Inter-organizational communities as the emerging organizational form: empirical evidence from different industries

This paper explores the importance of nurturing informal inter-organizational communities. Supported by real cases of informal communities created in different industries, this paper describes communities as a flexible answer to the growing uncertainty of the business landscape. We combined and applied methodologies of Social Network Analysis and Content Analysis to understand the communities’ structure and their evolution over time. We based our research on a multiple case study exploring the informal communities nurtured by a multinational consulting company and two US-based Swiss Consulates. We gathered data through web-surveys, from archival data (e-mail archives) and direct observation/interviews to key individuals. We conclude that successful informal communities emerge in presence of a core group of individuals acting as energizers of the community