Page - (000282) - in Knowledge and Networks

279 procedure for situational organizational network analysis, SONA (Glückler & Hammer, 2012), which integrates qualitative and quantitative research methods in six consecutive phases. The case study was based on expert interviews2 with four company owners and the network spokesperson, who with his own company is also a member of the network. A customized network questionnaire was prepared from the interviews and offered to all of the network members for a standardized network survey. Of the 25 members invited, 20 participated in the study, a return rate of 80 %. The data collected in the survey was then evaluated with methods of social network analysis (Borgatti et al., 2002). The results of the network analysis and the interviews with the individual network members were presented and discussed at one of the monthly shareholder meetings to ensure communicative validation of our findings. The empirical research and data collection is based on joint contributions by Beck (2011) and Hammer, Beck, and Glückler (2012). Results Breaking Taboos Friendly imitation is based at least on goodwill, and often also on active support in transferring existing solutions to another network member. If companies violate this convention through secret, unagreed-on imitation, then conflicts in the network are inevitable. But what does breaking taboos look like when it comes to unfriendly imitation? The case of Comra.de illustrates the breaking of a taboo. The members of the Comra.de network share information on the current trends in the e- commerce sector. In late 2010 social network technology was a major issue, so members dis- cussed how Comra.de could further hone its profile in this area and generate addi- tional benefits for the network. The discussions led to the idea of developing software that would link online shops with the most frequently used social networks in the Internet, without this connection having to be initiated. Three of the member firms decided to collaborate on a project and jointly implement this idea with a fin- ished product. A fourth member firm observed their activities and broke the taboo. At a trade fair it published a press release stating that it, together with a major com- petitor outside the Comra.de network, would be the first provider to launch a stan- dard shop for social networks on the market. However, this member had never worked together with the original developers or supported the joint development: The fourth member did that alone, was not involved in the design and development, and didn’t say a word to anyone—“pssst”—and did this secretly with SellSoft, and then pub- lished the press release on this subject without saying anything to us beforehand. (Member of the original development group, November 2010) 2 All of the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded with MAXQDA. 13 Connectivity in Contiguity