Objective – Institutionalism as an adaptation theory has contributed tounderstanding of the changing characteristics in governance structures.At the same time, community ecology has enhanced the evaluation ofchange within organizational communities. This study aims to analyzethe relations and interactions of a business network, using institutionalecology concepts.Design/methodology/approach – We applied the methods ofinstitutionalism, as an adaptation theory, and community ecology, asevolution theory, in a network comprised of 45 businesses. Data forthe flow of resources and institutional ecology were obtained using twoseparate instruments (designed by the researchers). Netdraw was usedto graphically represent the various layers of the network and Ucinet6 to generate the matrices.Findings – While theory identifies information, services, decisions,solutions and money as resources, as far as the workers in the businessesresearched are concerned, the first four flow naturally within thebusiness network, but money is perceived as a resource that shouldalways originate in the other nodes of the ecosystem.Practical implications – Network stakeholders will make decisionsthat both strengthen relations among the members of the institutionalarrangement and support the selection of institutional contexts morefavorable to performing their activities.Contributions – This is the first work that applies economicevolutionarytheories in order to analyze the relations and interactionswithin a business network.