Organizational inscriptions of network pictures: A meso-level analysis

This paper deals with organizational inscriptions of managerial cognitions elaborating on the emerging concept of network pictures. While previous studies on network pictures have concentrated on individual managers' cognitive views of business networks, this study operates on a focal company level (meso-level) and is concerned with how managerial cognitions are manifested in organizational artifacts, which in turn guide business activities. The paper presents a typological model of traces of such inscriptions, which, thereby, becomes a means to capture managers' interactive sense-making of a company's network. We identify organizational inscriptions of managerial cognitions in the areas of strategy, organization, systems, processes, and budgets. Using a comparative-static case study involving mergers and acquisitions of a focal company over time, we exemplify the different organizational inscriptions.

► The paper addresses the research gap between managers' cognition and company activities on a network level.
► We present a typological model to capture organizational inscriptions of individuals' sense-making.
► Organizational inscriptions are found in strategies, organizations, system, processes, and budgets.
► The inscriptions have consequences for the inclusion/exclusion of actors, interaction modes, and resource allocations.
► Managers, but also staff members and contextual factors impact the inscriptions.