Where Do Interorganizational Networks Come From?

Abstract

Organizations enter alliances with each other to access critical re‐sources, but they rely on information from the network of prior alli‐ances to determine with whom to cooperate. These new alliances modify the existing network, prompting an endogenous dynamic be‐tween organizational action and network structure that drives the emergence of interorganizational networks. Testing these ideas on alliances formed in three industries over nine years, this research shows that the probability of a new alliance between specific organi‐zations increases with their interdependence and also with their prior mutual alliances, common third parties, and joint centrality in the alliance network. The differentiation of the emerging network structure, however, mitigates the effect of interdependence and en‐hances the effect of joint centrality on new alliance formation.