Journal ArticleDOI
Structural Holes and Good Ideas.
TLDR
In this article, the authors outline the mechanism by which brokerage provides social capital, and show that between-group brokers are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely have ideas evaluated as valuable.Abstract:
This article outlines the mechanism by which brokerage provides social capital. Opinion and behavior are more homogeneous within than between groups, so people connected across groups are more familiar with alternative ways of thinking and behaving. Brokerage across the structural holes between groups provides a vision of options otherwise unseen, which is the mechanism by which brokerage becomes social capital. I review evidence consistent with the hypothesis, then look at the networks around managers in a large American electronics company. The organization is rife with structural holes, and brokerage has its expected correlates. Compensation, positive performance evaluations, promotions, and good ideas are disproportionately in the hands of people whose networks span structural holes. The between-group brokers are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely to have ideas evaluated as valuable. I close with implications for creativity and structural change.read more
Citations
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Affect and Creativity at Work
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored how affect relates to creativity at work using both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data from the daily diaries of 222 employees in seven companies, and examined the nature, form, and temporal dynamics of the affect-creativity relationship.
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Empirical Analysis of an Evolving Social Network
TL;DR: This work analyzed a dynamic social network comprising 43,553 students, faculty, and staff at a large university, in which interactions between individuals are inferred from time-stamped e-mail headers recorded over one academic year and are matched with affiliations and attributes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Social Networks, the Tertius Iungens Orientation, and Involvement in Innovation:
TL;DR: This article examined the microprocesses in the social networks of those involved in organizational innovation and their strategic behavioral orientation toward connecting people in their social network by either introducing disconnected individuals or facilitating new coordination between connected individuals.
Journal ArticleDOI
Collaboration and Creativity: The Small World Problem 1
Brian Uzzi,Jarrett Spiro +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the small world network of the creative artists who made Broadway musicals from 1945 to 1989 and found that the varying "small world" properties of the systemic level network of these artists affected their creativity in terms of the financial and artistic performance of the musicals they produced.
A model of creativity and innovation in organizations
TL;DR: In this paper, Amabile et al. define innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization and define it as a starting point for innovation; the first is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the second.
References
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The Strength of Weak Ties
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TL;DR: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as discussed by the authors is a seminal work in the history of science and philosophy of science, and it has been widely cited as a major source of inspiration for the present generation of scientists.
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Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities.