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Dual Signals: How Competition Makes or Breaks Interfirm Social Ties

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  • Denis Trapido

    (The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-3125)

Abstract

Research has documented the benefits of social ties across boundaries of competing firms but has not specified when competition enables such ties or when it damages them. Ninety semistructured interviews sought to elicit answers to this question from leaders of drug development companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. The informants reported withholding social ties from counterparts in competing companies if these companies affirmed to them the goal conflict aspect of the competition relation; they reported social connectedness to individuals in competing companies if these companies affirmed to them joint professional affiliation, the other necessary aspect of competition. Unique quantitative data on competition and social relations in the Bay Area's drug development industry confirmed this pattern for weak social ties (acquaintance). Strong social ties (friendship) were not affected by any examined organizational or interorganizational factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Denis Trapido, 2013. "Dual Signals: How Competition Makes or Breaks Interfirm Social Ties," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 498-512, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:24:y:2013:i:2:p:498-512
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1120.0740
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Michael Howe & Yao Jin, 2022. "It's nothing personal, or is it? Exploring the competitive implications of relational multiplexity in supply chains," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 58(2), pages 26-47, April.
    2. Yaqun Yi & Yuan Li & Michael A. Hitt & Yi Liu & Zelong Wei, 2016. "The influence of resource bundling on the speed of strategic change: Moderating effects of relational capital," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 435-467, June.

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