Steven B. Andrews

Bio: Steven B. Andrews is an academic researcher from University of Texas at Austin. The author has contributed to research in topics: Decision support system & Health care. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 15 publications receiving 13176 citations. Previous affiliations of Steven B. Andrews include Dartmouth College.

Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition.

Abstract: The study analyzes the social structure of competition. It addresses the consequences of voids in relational and resource networks. Competitive behavior can be understood in terms of player access to \"holes\" in the social structure of the competitive arena. Those \"structural holes\" are network gaps between players which create entrepreneurial opportunities for information access, timing, referrals, and for control. A player brings capital to the competitive arena and walks away with profit determined by the rate of return where the capital was invested. The rate of return is keyed to the social structure of the competitive arena. Each player brings three kinds of capital to the competitive arena: financial capital, such as money and investments; human capital, such as his or her natural qualities and skills; and social capital, i.e. networks of other players. Social capital is the final determinant of competitive success. Something about the structure of a player's network (his or her relations with other players, such as colleagues, friends, and clients), and the location of the player's network in the structure of the arena defines the player's chances of getting higher rates of return. These chances are enhanced by two kinds of network benefits for those who can exploit structural holes: information and control. Opportunities for success are many, but it is information that plays a central role in seizing them; structural holes determine who knows about opportunities, what they know, and who gets to participate. Structural holes also generate control benefits, giving certain players an advantage in negotiating their relationships. Following sociological theory, a player who derives benefit from structural holes by brokering relationships between other conflicted players is called tertius gaudens. The essential tension in tertius strategies is not hostility of participants, but rather uncertainty; no one has absolute authority in the relationship under negotiation. The findings of empirical research indicate that structural holes are advantageous to suppliers and customers, but not to producers in their negotiated transactions, because suppliers and customers benefit from competition among producers. The information and control benefits of structural holes are advantageous to managers, and the managers who develop those benefits are an asset to the firm employing them. Managers with networks rich in structural holes often reach promotion faster. Hole effects are most evident for managers operating on a social frontier, i.e. in places where two social worlds meet. Social frontiers involve continual negotiations of the expectations of the manager and those of the people across the frontier, and thus more entrepreneurial skill is required. The most serious frontier is the political boundary between top leadership and the rest of the firm. To move up the corporate ladder, a manager has to transform his or her frame of reference from that of an employee protected by the firm, to that of a leader responsible for the firm. The findings also indicate that women and entry-rank men tend to be promoted earlier because they build hierarchical networks around a strategic partner who helps them break into higher ranks. Although the reported differences between the manager networks have clear implications for promotions, there are no differences among managers in their tendencies to have one network rather than another, which is especially striking with respect to the sex and rank differences that are observed to be important in distinguishing network effects. Structural holes provide a theoretical connection between micro and macro levels of sociological analysis. The structural hole argument extends other theories, such as personality theory, interface theory of markets and population ecology, and resource dependence and transaction cost theory

Power, Social Influence, and Sense Making: Effects of Network Centrality and Proximity on Employee Perceptions.

Abstract: Funding for this study was generously supplied by the Organizational Behavior Department of Yale University and the Harvard Business School Division of Research. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Sunbelt International Social Network Conference, San Diego, 1990 and the Academy of Management Annual Meetings, Miami, 1991. The authors are grateful to Paul DiMaggio, David Krackhardt, Peter Marsden, and Ron Rice for helpful suggestions. We also profited greatly from comments provided by Marshall Meyer and this journal's reviewers. This paper explores the hypothesis that network interaction patterns affect employee perceptions through two conceptually and empirically distinguishable mechanisms: localized social influence based on network proximity and systemic power based on network centrality. The study explores the relative contributions of individual attributes, formal organizational positions, network centrality, and network proximity in explaining individual variation in perceptions of work-related conditions in an advertising firm. Results suggest that network factors shape job-related perceptions, over and above the effects of individual attributes and formal positions. Both advice network centrality and friendship network proximity evidenced significant effects, although they were stronger for centrality than for proximity.'

Network Position and Firm Performance: Organizational Returns to Collaboration in the Biotechnology Industry

Abstract: We examine the relationship between position in a network of relationships and organizational performance Drawing on ten years of observations (1988-1997) for nearly 400 firms in the human biotechnology industry, we utilize three types of panel regressions to unravel the complex linkages between network structure, patenting, and various firm-level outcome measures Our results highlight the critical role of collaboration in determining the competitive advantage of individual biotech firms and in driving the evolution of the industry We also find that there are decreasing returns to network experience and diversity, suggesting that there are limits to the learning that occurs through interorganizational networks

Networks In and Around Organizations

Abstract: Bringing in time - dynamics of network structure: on the evolution of social and organizational networks, Kathleen M. Carley the dynamics of inter-organizational relationships, Mark Ebers. Conceptualizing organizations and environments: local and global institutional processes, Patrick Doreian, Katherine L. Woodard make or buy? the relationships and the organization of a firm's financial capital structure - the case of the middle market, Brian Uzi, James J. Gillespie. Networks and organizational performance: network position and firm performance - organizational returns to collaboration in the biotechnology industry, Walter W. Powell et al positional consequences of strategic alliances in the semiconductor industry, Toby E. Stuart, Joel M. Podolny the ties that torture - Simmelians tie analysis in organizations, David Krakhardt. Identities and meanings in networks: organizational structures, cultures and identities - overlaps and divergences, Steven B. Andrews et al networks of competitive advantage, Joe Galaskiewicz, Akbar Zaheer organizational constraints on personal network formation, Pamela A. Popielarz.

Back to basics: Learning about employee energy and motivation from running on my treadmill

Abstract: In an effort to understand how to optimize employee energy at work, we borrow from the sports physiology literature to develop and test several concepts that have now been used in more than 75 large and small organizations (e.g., automobile firms, banks, hospitals, manufacturing, high technology, service businesses, financial services, and more). Our focus on employee energy led us to develop new measures and processes for our research. The resulting studies presented in this article test two hypotheses focusing on the link between employee energy, turnover, job performance, and job satisfaction. Consistent with what we know about athletic performance, we found that energy is an optimization construct and that variation in employee energy at work has detrimental consequences for performance and satisfaction. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage

Abstract: Scholars of the theory of the firm have begun to emphasize the sources and conditions of what has been described as “the organizational advantage,” rather than focus on the causes and consequences of market failure. Typically, researchers see such organizational advantage as accruing from the particular capabilities organizations have for creating and sharing knowledge. In this article we seek to contribute to this body of work by developing the following arguments: (1) social capital facilitates the creation of new intellectual capital; (2) organizations, as institutional settings, are conducive to the development of high levels of social capital; and (3) it is because of their more dense social capital that firms, within certain limits, have an advantage over markets in creating and sharing intellectual capital. We present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces...

The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage

Abstract: In this article we offer a view that suggests that a firm's critical resources may span firm boundaries and may be embedded in interfirm resources and routines. We argue that an increasingly important unit of analysis for understanding competitive advantage is the relationship between firms and identify four potential sources of interorganizational competitive advantage: (1) relation-specific assets, (2) knowledge-sharing routines, (3) complementary resources/capabilities, and (4) effective governance. We examine each of these potential sources of rent in detail, identifying key subprocesses, and also discuss the isolating mechanisms that serve to preserve relational rents. Finally, we discuss how the relational view may offer normative prescriptions for firm-level strategies that contradict the prescriptions offered by those with a resource-based view or industry structure view.

Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness

Abstract: This chapter aims to develop one of perhaps multiple specifications of embeddedness, a concept that has been used to refer broadly to the contingent nature of economic action with respect to cognition, social structure, institutions, and culture. Research on embeddedness is an exciting area in sociology and economics because it advances understanding of how social structure affects economic life. The chapter addresses propositions about the operation and outcomes of interfirm networks that are guided implicitly by ceteris paribus assumptions. While economies of time due to embeddedness have obvious benefits for the individual firm, they also have important implications for allocative efficiency and the determination of prices. Under the conditions, social processes that increase integration combine with resource dependency problems to increase the vulnerability of networked organizations. The level of investment in an economy promotes positive changes in productivity, standards of living, mobility, and wealth generation.

Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept

Abstract: A growing number of sociologists, political scientists, economists, and organizational theorists have invoked the concept of social capital in the search for answers to a broadening range of questions being confronted in their own fields. Seeking to clarify the concept and help assess its utility for organizational theory, we synthesize the theoretical research undertaken in these various disciplines and develop a common conceptual framework that identifies the sources, benefits, risks, and contingencies of social capital.

The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits.

Abstract: This paper combines the concept of weak ties from social network research and the notion of complex knowledge to explain the role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organization subunits in a...