Network structures in the furniture industry – the industrial network approach

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify the various types of network structures occurring in the furniture industry from the perspective of the industrial network approach, using Poland as an example. The conceptual framework of this article, which comprises the industrial network approach and Actors-Resources-Activities model, together with a secondary sources analysis, is adopted in order to identify the various network structures. Thus a comparison of the identified types of network structures in the furniture industry is developed from the perspective of their actors, resources and activities interdependencies. The main contribution of the article is a proposal to split the two main types of network structures (more formal structures with limited membership fully observable from the outside, e.g. industry clusters and purchasing groups, as well as those which are not fully observable from the outside and are analysed from the perspective of the focal actor) and as a result, to identify and analyse various network structures in the Polish furniture industry.