Using actors' perceptions of network roles and positions to understand network dynamics

► This study relates three main concepts in industrial marketing: network change, network position, and network role. ► We explore network dynamics by analysing how actors make sense of time and space in business networks, and how they act based on these perceptions. ► Differences in actors' interpretations and enactments of their network role are necessary to explain their networking activities. ► Actors' ability to change their network position is dependent on a shared interpretation of network roles between the network actors. ► We use an extensive case study of the changing distribution structure for seafood in Norway and Japan to exemplify these points.