THEORETICAL INTERACTION FOR CHARACTERIZING BUSINESS NETWORKS

Theoretically, business networks can be defined and characterized based on diverse perspectives, such as sociology, psychology, economics, technology, organizational theories or the field of strategy. This thoughtful article is the result of exploratory research front an analytical-critical perspective of a theoretical nature and proposes a complementary and interdisciplinary theoretical interaction to analyze and characterize business networks, based on theoretical work by different authors on resource dependence theory, transaction costs theory and network theory, in the institutional context of agency theory. The main contribution of this theoretical development is the possibility to analyze not only the structure but also the dynamic of business networks. The proposal includes the conceptual construction of a definition of business networks, a reflection on the impact of the levels of analysis of business networks, and finally the selection and relationship between the variables resulting from the theoretical interaction for their characterization. The theoretical result of this research will make it possible to characterize diverse business networks in any sector in practice.