Contacts and Contracts: Cross-Level Network Dynamics in the Development of an Aircraft Material

In this paper, we investigate how interorganizational networks and interpersonal networks interact over time. We present a retrospective longitudinal case study of the network system that developed a novel aircraft material and analyze change episodes from a structurationist perspective. We identify five types of episodes in which interpersonal and interorganizational networks interact (persistence, prospecting, consolidation, reconfiguration, and dissolution) and analyze conditions for these episodes and sequences among them. Our findings advance a cross-level perspective on embeddedness and show how individuals may draw on relational and structural embeddedness as distributed resources. The multiple levels of embeddedness impact network dynamics by introducing converging and diverging dialectics, thereby limiting path dependence and proactive network orchestration.