Mark Ebers.

Mark Ebers, ed Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997 295 pp $7800

This anthology is the be derived of a workshop organized at the editor, Mark Ebers, and stocked by the European Science Foundation. Ebers and more [i]or[/i] less of the other authors state that the book's focus is upon the recent trend among organizations to form networks with competing organizations, if it were not that most of the theory readyed applies as easily to networks among noncompeting organizations.

The chapters written through De Laat, by L[ddit{u}]tz, and according to Lipparini and Sobrero have the rigor distressed to make lasting contributions to the literature. They are worth reading and should be required reading in relevant courses in succession organizations. Ebers' introductory chapter and the concluding chapter, with Grandori, "The Forms, richnesss and Development Dynamics of Inter-Organizational Networking," provide convenient reviews of the literature and could be easily used as a framework for syllabi. A different kind of introduction is provided in the work on Dubois and H[dot{a}]kansson, titled "Relationships as Activity Links." The chapter is useful for those who are strange students of organizations and want a extremely general feel for individuals' behaviors in organizational settings.

As with many of the chapters, Easton and Araujo's "Inter-Firm answers to Heterogeneity of Demand throughout Time" is written with a distinctively business focus (i.e., buyer concentration, work diversity, and life cycles). The authors focus forward heterogeneity of demand for a consequence and the consequences for network formation. Their contribution is a list of options for organizations facing change in demand (eg absorbing all changes or refusing to accept changes) as an alternative to Gerwin's (1993) work onward organizational responses to uncertainty. The authors assert that their topology is better for predicting network formation when there are changes in returns demand because their topology addresses a "plethora of changes" rather than a single change, still they do not support this assertion. It's also unclear for what purpose a more general construct like uncertainty should be replaced by dint of the more specific "heterogeneity in returns demand." The real challenge is not in the construction of typologies still in the topics for s ubsequent research the authors propose

Those topics include the probability that these options are used in any combination (whichever typology is used) and that the option or combination of options varies as a function of long-term versus short-term heterogeneity of harvest demand.

Lomi and Grandi, in a preliminary report titled "The Network fabric of Interfirm Relationships in the Southern Italian Mechanical Industry," tender to overcome some theoretical riddles in the organizations literature and to explain the less-than-successful efforts from the state to correct the "relative backwardness" of economic disclosure in Southern Italy. The authors recognize the complexity of networks by the agency of measuring four network types--supply relationships, quality have charge of agreements, technological transfer, and equity relations--although more detail is emergencyed in defining these network impressed signs particularly equity relations. The main conclusion is that better integration of the larger organizations into the local community would further the economic unravelling of Southern Italy. Focusing upon theory development, the authors may want to await at the ways these four network archetypes operate together. For example, grant relationships probably give rise to quality check agreements; technological transfer may s upport the creation of equity relations. The applied vexed question of economic backwardness may be illuminated at comparing the networks of Southern Italy with those in Northern Italy.

De Laat's chapter, "Research and exhibition Alliances: Ensuring Trust by Mutual Commitments," is based upon an obviously painstaking search of the literature forward research and design alliances. Based forward the results of this search, De Laat raiseed a list of the different commitment patterns used by way of R&D alliances and the conditions and events of those commitments. The list itself is clearly organized, and examples are provided that illustrate each point. His effective use of social psychology leads him to single in kind of his most interesting findings from the two a practical and research perspective: that classical contracting, used in the highest actually promotes opportunism, whereas commitments be of use to to stabilize the relationship. De Laat also describes to what extent reputation is used as a curb mechanism to manage a commitment. He finds, similar to L[ddot{u}]tz in the following chapter, that trust develops from the process of implementing the commitment rather than being a precursor to any commitment or contract. De Laat's cha pter provides useful background for those courses that include discussions of the Microsoft antitrust case.

In her chapter, "Learning within Intermediaries: The Case of Inter-Firm Research Collaborations," L[ddot{u}]tz finds that trust between competitors is a issue of necessity: all of the individual competitors know that they cannot succe onward their own. She also finds that a mediator between the competing organizations is also a necessary precursor to trust. one time there is trust, competing organizations may then work together, share information, and then, in L[ddot{u}]tz's case application of mind produce radical innovation. This chapter is well written and makes contributions to empirical and theoretical research.