This paper discusses the performance evaluation of interorganizational networks from an interpretative approach, which offers a particular concept about organizations and how they are formed based on the sensemaking of its individuals. We take as argument that the sensemaking process within and between business networks causes different perspectives about the meaning of cooperative relationships among the individual participants. The contribution of the interpretative approach to network performance evaluation allows accepting the subjective dimension of these organizational forms, as the production of different meanings also affect the entrepreneurs' perceptions in evaluating the results of the cooperative arrangement. This paper proposes a model of network performance evaluation, accepting and incorporating a procedural approach and integrating the interpretative approach of sensemaking. Impossible to correct this one, I suspect the Port is just as bad.
Small-firm networks; Interorganizational networks; Performance evaluation; Interpretative approach; Sensemaking