Benefits and Burdens of Positive and Negative Ties: An Empirical Examination

Abstract

Despite the pervasiveness of social network concepts in organizational literature, two important network aspects remain understudied: positive outcomes of negative ties and interplay between positive and negative ties. In this study, we explore the implications for inventor productivity of communication (positive) and avoidance (negative) ties. By taking the direction of these ties into consideration, we argue that the out-degree centrality of inventors in the informal work-related communication network (i.e., the number of other inventors from whom the focal inventor seeks work-related information) and in the avoidance network (i.e., the number of other inventors whom the focal inventor avoids) will enhance inventor productivity; conversely, the inventors’ in-degree centrality in the communication network (i.e., the number of others who seek information from this inventor) and in the avoidance network (i.e., the number of other inventors who avoid the focal inventor) will dampen inventor productivity. We further propose that the avoidance out-degree and in-degree centrality will moderate the effects of communication in-degree and out-degree centrality on inventor productivity. Empirical testing in an R&D unit of a large pharmaceutical firm using survey data about communication and avoidance network ties among inventors lends broad support to the proposed theoretical framework.