Dual Signals: How Competition Makes or Breaks Interfirm Social Ties

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

Organization Science, 2013, vol. 24, issue 2, 498-512

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.

Keywords: competition; acquaintance; friendship; signals; collegiality; conflict of goals; drug development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:24:y:2013:i:2:p:498-512

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