How do Service Providers and Clients Perceive Interorganizational Networks?

Interorganizational networks are important structures for both service providers, who must navigate them as part of their organizational roles, and clients, who use them for the purposes of receiving benefits. This research develops and tests a conceptual model that explains some of the differences in the ways that these two groups perceive these networks. Drawing on surveys/interviews with 200 clients and 63 service providers of agricultural development training in Burkina Faso, this research demonstrates that clients perceive interorganizational networks differently than service providers. In particular, these results demonstrate that service providers perceive more organizations in the network, more competitive and collaborative ties among those organizations, and more competitive ties per organization than clients. From these results, we draw implications for social network, development communication, and organizational fields’ research.