Leadership in Interorganizational Networks: A Literature Review and Suggestions for Future Research

Abstract

This review focuses on interorganizational networks consisting of three or more organizations that coordinate some of their activities for joint benefits. This is justified as it represents a well-researched phenomenon that has become omnipresent in many fields and is often of vital interest to economic actors. However, when it comes to understanding leadership in such networks studies that address this issue present an incoherent picture. As we show, this results largely from the different network forms (e.g. hierarchical vs. heterarchical), levels of analysis (e.g. organization vs. network) and usage of differing terms to describe the phenomenon (e.g. governance or orchestration, let alone leadership). It is against this background that this review contributes to the field as follows: first, we take stock of the literature and provide an overview of the key characteristics of previous research geared towards network forms and levels of analysis. Moreover we set forth a perspective that perceives leadership in such networks as exerting an influence in order to ‘make things happen’. Second, we identify future research avenues to stimulate progress in the field.

Keywords: interorganizational networks, leadership, governance, practices, heterarchy, hierarchy