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Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness
... The embeddedness concept considers TME as a reciprocally constitutive interaction between the individual, the local, and further outer social contexts. In this respect, a close connection to the work of Granovetter (1985Granovetter ( , 2005 and Polanyi (1957) becomes apparent. Both scholars theorize that no forms of economic activity or actors' behaviors occur in a sociocultural and institutional vacuum but are embedded in concrete systems of social relations (Granovetter 1985, 487), which Malecki (2011) refers to as EEs. ...
... Both scholars theorize that no forms of economic activity or actors' behaviors occur in a sociocultural and institutional vacuum but are embedded in concrete systems of social relations (Granovetter 1985, 487), which Malecki (2011) refers to as EEs. More precisely, Granovetter (1985) argues that economic transactions must necessarily be embedded in social ties of trust, mutual obligation, personal sentiment, and face-toface communication rather than in formal, contractual, and official bureaucratic procedures. Following this, Oinas presented the framework of spatial embeddedness in 1997. ...
... The third case illustrates the role of the transnational phase as the seed of entrepreneurship, triggering nascent returnee entrepreneurship and later international business operations. In this process, the EEs on both sides play an essential role as containers (Granovetter 1985;Polanyi 1957), in which the TMEs can turn their ideas into action by forming social ties and embedding themselves in the entrepreneurial culture and business market. In turn, the EEs are shaped by the TMEs and can benefit from their transnational connections and the multifocal practices and imported ideas, finances, cultures, and knowledge (David, Schaefer, and Terstriep 2021;Elo and Silva 2022;Szymanski, Valderrey Villar, and Cervantes Zepeda 2021). ...
Multifocal practices allow transnational migrant entrepreneurs (TMEs) to access extended opportunity structures in diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). National and regional regulations, customer relations, market demands, networks, and country-specific entrepreneurial statuses facilitate the strategic coupling of informal and formal business structures toward hybrid business models. However, "how" TMEs innovate and develop approaches to build from informal, formal business models in parallel across national borders remains largely underexplored. Our multiple case study presents three Polish-German TMEs who operate on a multifocal basis in different ecosystems. The longitude study of these entrepreneurs illustrates how transna-tional migrant businesses can change the owners' power dynamics, habitus, and feelings of belonging while counteracting social exclusion and self-discrimination. Our study contributes to the theoretical debate by illuminating the pathway between informality and formality facilitated by migrant entrepreneurs' transnational business models and their multifocal practices, possibly turning into transnational embeddedness in two or more ecosystems.
... Market actors, both individuals and organizations, use these institutions as guidelines to direct their actions as they pursue their interests in the market. This aligns with Granovetter (1985), who posits that institutions are crucial for shaping economic behavior, where social interactions in conventional market arenas become the focal point for forming formal and informal economic elements. ...
... Therefore, the analysis of the willingness to sell (WTS) in online markets also needs to focus on social-digital interactions that occur within the reputation system, where the internet mediates social interactions. Given the perspective that actors' actions are not passively or rigidly compliant with the scripts written for them (Granovetter, 1985), Nee (2010) develops the perspective of new institutional economic sociology. In this perspective, the rationality of actors in economic actions is situated with reference to institutional elements, such as customs, networks, norms, cultural beliefs, and institutional arrangements. ...
... Therefore, the analysis of formal and informal elements confirms Nee's (2010) idea of two functioning mechanisms from micro to macro levels and vice versa, thus inseparable from each other. At this point, a perspective prioritizing multi-level social relationships in explaining institutional frameworks and economic behavior surpasses Granovetter's (1985) perspective, which emphasizes ties in the context of social networks. In this case, the micro level consists of digital-social interactions in the reputation system driven by the desire to purchase electronic products from trusted sellers. ...
This study examines the features and big data consisting of digital trace records from economic actions within Bukalapak's reputation system and their impact on the willingness to sell (WTS) electronic products. Digital mixed content analysis was used to analyze the rapidly evolving digital-social-based economic institution infrastructure. Data were collected, analyzed, and visualized using Python and analyzed using the concepts of new economic institutions and WTS. The findings indicate that the reputation system is a formal element comprising algorithms, rules, scripts, and patterns. This system facilitates social processes through feedback mechanisms in product descriptions, comments, reviews, ratings, and badges, which generate informal elements such as norms, trust, and symbolic values. These two elements are interconnected into an institutional framework whose function is to ensure that the market, characterized by high levels of anonymous transactions, uncertainty, and asymmetric information, can remain stable and meet the expectations of the actors involved.
... Industrial organization theory and internal source theory cannot explain why companies differ in profitability (Jarillo, 1988). Organizations are not isolated entities, and market is not impersonal; quite the reverse, organizations are embedded in networks of social and professional relationships and exchanges with other organizational actors (Galaskiewicz & Zaheer, 1999;Granovetter, 1985;Gulati, 1998). ...
... Regarding social ties in networks, Contador et al. (2023) corroborate the existence of trust, commitment and cooperation and clarify that there is a convergence on the importance of these elements as they are a source of competitive advantage (Gulati et al., 2000). Trust influences commitment, which together favor the reduction of transaction costs (Granovetter, 1985) and create value, including through learning and improving complementary assets, despite conflicts, contingencies, and moral risks (Wang & Rajagopalan, 2015). ...
... Identify the nature, ways and conditions of effecting the intimate relationship between trust, commitment and cooperation, as "Trust and commitment are related and together enable cooperation between organizations" (Hunt & Morgan, 1994), '[…] favor transaction cost reduction" (Granovetter, 1985) and " […] can be competitive advantage sources […]" (Contador et al., 2023;Gulati et al., 2000). ...
Objective: This theoretical essay aims to present the compound of socioeconomic ties between companies that operate in a business network, whose finality is to increase the company's competitiveness. The compound was developed from the effort to combine and harmoniously integrate three theoretical foundations — business networks theory, transaction cost theory and relational view. Method: The methodology has characteristics of an exploratory study to develop a theoretical essay and adopts the deductive method from the three theories mentioned. The research question was: Which elements of the three theories have the potential to substantiate the compound of interorganizational socioeconomic ties existing in a business network? Main Results: Six components of the compound of socioeconomic ties were identified: interorganizational relational experience, interdependence, technological symmetry, relationship length, transactions frequency, and finality. Relevance / Originality: There are indications that the compound is original, as no other equal was found in the literature. Thus, it expands knowledge of the administration science and managerial practice. Theoretical / Methodological Contributions: For academic researchers, the compound makes it possible to understand the six components that characterize the essence of a socioeconomic tie, an essence that guides and facilitates research development on business networks, whether from a competitive or a cooperative viewpoint. For organizational managers, the compound enables them to understand the essential points of the relationship and instrumentalizes them to establish objective and effective interorganizational relationships with any company type, whether a competitor or a partner with which the company cooperates.
... Starting from a thin notion of contract, the sociological approach foregrounds the problem of how an economy organized around market exchange nevertheless achieves some measure of stability (Streeck 1992). In the sociological approach, then, order must be supplied by institutions external to contract (whether law or norms in the classical writings, or social ties in more recent economic sociology; on the latter, see Granovetter 1985). In contrast, the Realist approach starts from the presumption that contract already contains mechanisms of social ordering, not because the market is a self-regulating regime (as in the view of laissez-faire economists) but because delegations of state authority constitute contractual relations. ...
... Among the most influential of such efforts is Granovetter's (1985) well-known social network version of embeddedness, which rejects the distinction that Polanyi sought to make between premodern and modern economies. More specifically, Granovetter argues that premodern economies were less embedded and modern economies more so than Polanyi made them out to be, with a greater role for market exchange in the former type of society and more elaborate personal relations governing economic activity in the latter. ...
... 7 Our attention to Durkheim and Polanyi in the following discussion is necessarily selective, and some readers will miss a fuller analysis of the writings of Marx and Weber, among other progenitors of classical sociological theory. We give close attention to Durkheim and Polanyi because we see their work as most influential in establishing the foundation for what becomes the "embeddedness" paradigm in contemporary economic sociology (seeGranovetter 1985;Block and Somers 2014). The point is debatable, of course. ...
... The rural crisis is not limited exclusively to demographic and economic erosion; it also implies the weakening of traditional activities, environmental deterioration and the loss of social and identity bonds (Terrado, 2010). As a result, to understand the role of newcomers in the face of rural crisis, we must study in depth what they contribute to the socio-ecosystem beyond mere demographics (Dinis et al., 2019;Wu et al., 2022;Granovetter, 1985;Zhang et al., 2022;Komppula, 2014). ...
... Various studies argue that the contributions made by newcomers to rural areas in crisis are very low unless they integrate at the socio-identity and economic levels (Hess, 2004;Dinis et al., 2019;Qu and Zollet, 2023;Wu et al., 2022;Aylward and Kelliher, 2009;. In addition, the lack of integration between newcomers and native residents limits the possibilities of interaction, constraining the development of new key community initiatives such as tourism, agro-ecology and other innovation businesses (Granovetter, 1985;Komppula, 2014;Müller and Korsgaard, 2018;Wang et al., 2022;Zhang et al., 2022). Similarly, Wang et al. (2022), Müller and Korsgaard (2018) and Granovetter (1985) point out that without a consistent link between the different local actors, including newcomers, it is difficult to promote entrepreneurship and rural revitalisation. ...
... In addition, the lack of integration between newcomers and native residents limits the possibilities of interaction, constraining the development of new key community initiatives such as tourism, agro-ecology and other innovation businesses (Granovetter, 1985;Komppula, 2014;Müller and Korsgaard, 2018;Wang et al., 2022;Zhang et al., 2022). Similarly, Wang et al. (2022), Müller and Korsgaard (2018) and Granovetter (1985) point out that without a consistent link between the different local actors, including newcomers, it is difficult to promote entrepreneurship and rural revitalisation. Furthermore, the lack of integration often generates tensions between locals and newcomers, who end up forming separate communities, hindering coexistence and collaboration (Dinis et al., 2019), and promoting other possible negative effects already been pointed out such as the increase in rural housing prices and greater social stratification (Yang and Xu, 2022;Zhang, 2022;Zhao, 2019). ...
... Social exchange theorists argue that trust is necessary to overcome risk in collaborative tasks (Blau 1964;Coleman 1990;Granovetter 1985;Kollock 1994). Collaboration without trust creates "risk for the party who must invest resources before receiving a return" (Coleman 1990:175). ...
... Prior collaboration is influential in shaping collaborative decisions. Prior collaboration increases information exchange and creates feelings of warmth and loyalty, each of which builds mutual trust (Granovetter 1985;Greif 2006;Kollock 1994;Uzzi 1997). Prior collaboration also limits marginal reputational damage from status "leakage," as collaborators' affiliations have been previously established (Podolny 2010). ...
Lawmakers are routinely confronted by urgent social issues, yet they hold conflicting policy preferences, incentives, and goals that can undermine collaboration. How do lawmakers collaborate on solutions to urgent issues in the presence of conflicts? I argue that by building mutual trust, networks provide a mechanism to overcome the risks conflict imposes on policy collaboration. But, in doing so, network dependence constrains lawmakers’ ability to react to the problems that motivate policy action beyond their immediate connections. I test this
argument using machine learning and longitudinal analysis of federal crime legislation cosponsorship networks between 1979 and 2005, a period of rising political elite polarization. Results show that elite polarization increased the effects of reciprocal action and prior collaboration on crime legislation co-sponsorships while suppressing the effect of violent crime rates. These relationships vary only marginally by political party and are pronounced for ratified criminal laws. The findings provide new insights to the role of collaboration networks in the historical development of the carceral state and elucidate how political actors pursue collective policy action on urgent issues in the presence of conflict.
... For institutional arrangements evoke specific environments. Transactions, too, are not only 'embedded' [12], but they evoke possibly new and specific environments. According to Williamson, organisations differ in "nontrivial atmospheric respects" [31] and "(...) atmosphere refers to interactions between transactions that are technologically separable but are joined attitudinally and have systems consequences" [33]. ...
... The well-known metaphor of Granovetter, who also explicitly referred to problems of Williamson's approach in his seminal 1985 paper, sheds light on Williamson's point of view. "Economic action" [12] or "economic behaviour" [ibid] are "embedded" in a social reality. Accordingly, Granovetter distinguishes economic action from non-economic action according to a majority of "(…) sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and historians" [ibid] at the time, very similarly to Williamson. ...
The theory of the firm provides different approaches to explain the existence and boundaries of organisations. The approach of Coase starts from the underlying principle of coordination and distinguishes between market and organisation with regard to transaction costs. However, the optimisation of organisations can reach the limits of feasibility, which Williamson treated under the term "economics of atmosphere". This contribution first aims to clarify the relation of both theoretical approaches, then to narrow their gaps by placing them into a complexity theory perspective, and finally applies this new point of view exploratively with attention to the conditions of digitalisation.
... For the authors Bourdieu (2001), Granovetter (1985) and Lin (2001), these relate the concept of social capital as an "individual good". Bourdieu (2001, p. 134), defines the position of a given agent in the social space by the position he occupies in the different fields, that is, in the distribution of powers that act in each of them. ...
... For Granovetter (1985) in his study highlights the importance of socia networks linked to elements such as trust and cooperation that constitute social capital, while Lin (2001, p. 12) contemplates that this type of capital is composed of three elements: resources embedded in the social structure, accessibility to social resources by individuals or mobilization and the use of these social resources by individuals through intentional actions. It highlights concepts linked to the second strand of studies on social capital is analyzed as an element belonging to a group, community or society, seen as a public good, found in the relationships between people or groups. ...
... Não obstante, com seu compêndio teórico-analítico, Fligstein e McAdam preconizaram a mais ampla e meticulosa contestação provavelmente já perpetrada aos modelos econômicos clássicos e neoclássicos, os quais empregam visões subsocializadas das relações entre atores, ou mesmo neoinstitucionalistas, sugerindo aproximações supersocializadas (Granovetter, 1985). ...
... Talvez esse tenha sido o diferencial de ruptura logrado pela dupla de sociólogos estadunidenses com relação aos modelos neoclássicos, pois sua inovadora compilação de arquétipos se compromete a abordar e tratar todas as limitações clássicas e neoclássicas que obscurecem a compreensão do contexto de imersão social (Granovetter, 1985) inerentes aos processos econômicos. ...
... This expansion of the original understanding of interpersonal trust is justified by their claim that "trust situations arise when one has to make oneself vulnerable by relying on another person or object, regardless of the trust object's will or volition." Granovetter (1985) argues that these "arrangements" do not produce interpersonal trust, but instead "are a functional substitute for it". There, he argues then "that some degree of interpersonal trust must be assumed to operate, since institutional arrangements alone could not entirely stem force or fraud." ...
... Because Early Trust is based more on "fiction than fact", Granovetter (1985) suggests that the underlying personal relationship should be extended quickly to not fall victim to opportunism. McKnight et al. (2011) further investigate trust components in the literature and identify distinctions between: ...
If the Metaverse is the visionary space that is poised to greatly expand human activity, building of interpersonal trust within the Metaverse must be possible. Trust has
been described as a "lubricative" for business, innovation, resilience, and even general
enjoyment. In its most basic dyadic form, peer-to-peer trading of virtual items with the
means of shared augmented reality should be possible in a trustworthy manner. Here,
we investigate how specific design choices to facilitate such a trade impact trust.
A user study with 36 participants showed that the entailment of a mutual confirmation
of an item exchange improves both trust towards the software system, as well as interpersonal trust. We further found that perceived closeness towards the trade peer remains a
much greater influence on trust than any other effect. We also found strong correlations
between user experience and trust.
In summary, our research shows that shared augmented reality can provide a great environment for trade and bartering among physically co-located peers, because potentially
defrauding behaviours can be impeded by explicitly displaying item ownership and safeguarding the transfer of ownership.
... Third, while frequent U-F informal contacts offer significant benefits, an excessive frequency of U-F informal contacts may result in individuals becoming overly embedded in these interactions, which also hinders the pursuit of alternative partnerships (Elfenbein and Zenger, 2017;Uzzi, 1997). Specifically, while embeddedness, which denotes deep and cohesive relationships characterized by social and interpersonal ties (Granovetter, 1985;Greve et al., 2010), is generally beneficial for fostering innovation-related collaborations (Lioukas and Reuer, 2020;Uzzi, 1997), it may cause a cognitive lock-in for SISMEs (Lavie and Drori, 2012) when such relationships become too frequent or intense, resulting in over-embeddedness (Granovetter, 1985). This situation can lead to a constrained and dominant focus on acquiring and exchanging tacit knowledge through close interpersonal connections (Jiang et al., 2021), thus making firms hesitant to explore or leverage the benefits of other U-F formal interactions (Uzzi, 1997) essential for rapid innovation. ...
... Third, while frequent U-F informal contacts offer significant benefits, an excessive frequency of U-F informal contacts may result in individuals becoming overly embedded in these interactions, which also hinders the pursuit of alternative partnerships (Elfenbein and Zenger, 2017;Uzzi, 1997). Specifically, while embeddedness, which denotes deep and cohesive relationships characterized by social and interpersonal ties (Granovetter, 1985;Greve et al., 2010), is generally beneficial for fostering innovation-related collaborations (Lioukas and Reuer, 2020;Uzzi, 1997), it may cause a cognitive lock-in for SISMEs (Lavie and Drori, 2012) when such relationships become too frequent or intense, resulting in over-embeddedness (Granovetter, 1985). This situation can lead to a constrained and dominant focus on acquiring and exchanging tacit knowledge through close interpersonal connections (Jiang et al., 2021), thus making firms hesitant to explore or leverage the benefits of other U-F formal interactions (Uzzi, 1997) essential for rapid innovation. ...
This study examines how university-firm (U-F) interactions affect innovation speed in science-intensive small and medium-sized firms (SISMEs). We distinguish between formal and informal U-F interactions and build on dynamic capability theory to argue that (1) U-F R&D alliances enhance innovation speed through firm-level entrepreneurial orientation (EO), and (2) frequent U-F informal contacts weaken the effects of U-F R&D alliances on innovation speed. Analyzing a sample of 268 SISMEs from 10 science parks in China, the results of the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) support our hypotheses. Furthermore, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) identifies various configurations of U-F R&D alliances, U-F informal contacts and EO, along with other organizational, science park and environmental conditions, that lead to higher or lower innovation speed in SISMEs. Our findings offer valuable theoretical and practical insights, advancing our understanding of the complex relationship between U-F interactions and innovation speed in SISMEs.
... The concept of the disembedded market helps discuss how socio-cultural structures and institutions support communities to cope with inequalities and vulnerabilities, and how they are threatened by the formal market economy. Granovetter (2018) relativizes the magnitude of the development, stating that social structures which people are embedded within continue to influence decision making even under capitalism. ...
... social matrix of institutions and dissipates social safety nets that previously protected vulnerable groups from food insecurity. That in both cases, excuses are used to make the action morally acceptable supports the validity ofGranovetter's (2018) assessment that social structures continue to influence decision-making even under capitalism.This discussion relates toMcMichael's (2009) statement that agriculture is subordinated to capitalist production relations by transforming agricultural inputs from organic resources to inorganic commodities. The results appear to broadly confirm such a development visible in the switch towards cash crops that farmers see as commodities. ...
Commercialization of land and agriculture is part of ongoing processes of rural transformation to which smallholders globally have to adapt. As food is fundamental for nutrition and almost all aspects of rural life, adapting food-related practices is at the core of this agrarian transition. Using a mixed-methods approach focusing on household interviews held in Kratie and Kampong Thom, Cambodia, this dissertation finds that commercialization and interrelated factors of change create a new environment for smallholders to make decisions between new choices regarding the procurement, production, and consumption of food. Making use of their different functions is limited by income, causing a divergence of foodways according to income levels. Income becomes the center of decision-making, changing social structures and institutions of solidarity and sharing. This contributes to increased income inequality. The persistence of such institutions in new practices allows smallholders to soften the restrictive power of income over access to food.
... According to Granovetter (1990), economic sociology is based on two fundamental sociological propositions: the first is that action is always socially located and cannot be explained by individual motives alone; the second is that institutions do not arise automatically; they are socially constructed. To understand how behaviors and institutions are influenced by social relations, Granovetter (1985) argues that economic activities are structurally embedded in concrete and continuous systems of social relations, a concept known as "embeddedness". Embeddedness is a macro analytical construct that emerges from the argument that behavior and institutions should be analyzed as dependent elements of social relations (Granovetter, 1985). ...
... To understand how behaviors and institutions are influenced by social relations, Granovetter (1985) argues that economic activities are structurally embedded in concrete and continuous systems of social relations, a concept known as "embeddedness". Embeddedness is a macro analytical construct that emerges from the argument that behavior and institutions should be analyzed as dependent elements of social relations (Granovetter, 1985). Assuming that economic activities are immersed in networks of social relationships, the network can be seen as a micro analytical part of NES and embeddedness, as it is concerned with the relationships between actors. ...
This study aims to understand the social capital inherent in agents and the role of social and economic trust in transactions between beef cattle producers and slaughtering cooperatives in the specialty beef production system in Paraná state, Brazil. This qualitative research involved 31 semi-structured interviews with beef cattle producers, cooperatives, and key agents. Results revealed that social capital, comprising networks and informal norms, favors the condition of trust, enabling the construction of a hybrid governance structure under a complex institutional environment. Social and economic trust between agents facilitates transactions, reduces behavioral and market uncertainties, enables ex-post adaptations, and consequently, reduces monitoring costs and transaction costs. Trust based on social aspects, i.e., social trust, was more relevant for the construction of arrangements, while trust based on economic aspects, i.e., economic trust, had a greater impact on the continuity of arrangements. This reveals that looking at only one of them is not enough to understand contractual arrangements. Thus, this study highlights that unfolding the concept of trust and investigating whether it comes from an economic or social basis is important to understand the complexity of such arrangements, which may influence specialty beef production system design and coordination efficiency.
... When presenting the Wannsee Conference-a meeting held in Berlin to ensure coordination regarding what was called "The Final Solution"-as a turning point in both Eichmann's and Nazi Germany's paths, Arendt highlights the embeddedness (Granovetter, 1985) of bureaucracies and criminal action in broader rank structures. She explains how the Wannsee conference "was a very important occasion for Eichmann, who had never before mingled socially with so many 'high personages'; he was by far the lowest in rank and social position of those present" (Arendt, 1963, p. 113). ...
... Socialization, understood as the process by which individuals become part of an organization's logics and routines, is a significant aspect of organizational research (Ashforth et al., 2007, p.1). Arendt's account of socialization seems close to a social interactive understanding of socialization (Granovetter, 1985), where collective logics play a relevant role in suspending thought within organizational settings. As Sutherland (1983) posited in his famous concept of differential association, the pivotal role of social interaction and learning becomes evident in the initiation of newcomers into criminal behavior, including organizational wrongdoing in the form of white-collar crime. ...
This paper proposes that Hannah Arendt’s book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil furnishes both philosophical and empirical elements to understand not only the Nazi crimes but also cases of wrongdoing by and within current organizations. It is suggested that Arendt provides three relevant standpoints to how wrongdoing is banalized within organizations: a critique of bureaucratic administration, an account of the role of interactive socialization, and a reflection on the cognitive and meaning-attribution processes. Arendt originally connected these three dimensions to thoughtlessness, understood as a process of routinization in which organizations discourage critical thinking, personal responsibility, and reflection about the ultimate meaning and consequences of actions and decisions. As opposed to this, thoughtfulness is proposed as an approach based on meaningful pursuit within organizations to avoid some of the normative, cognitive, and routine elements that encourage, justify, and reproduce the banalization of misconduct.
... Network embeddedness is the extent to which the relationship between a firm and its related cooperative partners is embedded in the whole network. This paper follows Granovetter's (1985) approach and divides embeddedness into two categories: relational and structural embeddedness. Network relational embeddedness emphasizes the qualitative role of relationships based on the strength of the embedded relationships for knowledge transfer and access to invisible knowledge affecting firms' innovation performance, while structural embeddedness emphasizes the structural qualities of firms embedded in the network, which are closely related to the location of the network, and focuses on the configuration of firms' relational networks. ...
... Measurement of network embeddedness: As an individual in a social network, an enterprise needs to maintain open communication with the outside world, and it cannot survive and develop in a closed environment; as this paper improves on the research on network embeddedness, strong or weak relational embeddedness is shown to have a positive effect on the enterprise's innovation performance. This paper establishes a measurement table based on the studies of Granovetter (1985), Cheng (2012), Filieri and Alguezaui (2014) and Zhang et al. (2018). Measurement of control variables: As mentioned previously, regarding the impact of empowering firms' innovation performance through digital transformation, knowledge and technology play a key role in this process. ...
Digital transformation involves fundamental changes in business models, organizational structure, corporate culture, and even the way in which customers interact. Chinese new energy vehicle companies hope to achieve faster response speeds, greater operational efficiency, and better user experiences through digital transformation. Therefore, exploring how to successfully carry out digital transformation and its true impact on enterprise performance is of profound significance. The digital transformation of enterprises requires the embedding and absorption of network relationships to acquire and transform external resources and technologies, which further affects the innovation performance of these enterprises. This article introduces absorptive capacity as a mediating variable and network embeddedness as a moderating variable to construct a theoretical model, attempting to elucidate the mechanism of the impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation performance. By combining theoretical and empirical analysis, the research hypotheses are tested, and the results show that 1. digital transformation (digital technology, digital products, and digital platforms) has a positive impact on enterprise innovation performance, 2. absorptive capacity plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance, and 3. the embeddedness of network relationships has a significant positive moderating effect on the digital transformation of enterprises and their innovation performance. This article delves into an effective approach involving digital transformation, absorptive capacity, and enterprise innovation performance; analyses the moderating effect of network embeddedness; and concludes that the research findings have implications for the development of related research on digital transformation and enterprise innovation. The timely activities of enterprises to effectively carry out digital transformation, as well as the formulation of relevant policies, have positive significance.
... In a way, the success of interorganizational cooperation will always depend on personal relationships. Therefore, Granovetter (1985) sees cooperation socially embedded. ...
An ambitious comparison of two main explanatory models – one established and one still widely unknown but may be preferable in certain aspects.
... Os níveis internos de uma organização (intraorganizacional) e suas fronteiras (o nível interorganizacional) são atravessados por laços e relações de vários tipos: relações de confiança, comerciais, amizade, interlocking directores, parentesco, etc. Afinal, a ação dos atores está embedded (embutida) nestas redes (Granovetter, 1985). A ARS explora esta dimensão estrutural do mercado e do capital (Minella, 2013); aliás, é crescente o número de pesquisas que utilizam os interlocking como objeto de estudo e a ARS como base técnica e metodológica: para estudar casos nacionais (Chiesi, 1982), específicos ramos econômicos (Baker, 1984;Carbonai, 2011) ouem tempos mais recentesdesenvolvendo estudos comparados (Windolf, 2002;Veen, Kees Van;Cárdenas, 2012). ...
Brazilian competition law establishes a set of usually dissuasive devices for the conflicting performance of a multi-company administrator; however, scholars point out that the practice of interlocking directorates (i.e., those bonds created by board members acting in multiple companies, interconnecting them) is very diffuse, especially in the stock capital market. The paper explores this paradox, through a social networks analysis of a sample of listed Brazilian companies: an I-E index and a permutation test are used to verify the occurrence of direct and indirect intermediation between and within economic sectors, and move for a general hypothesis about the configuration of intercompany networks in the Brazilian capital market.
... This bridging social capital is established from the networks among heterogeneous communities, and examples of this involve the networks among consultants, government staff, and business groups in agriculture. The third social capital is linking social capital referring to weak ties, enabling people to use sources, ideas, and information from formal institutions beyond the reach of the communities and related to open networks (Granovetter, 1985). The nexus built within the linking social capital network takes a vertical direction, represented by individuals establishing relations with formal institutions and or other individuals with more controlling power and authorities in society such as banks and governmental institutions (Szreter & Woolcock, 2004;Woolcock, 2001). ...
This article aims to explain how community based approached has been adopted during the implementation of PPKM mikro (micro restriction) which is assumed to be more effective in handling the covid-19 pandemic. The implementation of PPKM mikro involves various parties ranging from the lowest level of Indonesian government (RT/RW or households) to the central government and community members. By utilizing Putnam’s social capital perspective, this study examines how all these parties established the social relations or networks during the PPKM mikro. This study employs a case study approach to examine the implementation of PPKM mikro in Malang Raya, East Java Province. This study found that the PPKM micro has used the social capital pre-existing in neighbourhood circumference (RT/RW). This social capital was expanded and enforced during PPKM micro under the Decree of the Minister of Home Affairs No.3 of 2020 concerning PPKM micro. Moreover, this enforcement also generates all the types of social capital which are bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Bonding social capital was established at RT/RW level. Bridging social capital emerged from the relations between or inter RT/RW levels established by visual information represented by flags of different colours ranging from green, yellow, orange, to red informing the number of households confirmed with positive covid-19 in each RT/RW. Linking social capital was formed from social relations between RT/RW with the highest levels of government including the village, district, municipality/regency and central government.
... Social structures affect, and are affected by, the micro-level interactions between the individuals embedded within them (Blau, 1964;Lawler, Thye, & Yoon, 2009;Serpe & Stryker, 2011;Turner, 1988). Much of the scholarship on prosocial behavior (see Simpson & Willer, 2015) and economic action (e.g., Granovetter, 1985) is devoted to understanding this micromacro dialectic, often called the problem of social order (Hobbes, 1994). Scholars in this area study whether and why the actions of individuals and the structural arrangements in which they are embedded are mutually constitutive, and how individual motivations intersect with collective interests to shape patterns of prosocial behavior between actors. ...
This paper pairs insights from social exchange theory with scholarship on in-group preferences. We ask: how do the structure and diversity of the exchange network in which an actor is embedded at time 1 impact subsequent trust toward an unmet individual at time 2? The goal is to understand whether and how the structures in which people are embedded have lasting, downstream effects on behavior, even toward those whom they might be inclined to distrust. We randomly assign participants to repeated exchange tasks with different structures (productive, reciprocal, or generalized) with alters who either share or do not share a salient social identity. After a period of interaction in their exchange structure, participants decide whether, and how much, to trust a new alter who either shares or does not share their social identity in a one-shot trust decision. Participants embedded in productive exchange networks are more likely than those in generalized or reciprocal exchange networks to trust an unmet interaction partner. Moreover, while trust is higher when the trustee is an in-group member, this relationship is moderated by the form of exchange. Trust is not lower toward outgroup trustees when the truster was previously embedded in reciprocal exchange. Our findings collectively suggest that prior exchange structures can affect the extent to which people trust unmet others from different groups. They also imply that extended exposure to, and prosocial interactions with, out-group others may not be a core prerequisite of intergroup trust.
... In short, the result shows a flexible network with an extensive probability of disseminating ideas and opportunities. According to Granovetter (1985), most social and economic behaviors are strictly rooted in networks of interpersonal relationships. ...
Democratic participation improves the chances of success of local development policies. New governance processes that directly involve the actors who inhabit the territories are necessary for the challenges that sustainable growth requires. Therefore, the feedback on the pre-existing conditions of cooperation and coexistence is essential for carrying out actions with a place-based logic of development. The Innovation Helix Model allows us to understand the relational dynamics and support territorial strategies in enhancing innovation processes that contemplate the relationship between civil society, public and private institutions, and the natural environment from the perspective of a democratic approach. In this way, ecosystemic innovation is a dynamic network of territorial actors interconnected within a delimited geographical space. This study proposes an innovative way of investigating territorial relationship networks. It examines and describes the network deriving from the policies implemented in an internal area of Sicily. The governance processes implemented through partnership agreements between local actors over ten years have created relationships measured and described through Social Network Analysis (SNA), specifically with Affiliation Networks and Community Detection with a bipartite structure. The study moves towards an innovative territory analysis, looking for the relational links and providing references for building bottom-up policies with greater awareness.
... Moreover, the importance of national cultures is accentuated by the societal context in which firms are entrenched. Organizations are not merely economic entities but are deeply embedded in the social fabric, conforming to the norms, values, and beliefs that are prevalent in their respective societies (Granovetter, 1985). This cultural context serves as a behavioral framework that shapes how firms interact within the global marketplace (Schein, 1985). ...
La continuité de l’entreprise est l’une des questions des plus importantes auxquelles sont confrontées les entreprises familiales. Bien que ce thème ait fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches, l’influence du contexte culturel sur les intentions de continuité des entreprises familiales reste peu étudiée. La recherche proposée vise à une compréhension nuancée du rôle de l’attachement émotionnel et de l’identification des membres de la famille à l’entreprise dans les contextes culturels contrastés du Maroc et de la France. Grâce à un modèle d’équations structurelles modérées basées sur des données d’enquêtes menées dans les deux pays, notre étude confirme que l’attachement et l’identification influencent positivement les intentions de continuité de l’entreprise familiale en France et au Maroc. Cependant, le modèle incorporant un effet modérateur révèle des divergences entre le Maroc et la France concernant l’influence de l’attachement émotionnel sur la continuité de l’entreprise.
... The idiocultural approach reconceptualised 'subculture' within a symbolic interactions framework, showing sub cultural variations, cultural changes and the diffusion of cultural elements. By clarifying 'subculture' as a process involving the creation, negotiation and diffusion of cultural items, it provided a framework for research on subcultures (Bolon and Bolon 1994), whilst 'Interlocking' group memberships through weak social structures (Granovetter 1985) provides a conceptual basis for understanding how cultural content can be defined and transformed through inter-group negotiation While the attention to entrepreneurship as a new topic in the tourism industry is rising, the relevant literature still remains limited. The main scope of this study is to review the tourism and entrepreneurship researches in the literature, to explore the main aspects of the studies and to assess the current state of the available studies. ...
This book has a collection of 20 chapters and was published during the I HOST 6 Conference organized by GD Goenka University, Gurugram, India.
... Na introdução da volumosa obra Social network analysis, Wasserman e Faust (1994, p. 17) argumentam que a revisão histórica dos desenvolvimentos empíricos, teóricos e matemáticos que ocorreram na pesquisa sobre as redes sociais, deveria, por si só, convencer o leitor de que a análise de rede abrange muito mais que um simples vocabulário (ainda que atraente), uma metáfora 1 Este estudo representa uma integração da enquete Un mondo in classe. Multietnicità e socialità nelle scuole medie toscane, realizada por um grupo de pesquisadores do Centro Interuniversitario di Sociologia Politica (CIUSPO) de l'Università di Firenze e coordenado por Ettore Recchi (Recchi et al., 2008). 2 A ação individual seria então "network oriented" (Granovetter, 1985), ou seja, orientada pelas redes de relações sociais nas quais os indivíduos são inseridos. da realidade, ou um conjunto de imagens, para dar conta das relações sociais, comportamentais, políticas ou econômicas. ...
A análise de redes sociais foi usada para estudar 22 turmas de alunos das primeiras
classes de ensino médio na região da Toscana, Itália. A análise dos dados derivou da comparação de redes de diferentes amplitudes (o número de estudantes por classe), considerando determinadas medidas de normalização. Além de destacar alguns elementos críticos no processo de integração, propõe-se neste artigo uma análise das redes sociais dos alunos em relação ao tipo de família de origem: as medidas de densidade e centralidade do grupo e os papéis sociais (brokerage).
... Os níveis internos de uma organização (intraorganizacional) e suas fronteiras (o nível interorganizacional) são atravessados por laços e relações de vários tipos: relações de confiança, comerciais, amizade, interlocking directores, parentesco, etc. Afinal, a ação dos atores está embedded (embutida) nestas redes (Granovetter, 1985). A ARS explora esta dimensão estrutural do mercado e do capital (Minella, 2013); aliás, é crescente o número de pesquisas que utilizam os interlocking como objeto de estudo e a ARS como base técnica e metodológica: para estudar casos nacionais (Chiesi, 1982), específicos ramos econômicos (Baker, 1984;Carbonai, 2011) ouem tempos mais recentesdesenvolvendo estudos comparados (Windolf, 2002;Veen, Kees Van;Cárdenas, 2012). ...
A legislação brasileira em matéria de concorrência estabelece um conjunto de dispositivos – geralmente dissuasivos – em matéria de atuação conflitante de um administrador de múltiplas empresas; todavia, as pesquisas destacam que a prática de interlocking directorates (i.e., aqueles laços criados pelos membros de conselho de administração que atuam em múltiplas empresas, interligando-as) é bem difusa, sobretudo no mercado aberto de capitais. O artigo explora este paradoxo, por meio de uma análise de redes sociais de uma amostra de empresas listadas brasileiras: um índice I-E e um teste de permutação são utilizados para verificar a ocorrência de intermediações – diretas e indiretas – dentre e entre setores econômicos, e para avançar uma hipótese geral sobre a configuração das redes entre empresas no mercado brasileiro de capitais.
... Trust, as an important foundation for cooperation between enterprises, can help businesses and their partners share risks and reduce the negative impacts brought by uncertain environments [43]. When there is a high level of trust and collaboration within a company or with its partners, the initiation and implementation costs of innovative projects are relatively lower [44]. Trust, as a crucial foundation for inter-enterprise cooperation transactions, aids in enabling companies and their partners to jointly bear risks and mitigate the negative effects of an uncertain environment [43]. ...
Frugal innovation offers cost-effective, demand-driven products for consumers in emerging markets. By leveraging this approach, enterprises can capitalize on opportunities, boost profits, and nurture beneficial consumer relationships. This study uses the transaction cost theory to explore how symbiotic relationships within environmental turbulence influence frugal innovation. The goal is to unravel the interconnected factors that drive high-performance frugal innovation, providing enterprises with a roadmap for seizing opportunities, enhancing profitability, and cultivating enduring consumer relationships. Data from 218 Chinese enterprises were collected through a survey and analyzed using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) methods. The research findings indicate that factors such as market dynamics, technological dynamics, collaboration with suppliers and customers, relationship governance, contract governance, and inter-organizational trust are not necessary prerequisites for high frugal innovation performance. Instead, the synergy among these factors is imperative for reaching elevated levels of frugal innovation performance. Furthermore, three distinct pathways to heightened frugal innovation performance were identified: a dual-drive mechanism involving membership relationships and governance mechanisms, a membership-driven approach in dynamic technological conditions, and a governance mechanism-driven approach in dynamic market conditions. This study offers valuable theoretical and practical insights for enterprises pursuing frugal innovation in turbulent environments, guiding them towards sustained growth and competitive advantages in new markets.
... Theories of relational contracting recognise that in situations where it is impossible to have complete information there are benefits to a degree of flexibility and ongoing negotiation between parties. They also recognise that economic action is embedded in social relationships, and that the performance of a contract is significantly influenced by the history of relations between the parties and norms of trust and reciprocity (Petsoulas et al 2012, Granovetter 1985. ...
Summary of policy learning:
When used with financial penalties, performance indicators (also known as‘targets’ or ‘metrics’) based on volume (number of patients) incur costs that need to be weighed against their potential contribution to accountability for public spending. These costs include transaction costs, and significant costs in terms of staff wellbeing, trust, and service innovation.
If dentists are already following NICE guidance, then a target for extended recall intervals does not supply a mechanism to increase capacity.
‘New patients’ to a practice often have high treatment need. ‘Historic
patients’ may also have high treatment need following the pandemic. This increase in treatment need has further increased pressure on capacity. In these circumstances, volume targets, used with a financial penalty, create extremely high levels of stress and anxiety in the clinical workforce.
If volume targets are used with a financial penalty, and without accurate data for individual dentists to assess their progress during the year, then this creates an incentive for the increased throughput of low-risk patients.
There is widespread support from clinical teams for a range of innovative models of care provided by Community Dental Services – such as the Designed to Smile Programme for primary school children, dental vans, and access sessions staffed as part of training programmes. These models are seen as well suited to vulnerable populations who have high treatment needs and often face challenges attending appointments. These innovative models of care were considered to be more effective in improving access and population health than targets for volume metrics for General Dental Services in those circumstances where there is no mechanism for increasing capacity.
If Health Boards establish and maintain good relationships with local practices, then practice staff feel reassured and supported which maintains engagement with the programme.
Good pre-existing relationships and facilitative leadership enables a collaborative approach to programme governance to be sustained.
Data never ‘speaks for itself’ - it must be interpreted. If data is used for summative accountability, then interpretation can create conflict between stakeholders.
While data collection is important for accountability, it is most useful when used for formative rather than summative accountability; when used to open a dialogue, rather than as proof of a problem; and when used alongside other forms of information.
... Drawing from embeddedness theory, digital entrepreneurship ecosystem embeddedness encompasses structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions [32,33]. Firstly, structural embeddedness refers to the connections and dependencies between firms and other organizations within the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. ...
Digital entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness disrupts existing boundaries and content of innovative entrepreneurial activities, restructuring entrepreneurial landscape. However, how it drives the process and mechanisms of user entrepreneurial opportunity development remains underexplored. Based on entrepreneurial ecosystem theory and knowledge dynamic capability theory, this study examines the mediating role of knowledge dynamic capabilities in the relationship between digital entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness and user entrepreneurial opportunity development. Using a sample of 232 user entrepreneurial enterprises in China, hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap methods are employed to investigate the mechanisms. The results reveal that digital entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness significantly promotes knowledge acquisition and sharing capabilities, which in turn facilitate entrepreneurial opportunity development. Moreover, under higher levels of entrepreneurial learning, the promotion of knowledge acquisition and sharing capabilities by digital entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness becomes more significant. Furthermore, knowledge dynamic capabilities, consisting of knowledge acquisition and sharing capabilities, significantly promote entrepreneurial opportunity development, partially mediating the relationship between digital entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness and entrepreneurial opportunity development. Additionally, knowledge sharing capability serves as the preferable pathway in the dual-driven process of digital entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness and entrepreneurial opportunity development. Our findings contribute to understanding the dynamics of user entrepreneurship in China in the digital environment, and offer practical insights for leveraging digital embeddedness to improve the quality and efficiency of opportunity development and promote the sustainability of the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem.
... Economic activities are embedded in social networks (Aoki 2001;Granovetter 1985), which facilitate cooperation and business by enabling repeated interactions and constraining cheating. This is especially important when formal institutions such as the politico-legal system fail to protect property rights and ensure efficient resource distribution (Chang 2011;Clay 1997;Greif 2006;Kali 1999;Richman 2017). ...
Interpersonal networks facilitate business cooperation and socioeconomic exchange. But how can outsiders demonstrate their trustworthiness to join existing networks? Focusing on the puzzling yet common phenomenon of heavy drinking at China's business banquets, we argue that this costly practice can be a rational strategy intentionally used by entrants to signal trustworthiness to potential business partners. Because drinking alcohol can lower one's inhibitions and reveal one's true self, entrants intentionally drink heavily to show that they have nothing to hide and signal their sincere commitment to cooperation. This signaling effect is enhanced if the entrants have low alcohol tolerance, as their physical reactions to alcohol (e.g., red face) make their drunkenness easier to verify. Our theory of heavy social drinking is substantiated by both ethnographic fieldwork and a discrete-choice experiment on Chinese entrepreneurs. This research illuminates how trust can be built absent sufficient support from formal institutions.
... However, a critical discourse emerges, concerns are raised about potential worker abuse, leading to precarity (Schor, Attwood-Charles, Cansoy, Ladegaard, & Wengronowitz, 2020) and enabling firms to externalize risks. This commodification of labor time, as argued by (Granovetter, 1985), (Polanyi, 1944), disconnects workers from traditional social protection systems, aligning with (Harvey, 2005) notion of "accumulation through dispossession." ...
The research underscores the transformative impact of the platform economy on work and labor relations, facilitated by digital infrastructures. While celebrated for its democratizing effect on work and the creation of employment opportunities, concerns arise regarding the exploitation of workers, the precariousness of their employment, and the informal nature of their working conditions. The expansion of the platform economy gives rise to crucial questions concerning social security, as conventional systems may not adequately address the diverse arrangements within this evolving landscape. The research aims to enhance scholarly comprehension through the execution of a systematic review of existing literature, identifying gaps, and suggesting future research directions to inform evidence-based policy discussions and establish a more resilient and inclusive framework for meeting the social security needs of platform workers in the digital era. The study meticulously examines the platform economy, classifying the literature into six primary domains: Economic Matters, Health and Well-being, Justice and Equity, Gender, Collective Organization, and Legal Structures. Grounded in a global perspective, it provides a basis for future inquiries, advocating for a holistic approach that integrates policies, security measures, legal reforms, and collective endeavours to prioritize the well-being and justice of non-traditional workers in the platform economy.
... At its heart, SET sees human interaction as the exchange of resources, be they social or material in nature (Long and Chrisman, 2014). Social Exchange Theory postulates that continual exchanges lead to the emergence of social norms and structures, which, in turn, foster the formation of behavioral expectations and obligations, as well as a shared frame of references and vision (Emerson, 1976;Granovetter, 1985;Simmel, 1909). Furthermore, having its roots in sociology, SET considers exchanges to be based on the contexts in which they are embedded. ...
We draw on Social Exchange Theory (SET) and show that a “succession dance”—a phase of joint successor and predecessor activity inside the firm—occurs due to prior social exchanges between successor and predecessor. It can be guided by altruism, friendship, or partnership (i.e., a generalized exchange relationship) as well as a professional need for informational and material social exchanges at the firm-level (i.e., a restricted exchange relationship). By utilizing mixed methods encompassing quantitative data on 522 CEO successions in family firms and qualitative data from 34 in-depth interviews, we find support for these coherences. We also discuss how altruistic versus transactional motives for predecessors to remain active inform the burgeoning debate on positive versus negative nature repercussions of prolonged predecessor activity.
... In the search for understanding regarding the economic and socio-political function of talent in China, I turn towards Granovetter's (1985) idea regarding embeddedness. A key argument is that economic transactions and social relations are seen as ontologically inseparable (Krippner and Alvarez, 2007). ...
... While partnerships can potentially accelerate decarbonization, they may also undermine environmental INGOs' ability to be effective advocates for change. Insights from the study of transnational networks and social network analysis suggest that ties between organizations can influence organizational goals and strategies (Granovetter 1985;Keck and Sik-kink 1998;Hadden 2015). Thus, ties between the climate establishment and Fortune 100 firms are an important scope condition that influences the potential effectiveness of the Paris partnerships. ...
The Paris Agreement created an institutionalized role for non-state actors through voluntary cooperation. Many international NGOs (INGOs) are particularly active in these “Paris partnerships,” often working with multinational corporations to reduce emissions and promote decarbonization. Though there is ample work on both the effectiveness of the Paris partnerships and on the role of INGOs in the global climate regime, much of this work focuses “outward” – on how INGOs contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation, or influence norms, discourse and policy. Yet, there is considerably less work that focuses “inward” – examining who INGOs work with in order to achieve their policy goals. This paper provides a descriptive analysis of key INGOs in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, as a first step in a larger research agenda to understand the incentives and opportunities that drive INGO behavior. Specifically, it uses network analysis to identify the “climate establishment” – which I define as the insider INGOs working within the multilateral process and with large corporations to influence rulemaking, soft law and firm behavior. Measures of network centrality demonstrate that two INGOs – WWF and the World Resources Institute – are by far, the most authoritative members of the climate establishment. They participate in the largest number of partnerships, and have “important” friends, as measured by eigenvector centrality. The data also indicate that the climate establishment sees carbon pricing as a key strategy, and it often cooperates with banks that are large funders of fossil fuel projects. The descriptive analysis of the climate establishment and its partners raises important questions for future research about why INGOs choose to partner with F100 companies, and how such cooperation might influence INGO behavior.
... Com base no texto de Levitt, (1960,"Marketing Myopia", ) que o desempenho insatisfatório das organizações acontecia devido à ênfase em seus produtos e estruturas, em detrimento do foco no mercado e, por conseguinte, no consumidor. Swedberg (2003) e Granovetter (1985) afirmam que os mercados estão inseridos em redes sociais que influenciam os resultados econômicos. Identificar e compreender essas redes não se resume apenas à quantidade de agentes ou à sua disposição e alcance dentro da rede, mas também envolve analisar os significados atribuídos a cada uma das ações dos agentes. ...
Introdução: No cenário competitivo e em constante evolução dos negócios, a cultura de inovação emerge como um fator determinante para o sucesso das empresas e organizações. A capacidade de se adaptar rapidamente às mudanças e de buscar constantemente novas oportunidades de mercado tornou-se essencial para impulsionar o crescimento e a sustentabilidade empresarial. Nesse contexto, este artigo discute a importância da cultura de inovação e sua relação com a busca por novos mercados. A cultura de inovação refere-se a um conjunto de valores, crenças, atitudes e práticas organizacionais. Objetivo: O presente trabalho tem caráter bibliográfico e tem como objetivo, demonstrar com base no cenário atual o estado da arte da literatura acadêmica sobre a cultura de inovação e a busca por novos mercados. Procedimentos Metodológicos: O método utilizado foi a pesquisa bibliográfica, que envolveu a busca e análise de diversos materiais publicados sobre o assunto. Contribuições do Trabalho: A pesquisa se concentrou em uma amostra de artigos disponíveis na plataforma Research Gate, totalizando 250 artigos analisados, dos quais 43 foram selecionados para o estudo. Os dados desses artigos foram tabulados em uma planilha contendo informações sobre título, local de publicação, palavras-chave, ano de publicação, autores, instituição dos autores e metodologias utilizadas. Principais Resultados: As análises incluíram a identificação da quantidade de artigos em cada periódico, a repetição de palavras-chave, os anos de maior produção sobre o tema, os autores mais frequentes, as instituições envolvidas e as metodologias utilizadas nos estudos. Como limitação do estudo, foi mencionado que a análise foi baseada apenas em artigos publicados, excluindo livros, capítulos e outros textos. Além disso, a amostragem foi não probabilística e intencional, baseada nos artigos acessíveis aos autores. Conclusão: Conclui-se que se a maioria dos estudos neste tema foram qualitativos e bibliográficos, a instituição que mais produziu sobre o tema foi a Universidade Regional de Blumenau-FURB, os autores mais relevantes foram Elaine da Silva e Maria de Fátima Bruno-Faria, o ano mais importante para o tema foi 2021 e a RAI-Revista de Administração e Inovação foi o local de publicação mais relevante. Palavras-Chave: Cultura de Inovação, Busca por novos mercados, Inovação 1. INTRODUÇÃO No cenário competitivo e em constante evolução dos negócios, a cultura de inovação emerge como um fator determinante para o sucesso das empresas e organizações. A capacidade de se adaptar rapidamente às mudanças e de buscar constantemente novas oportunidades de 1
... So, the basis for this criticism is extended here to a more contemporary concern in social network analysis-that research privileges unitary ties (i.e., one-dimensional) at the expense of studying more complex and realistic multiplex ties (i.e., multidimensional). Scholars have touched on the idea that one type of tie may be appropriated for a different use (e.g., friendship ties may be leveraged to serve business ends; Coleman, 1990) transactions are often embedded in social relationships (e.g., Granovetter, 1985;Uzzi, 1996). However, multiplexity remains a meaningful yet understudied feature of organizational relationships. ...
A social network is a set of actors—that is, any discrete entity in a network, such as a person, team, organization, place, or collective social unit—and the ties connecting them—that is, some type of relationship, exchange, or interaction between actors that serves as a conduit through which resources such as information, trust, goodwill, advice, and support flow. Social network analysis (SNA) is the use of graph-theoretic and matrix algebraic techniques to study the social structure, interactions, and strategic positions of actors in social networks. As a methodological tool, SNA allows scholars to visualize and analyze webs of ties to pinpoint the composition, content, and structure of organizational networks, as well as to identify their origins and dynamics, and then link these features to actors’ attitudes and behaviors. Social network analysis is a valuable and unique lens for management research; there has been a marked shift toward the use of social network analysis to understand a host of organizational phenomena. To this end, organizational network analysis (ONA) is centered on how employees, groups, and organizations are connected and how these connections provide a quantifiable return on human capital investments. Although criticisms have traditionally been leveled against social network analysis, the foundations of network science have a rich history, and ONA has evolved into a well-established paradigm and a modern-day trend in management research and practice.
... This presupposes that the recruitment process is itself objective, and support should be given to under-represented candidates to help them 'pass' the objective test. It is possible that various recruitment stages are socially entrenched and embedded (Granovetter 1973(Granovetter , 1985(Granovetter , 1988(Granovetter , 2002(Granovetter , 2017, meaning that some candidates able to access social resources will be able to harness significant advantages. This is referred to as 'social embeddedness' and describes how reliant on social interaction the process is. ...
Police recruitment in England and Wales has seen a large upsurge in recent years, with a government mandate to raise officer numbers by 20,000. Alongside this request, considerable pressure remains for the police service to diversify and recruit an increasing number of officers from under-represented groups. Although there are signs that the diversity of police forces in England and Wales is increasing, there is a paucity of available information and research on how this is happening. Existing research on current positive action programmes is underdeveloped. This study considers evidence gained from 26 long-form phenomenological interviews with new policing recruits in a single police force from the north of England. The interviews were structured using social network theory, allowing in-depth exploration of how recruits socially navigated their respective recruitment journeys. The sample provided comparative data on the journey for those experiencing positive actions and those without access to these initiatives. The data gathered offer a picture of recruits’ experiences during recruitment, allowing significant insight into the levels of social support they received. Social support is a critical element of well-being and retention. Empirical findings indicate that particular police recruitment stages exist as social building blocks for policing identity. These building blocks can be unequal depending on existing social resources. This differential identity-building during pre-socialization leads to a proposal for services to consider their positive action initiatives in a different light and ensure that they lead to the development of longer-term, supportive relationships for under-represented recruits.
... Si bien en el estudio de las redes y los procesos de emprendimiento se han utilizado diferentes perspectivas teóricas tales como la Teoría de Redes Sociales (tRS) (Granovetter, 1985;Hoang y Antoncic, 2003;Uzzi, 1997) y el enfoque de Marketing Industrial y Compras (MIC) (Håkansson y Snehota, 1995), estas difieren de la taR en su punto de vista sobre cómo los procesos emprendedores se relacionan o dan forma a las redes: mientras que la tRS se centra en las estructuras de red que les dan forma, el enfoque MIC pone énfasis en las relaciones, las estructuras de red y los procesos de cambio. Por su parte, la taR (Callon, 1984;Latour, 2008;Law, 1992) es útil para entender el proceso de creación y estabilización de redes, es decir, para entender los procesos y maniobras que emprenden los actores para crearlas y estabilizarlas (Baraldi et al., 2019). ...
Objetivo: documentar y analizar la experiencia de creación, crecimiento y declive de una Red de Colaboración Solidaria en la Ciudad de México a partir del enfoque teórico-metodológico de la Teoría del Actor-Red, con la finalidad de conocer el papel de los actores clave, las dinámicas que se viven y los retos y problemáticas a las que se enfrentan en sus diferentes etapas de desarrollo. Diseño metodológico: desde un enfoque cualitativo y a través del estudio de caso se propone la utilización del proceso de traducción de la Teoría del Actor-Red como guía teórica-metodológica, para explorar e interpretar los hallazgos. Resultados: el trabajo revela las diferentes maniobras, acciones y tensiones que dieron lugar a la construcción de la red emergente y su posterior declive. Se analizaron cinco momentos que describen este proceso: planeación del emprendimiento, creación, formalización, crecimiento y declive de la red donde tienen influencia tanto los actores humanos como no humanos en diferentes partes del proceso. Limitaciones de la investigación: están vinculadas al hecho de que los hallazgos surgen de un caso específico, sin embargo, estos pueden servir de guía para el estudio de casos similares y, sobre todo, para generar una mayor comprensión de las diferentes acciones que pueden surgir en el funcionamiento de una red colaborativa. Hallazgos: el trabajo revela el papel clave de los actores tanto humanos como no humanos y cómo influyeron tanto en el crecimiento como en el declive de la red. Asimismo, se identifican nuevas facetas que experimentan el surgimiento y desarrollo de una Red de Colaboración Solidaria (RCS) en función de la incorporación del proceso de traducción. Metodológicamente, se pudo observar el valor de la Teoría del Actor-Red como una herramienta teórica metodológica pertinente que puede ayudar a analizar y describir cómo se constituye y estabiliza una red de colaboración.
... Coleman was interested in how social capital could be used as a conceptual tool to move away from extremes in sociology or economics and to join the two fields together. Economics was guilty of an "under-socialised" (Granovetter, 1985) view of the individual while sociology was guilty of an over-socialised conception of the actor in society (Weber, 2009). Coleman (1988) attempted this by critiquing the human capital theory of Becker (1964) by arguing that it's narrowly individualistic view did not adequately account for the importance of social structures and cooperation. ...
This research responds to the recent call in the entrepreneurship literature to address the shortcomings arising from the application of management theories developed in the “West” to “non-Western” contexts. The International Entrepreneurship (IE) literature itself strongly suggests social capital generation is important for born global firms’ survival and growth, though understanding of how this is conducted in non-Western contexts is weak. Drawing upon and extending the social capital and legitimacy literature, this study utilises survey and in-depth interview data to further contextual knowledge about how born global firms go about generating their social capital in a booming city in south-west China, Chengdu. Born global firms have not been widely studied beyond the more developed coastal areas of PR China and with economic growth shifting towards rapidly growing interior cities such as Chengdu, this research provides new avenues to understand how born global firms can establish themselves in such different environments.
This study specifically seeks to understand how do born Chengdu based global firms earn and maintain legitimacy to establish contact with high prestige networked individuals under different socio-cultural conditions. In doing so, this research furthers the understanding of born global firms’ social capital generating behaviour outside of the more studied developed regions of China or the West. These studies have not focussed on the role of legitimacy in social capital building, which is suggested to be more relevant in regions or cities which are experiencing very rapid periods of change and economic disruption. These changes require born global firms to regularly renew their legitimacy due to the rapid disruptive pace of change.
Using a sequential explanatory design, this research collected fifty-two valid responses from owner-managers of Chengdu based born global firms. To follow up on emergent findings, eight in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to provide rich data on the linkages between the two most relevant dimensions of social capital (relational and cognitive) and legitimacy (cognitive and socio-political).
The findings of this research revealed that not only were strong ties vital during born global firms’ early efforts at social capital building, but an interesting finding also revealed from the qualitative rich data was the subsequent role officials and high prestige occupation holders played as these firms sought to expand their networks. Officials often served as key sponsors who facilitated access to high prestige individuals and additional scarce resources, which would hitherto remain hidden.
A conceptual typology of four firm types has been proposed based on cross case analysis of findings to demonstrate the dynamic linkages between the levels of socio-political legitimacy achieved and connections to prestigious occupation holders. This typology can be used by practitioner or academic audiences to strategically plan or understand and develop purposive social capital building strategies for born global firms. Details of an illegitimate type are also provided, illustrating where born global firms survivability could be imperilled if such strategies are ignored or neglected. This research may also be of interest to policy makers or organisations tasked with supporting born global firms such as chambers of commerce, and innovation/enterprise zones.
It should be noted this research is limited in its overall generalisability but can be applied and tested in the context of other non-Western emerging economies.
... On peut véritablement parler de « champ institutionnel » du fait de l'encastrement social (Granovetter, 1985), très présent dans les propos tenus lors des entretiens. Plusieurs des personnes rencontrées ont spontanément mentionné leur propre parcours d'une maison d'édition à l'autre, ou celui de collègues : Comme c'est le cas dans d'autres segments du secteur de l'édition, les professionnels du livre universitaire appartiennent à un même vivier et passent assez aisément d'une organisation à l'autre au cours de leur carrière, après avoir suivi des formations similaires, ce dont nous retrouverons l'influence dans l'analyse de l'isomorphisme professionnel (cf infra). ...
En se concentrant sur l’exigence de professionnalisation en BUT et la place qu’y occupent les compétences communicationnelles, cet article interroge les éventuels repositionnements de modèles économiques de l’offre de ressources. Il vise plus spécifiquement à appréhender le travail des auteurs et sa valorisation comme des révélateurs des tension dans les stratégies des offreurs de ressources en IUT. Cette analyse socio-économique s’appuie du point de vue empirique sur une pluralité de données collectées entre 2019 et 2021 : entretiens auprès d’enseignants de BUT, d’auteurs de manuels, de responsables éditoriaux, newsletters et sites web des éditeurs et de certains auteurs, sites compagnons, programmes des DUT et BUT de l’ensemble des filières et aboutit à plusieurs résultats. Premièrement, les modèles économiques de l’édition de ressources reflètent un isomorphisme institutionnel : les structures organisationnelles et les jeux des acteurs sont plus influencés par le champ institutionnel et la recherche de légitimation que par la quête d’un fonctionnement efficient. Les auteurs semblent ensuite avoir un rapport ambivalent avec l’exigence de professionnalisation, que le circuit éditorial et le rôle traditionnel de l’auteur rendent difficile à satisfaire. Enfin, la place du numériques dans l’offre est un marqueur important de l’évolution (ou de la non-évolution) des modèles économiques.
... We decided to translate the Polish category of zakorzenienie as embeddedness, which refers to a well-established concept in institutional sociology(Granovetter 1985) and seems to fit better into existing theoretical traditions than the concept of "rootedness" chosen by the editors of Telling the Great Change, Pandemic as a Biographical Turning Point? The Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Biographies of "Essential Workers" ...
This article aims to answer the question of the biographical meaning of the pandemic in the experiences of so-called “essential workers” who performed their duties in the first line of struggle with the consequences of the COVID-19 health crisis. The analysis of workers’ experiences helps us contribute to the ongoing debates on the role of macro-level events in autobiographical storytelling and the discussion on biographical turning points in sociology. The empirical analysis is based on a collection of more than 80 biographical narrative interviews in healthcare, social care, education, and logistics, from which we selected two stories of the pivotal significance of the pandemic crisis for biographical change for analysis. Biographical analysis makes it possible to describe which conditions are conducive to the inclusion of the pandemic in the main biographical story as a turning point.
... One possibility would be to draw upon Mark Granovetter?s further development of the concept of *embeddedness,? or the way in which economic action is embedded in structures of inter-personal social relations (Granovetter 1985). This concept may be helpful in delineating a distinctly sociological mode of theorizing that does not shy away from traditionally economic concerns, content with economists? ...
I was fortunate enough to present this paper to the very first Conference on Socio-Economics (SASE) at Harvard Business School. I was the only graduate student presenting because Amatai Etzioni saw an early version I delivered at the Eastern Sociological Association ("Is Sociology Being Seduced by Economics?") and invited me to join a panel chaired by Richard Swedberg, with co-panelist George Ritzer and Michael Useem.
... Social capital refers to the abilities that accrue to a person or group of people as a result of having a durable network of more or less established new acquaintances and acknowledgements (Coleman, 1988). According to Granovetter (1985), firms' economic actions and outputs are embedded in and impacted by their social relations in the absence of side actors. Social capital, which is found in social links or networks, improves actors' ability to achieve their goals. ...
The study looked at the relationship between a strategic network and corporate responsiveness in the downstream aviation industry of Nigeria. The method used was a cross-sectional survey design. All the companies in the aviation industry with functional branches at the international airports of Lagos and Abuja as well as Port-Harcourt are included in the research study population. The study advocated a census population, but it employed a judging technique to determine that the study's actual population was made up of 118 top-level managers and senior executives from the nine (9) downstream corporations permitted by the Federal Aviation Agency of Nigeria. The study applied content validity approach. The Cronbach alpha method was used to assess the internal consistency of the measurement instrument. The study adopted descriptive and inferential statistics to test hypotheses. From the data analysis, the findings show that there is a significant negative relationship between administrative network and corporate responsiveness of firms in the aviation industry; a significant positive relationship between financial networks and quality service delivery of aviation firms; a non-significant relationship between financial networks and corporate responsiveness of firms in the aviation industry Based on the findings, we draw the conclusion that financial network and quality service delivery are significantly and favorably related as a result of the study's findings. Additionally, administrative network impinged on the corporate responsiveness of firms. According to the findings, organizational structure considerably modifies the link between corporate responsiveness and strategic network. So, in order to promote an open flow of information between staff members and top management teams, the study suggests fewer hierarchy levels. Additionally, management of aviation companies should guarantee a smooth exchange of information among those involved in the administrative network.
ENGLISH BELOW: In Präsentation und Workshop wird eine Form der Netzwerkanalyse praxisorientiert vorgestellt: Egozentrierte Netzwerkanalyse. Es wird diskutiert, inwiefern diese quantitative Methode dabei hilft, ausgewählte Aufgaben im Praxisfeld Kita-Sozialarbeit messbar, sichtbar und damit konkret zu machen: Inwiefern dienen netzwerkanalytische Kennzahlen als Grundlage für strategische Entscheidungen im Rahmen neuer Konzepte für Kita-Sozialarbeit?
***ENGLISH***
In the presentation and workshop, a practical form of network analysis will be introduced: egocentric network analysis. The discussion will focus on how this quantitative method assists in making specific tasks in the field of daycare social work measurable, visible, and concrete. The extent to which network analytic metrics serve as a foundation for strategic decisions within the framework of new concepts for daycare social work will be explored.
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT This paper explores the intricate relationship between gender and the social dynamics of migration, highlighting the pivotal role gender plays in shaping migration experiences, decision-making processes, social networks, and outcomes. Through an examination of diverse cultural and socioeconomic contexts, the study delves into how migration both challenges and reinforces gender norms and inequalities, shedding light on the complex interplay of economic, social, and cultural forces that influence migratory patterns. Emphasizing the need for gender-sensitive policies, the analysis underscores the importance of considering gender intersectionality to effectively address the multifaceted aspects of migration management. By integrating theoretical insights with empirical findings, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the gendered dimensions of migration, advocating for approaches that promote equity and recognize the diverse experiences of migrants across different gender identities.
La publicación de La economía de la sociedad (Luhmann, 2017 [1988]) en nuestro idioma llega en un momento muy significativo para la exegética de la teoría de sistemas sociales. Aparece al mismo tiempo que la publicación de manuscritos inéditos de Luhmann en Alemania y con la digitalización que, en los últimos años, se ha realizado en la Universidad de Bielefeld del Zettelkasten, el mítico fichero del sociólogo alemán.
Purpose: The aim of this article is to comprehend the role of emotions in the business decision making process and to identify the influence of emotions on the economic behaviors of entrepreneurs, considering their satisfaction levels and ability to manage emotions in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical part of the study draws on a critical literature review, whereas the empirical one employs a diagnostic survey based on a questionnaire as a research tool. To analyse the data, descriptive statistics were obtained and a correlation study was performed. Findings: The study revealed that most of the entrepreneurs surveyed are satisfied with the conduct of business activities and that satisfaction is related to various economic behaviours. Entrepreneurs experience both positive (satisfaction, enthusiasm) and negative (anxiety, embarrassment) emotions. Positive emotions correlate with positive economic behaviors, while negative emotions have the opposite effect. Most entrepreneurs assess their emotional management abilities at least at an average level, but there are areas for improvement. There are differences in self-assessment of emotional control abilities before making business decisions among entrepreneurs. The presented conclusions suggest the necessity for ongoing enhancement of emotional competencies to bolster the positive development of enterprises. Research limitations/implications: Study limitations include the absence of longitudinal analysis, hindering the assessment of satisfaction and economic behavior dynamics. Future research should consider exploring external factors' impact on the relationship between satisfaction and economic behaviors, providing a more comprehensive analysis of contextual influences on entrepreneurs' decisions. Practical implications: Research results reveal significant connections between entrepreneurs' satisfaction and economic behaviors, emphasizing the role of emotions in business decisions. Practical implications recommend conscious emotion management, achieving work-life balance, and diversifying support. Entrepreneurs can benefit from implementing emotion management strategies, which can improve business efficiency, encourage innovation, and improve the handling of business challenges. Originality/value: This article introduces a holistic perspective on the interplay between entrepreneurs' satisfaction and economic behaviours, emphasising emotions' role in decision making. Its value lies in combining research on satisfaction, emotions, and their management, offering practical recommendations for both business practitioners and researchers interested in the psychological aspects of corporate functioning. Keywords: Emotions in business, economic behaviors, emotional management, behavioral finance. Category of the paper: Research paper.
Resumo Este ensaio foi apresentado em homenagem a Bronislaw Malinowski, cem anos após a publicação de Os Argonautas do Pacífico Ocidental, organizado pelo Departamento de Antropologia Social da London School of Economics. Seu objetivo é refletir sobre as trocas entre a sociologia e a antropologia econômica em diferentes contextos acadêmicos e como essas dinâmicas geram distintas condições para que o campo da "nova" sociologia econômica reconheça Os Argonautas como um clássico. Diferentemente das academias centrais, a interpretação que se apresenta ilumina as condições favoráveis ocorridas no Cone Sul - particularmente a partir da influência da antropologia do Brasil e, principalmente, do papel do Núcleo de Estudos em Cultura e Economia do Museu Nacional - para gerar esse reconhecimento.
This essay was presented at the tribute to Bronislaw Malinowski, 100 years after the publication of The Argonauts of the Western Pacific organized by the Department of Social Anthropology of the London School of Economics. Its objective is to reflect on the exchanges between sociology and economic anthropology in different academic contexts and how these dynamics generate different conditions for the field of the "new" economic sociology to recognize The Argonauts as a classic. Unlike the academies of the center of the global anthropological system, the interpretation that is presented here illuminates the favorable conditions that occurred in the Southern Cone - particularly through the influence of Brazilian anthropology and, especially, the role played by the Nucleus of Culture and Economy of the National Museum - in generating this recognition.
The difference between the hourly rates of pay for two jobs might be seen in the same way as that between the prices of a ton of copper and a ton of steel: there is a common unit of quantity, but the conditions of supply and demand for the two articles are largely independent, and the difference between their prices is only an arithmetic by-product. But people do attach significance to the differences between rates of pay, and their ideas about what these should be help to fix particular rates. The relations between the rates of pay for different jobs are termed differentials when the jobs compared lie at different grades within the same occupation or industry, and relativities when they are in different ones. Both sorts of comparison are possible because jobs are defined by their requirements – what physical and mental ability, length of training, experience, tolerance of adverse working conditions, and the like, they demand from anyone who is to do them adequately; and these requirements are regarded as being common to jobs of all kinds, but present in different amounts and proportions. The requirements of given jobs are assessed intuitively by those who make practical judgements about the fairness of differentials and relativities, and are set out explicitly in the procedure known as job evaluation. The rate for a job is regarded as made up of the shadow prices of the capacities to meet the several job requirements, together with the extent of each requirement in the given job.
This paper modifies the model of purposive action proposed by Coleman to encompass circumstances in which actors have imperfect access to one another. An access network indicating the available channels for exchange is introduced; it creates discrepancies in the number of alternative exchange relationships available to different actors. The connection of two ideas-Emerson's notion that dependency of one actor on another is inversely related to the first actor's number of alternative exchange relationships and Coleman's conception of dependency in terms of the control of one actor's interests by another-permits the introduction of what is termed "price-making behavior." This allows actors favorably situated in the access network to inflate the exchange value of their resources in transactions wi peripheral actors. Effects of the modifications are investigated by means of artificial data; the effects include shifts in the equilibrium distribution of power among actors, in the levels of resource transfer amo...
Recent analysis suggests that the American business elite is differentiated along an "inner group" axis. At one end of the axis are those business people who are primary owners or top managers of several major corporations, collectively labeled the inner group, while at the other end are those who are connected with only a single major corporation. It is reasoned that, by virtue of their multiple corporate connections and the resulting transcendence of parochial corporate interests, inner group members would be more often involved in the governance of other institutions than would be other members of the business elite. Institutional governance includes the occupancy of top administrative posts and governing and advisory board positions of three types of institutions: nonprofit, nongovernment organizations, such as economic development and cultural organizations; local, state, and federal agencies; and major business policy associations. Drawing on a set of 2,003 directors of the nation's largest 797 corporations in 1969, and on director biographical information acquired from several sources, this study found that inner group members are substantially more likely, compared with other members of the business elite, to be involved directly in the governance of a range of institutions. Moreover, available evidence also indicates that the higher participation rate of inner group members is at least partly a result of their capacity to mobilize greater corporate resources and their involvement in a common, transcorporate social network. The evidence presented tentatively supports the thesis that the American business elite is differentiated along an inner group axis, at least with respect to the selection of business people to assist in the governance of other institutions. The inner group may be an important source of political leadership capable of promoting the more general interests of the entire capitalist class.
Between 1923 and 1973, the Hungarian educational system experienced great changes in institutional structure and policies related to disparities in the allocation of schooling. An analysis of historical changes in inequalities in the odds of persons progressing from given forms of schooling to others indicates the consequences of these shifting policies, and the process through which the overall disparities in schooling changed. As in the United States (Mare, 1981) and Britain (Halsey et al., 1980), the overall odds of everyone completing the lowest progressions increased, pushing everyone up to the higher schooling progressions, where socioeconomic differentials are generally smaller; however, in contrast to the case in the U.S. and Britain, socioeconomic differentials in the odds of given progressions did not increase across cohorts. In fact, for the progression to completion of primary education, such differentials declined. Differentials based on gender showed large cross-cohort decreases, but changes in the effects of place of residence were modest. These changes in Hungary appear to demonstrate the effectiveness of both the elimination of a class-based dual structure of primary education and administrative control over the process of social selection as a means of substantially reducing socioeconomic inequalities in the allocation of schooling.
A systematic formulation is given of Weber's theory of the origins of large-scale capitalism, based upon the lectures given just before his death. This last theory is predominantly institutional, unlike the emphasis upon religious ideas and motivations in his early Protestant Ethic thesis, and unlike his analyses of the world religions. Weber's institutional theory involves a sequence of causal conditions. The outcome of the sequence is capitalism characterized by the entrepreneurial organization of capital, rationalized technology, free labor, and unrestrained markets. Intermediate conditions are a calculable legal system and an economic ethic combining universal commercialization with the moderate pursuit of repetitive gains. These conditions are fostered by the bureaucratic state and by legal citizenship, and more remotely by a complex of administrative, military, and religious factors. The overall pattern is one in which numerous elements must be balanced in continuous conflict if economic development is to take place. Weber derived much of this scheme in explicit confrontation with Marxism. His conflict theory criticizes as well as deepens and extends a number of Marxian themes, including a theory of international capitalism which both criticizes and complements Wallerstein's theory of the world system.
The identity of the people engaged in a transaction is a major determinant of the institutional mode of transaction. The family is the locale of transactions in which identity dominates; however, identity is also important in the market. The opportunity to reduce transaction costs by making specific investments in exchanges between identified parties affects the organization of social activity, the division of labor, and, in particular, the interaction between specialization by identity and by other dimensions of transactions. Economic and social development can be understood in terms of changes in the modes of transacting. Within this broad framework one can also analyze the transactions in which families have an advantage over other institutions, the conditions that make families of various types more or less efficient than alternative modes of transaction, and the implications of family membership for transactions with others.
Although there exist no detailed published studies on trends in workplace size, most research in stratification and industrial sociology has operated with the implicit assumption that, in the course of the twentieth century, workers have found themselves in increasingly larger establishments. This assumption has focused considerable attention on such concomitants of the assumed increase as growth in bureaucratic control and internal labor markets. This paper gives thefirst systematic empirical account of the evolution of workplace size, and presents results that call into question the appropriateness of the current allocation of research energy. It is suggested that far more attention be paid to analysis of small firms and establishments. It is well known that one of the major changes in the organization of work during the twentieth century has been the shift from small to large employers. In Contested Terrain, Ed- wards (1979:vii) notes that seventy-five or a hundred years ago, "nearly all employees worked for small firms, while today large num- bers toil for the giant corporations." From the theory of segmented labor markets we know that the internal labor market in the large com- pany has become an increasingly standard lo- cale for intragenerational mobility, and that, as Thurow points out, the need for on-the-job training leads employers to eliminate competi- tion for jobs among those who must train one another; the "net result is the formation of a series of internal labor markets with limited ports of entry" (Thurow, 1975:85-86). Dunlop (1966:32) observes, in a similar vein, that for the "typical enterprise, hiring-in jobs are only a small fraction of the total number of job classifications." The forces that have brought about this transformation of the workplace have been extensively documented. Advances in technology have facilitated increasingly large operations with corresponding scale
This article reviews the sociological literature on the transition from socialism to capitalism. It distinguishes between the erosion and transition phases and between traditional and corporate segments in the emerging private sector. Panel survey data from Hungary show that during the transition ex-communist cadres maintain their advantageous position and do especially well in the more dynamic corporate segment. They are successful because human capital is important in both capitalism and socialism and because the cadres are able to convert past political power to economic advantage. Contrary to the findings of studies based only on agriculture, the transition increases income inequalities.
Subculture, despite the term's wide usage in sociology, has not proved to be a very satisfactory explanatory concept. Several problems in previous subculture research are discussed: (1) the confusion between subculture and subsociety, (2) the lack of a meaningful referent for subculture, (3) the homogeneity and stasis associated with the concept, and (4) the emphasis on defining subcultures in terms of values and central themes. It is argued that for the subculture construct to be of maximal usefulness it needs to be linked to process of interaction. Subculture is reconceptualized in terms of cultural spread occurring through an interlocking group network charactarized by multiple group membership, weak ties, structural roles conducive to information spread between groups, and media diffusion. Indentification with the referent group serves to motivate the potential member to adopt the artifacts, behaviors, norms, and values characteristic of the subculture. Youth subculture are presented as illustrations ...
The collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe has transformed many of the institutions governing state enterprises and was expected to lead to radical changes in enterprise structures and practices. This was especially so where ownership had changed. However, just as new constitutions do not create liberal democracies overnight, so too the withdrawal of the state from direct control over the economy and privatization does not automatically generate dramatic enterprise transformations. This study of 27 Hungarian enterprises in the early 1990s shows that products and the markets served changed remarkably little, and the employment and organizational changes that have taken place in most enterprises have been less radical than might be expected. Ownership changes have not always led to major shifts in control, nor have private owners implemented sharply different policies from state controllers. The highly fluid institutional environment limited the commitment to, and capacity for, major strategic changes in most substantial Hungarian enterprises. Where changes have occurred, they have been most significant in: (a) state enterprises that are in severe financial difficulties, and (b) companies controlled by foreign firms.
This article focuses on the predominance of obligated relational contracting in Japanese business. Consumer goods markets are highly competitive in Japan, but trade in intermediates, by contrast, is for the most part conducted within long-term trading relations in which goodwill give-and-take is expected to temper the pursuit of self-interest. Cultural preferences explain the unusual predominance of these relations in Japan, but they are in fact more common in Western economies than textbooks usually recognize. The growth of relational contracting in labour markets especially is, indeed, at the root of the rigidities supposedly responsible for contemporary stagflation. Japan shows that to sweep away these rigidities and give markets back their pristine vigor is not the only prescription for a cure of stagflation. The Japanese economy more than adequately compensates for the loss of allocative efficiency by achieving high levels of other kinds of efficiency. Relational contracts are just a way of trading off the short term loss involved in sacrificing a price advantage, against the insurance. As for relational contracting between enterprises, there are three things to be said. First, the relative security of such relations encourages investment in supplying firms. Second, the relationships of trust and mutual dependency make more for a rapid flow of information. Third, a by-product of the system is a general emphasis on quality.
Sociologists since Simmel have been interested in social circles as essential features of friendship networks. Although network analysis has been increasingly used to uncover patterns among social relationships, theoretical explanations of these patterns have been inadequate. This paper presents a theory of the social organization of friendship ties. The approach is based upon Homans's concepts of activities, interactions, and sentiments and upon the concept of extra-network foci organizing social activities and interaction. The theory is contrasted with Heider's balance theory. Implications for transitivity, network bridges, and density of personal networks are discussed and presented as propositions. The focus theory is shown to help explain patterns of friendships in the 1965-66 Detroit Area Study. This paper is intended as a step toward the development of integrated theory to explain interrelationships between networks and other aspects of social structure. Implications for data analysis are discussed. Sociologists have long recognized the importance of patterns in networks of relations that connect individuals with each other. Simmel (1955) described modern society as consisting of loosely connected social circles of relationships. Granovetter (1973) has indicated the general significance of these social circles for communication, community organization, and social conflict. Various studies have supported this picture of the essential patterns in social networks, including Moreno's sociometry (1953), Milgram's "small world" experiments (1967), and Kadushin's observations (1966). Unfortunately, the study of social networks has often been carried out without concern for the origins in the larger social context. Most network analysis ends with description and labeling of patterns; and when explanations of patterns are offered, they frequently rely upon inherent tendencies within networks to become consistent, balanced, or transitive. As a consequence of such atheoretical and/or self-contained network theoretical approaches, data are collected and data analysis techniques are devised for
The removal of state support for enterprises and the intensification of competition following the liberalisation of markets in the former state socialist societies of Eastern Europe were expected to result in the major rationalization of employment and work organisation, especially where ownership and control had changed. This study of 271 production workers in 13 Hungarian enterprises shows that the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the most severe financial difficulties had reduced total employment the most in the early 1990s, and that both this group of companies and those now privately controlled had reduced the proportion of indirect support workers more than had SOEs in better financial conditions and/or which were still being supported by the state. Production workers in the private firms also had more varied jobs, especially skilled ones, and more task discretion than most of those in SOEs. In general, both the crisis SOEs and the private firms distinguished more strongly between skilled workers and team leaders and less-skilled workers in terms of the jobs they had, their discretion over task performance, supervisor control and involvement than did the more financially stable SOEs. Most workers in this last group of companies were still organised in the `quasi-Taylorised' work systems with substantial delegated autonomy from supervisors characteristic of state socialism.
Eleven closely related experiments testing the free rider hypothesis under different conditions, and sampling various subpopulations, are reported. Results question the empirical validity and generality of a strong version of the hypothesis. Some reasons for its failure are discussed.
Preliminary findings indicate that businessmen often fail to plan exchange relationships completely, and seldom use legal sanctions to adjust these relationships or to settle disputes. Planning and legal sanctions are often unnecessary and may have undesirable consequences. Transactions are planned and legal sanctions are used when the gains are thought to outweigh the costs. The power to decide whether the gains from using contract outweigh the costs will be held by individuals having different occupational roles. The occupational role influences the decision that is made.