Get knetted: network behaviour in the new economy

Abstract

Knowledge networks, knets, will be the predominant form for successful companies in the twenty‐first century. The enabler for knets is network behaviour. This is a focus on social wiring that is necessary to unleash the collective intelligence from connected, multiple nodes. This paper provides a first view of network behaviour. The results are based on the responses to a web‐based network quiz from more than 130 people in various organisations across the world. It shows that people believe in network behaviour but appear to be encumbered by current organisational forms. The risk for those who cannot develop network behaviour is isolation, caused by the even deeper social fragmentation created by unilateral technological progress.