| Interorganizational Networks and Social Structure: Status Groups in the Population of Canadian Business Schools |
| | David, Robert J. | Cornell U. | rjd13@cornell.edu | (607)-255-5517 |
| | In this paper, I investigate the sociological contention that interorganizational exchange relationships lead to status hierarchies within populations of similar organizations, and that the costs and benefits faced by organizations depend on their positions within these hierarchies. Specifically, I analyze the social structure present in the population of Canadian business schools. I examine two types of exchange relationships: faculty hiring within the population, and faculty hiring from sources outside the population. Results point to a high-status, exclusive clique of six schools that tend to exchange personnel only among themselves and draw a large proportion of their faculty members from prestigious universities in the United States. Moreover, I show that organizational status, or position within the social hierarchy, is related to important outcomes such as access to top students and favorable perceptions of quality. Findings also reveal that the Canadian business school population is heavily reliant on the United States for its faculty members, suggesting that business education in Canada is likely to follow an American model. Most Francophone schools, however, do not follow this trend, hiring heavily from overseas schools instead. Finally, the exclusive nature of the high-status clique uncovered here suggests that the social structure of the population is likely to be self-reproducing. In sum, these results shed light on the antecedents and consequences of status hierarchies within organizational populations in general, and on the social structure of the Canadian business school population in particular. |
| | Keywords: Interorganizational Networks; Social Structure; Status |
| Learning through networks: Effects of partner experience on acquisition premiums |
| | Haunschild, Pamela | Stanford U. | Pamela_Haunschild@gsb.stanford.edu | 650-723-1527 |
| | Beckman, Christine M. | Stanford U. | Beckman_Christine@gsb.stanford.edu | 650-723-4877 |
| | There is a strong emphasis in organizational theory on imitation as a basis of firm action. Firms do what others are doing, and the explanations for this effect tend to center on normative pressures, cultural models, and legitimation of activities. The result is a model whereby firms import the practices of others as is, with little modification. In this study, we introduce a different theory of action. It is one where organizations learn by sampling network partner experience. Both sample size and sample heterogeneity/homogeneity are likely to affect the basis upon which firms make decisions and thus, some partner experience configurations will result in better decisions by focal firms than others. We test our theory using data on acquisition premiums paid from 1986-1993. We find that firms tied to others with heterogeneous prior premium experience tend to make better decisions themselves (i.e., pay less for their acquisitions) than those tied to others with homogeneous experience. Being tied to others with a large quantity of experience also results in paying less. These results support our learning model, where network configurations significantly affect the quality of firm decisions. The imitation theories, however, receive support for more homogeneous networks, as firms in these networks tend to repeat the prior decisions of their network partners. The results of this study highlight the effects of network partner experience on firm decision quality, and illuminate factors that moderate the relationship between networks and learning. |
| | Keywords: learning; networks; acquisitions |
| The exchange of experience in a moral economy: Embedded ties and vicarious learning in kibbutz agriculture |
| | Ingram, Paul | Columbia U. | pi17@columbia.edu | 212-854-2740 |
| | Simons, Tal | Tel Aviv U. | tsimons@post.tau.ac.il | 972-3-640-6492 |
| | Embedded ties between organizations facilitate vicarious learning by increasing the opportunity and motivation to share experience, and the capacity to communicate its meaning. They also form the basis of a moral economy within groups of tied organizations, where concrete resources are exchanged for compliance with other group interests. Our analysis of the profitability of kibbutz agriculture shows how embedded ties promoted learning between tied kibbutzim, and formed the basis of a normative structure which encouraged cooperation towards economic, political and social goals. Kibbutzim were made more profitable by the experience of others when they had embedded ties to those others, though the sharing of experience was partly dependent on compliance with ideological norms of tied groups. |
| | Keywords: embedded ties,; vicarious learning,; organizational groups |
| The Impact of Illegal/Unethical Corporate Behavior on Interorganizational Networks |
| | Ni, Bilian | Stanford U. | Bilian_Ni@gsb.stanford.edu | (650)-497-6771 |
| | Haunschild, Pamela | Stanford U. | Pamela_Haunschild@gsb.stanford.edu | 650-723-1527 |
| | Page, Karen L. | Stanford U. | Karen_Page@gsb.stanford.edu | (650)-497-1279 |
| | While some studies have suggested that interfirm networks can affect
unethical or illegal behavior in organizations, few have examined the
reverse: how interfirm networks can be affected by unethical or illegal
firm behaviors. Through an examination of over a hundred Fortune 300 US
firms, this study provides empirical evidence to demonstrate the impact of
illegal or unethical firm acts on interfirm networks. This study found
that illegal or unethical firm acts negatively affected the number of a
firm's total and received interlock ties. These findings support the
hypotheses derived from a legitimacy perspective, which suggests that
concerns of legitimacy can connect firms together but also can distance
firms from one another. Therefore, this study further our understanding of
how legitimacy serves as an important drive for organizational behavior
and how the institutional environment shapes inter-organizational social
relationships. Findings from this study have important implications for
studies on firm adoption, imitation and learning of business practices.
|
| | Keywords: interfirm networks; illegal acts; legitimacy |