Network portfolio diversity and social innovation: An egocentric approach to cross-sector partnerships

Abstract

The culmination of network and organization research suggests diverse network ties bolster innovation. Extending this line of research, this study examines how three distinct dimensions of network portfolio diversity—duration, tie strength, and collaboration type—are related to organizational innovation. Survey, ego network, and expert evaluation data on 258 U.S. social ventures suggest that these different dimensions have differential impact on the novelty of ideas organizations develop to tackle social issues (i.e., social innovation). Specifically, while diversity in relationship duration with nonprofit partners had an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship with social innovation, diversity in collaboration type with business partners and diversity in tie strength with government partners each had a U-shaped curvilinear relationship. These results highlight that the relationship between network diversity and organizational innovation is contingent on the network portfolio dimension, as well as the partner sector. This research contributes to theorizing on social and interorganizational networks, cross-sector partnerships, and social innovation. Findings also have implications for organizational leaders as they configure heterogeneous ego network portfolios to boost innovation for social impact.