Managerial tools and the network-as-practice perspective

We conceptualize a networks-as-practice model by grounding our systems framework in the resource-based view (RBV), on the one hand, and in the strategy-as-practice perspective, on the other. From the RBV, we adopt the idea of valuable resources that are developed or deployed through activities. These activities are analogous to the practices in the practice-based approach, that is, generic ways of performing various tasks or functions. The notion of praxis in the practice-based approach gives our framework a dynamic character. Praxis, that is, actual activities or actual ways to perform general practices, have a tendency to maintain, reinforce, as well as transform the general practices. The tools introduced in the book represent networking practices that are designed to guide actual behavior in interorganizational boundaries.