Business network

A business network is a complex network of companies, working together to accomplish certain goals.

Several descriptions of business networks stipulate different types of characteristics:

With the increasing interest in business networks, there is also an increasing in interest in "the notion of ‘network pictures’ amongst researchers in the field of business-to-business marketing. Network pictures are managers’ subjective mental representations of their relevant business environment."

In the late 20th century the study of business networks emerged in the specific field of industrial markets. Researchers concentrate on questions such as "what is happening underneath the visible flows of products, enquiries, sales visits and negotiations, and beyond the visible growth and prosperity of some companies and failure of others". Snehota & Hakansson (1995) explain:

For more than twenty years we have been looking over and into this field as researchers and consultants searching for answers to the many questions that the working of industrial markets raises. Unlike consumer markets, industrial markets are often not much known either to the wider public or, we are tempted to say, to many management scholars. We have been amazed by the complexity of the industrial markets and at the same time by the apparent smoothness of their working. Gradually, we have acquired respect for their importance and complexity and learnt something about how they work.

And furthermore:

We do not think we have anything like final answers. Far from it. However, we strongly believe that we have learnt something about the forces at work in the industrial markets. In this book we have tried to condense what we have learned to one picture that we would like to share with others. The reason why we dare to share this picture with others is that we have not acquired it in isolation, but through a learning process together with many others, both practitioners and fellow researchers.

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