## 2 Theoretical Background
### Network Coordination in Omni-Channels
This challenge justifies the high importance placed on network coordination. Authors [60; 61] define network coordination as the effective and efficient use of the resources of all nodes of an inter-organisational network (including infrastructure, knowledge, and other resources), to achieve set goals. Network coordination aims to ensure the coherence of activities, to counteract conflicts by arranging in some purposeful order the tasks carried out by multiple participants, and to adapt participants with different attributes to the established rules through various mechanisms [59]. In line with the concept presented in the paper, we have assumed that forms of network coordination indicate the source of the coordinator's authority, giving him or her the power to coordinate the network through any set of mechanisms. Some authors [62] list a set of three forms of coordination:market, hierarchical, and social, which together occur in networks. Another author [63] details these into mechanisms: price (e.g., price, bilateral collateral), non-price (e.g., trust, social standards, decision-making style), and flow (e.g., VMI, QR, CPFR). Hierarchy-driven mechanisms prevail in the enterprise. Going beyond the single organisation and analysing distribution networks, one can see the increasing importance of mechanisms related to the market form of coordination. One and the other mechanisms are strongly intertwined with mechanisms characteristic of the social form of coordination. These three types of groups of mechanisms are most often discussed in the literature in the context of network coordination. Among the mechanisms characteristic of the market form, what is usually mainly described is the price [63], but also formal relationships and bilateral collateral. Among the mechanisms characteristic of the hierarchical form, he identifies structures and control systems resulting from management styles, bureaucratic allocation of resources, budgeting, and organisational integration. A distinguishing feature of the hierarchical form of coordination is the power that one actor acquires over others through knowledge. This is an important point, as there are no organisational structures characteristic of companies in networks. Thus, the source of power is not subordination in the organisational structure but the fact that one organisation has more knowledge and capacity to use it than the other organisations. This organisation naturally becomes the coordinator. Among the mechanisms attributed to social coordination, however, he mentions trust, communication systems, and information exchange as well as social standards [58]. Since distribution networks are systems oriented towards reliably fulfilling customer orders and ensuring that products are available where and when the customer wants to purchase and receive them, we supplemented the indicated forms of coordination with a logistical form. The logistical form of coordination is oriented towards the selection of such coordination mechanisms, which ensure the timely, complete, and damage-free realisation of distribution processes to the place indicated by the customer. This addition to the network coordination construct is the result of the indicated challenges posed by the logistics handling of omni-channel systems. In omni-channel distribution, flow mechanisms that affect the timeliness and completeness of implemented orders become particularly important. This group of mechanisms is insufficiently discussed in the literature. The set of flow mechanisms will constitute the construct of logistical coordination in the research. As logistical coordination is aimed at reliable process execution (i.e., the timely, damage-free, and complete fulfilment of customer orders), also under the impact of disruptions, it can be assumed that the selection of flow coordination mechanisms simultaneously aims to strengthen the resilience of the distribution system [64].