Structural holes

About: Structural holes is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 737 publications have been published within this topic receiving 111285 citations.

Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness

Abstract: How behavior and institutions are affected by social relations is one of the classic questions of social theory. This paper concerns the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society. Although the usual neoclasical accounts provide an "undersocialized" or atomized-actor explanation of such action, reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong. Under-and oversocialized accounts are paradoxically similar in their neglect of ongoing structures of social relations, and a sophisticated account of economic action must consider its embeddedness in such structures. The argument in illustrated by a critique of Oliver Williamson's "markets and hierarchies" research program.

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

Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF COMPETITION Opportunity and Capital Information Structural Holes Control and the Tertius Gaudens Entrepreneurs Secondary Holes Structural Autonomy Summary 2. FORMALIZING THE ARGUMENT Network Data Redundancy Constraint Hole Signature Structural Autonomy Summary 3. TURNING A PROFIT Product Networks and Market Profit The Study Population Hole Effects Market Hole Signatures Summary Appendix: Weighing Alternatives 4. GETTING AHEAD Contact Networks and Manager Achievement The Study Population Hole Effects Hierarchy Institutional Holes Selecting a Network Summary Appendix A: Weighing Alternatives Appendix B: Causal Order 5. PLAYER-STRUCTURE DUALITY Structural Unit of Analysis Players and Structures Escape from Attributes No Escape Summary 6. COMMIT AND SURVIVE Holes and Heterogeneity Interface and the Commit Hypothesis Population Ecology and the Survival Hypothesis Summary 7. STRATEGIC EMBEDDING AND INSTITUTIONAL RESIDUE The Other Tertius Strategy Hypothesis Formal Organization as Social Residue Personality as Emotional Residue Summary Notes References Index

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.

Collaboration Networks, Structural Holes, and Innovation: A Longitudinal Study:

Abstract: To assess the effects of a firm's network of relations on innovation, this paper elaborates a theoretical framework that relates three aspects of a firm's ego network—direct ties, indirect ties, an...