An Actor-Oriented Dynamic Network Approach: The Case of Interorganizational Network Evolution

There is a growing interest in intraand interorganizational network dynamics. The central question in the latter domain is, ‘‘How do firms choose collaborative partners given their present network configuration, their goals, and characteristics, to get a strategic network position?’’ We introduce actor-oriented network models as a method to describe and explain the development of interorganizational collaboration networks. The models are applied to longitudinal data about collaborative agreements within the genomics industry.