Orchestrating Knowledge Networks: Alter-Oriented Brokering

In knowledge networks, such as best-practice networks, industry forums, and professional communities, members of different organizations exchange knowledge for mutual and individual benefit. When properly managed, knowledge networks enable time- and resource-constrained individuals to engage across organizational and industry boundaries. Such networks often involve deliberate orchestration by a hub actor (individual, team, or organization), often referred to as the orchestrator. Orchestration in a network of individuals is essentially a form of brokering behavior. While most previous studies of orchestration and brokerage have adopted a broker-centric perspective, the present study advances an alter-oriented account of how brokering behavior influences relationships to create knowledge-related benefits for individual network members. Drawing on interviews with 51 members of a Belgian knowledge network focusing on best practices in research and development, this study explores the orchestrator's brokering behavior and ensuing benefits for network members. Based on these findings, the study describes an integrative model of alter-oriented brokering processes that modify, intermediate, and maintain relationships among alters in orchestrated knowledge networks. The study contributes by conceptualizing alter-orientation as a distinct brokering behavior, by unpacking the microfoundations of brokering in knowledge network orchestration, and by demonstrating the dynamics between knowledge and social dimensions of knowledge network orchestration.