The liability of unintended transformations in organizational networks. A study in the disruption of an interorganizational network in a mountain area in northern Italy

Interorganizational networks become increasingly prevalent thus theories of networks, organizations, and governance must investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive their success or contribute to their failure. Although they are often seen as the organizational form of the future, this does not mean that they are successful. It is estimated that 80% of them fail in the sense that they do not achieve what was originally intended. Although there are numerous studies that identify the success factors of organizational networks, far fewer studies have analyzed the failure processes of organizational networks. This paper presents an empirical study that demonstrates the failure of such an organizational network. Through the processual analysis of the network, we observed a phenomenon that can best be described as the liability of unintended transformations in organizational networks. The transformation we describe exemplifies unintended consequences, as it occurred due to actions by social actors that, while unintentional, were not aligned with their original intentions. Although the phenomenon of unintended consequences has received limited attention in the study of interorganizational networks, we propose that there are a number of reasons why it can be expected to be quite common in practice. We formulate a number of propositions about unintended transformations in organizational networks, and we will substantiate them theoretically as well as empirically by presenting evidence from our case study. Finally, we will call for more research on unintended transformations in the case of organizational networks and formulate a number of implications for practice.