Abstract

In this paper, the Authors try to identify some dimensions along which different network conceptualizations and approaches can be ordered and studied by (industrial) economists. Based on the recent studies on economic networks, it has been figured an embodied and codified knowledge matrix, as result of a multi-dimensional map based on scaling of the mainly economic industrial literature. First, this paper considers the possibilities of sectors structural investigation and after it identifies slight differences in scientific concepts and approaches adopted, finding the economic network roles and related key metrics centrality. The basic idea behind this work is that network analysis techniques applied to different sectors and at several stages of the value chain help to contextualize a set of isolated elements that are transformed into time and space through a structure of interactions and metabolic reactions, in stratified groups and communities.