The arrival of technological changes at the business net: a learning process

Purpose – This study aims to explore the process of the arrival of technological change and how the learning process impacts on network evolution. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses longitudinal, case‐based qualitative research to illustrate the network dynamics underpinning two technological generations. Findings – The arrival of technological change not only is a pivotal event concerning a firm's long‐term competitiveness, but also challenges the firm's ability to manage its portfolio of relationships and balance its position in the evolution of business nets. Such an arrival process can be viewed as a learning process, where the firm learns how to devise appropriate strategies based on its inter‐organizational interaction history to cope with the rapidly changing environment, for example technological changes. Originality/value – The findings illustrate the value of analyzing technological change from a network perspective. They illustrate the complexity of the process and show that, despite cooperation and collaboration, relationships are constrained and/or enabled by organisational learning. Relationships are determined by a plethora of issues such as strategic fit, functional fit and time fit.