Browsing by Autor "Eric Quintane"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Heard it through the grapevine: Indirect networks and employee creativity.
(American Psychological Association, 2014) Giles Hirst; Daan van Knippenberg; Jing Zhou; Eric Quintane; Cherrìe Jiuhua Zhu
Social networks can be important sources of information and insights that may spark employee creativity. The cross-fertilization of ideas depends not just on access to information and insights through one's direct network-the people one actually interacts with--but at least as much on access to the indirect network one's direct ties connect one to (i.e., people one does not interact with directly, but with whom one's direct ties interact). We propose that the reach efficiency of this indirect network--its nonredundancy in terms of interconnections--is positively related to individual creativity. To help specify the boundaries of this positive influence of the indirect network, we also explore how many steps removed the indirect network still adds to creativity. In addition, we propose that the efficiency (nonredundancy) of one's direct network is important here, because more efficient direct networks give one access to indirect networks with greater reach efficiency. Our hypotheses were supported in a multilevel analysis of multisource survey data from 223 sales representatives nested within 11 divisions of a Chinese pharmaceutical company. This analysis also showed that the creative benefits of reach efficiency were evident for 3 and 4 degrees of separation but were greatest for indirect ties that depend only on one's direct ties.
In the mind of the beholder: Mis-alignment of perceptions of dyadic knowledge transfer
(Academy of Management, 2015) Robert Ka e; Eric Quintane
Departing from a common assumption in the knowledge management literature that knowledge transfer partners agree on the existence of the exchange itself, we argue that partners’ perceptions of the transfer of complex knowledge can be mis-aligned. We build on the literature on social cognition to propose that either familiarity between knowledge exchange partners or salience of one exchange partner vis-à-vis the other reduce the likelihood of mis-alignment. We test the hypotheses within the context of a knowledge-intensive company using Exponential Random Graph Models. Our results show that mis-alignment in perceptions of complex knowledge transfers occur more frequently than alignment. We also find that familiarity between knowledge exchange partners increases the likelihood of both alignment and mis-alignment, except for when mutual trust is involved – in this case alignment is more likely. Salience of the exchange partner, on the other hand, significantly reduces the likelihood of mis- alignment when salience is due to organizational unit affiliation, but not when it is due to hierarchical differential. We discuss how these findings contribute to our understanding of dyadic knowledge transfer in organizations.
Investigating the Temporal Dynamics of Interorganizational Exchange: Patient Transfers among Italian Hospitals
(University of Chicago Press, 2017) James A. Kitts; Alessandro Lomi; Daniele Mascia; Francesca Pallotti; Eric Quintane
Previous research on interaction behavior among organizations (resource exchange, collaboration, communication) has typically aggregated those behaviors over time as a network of organizational relationships. The authors instead study structural-temporal patterns in organizational exchange, focusing on the dynamics of reciprocation. Applying this lens to a community of Italian hospitals during 2003-7, the authors observe two mechanisms of interorganizational reciprocation: organizational <i>embedding</i> and resource <i>dependence</i>. The authors show how these two mechanisms operate on distinct time horizons: dependence applies to contemporaneous exchange structures, whereas embedding develops through longer-term historical patterns. They also show how these processes operate differently in competitive and non-competitive contexts, operationalized in terms of market differentiation and geographic space. In noncompetitive contexts, the authors observe both logics of reciprocation, dependence in the short term and embedding over the long term, developing into population-level generalized exchange. In competitive contexts, they find no reciprocation and instead observe the microfoundations of status hierarchies.
The Weakness of Tie Strength
(Academy of Management, 2016) Matthew E. Brashears; Eric Quintane
Mark Granovetter revolutionized social science with the argument that “weak” ties provide more novel content than “strong” ties, but left the definition of tie strength relatively ambiguous. The result has been serious issues of conceptualization and operationalization in the subsequent literature. This paper addresses these issues by presenting a classification system for social relations that improves upon the concept of tie strength. We unpack Granovetter’s original argument, and subsequent scholarship, to identify three factors that govern the transmission behavior of network ties: capacity (the ability of a tie to transmit content), frequency (the average time between tie activations), and redundancy (the extent to which a tie reaches persons who are connected to each other). Empirical analyses and simulation models identify existing types of ties and reveal new, and currently understudied, relationship types, supporting the usefulness of our new Multidimensional Index of Network Ties (MINT) classification system.
Towards a Process Theory of Opportunity Development
(Academy of Management, 2014) Yuliya Snihur; B. Sebastian Reiche; Eric Quintane
We address a critical question concerning the process of innovation that entrepreneurs are often involved in: How are novel opportunities developed? Building on institutional theory, we answer this question by theorizing about a dynamic and iterative process, during which an opportunity is repetitively translated and transformed vis-à-vis a set of actors. Through this development process, incongruities between the opportunity and various actors involved are reduced in such a way that both the content of the opportunity and the expectations of the actors evaluating it are altered. We elaborate our process model using several illustrations from a case study dealing with the emergence of peer-to-peer lending in the US over the last decade. We identify three factors affecting the speed of this process: the degree of opportunity novelty, misaligned actor expectations, and the temporal distance between cycles of translation and transformation. We discuss the implications of our model for entrepreneurship research and practice.