How risk considerations can affect inter-organization relationship decisions

The new trends in inter-organization relationships push towards network solutions: companies are interested in relationships with partners and customers to overcome resource dependence, enter too risky market or simply differentiate their business portfolio. The present study focuses on network organization aiming at highlighting threats and opportunities to investigate the double nature of the risk concept. In literature the risk concept is often associated to the amount and probability of business losses and the effort is on manage the risk at operative level. In this paper the risk is evaluated in pair with the opportunities is brought in and the risk management is tackled both at strategic and operative level. The aim is then to investigate risk characteristics in network environment and provide a decision support tool able to control risk in designing and running network organization.