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Embeddedness

About: Embeddedness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4773 publications have been published within this topic receiving 229721 citations.


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TL;DR: The concept of embeddedness has general applicability in the study of economic life and can alter theoretical and empirical approaches to economic behaviors as mentioned in this paper, and it has been shown that most economic action is embedded in structures of social relations.
Abstract: The concept of embeddedness has general applicability in the study of economic life and can alter theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of economic behaviors. Argues that in modern industrial societies, most economic action is embedded in structures of social relations. The author challenges the traditional economic theories that have both under- and oversocialized views of the conception of economic action and decisions that merge in their conception of economic actors atomized (separated) from their social context. Social relations are assumed to play on frictional and disruptive, not central, roles in market processes. There is, hence, a place and need for sociology in the study of economic life. Productive analysis of human action requires avoiding the atomization in the extremes of the over- and undersocialized concepts. Economic actors are neither atoms outside a social context nor slavish adherents to social scripts. The markets and hierarchies problem of Oliver Williamson (with a focus on the question of trust and malfeasance) is used to illustrate the use of embeddedness in explicating the proximate causes of patterns of macro-level interest. Answers to the problem of how economic life is not riddled with mistrust and malfeasance are linked to over- and undersocialized conceptions of human nature. The embeddedness argument, on the contrary, stresses the role of concrete personal relations and networks (or structures) in generating trust and discouraging malfeasance in economic life. It finds a middle way between the oversocialized (generalized morality) and undersocialized (impersonal institutional arrangements) approaches. The embeddedness approach opens the way for analysis of the influence of social structures on market behavior, specifically showing how business relations are intertwined with social and personal relations and networks. The approach can easily explain what looks otherwise like irrational behavior. (TNM)

439 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored whether the social network of small firm executives can be leveraged to facilitate the establishment of interfirm alliances, and found that the number of inter-firm alliances is positively related to several networking properties (propensity to network, strength of ties, and network prestige).
Abstract: In light of the increasing importance of strategic alliances in shaping competition, this study explored whether the social network of small firm executives can be leveraged to facilitate the establishment of interfirm alliances. Analyses are based on a mail survey of 149 small manufacturing firms in the northeast United States. Results indicate that the social networks of senior executives account for 11–22 percent of the variance in the degree to which firms engage in alliances, depending on the type of alliance. Results also show that the number of interfirm alliances is positively related to several networking properties (propensity to network, strength of ties, and network prestige). Findings are discussed in the context of network theory, social embeddedness, and the overall implications for management researchers and practitioners.

431 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a constructionist perspective is developed to improve our understanding of the interactions between entrepreneurs and stakeholders in all of these areas, identifying narrative and dramatic processes that describe how notions of individual and collective identity and organization are coproduced over time.
Abstract: A social dimension to business development and inertia is currently acknowledged in several accounts of learning, business models, vision building, and innovation, and through more general concepts of networking, social capital, and embeddedness. Here a constructionist perspective is developed to improve our understanding of the interactions between entrepreneurs and stakeholders in all of these areas. This identifies narrative and dramatic processes that describe how notions of individual and collective identity and organization are coproduced over time. A framework is created to show how selective and emotional processes that produce storylines, emplotment, and narrative structure support sense making and action making.

425 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the current literature surfaces disparate understandings and conclusions concerning the conduct and performance of family businesses (FBs) in the world's economies, and the authors propose a family business model to understand and conclude their conduct.
Abstract: Family businesses (FBs) play a key role in the world's economies. Unfortunately, the current literature surfaces disparate understandings and conclusions concerning their conduct and performance. M...

425 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A new theory of technology-mediated organizational change is proposed that explains the process of change as a three-stage cycle in which the ostensive, performative, and material aspects of organizational elements interact differently in each stage.
Abstract: While various theories have been proposed to explain how technology leads to organizational change, in general they have focused either on the technology and ignored the influence of human agency, or on social interaction and ignored the technology. In this paper, we propose a new theory of technology-mediated organizational change that bridges these two extremes. Using grounded theory methodology, we conducted a three-year study of an enterprise system implementation. From the data collected, we identified embeddedness as central to the process of change. When embedded in technology, organizational elements such as routines and roles acquire a material aspect, in addition to the ostensive and performative aspects identified by Feldman and Pentland (2003). Our new theory employs the lens of critical realism because in our view, common constructivist perspectives such as structuration theory or actor network theory have limited our understanding of technology as a mediator of organizational change. Using a critical realist perspective, our theory explains the process of change as a three-stage cycle in which the ostensive, performative, and material aspects of organizational elements interact differently in each stage.

417 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
2023364
2022778
2021280
2020258
2019280