Pathways of Engineered, Autonomous, and Hybrid Coordination in Interorganizational Networks: A Comparative Analysis

Which path of coordination is connected with high innovativeness of interorganizational net-works? A major characteristic of consciously created interorganizational networks is their prevalence of intended, planned processes. Beneath their goal-directedness they also exhibit autonomous, emergent processes which originate serendipitously. In this study, we investigate engineered, autonomous, and hybrid coordination mechanisms. We collected data from 170 consciously created interorganiza-tional networks and employed Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to test the coordination me-chanisms with regard to innovativeness. Findings show that high innovativeness is connected with two pathways: First, high levels of hybrid coordination, regardless of the levels of the other mechanisms. The second path is high autonomous coordination combined with low levels of the other two coordination mechanisms. We are able to show that there is a duality of both autonomous and engineered processes in consciously created networks. At the same time, there is more than one pathway yielding positive network-level outcomes

Pathways of Engineered, Autonomous, and Hybrid Coordination in Interorganizational Networks: A Comparative Analysis

Which path of coordination is connected with high innovativeness of interorganizational net-works? A major characteristic of consciously created interorganizational networks is their prevalence of intended, planned processes. Beneath their goal-directedness they also exhibit autonomous, emergent processes which originate serendipitously. In this study, we investigate engineered, autonomous, and hybrid coordination mechanisms. We collected data from 170 consciously created interorganiza-tional networks and employed Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to test the coordination me-chanisms with regard to innovativeness. Findings show that high innovativeness is connected with two pathways: First, high levels of hybrid coordination, regardless of the levels of the other mechanisms. The second path is high autonomous coordination combined with low levels of the other two coordination mechanisms. We are able to show that there is a duality of both autonomous and engineered processes in consciously created networks. At the same time, there is more than one pathway yielding positive network-level outcomes