firm business activity. The complex of versatility and complicity defines differentapproaches to comprehension of network organizations and specifics of their activity. The three main approaches were elaboratedby sociology of economics, interrelation marketing and strategic management. The conceptions developed within the main approaches,explain different aspects of creation and development of inter-firm networks, interrelations and interdependences, sources of value andcompetitive advantage, co-ordination and network organizations management, which defines the mutually complementary character ofthe studies. Network organizations researches are an integral part of modern firm theory, however, having a unique object of analysis itshould develop on its own scientific base, which explains the network principle as a form of organization, its characteristics and conditionsof effective inter-firm network model formation.

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