Governance structures in business networks

This chapter focuses on governance structures within business networks. It provides a general regime for internal governance structures of business networks. The chapter distinguishes between different levels and leads to a multi-level-governance structure. It takes a closer look at the different "soft governance instruments" and "hard governance instruments" which can be used for self-regulation within the business network. The chapter leaves aside informal structures that are based on trust, power, sympathy, reputation etc. It assumes that linked contracts might be used more often than multi-party contracts on the framework level. The chapter assumes that business networks will usually not only apply one governance instrument on the framework level, but a mix of the possible instruments in order to use their specific advantages for the different aspects which require regulation. It focuses on the different types of exchange processes as this is one of the main factors for choosing the best governance instrument.