Network and egocentric uncertainty : relationships among art galleries in the contemporary art system

Our paper addresses the macro-issue of the relationship between uncertainty and inter-organizational relationships. The issue is important for management in very different industries and markets. For example, anytime assessing the quality of products and services involves ambiguous evaluations, and suppliers and customer’s decisions are based on subjective judgments, social interactions take on a great importance on both sides of the market in the construction of value. This is particularly true in the wine industry, in the fashion goods industry and in other very different industries involved in cultural and symbolic goods. The question is important for theorists too. Among the most known discussions of the issue is Pfeffer and Salancik’ (1978) study on the resource dependency of organizations, that related uncertainty to social interaction in the form of interorganizational relationships. We embrace the Podolny’s (2005) theoretical framework which relates different types of market uncertainty (egocentric uncertainty