This book is a major outcome from a programme of business research that has stretched over the past thirty years. The aim of the book is to set out as simply as possible the ideas that have developed from this research and what they mean for the study and practice of business. The book seeks to explain what happens in the complex networks of companies in which business takes place. The book provides an overview of the process of business interaction and an explanation of how companies work with each other interactively in business networks. The book draws conclusions about the way that business evolves and develops and about how companies can operate effectively in an interactive world. The book is illustrated throughout by case examples drawn from our research.

Hkan Hkansson is Professor of Industrial Marketing at the Norwegian School of Management, BI, Oslo, Norway. David Ford is Affiliate Professor at Euromed, Marseille, France. Lars-Erik Gadde is Professor of Industrial Marketing at the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. Ivan Snehota is Professor of Marketing at USI, University of Lugano, Switzerland. Alexandra Waluszewski is Professor of Business Studies and Director of Uppsala University Science Technology Studies Center (STS), Sweden.

Preface	p. ix
A Jungle or a Rainforest?	p. 1
Business in Practice and in Theory	p. 2
The Need for and Danger of Metaphors	p. 4
Business in Practice: Recognizing and Using the Characteristics of the Rainforest	p. 7
Content and Organization of this Book	p. 9
Business Networks in Action	p. 11
Interaction as a Way of Dealing with Relatedness, Variety and Motion	p. 13
The Need for a Different Theoretical Approach	p. 13
A Business Landscape Populated by Interacting Companies	p. 17
Interaction and the Larger Business Landscape	p. 26
Analysing Business Interaction	p. 27
The Idea of Business Interaction	p. 27
Interaction Processes Between Companies	p. 29
An Initial Conceptualization of Interaction	p. 30
ARA Model	p. 33
Interaction and Time	p. 35
Interaction and Space	p. 38
A Model of the Interaction Process	p. 41
Conclusion	p. 45
Doing Business: Exploiting Time and Space	p. 47
Taking Advantage of Development over Time	p. 48
Taking Advantage of Spatial Development	p. 53
The Company in the Interactive Business Landscape	p. 62
Elements of Business Networks	p. 63
Interaction and Resources	p. 65
Economic Resources in the IMP Framework	p. 65
A Business Landscape Full of Resources	p. 68
Resources and Business: Basic Propositions	p. 69
An Interactive World Full of Resources	p. 71
Combining New and Existing Resources	p. 73
Resources and Multiple Contexts	p. 76
Tensions Between Resources	p. 80
Business Relationships and Resource Development and Use	p. 81
Resources in Time	p. 84
Resources in Space	p. 87
Conclusion	p. 90
Interaction and Activities	p. 93
A Business Landscape Full of Activities	p. 93
Activities: Basic Propositions	p. 96
The Activity Layer	p. 98
Activities in IMP Research	p. 99
The Activity Pattern Around	p. 101
Central Features of Activities	p. 103
A Framework for Activity Pattern Analysis	p. 111
Balancing Activity Patterns: Three Illustrations	p. 121
Conclusion	p. 128
Interaction and Actors	p. 131
A Business Landscape Full of Actors	p. 132
Actors in the IMP Framework	p. 134
The Idea of the Business Actor	p. 137
Distinctive Features of Actors in Interaction	p. 140
Analysing Interacting Actors	p. 150
Challenges in Conceptualizing Actors	p. 153
Conclusion	p. 159
Business Networks as an Analytical Tool	p. 161
Management and Business Relationships	p. 163
Introduction	p. 163
When Management Theory is Coloured by the Idea of a Market	p. 164
The Nature and Task of Managing in Markets	p. 165
Relationships Observed from a Market-Based Management Perspective	p. 166
Conclusion	p. 179
Managing in the Business Network	p. 183
Introduction	p. 183
The Relationship as a Unit of Analysis	p. 185
How Do Companies Interact?	p. 187
How Should Companies Interact?	p. 190
Managing and the Interacting Company	p. 193
Networking in Business Networks	p. 198
Conclusion	p. 205
Evolution of the Business Landscape	p. 209
Introduction	p. 209
Time and the Business Landscape	p. 210
Narrative of the Evolution of Economic Organization	p. 212
Re-interpreting Business Evolution	p. 217
Network View of Business Evolution	p. 224
Conclusion	p. 232
Networks and Industrial Policy	p. 235
Network - One Word but Many Meanings	p. 235
On What Principles Do Network Policies Rest?	p. 237
Taiwanese Semiconductor Development - From Virgin Land to a Successful Business Network?	p. 240
The Heaviness of Business Networks	p. 245
What Is in the Shadow of a Successful Network?	p. 250
Light Side and Dark Side of Networks	p. 253
What Can Policy-makers Do for Innovation?	p. 254
Conclusion	p. 259
Living in the Business Rainforest	p. 261
The Rainforest Metaphor	p. 261
Living in the Rainforest	p. 264
The Entrepreneur in the Business Rainforest	p. 265
The CEO in the Business Rainforest	p. 267
The Financial Accountant in the Business Rainforest	p. 269
The Consumer in the Business Rainforest	p. 270
The Politician in the Business Rainforest	p. 272
Conclusion	p. 273
	p. 275
References	p. 279
Index	p. 299
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