The adaptability of network organizations: Some unexplored questions

A commentary concerning Ravi S. Achrol's Changes in the Theory of Interorganizational Relations in Marketing: Toward a Network Paradigm is presented. Although Achrol's article provides many insights about the various ways in which firms might organize themselves for more adaptive, efficient and effective marketing of goods and services in the coming years, it also leaves a number of important issues unexplored. Organization networks in all the various forms Achrol describes clearly have properties that any good system structuralist would agree are well suited to adaptability and a flexible response to the environment. But every organizational structure involves trade-offs. Each structure tends to perform better on some dimensions than others. Thus, from a contingency theory perspective, the interesting questions concern the possible boundary conditions for network adaptability.