The concept of horizontal hierarchy and the organization of interorganizational networks: A comparative analysis

This paper is an attempt to describe the organization of interorganizational fields with the concept of horizontal hierarchy. It specifies certain structural properties of interorganizational field based on different types of linkages between organizations, and develops testable hypotheses by focusing on the interrelationships between the properties of these linkages within the conceptual definition of horizontal hierarchy. These hypotheses are later tested on data collected from manpower organizations in 17 communities of a large midwestern state.