The Network Inertia Perspective

In their insightful AMR article, Framing interorganizational network change: A network inertia perspective, Kim et al. (2006) argue that it is often unlikely that firms will replace their network partners based solely on economic motivations. The authors use the term “network inertia” for these constraints on network change and define it as “a persistent organizational resistance to changing interorganizational dyadic ties or difficulties that an organization faces when it attempts to dissolve old relationships and form new network ties”. In their theoretical framework, Kim et al. describe causal mechanisms for the action of constraints on network change and formulate twelve propositions. For instance, the likelihood of an organization to change its network ties is higher if its environment is competitive or its status is high, but this likelihood is lower if the organization is large or old. The framework can be applied to different units of analysis, particularly to supply and demand networks.

Kim, Tai-Young, Oh, Hongseok, & Swaminathan, Anand (2006). Framing interorganizational network change: A network inertia perspective. Academy of Management Review, 31 (3), 704-720 DOI: 10.5465/AMR.2006.21318926