Inter-Firm Networks and Entrepreneurial Behavior: A Structural Embeddedness Perspective

We develop a theory of the effects of inter-organizational networks on both radical and incremental forms of firm-level entrepreneurial behavior (EB). The central argument is that structural embeddedness, with its focus on the network as a whole, and its two consequences, relational and cognitive embeddedness, individually and collectively influence incremental and radical forms of EB. Relationships in our model are driven by reciprocal interactions between intra- and inter-organizational sensemaking. This reasoning leads us to a dynamic, co-evolutionary model of EB.