Economics of Business Networks: Theory and Empirics of the Structure and Properties of the Network among Trading Firms

Abstract

In trading relations and marketing of products of producing firms, network relations of dealers play an important role in the delivery of products and consumer satisfaction. Such dealer networks are strategically formed and the resulting network structure implies important properties. From simple random graphs to complex networks, the properties are evaluated with different parameters. This paper attempts to understand the topology of such an empirical network of dealer relations in marketing. The estimated network parameters are compared with the simulated structures of the standard network topologies of random graph, scale free, p and rewired lattice networks. The results show that the empirical dealer network is close to that of a rewired lattice structure of social networks.