Social Origins of Great Strategies

Ronald S. Burt () and Giuseppe Soda ()
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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

Strategy Science, 2017, vol. 2, issue 4, 226-233

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.

Keywords: strategy formulation; social networks; information technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:2:y:2017:i:4:p:226-233

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