The interorganizational network as a political economy

Within highly competitive resource environments, organizations vie for consistent and predictable resource inflows to enhance sustainability, and resource-yielding actors hold significant status and power as purveyors of organizational legitimacy through resource distribution.

“Within highly competitive resource environments, organizations vie for consistent and predictable resource inflows to enhance sustainability, and resource-yielding actors hold significant status and power as purveyors of organizational legitimacy through resource distribution (Benson, 1975).”

RDT measures the importance of a resource by how much it can be accounted for in organizational outcomes and assigns higher value to predictable, consistent resource inflows that support organizational sustainability.

“RDT measures the importance of a resource by how much it can be accounted for in organizational outcomes (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978), and assigns higher value to predictable, consistent resource inflows that support organizational sustainability (Benson, 1975).”

Communicated meanings can entail which services are valued highest, who should be providing those services, and by what means.

“Communicated meanings can entail which services are valued highest, who should be providing those services, and by what means (Benson, 1975).”

Actors with power can attempt to change the broader environment by forcing resource recipients to conform to specific norms and behaviors, which may result in a loss of autonomy for resource-scarce organizations.

“Within these inter-organizational resource relationships, actors with power (i.e., resource providers) can attempt to change the broader environment by forcing resource recipients to conform to specific norms and behaviors (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Nienhuser, 2008), which may result in a loss of autonomy for those resource-scarce organizations (Benson, 1975; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978).”