Reviews and Overviews ‘‘Between Hierarchies & Markets, The logic and the limits of network forms of organization’’ By Grahame F. Thompson, Oxford University Press, 2003 AMERICO CICCHETTI Department of Management and Technology, University G.dÕAnnunzio, Chieti-Pescara, Italy (E-mail: a.cicchetti@unich.it) Scholars in different disciplines are paying more and more attention to the concept of network and to the implications of this organizational logic for economics, business, politics, sociology, epidemiology, and so on. According to Salancick (1995), ‘‘network analysis corrects a tendency in organizational theory to focus on the trees rather than the forest, on the action of individual organizations rather than on the organization of their action’’. Nevertheless, Salancick as well as many other scholars pointed out that networks ‘‘were often used as tools for analyzing data about organizations rather than understanding organizations per se’’ to draw a ‘‘network theory’’. This book explicitly addresses an audience of undergraduate students, yet it provides interesting arguments for scholars in organizational disciplines in search of a good network theory. This book cannot be considered as a dis- ciplinary exercise; it is rather a multidisciplinary work for those interested in networks in those disciplines that use this metaphor to explain particular modes of socio-economic co-ordination. In my opinion, the mission can be considered for the most part accomplished. Nevertheless, the perspective of the political economist can be found in the general approach and declared objectives of the book. Thompson conducted a survey on the ways in which the word network (and not the concept) has been used and applied in a wide range of literature in the socio-economic field. All scholars agree that the word, as well as the concept are ambiguous because the term network is often used as a metaphor more than an analytical concept. The most important difference being between network as a distinctive form, vs. network as a technique or method for analyzing complex systems in a relational way. The author has clear in mind that we can talk about networks as a method of Journal of Management and Governance (2005) 9:199–203 Ó Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s10997-005-4036-7