Governance work in inter-organizational networks: driving processes and structures

There are many calls for further investigation of the underlying processes, practices and specificities of governance when economic exchanges are organized within networks. Through an examination of what governance involves and how it occurs in two clusters specialized in digital and video game industries, our multi-method study provides useful insights in the finalities and purposes of governance in an inter-organizational and collaborative context, the main tools and mechanisms that are being used and the structures supporting network governance. Our findings shed also light upon the processual nature of governance in networks contexts. Governance is a set of processes, or a "meta-process", that are geared toward the (1) creation, the maintenance and the evolution of a set of common interests, (2) the design of a adapted architecture of rights and obligations and (3) the crafting of different mechanisms of coordination and control. These processes aim also to adapt the structure of governance continually to the frequent changes in the network attributes. We coin this process of governance functioning, evolution and continuous (re) actualization as governance work and argue for a new perspective about network governance.