Taking Stock of Networks and Organizations: A Multilevel Perspective.

The central argument of network research is that actors are embedded in networks of interconnected social relationships that offer opportunities for and constraints on behavior. We review research on the antecedents and consequences of networks at the interpersonal, interunit, and interorganizational levels of analysis, evaluate recent theoretical and empirical trends, and give directions for future research, highlighting the importance of investigating cross-level network phenomena. The order of authorship is alphabetical, reflecting equal contributions from the four authors. We thank all reviewers and authors who helped make this special research forum possible, and above all we thank Tom Lee for his strong support throughout this process. A quarter century of social network research in management journals has resulted in the accumulation of many findings in recent years (see, for example, Borgatti and Foster 2003 for a recent