In multiple chapters, Monge and Contractor have discussed the idea of network organizations. This structure holds great promise for allowing firms to balance their access and reliance upon peer entities. However, this notion comes with its share of weaknesses. Monge and Contractor suggest that a few entities may still rise to especially great power $($the "Iron Law of Oligarchy"$),$ stratifying the network organization and corrupting its otherwise egalitarian form. The "Law of N$-$Squared," which says that each entity in the network organization will quickly reach its communication capacity and be unable to form and maintain additional edges, contributes to this stratification as well as overembeddedness with the specific edges that we have already cultivated. The same goes for the "Law of Propinquity," which describes the relative likelihood of two vertices interacting$--$in this case, vertices are biased toward forming edges with easily accessible alters, which further leads the network organization toward cliques and stratification.

Clearly, there are a lot of ways for network organizations to fail, so here's a straightforward question: What can we do to counteract these forces? How can a network organization, and the individual firms that comprise it$,$ resist the structure's contamination or collapse? And how can advertising and public relations professionals within those firms help in managing the inter$-$firm relationships and keeping the desired network structure intact?