Tracing the affective journey of an interorganizational network: Positive and negative cycles of relational energy in a network space

Abstract

While there is a lot of research on emotions at the small group level, we lack an understanding of the role of emotions at the large group level, including in interorganizational relationships. This study contributes to filling this important gap in the literature by studying the emotions in an interorganizational network longitudinally over a period of six years. The data reveal how the network offers a particular kind of space in which relational energy emerges, amplifies, can deplete, and can be re-set and turned around. The findings show how network emotions are recursively related to network outcomes, specifically the extent to which the common goal is achieved. This paper contributes to the growing literature on emotions in organization studies by shifting attention toward the important role of context, and it theorizes the interorganizational network as a particular kind of context where individuals interact in a semi-structured manner, with important implications for the interdependent relationship between individual emotions, relational energy, and network properties and outcomes.