Bridging Ties Research Articles

Draining or gaining? The social networks of public housing movers in Boston

The social networks of low-income residents have been simultaneously described as supportive, strained, localized, and limited in providing access to necessary resources and information. Using a longitudinal qualitative approach, this study investigated the social networks of low-income women in one US high-poverty public housing project. Existing sociological frameworks for studying networks did not fully capture the women's social ties, particularly their “draining” ties. As the women were relocated as part of a mixed-income housing initiative targeting their neighborhood, a changing flow of resources and stress passed through social ties. A change in neighborhood prompted changes in low-income people's social networks far different than expected. Findings also raise questions about the importance of weak or bridging ties in linking low-income women with mobility opportunities.

Social networkers: Measuring and examining individual differences in propensity to connect with others

The research examined individual differences in people's propensity to connect with others (PCO). A measure of PCO, with components for making friends (strong ties), making acquaintances (weak ties), and joining others (bridging ties), was developed and tested in two studies involving 144 undergraduates and 197 health-care employees. PCO and its components were significantly positively associated with social network characteristics (including size, betweenness centrality, and brokerage) and indicators of personal adjustment including support received, attainment, well-being, influence, and suggestion-making. PCO had effects beyond those of major personality traits, and PCO components displayed distinctive relationships with work network characteristics.

Enhancing the Innovation Performance of Firms by Balancing Cohesiveness and Bridging Ties

This article examines how firms can construct their alliance portfolio to obtain higher rates of innovation. The study develops around the idea that cohesive and sparse relationships are at the same time structurally contradictory and functionally interdependent. Their structural contradiction lies in their illustrating opposite patterns of firm partners' interconnectedness: cohesive alliances imply that a firms' alliance partners are in turn highly connected among each other, whereas sparse alliances imply that the partners in these alliances are actually disconnected from each other. But they are functionally interdependent in that they provide different (and complementary) types of contribution to a firm's innovation performance. On the one hand, by facilitating trust building and cooperation, cohesive alliances provide a normative environment that guarantees the actual execution of knowledge recombinant processes. On the other by exposing firms to novel and varied knowledge flows, sparse alliances break the tendency of cohesive alliances to produce redundancy, and make it possible for the knowledge recombinations that take place across cohesive relationships to actually bear the fruits of innovation. By illustrating the mechanisms whereby the synergies between cohesive and sparse alliances can be obtained and exploited, this study suggests the development of a dual alliance network structure, made up of both cohesive and sparse alliances, as the normative ideal for innovation. The empirical results support this insight, showing that alliance portfolios made up of both types of alliances provide higher rates of innovation than those from either pattern alone. The article demonstrates these findings in the US mobile phone industry in the 1990s, a domain where firms engaged systematically in innovation processes and strategic alliance activities.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and New Venture Performance: The Moderating Role of Intra- And Extraindustry Social Capital

This study advances research on entrepreneurial orientation and social capital by examining how the configuration of a founding team's intra- and extraindustry network ties shapes the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and new venture performance. Using an original data set of 90 new ventures in the emerging open source software industry, we found that the combination of high network centrality and extensive bridging ties strengthened the focal link. Among firms with few bridging ties, centrality weakened the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance. Overall, these findings contribute to a better understanding of when network centrality represents an asset or a liability for entrepreneurial firms.

Local Bridging Ties and New Venture Internationalization: Exploratory Studies in Bangalore and Cambridge

Local Bridging Ties and New Venture Internationalization: Exploratory Studies in Bangalore and Cambridge

Better with Age? Tie Longevity and the Performance Implications of Bridging and Closure

We examine the extent to which performance effects of firms' network positions vary with the ages of the ties comprising those positions. Our analysis of Canadian investment banks' underwriting syndicate ties indicates that the performance benefits of closure ties increase with age, whereas benefits of bridging ties decrease with age. We also find that benefits yielded by hybrid network positions, combining elements of both closure and bridging, are greatest when old closure ties are combined with either very young or very old bridging ties. Our findings support the idea that the advantages firms gain (or do not) from their network positions depend on the relational character of the ties comprising them, highlighting the risk of theorizing structural network effects without also considering the relational and temporal dynamics associated with network positions.

Better With Age? Tie Longevity and the Performance Implications of Bridging and Closure

We examine the dependence of the performance effects of firms' network positions on the ages of the ties comprising them. Our analysis of Canadian investment banks' underwriting syndicate ties indicates that the performance benefits of closure increase with tie age, while benefits of bridging decrease with tie age. We also find that benefits yielded by hybrid network positions combining elements of both closure and bridging are greatest when old closure ties are combined with either very young or very old bridging ties. Our findings support the idea that the advantages firms gain (or do not) from their network positions depend on the character of the ties (e.g., age) comprising them, highlighting the risk of theorizing structural network effects without also considering the qualities of the ties through which particular structural benefits accrue.

Do bridging ties complement strong ties? An empirical examination of alliance ambidexterity

AbstractThis study examines the underexplored tensions and complementarities between bridging ties and strong ties in innovation‐seeking alliances. Bridging ties span structural holes to provide innovation potential but lack integration capacity, and strong ties provide integration capacity but lack innovation potential. We theoretically develop the idea that—notwithstanding their tensions—strong ties complement bridging ties in enhancing alliance ambidexterity at the project level. While bridging ties provide access to diverse, structural hole‐spanning perspectives and capabilities, strong ties help integrate them to realize an innovation. We also propose that their effects and complementarities influence alliance ambidexterity because they facilitate knowledge integration at the project level. Tests using data on 42 innovation‐seeking project alliances involving a major American services conglomerate and its alliance partners support the majority of the proposed ideas. Implications for interfirm network configuration, strategic alliances, and the broader strategy literature are also discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Between Closure and Holes: Hybrid Network Positions and the Performance of U.K. Investment Banks

This study examines the possibility that hybrid network positions that balance a firm's access to structural holes (Burt, 1992) and dense interconnections (Coleman, 1988) may outperform positions emphasizing one or the other alone. To do this, we estimate models of U.K. investment bank performance that consider a bank's own and its partners' balance of closure and bridging ties in the bond underwriting syndicate network. We find that banks occupying hybrid-firm positions outperform banks emphasizing only bridging, which in turn outperform banks emphasizing only closure. We also find that banks emphasizing closure can substitute their partners' bridges for their own; banks emphasizing bridging cannot, however, substitute their partners' closure the same way. These findings support the idea advanced by small-world network theorists that advantageous network positions both provide ready access to heterogeneous information sources through bridging and facilitate efficient exchange and integration of rich information through closure.

The multiple pathways of high performing groups: the interaction of social networks and group processes

AbstractThis study examines how both strong and weak relationship groups (groups with numerous, intense internal friendship ties and few, less intense internal friendship ties respectively) achieve high performance when utilizing strategies that capitalize on the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses associated with their internal social structure. We examine the interactions of groups' internal friendship networks with their external network structures (external ties) and internal intragroup conflict (constructive controversy). The results of a study using survey, archival and interview data on 35 groups of MBA students indicated that internal friendship networks interacted with constructive controversy and external networks to determine when groups would achieve superior performance. High performing strong relationship groups engaged in greater constructive controversy than low performing strong relationship groups, while constructive controversy appeared to have minimal effect on the performance of weak relationship groups. High performing weak relationship groups had fewer external bridging ties to other groups when compared to low performing weak relationship groups, while external bridging ties appeared to have minimal effect on the performance of strong relationship groups. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Neighborhood Governance Reform and Networks of Community Power in Los Angeles

This article applies network theory to consider the effects of neighborhood council reform on city governance in Los Angeles. The authors argue that neighborhood councils have the potential to change elite-dominated governance through several network effects: development of bridging social capital—network relationships that cross-cut traditional community cleavages, broadening of horizontal networks that improve information required for collective action, and creation of newties that elevate previously peripheral groups in the system of political communication. Based on field research and a network survey of neighborhood council board members, the authors find that although bonding ties help facilitate collective action, they also maintain social stratification because they develop between similar groups and involve status seeking. The development of weaker bridging ties among more diverse groups appears to promote mobilization through information sharing. Thus, bonding and bridging ties appear to play complementary roles in promoting information dissemination and mobilization among neighborhood councils.

Homophily and Agency: Creating Effective Sustainable Development Networks

Community networks are self-organized groupings that form for many different reasons. Some networks, connected mainly through bonding ties, are based on personal interests and relationships; others, based mainly on bridging ties, centre around broader interests. These networks form to create collective agency for engaging with social, environmental, and other issues through the concentration of social capital. The multi-scaled and evolutionary nature of sustainable development issues requires that community groups dedicated to engaging with such issues be particularly diverse, resilient, and flexible. As such, they must build a large number of bridging ties leading to external resources and limit the potential for bonding ties to impose constraining norms upon the group. Over time, however, volunteer groups tend towards a state of homophily, the tendency of groups to form from similar actors and then become more similar with time. This tendency leads to a decrease in the number of the bridging ties that help to provide group agency. Homophily must be actively recognized within community sustainable development groups if they are to remain effective over the long term. This paper suggests methods to prevent and control group homophily drawn from experience in forming small, time-limited sustainable development networks.

Weak Ties in Networked Communities

Communities with high levels of social capital are likely to have a higher quality of life than communities with low social capital. This is due to the greater ability of such communities to organize and mobilize effectively for collective action because they have high levels of social trust, dense social networks, and well-established norms of mutuality (the major features of social capital). Communities with “bridging” social capital (weak ties across groups) as well as “bonding” social capital (strong ties within groups) are the most effective in organizing for collective action. People who belong to multiple groups act as bridging ties. When people with bridging ties use communication media, such as the Internet, they enhance their capability to educate community members and to organize, as needed, for collective action. This article summarizes evidence from stratified household survey data in Blacksburg, VA, showing that people with weak (bridging) ties across groups have higher levels of community involvement, civic interest, and collective efficacy than people without bridging ties among groups. Moreover, heavy Internet users with bridging ties have higher social engagement, use the Internet for social purposes, and have been attending more local meetings and events since going online than heavy Internet users with no bridging ties. These findings may suggest that the Internet—in the hands of bridging individuals–is a tool for enhancing social relations and information exchange, and for increasing face-to-face interaction, all of which help to build both bonding and bridging social capital in communities.

Social Capital and the Growth of the Nonprofit Sector*

Objectives. This article examines the extent to which nonprofit organizational foundings are determined by various forms of social capital. Our hypothesis is that, controlling for other relevant social, political, and economic factors, communities with higher levels of social capital should experience more extensive growth in their nonprofit sectors.Methods. Using data derived from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey and the IRS “charitable organization” Business Master Files, we test our hypothesis using a negative binomial event count regression on nonprofit organization foundings in 284 U.S. counties in the year 2001.Results. We find that two core dimensions of social capital—political engagement and “bridging” social ties—have a significant impact on county‐level nonprofit foundings. Surprisingly, a key element of social capital in the literature, the level of interpersonal trust, does not lead to an increase in foundings of new not‐for‐profit organizations.Conclusions. This study provides further evidence of the strength of political engagement and bridging ties for the vitality of the community. It also shows that the different dimensions of social capital do not manifest a uniform effect on nonprofit sector growth. These results further demonstrate that the growth of a community's not‐for‐profit sector is dependent on a mix of ecological and environmental factors, especially preexisting organizational density, median household income, unemployment, and levels of governmental spending. Overall, social capital can usefully be seen as another key “environmental” factor in explanations of organizational foundings.

Poor people, poor places, and poor health: the mediating role of social networks and social capital

This paper explores the dynamics between poverty and exclusion; neighbourhood, and health and well being by considering the role of social networks and social capital in the social processes involved. It is based on qualitative research taking two deprived areas as exemplary case studies, and involving depth interviews with residents. Neighbourhood influences on networks and social capital were explored, network typologies developed reflecting structural and cultural aspects of individual's networks, and pathways implicated in health effects considered. The complexity of social capital is addressed. The role of three factors in influencing social networks and social capital are demonstrated: neighbourhood characteristics and perceptions; poverty and social exclusion, and social consciousness. Perceptions of inequality could be a source of social capital as well as demoralisation. Different network structures- dense and weak, homogeneous and heterogeneous- were involved in the creation of social capital and had implications for well being. Coping, enjoyment of life and hope are identified as benefits. Although participation in organisations was confirmed as beneficial, it is suggested that today's heterogeneous neighbourhoods also require regenerated local work opportunities to develop bridging ties necessary for the genesis of inclusive social capital and better health. Despite the capacity of social capital to buffer its harsher effects, the concept is not wholly adequate for explaining the deleterious effects of poverty on health and well being.