Many studies have been conducted of different types of business networks in recent years. Despite this, there is a lack of research concerning industry-transcending formal networks which are limited to a specific region. We have conducted a case study of Örebro Promotion, which is an industry-transcending network including over 500 members. Örebro is a medium-sized city in the middle of Sweden. The purpose with our study is to create an understanding of why enterprises choose to be a part of the network and what they feel is the gain of their membership. This study is exploratory and should be viewed as the start of this much-needed field of research. The case study is based on observations of the activities of this network and others of similar character. We have interviewed a number of network facilitators, current members and members that have decided to leave the network during the last year. The study includes a literature review of general network research with a particular focus on research of different types of formal networks. Based on the literature review we have found seven factors that come as a result of being a member in a network. These factors are information/knowledge sharing, new business opportunities, a broadened network, regional development, lobbying, reduced costs and resource expenditure. Our study indicates that reduced costs, knowledge sharing and regional development cannot be viewed as important factors in Örebro Promotion. Instead our data shows that marketing and legitimacy are two factors that do have an impact. However, the most important factors for business enterprises in this type of networks differ depending on the characteristics of each enterprise. For small businesses new business opportunities was the single most important factor concerning why these actors choose to be members in this network. For larger enterprises lobbying, in the sense that Örebro Promotion creates an arena for meeting politicians, were seen as the most important factor. A broadened network was generally viewed as a reason for a membership. Concerning what the enterprises gain from their membership, information was something all respondents mentioned as the most concrete factor. The opportunity to market the company towards other businesses was also seen as an important factor. A majority felt that the membership in Örebro Promotion did not create new business opportunities to extent they were hoping for. Since our study is one of the first concerning this form of network, we believe that further research is needed. A start could be similar studies of networks with similar characteristics in Sweden. This would be important to find out if the factors that have been found to be important in Örebro Promotion could be applied to other networks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:oru-14618 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Arlmark, Johan, Bolin, Johan |
| Publisher | Örebro universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Örebro universitet, Örebro universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Örebro universitet |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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