Embedded Brokerage: Hubs Versus Locals
Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks
ISBN: 978-1-78350-751-1, eISBN: 978-1-78350-752-8
Publication date: 14 July 2014
Abstract
The structural holes to which a person is connected are embedded in a broader organization or market. High status in the broader context signals a reputation that can make a would-be broker more attractive, more likely to engage opportunities to broker, and allay audience concerns about proposed brokerage. The implications are correlation and contingency. We offer illustrative evidence of both implications and conclude that status and structural holes are so closely related in concept and fact that advantage is more clearly revealed when the two network forms are analyzed together as complements defining the hubs in a network.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to the Booth School of Business for financial support during work on this paper. Mr. Burt also appreciates support for the work from Oxford University’s Centre for Corporate Reputation. An Appendix for this essay is available online (http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ronald.burt/research/files/eb.pdf).
Citation
Burt, R.S. and Merluzzi, J. (2014), "Embedded Brokerage: Hubs Versus Locals", Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 40), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 161-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited