The Italian network contract: a “new” form of networking with “old” rules? Genesis, dynamics and challenges

The paper analyses a recent form of inter-organizational network form – the so-called “network contract”(NC) - introduced by the Italian government and aimed to sustain firms’ cooperation and innovation. NC is investigated in order to highlight its main strengths and weaknesses and the major challenges they pose are also discussed. Findings demonstrate that NCs can be considered an interesting formal option for managing inter-organizational networks under some specific conditions in terms of governance and relational dynamics and that they could have significant impact on member firms’ performance