IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orstsc/v2y2017i4p226-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Origins of Great Strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald S. Burt

    (Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637)

  • Giuseppe Soda

    (Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University, 20136 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

We use network theory to define the social origins of great strategies. Our argument proceeds in four steps: (1) The bridge and cluster structure of social networks is a proxy indicator of variation in knowledge and practice (homogeneity within clusters, heterogeneity between); (2) people with strong connections to multiple clusters (network brokers) have breadth, timing, and arbitrage advantages in moving knowledge/practice from clusters where it is a commodity into clusters where it is valuable. (3) New strategy is a new perspective on, or new combination of, prior knowledge/practice; so (4) network brokers have a competitive advantage in detecting and developing new strategies, a subset of which are great strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald S. Burt & Giuseppe Soda, 2017. "Social Origins of Great Strategies," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 226-233, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:2:y:2017:i:4:p:226-233
    DOI: 10.1287/stsc.2017.0043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2017.0043
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/stsc.2017.0043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    2. Martin Gargiulo & Mario Benassi, 2000. "Trapped in Your Own Net? Network Cohesion, Structural Holes, and the Adaptation of Social Capital," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 183-196, April.
    3. Donna Marie De Carolis & Barrie E. Litzky & Kimberly A. Eddleston, 2009. "Why Networks Enhance the Progress of New Venture Creation: The Influence of Social Capital and Cognition," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(2), pages 527-545, March.
    4. Eric von Hippel, 1994. ""Sticky Information" and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 429-439, April.
    5. Giovanni Gavetti & Anoop Menon, 2016. "Evolution Cum Agency: Toward a Model of Strategic Foresight," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(3), pages 207-233, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ronald S. Burt, 2019. "Network Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs: Density, Hierarchy, and Success in China and the West," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 19-50, January.
    2. Giovanni Gavetti & Joe Porac, 2018. "On the Origin of Great Strategies," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(1), pages 352-365, March.
    3. Soda, Giuseppe & Zaheer, Akbar & Sun, Xiaoming & Cui, Wentian, 2021. "Brokerage evolution in innovation contexts: Formal structure, network neighborhoods and knowledge," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(10).
    4. Mukhtar, Arshia & Zhu, Ying & Lee, You-il & Bambacas, Mary & Cavusgil, S. Tamer, 2022. "Challenges confronting the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative: Social networks and cross-cultural adjustment in CPEC projects," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1).
    5. Sonja Opper, 2023. "Social network and institution-based strategy research," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 329-351, March.
    6. Chris C. Gernreich & Sebastian Knop, 2019. "Empowering Creative Employees: Phase-Specific Support In The Front-End Of Innovation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(08), pages 1-31, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Poblete & Vesna Mandakovic, 2021. "Innovative outcomes from migrant entrepreneurship: a matter of whether you think you can, or think you can’t," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 571-592, June.
    2. Justin Tan & Hongjuan Zhang & Liang Wang, 2015. "Network Closure or Structural Hole? The Conditioning Effects of Network–Level Social Capital on Innovation Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(5), pages 1189-1212, September.
    3. Jintong Tang & Zhi Tang & Jerome A. Katz, 2014. "Proactiveness, Stakeholder–Firm Power Difference, and Product Safety and Quality of Chinese SMEs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(5), pages 1-29, September.
    4. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    5. Ahmed Abdulqader Hamad & Şule Tuzlukaya & Erdem Kırkbeşoğlu, 2019. "The Effect Of Social Capital On Operational Performance: Research In Banking Sector In Erbil," Copernican Journal of Finance & Accounting, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 8(1), pages 103-124.
    6. Elisa Giuliani, 2004. "Laggard Clusters as Slow Learners, Emerging Clusters as Locus of Knowledge Cohesion (and Exclusion): A Comparative Study in the Wine Industry," LEM Papers Series 2004/09, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    7. Stam, Wouter & Arzlanian, Souren & Elfring, Tom, 2014. "Social capital of entrepreneurs and small firm performance: A meta-analysis of contextual and methodological moderators," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 152-173.
    8. Alberto Chong & Virgilio Galdo & Máximo Torero, 2005. "Does Privatization Deliver? Access to Telephone Services and Household Income in Poor Rural Areas Using a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Peru," Research Department Publications 4417, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    9. Steinmetz, Alexander, 2010. "Price and inventory dynamics in an oligopoly industry: A framework for commodity markets," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 82, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    10. J. K. Pappalardo, 2022. "Economics of Consumer Protection: Contributions and Challenges in Estimating Consumer Injury and Evaluating Consumer Protection Policy," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 201-238, June.
    11. Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj, 2016. "Managing Telecommunications for Development: An Analysis of Intellectual Capital in Nigerian Telecommunication Industry," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(01), pages 1-30, March.
    12. Feser, Daniel & Runst, Petrik, 2015. "Energy efficiency consultants as change agents? Examining the reasons for EECs’ limited success," ifh Working Papers 1 (2015), Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh).
    13. Jae Wook Yoo & Richard Reed & Shung Jae Shin & David J. Lemak, 2009. "Strategic Choice and Performance in Late Movers: Influence of the Top Management Team's External Ties," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 308-335, March.
    14. Oliver Hinz & Jochen Eckert, 2010. "The Impact of Search and Recommendation Systems on Sales in Electronic Commerce," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 2(2), pages 67-77, April.
    15. Alexander W. Salter & William J. Luther, 2016. "The Optimal Austrian Business Cycle Theory," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Studies in Austrian Macroeconomics, volume 20, pages 45-60, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    16. Nagler Matthew G., 2007. "Understanding the Internet's Relevance to Media Ownership Policy: A Model of Too Many Choices," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, June.
    17. Laband, David N. & Hussain, Anwar & González-Cabán, Armando, 2008. "The impact of forest service litigation success on administrative appeals of proposed fuels reduction actions," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(7-8), pages 444-449, October.
    18. Bellini, Silvia & Cardinali, Maria Grazia & Grandi, Benedetta, 2017. "A structural equation model of impulse buying behaviour in grocery retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 164-171.
    19. Castilla, Carolina & Haab, Timothy C., 2010. "Asymmetric Search and Loss Aversion: Choice Experiment on Consumer Willingness to Search in the Gasoline Retail Market," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61672, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Colin Wessendorf & Alexander Kopka & Dirk Fornahl, 2021. "The impact of the six European Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) on regional knowledge creation," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2127, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:2:y:2017:i:4:p:226-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.