Beyond Immediate Relations: Understanding Women Collaborative Networks

Abstract

This study examines collaborative networks focusing on how women’s need to utilize indirect relationships influences network tie formations. Research has identified women tend to have ineffective network positions and what are negative outcomes, yet there is limited attention to how they reinforce collaboration chances at work. Pointing out their struggle to establish new direct network ties in a male-dominated environment, we suggest women likely form transitive network ties by closing indirect ties, unless they have more available resources for new opportunities. Using a sample of 64 firm-level inventor patenting collaborations from 2000 to 2012, the network meta-analysis reveals that although female inventors less likely develop direct ties for patenting collaborations, they build transitive ties utilizing previous indirect ties through male peers. Further, whereas slack resources in a firm weaken the negative tendency of female inventors’ direct tie formations, greater R&D expenses and environment munificence allow them to less depend on indirect ties reducing transitive tie developments. Our findings offer an important implication that women’s network tie formations result not only from challenges of gender stereotyping but also from the need for indirect network ties.