This book is a major outcome from a programme of business research that has stretched over the past thirty years. The aim of the book is to set out as simply as possible the ideas that have developed from this research and what they mean for the study and practice of business. The book seeks to explain what happens in the complex networks of companies in which business takes place. The book provides an overview of the process of business interaction and an explanation of how companies work with each other interactively in business networks. The book draws conclusions about the way that business evolves and develops and about how companies can operate effectively in an interactive world. The book is illustrated throughout by case examples drawn from our research.