“Membership”, Dependencies And Free Riding In Networks – A Case Study Of The European Metal Sector

Year 2009, Volume: 11 Issue: 6, 73 - 92, 01.12.2009

Patrik Nordın

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight the complex nature of informal industry networks and their functions. These networks enable the actors to be better aware of situations in other countries and to coordinate their actions accordingly. The theoretical part of this paper deals with the resource dependency and free riding, both of which can emerge in networks. On the other hand the term membership, usually referring to formal networks, is not necessarily suitable for the analysis of informal or not yet existing ones, thus requiring a new way of defining these types of networks. Empirically this paper draws from a survey made to the all the member affiliations of the EMF, using network methods to analyze the dependencies and free riding. Membership comes into play when discussing free riding in a network and imbalance between the actors’ roles and resource inputs.

Keywords

Metal Sector, Policy Networks, Membership and “Membership“, Dependencies, Free Riding

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