Inter-firm knowledge creation: A re-appreciation of embeddedness from a relational perspective

Abstract

Embeddedness studies often follow a structural approach, arguing, for example, that long-term relations are necessary for trust to develop. A case study of the Dutch company Océ shows that such need not be the case. Taking the process of knowledge creation as the starting-point of analysis, this can be explained. However, it is the content of network relations, what is going on inside them, that needs to be examined rather than their structure. This approach is more in line with Granovetter's original embeddedness argument. After all, it is not the fact that actors are embedded that matters, but how this affects their actions.