Extending the Business Network Approach

Contributing pioneering new research, this innovative book proposes new ways and directions in which to extend the influential ‘business networks perspective’ approach to doing business. While previous research has focused upon relationships with customers and suppliers, the authors argue that there is a need to expand the outlook to include other stakeholders. Taking a stand in a broad management perspective, chapters relate contemporary issues within industrial and international marketing, product innovation, and information systems. Challenging existing views and proposing elaborate alternatives; this volume examines a range of examples that have inspired researchers to extend the business network. To provide further understanding, Extending the Business Network Approach relates current and new research to territories, technologies and terms to reveal novel insights, and to encourage further directions for research. 

Peter Thilenius is Professor of Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. His research interests include business relationships in various fields of marketing and international business, and his recent projects have focused upon the impact of information technology on an industrial setting, and the internationalisation of banks.

Cecilia Pahlberg is Professor of Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden where she conducts research within international business and marketing. Her current research focuses on the impact of socio-political actors on multinationals in emerging markets, competition and cooperation in business relationships, the development of IB, and the business network approach as a scientific field.

Virpi Havila is Professor of Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests include mergers and acquisitions, management of project ending, and ending/reactivating business-to-business relationships. She has published in journals that include Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Strategic Marketing.