Individual Ownership of Interorganizational Relationships: The Effects of Poor External Network Visibility

Abstract

This paper explores relationships between organizations through the lens of the people in organizations who manage them. Interorganizational ties are often “owned” by individuals. Although at times interorganizational tie are owned by a single person, like account executives in advertising, partners in law or venture capital firms, or rainmakers in consulting or lobbying, this study focuses instead on interorganizational ties owned jointly by multiple people. When there are multiple owners of the same interorganizational tie, some owners may perceive the tie as very valuable while other owners perceive the tie as minimally valuable, a situation that in turn could create conflict or impair strategic action. What explains why people differently perceive the value of an interorganizational tie they jointly own? I theorize differences arise in part because of variation in owners’ external network visibility. Attributes of an interorganizational tie or the interorganizational network more broadly are not equally known to people inside organizations. When owners of the same interorganizational tie each observe different extra-organizational network information, they have different perceptions about a tie they jointly own. I find empirical evidence to support this relationship using cross-level network data collected about primary school ties to external organizations that are owned by principals, teachers, and staff.