Consequences of structural changes within facilitated innovative networks

Changes to industrial business network structures have been examined via discrete simulation to investigate how network positions change. In dynamic networks, active actors/forces continuously modify the status of the network, and changes touch all actors in the network. Such changes highlight the role of network effects and how they flow throughout the network. In this research, network position is assessed through closeness centrality and information flow through distance and network density. Simulation is used to examine the changes in network position triggered by alteration of dyadic relationships. Results indicate that network actors need to consider both position and density when determining whether they are 'better off' under different scenarios. This research builds on the network dynamics research topic and provides a flexible approach for investigating quantitatively potential changes in industrial networks.