Organizational networking processes in turbulent environments: strategic sensemaking perspective

What is it about?

The literature demonstrating the importance of organizational networks in organizational performance is relatively rich; less understood are processes in organizational networking that entrepreneurs and organizations utilize in making sense of rapidly changing contexts for organizational performance. This study conducts an exploratory organizational-level analysis into firms’ experiences in two major EMs—namely, Russia and India—to identify organizational networking processes in the midst of institutional upheavals. Based on extensive case studies built on detailed interview data of senior officials in two conglomerates, we find that firms rely on first informal networks (including blat / svyazi and jaan-pehchaan / jan-pehchan) and later formal (in the form of bureaucratic followed by proprietary) networks to make sense of the changes and uncertainties in turbulent environments. We also demonstrate the cyclical nature of strategic sensemaking in the process of developing organizational networks for performance.

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