**2. The first step of the analysis: simplification and complexification cycles**

Considering the network to be a universally diffused model structure, we examine the main typologies of macro structures that make more evidently the form of governance (**Figure 2**).

In a basic evolutionary model, network macro structures span from the largest organizations (measured by the number of employed people), structured as *Network Analysis in the Information Systems Management: Implications for a Transdisciplinary… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109298*


#### **Figure 1.**

*Components of transdisciplinary model for network analysis.*

autocratic networks, to smaller organizations that can employ as few as a single person managing activities.

Once established, the decentralized network produces an increase in networking among its units and, in the next phase, the emergence of a leader organization, which centralizes some strategic functions dominating the network. This step just precedes the creation of an integrated network, restarting the cycle.

The existence of different network typologies is accepted by organizational theory [16]. The novelty comes from the studies on the motivation for these differences and of their creation.

Starting from these organizational typologies, (**Figure 2**) a hypothesis on evolutionary model of macrostructures takes as an engine of change the continuous simplification or complexification cycle, which leads to the intrinsic quality of the process/ product from one side and an extrinsic quality referred to as the network organization as a whole from the other side [17] (**Figure 3**).

According to the vision of this model, studies on the behavior of systems from the perspective of greater efficiency of performances consider that, when environmental conditions highlight the limits of a greatly integrated and autocratic organization, the drive toward decentralization begins, finding application in the fragmentation of the production process. Its extreme application uses point analysis and a focus on quality because of single actions [18, 19].


#### **Figure 2.**

*Basic structures of network governance/dimensions.*

This process is achieved by reducing the field of attention of analytical theories and methodologies that constitute a single package of phenomena that leads to a decentralized network as part of the simplification cycle [20].

*Network Analysis in the Information Systems Management: Implications for a Transdisciplinary… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109298*

With the rationalization of production and its greater repeatability, this process eventually facilitates the transition to the outsourcing of product components in external business units that become increasingly complex. External units result in greater autonomy from the parent company, favoring decentralization. Consequently, the evolutionary process moves toward a participatory network organization with specializations related to outsourcing relations centered on the production supply [21].

This evolution led some of these companies to switch to the production of increasingly complex components, allowing some of them to assume pre-eminent dimensions using positions of competitive advantage. In this phase the attention is focused on the extrinsic quality of the production, referring to the company's overall organization and the local environment from which it draws its culture. This process highlights the cycle of complexification with an expansion of the field of attention, applying synthetic methodologies, such as field analysis, and triggering a process that will again lead to centralized organizations [22].

The idea is to apply this interpretative model to the network, in general, considering that the context of a network is not strictly referred to a business organization but can be extended to a family, a condominium, a neighborhood, a city, a state, or the whole world. Once the network elements have been referred to as coherent, understanding models, the analysis can focus on the links between elements [3].
