Searching for new units of analysis: firms, dyads and networks

The article traces the research path taken over the last 20 years by a community of management and organizational scholars that has gradually emerged within the University of Bologna. This group has explored key themes in the realm of industrial districts, networks of firms and the origin of entrepreneurship, and central to this body of work has been a focus on units of analysis other than the single firm or the industry. This search for non-conventional units of analysis has allowed the community to explain phenomena that have otherwise proved difficult to grasp and decipher. This paper documents the milestones of this journey as it has moved across firms, dyads and networks in search of persuasive explanations of how firms behave at the intersection of transaction and strategic space. European Management Review (2008) 5, 125-133. doi:10.1057/emr.2008.8