Managing Service Delivery Networks Strategically

Abstract

The relationship between strategy and structure is one of the long-lasting, and rather controversial, topics in the strategy literature. It is also an evergreen and unresolved issue in the literature on public networks. Some authors have focused on structural characteristics of public networks (i.e., network integration and centrality and/or network governance structure) and their relationship with network performance (Kenis and Provan, 2009; Provan and Kenis, 2008; Provan and M il ward, 1995; Provan and Sebastian, 1998). Others have shed light on the criticality of strategies to manage public networks and of the mechanisms for strategy implementation and network partner interaction (Klijn et al, 2010), and have concluded that strategy matters (and matters even more than structure) in affecting public network performance (Klijn et al, 2010). However, just very few studies have investigated the possibility of an interaction effect among the above-mentioned factors.