A Temporal View of Tie Formation: Exploring the Role of the Future through a Situated View of Events

This paper complements social network theory with theoretical and methodological insights from strong process theory in order to provide a temporal view of tie formation. I follow processes of tie formation unfolding among 15 organizations participating in a collaborative innovation workshop through a longitudinal, qualitative case study. Adopting a situated view contributes to our understanding of how interorganizational network dynamics emerge from the ways in which individual actors purposively enact network ties. While previous research has mostly focused on the role of past ties for tie formation, I describe how actors imagine future ties and work towards them. I find the distant future and past to be important for the forming of new and reactivation of past ties, whereas the near future and past are more focused on the maintenance of ties. The implications provide guidance to practitioners engaged in collaborative processes of innovation and entrepreneurship.