Market Organisation - Relevance of Structural Embeddedness of Economic Transactions in Networks

This paper deals with research questions about the social and structural embeddedness of interorganizational networks. Social Network Analysis have proven capable of not only dealing with attributive data but also with interdependent relational data of actors within a network. Social network analysis provides with the class of p* models a tool with which multiplex and interdependent relations and attributes can be handled. The outcome of p* models may help to demonstrate that the market organisation of an industry can be understood in terms of structural regularities in a specific multiplex exchange system, especially in regard to social aspects, which are assumed to be important for the resource exchanges among industry members.