Leveraging middle managers' brokerage for corporate entrepreneurship: The role of multilevel social capital configurations

Lotte Glaser, Sebastian P. L. Fourné, Julia Brennecke and Tom Elfring ()
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Lotte Glaser: VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam [Amsterdam]
Sebastian P. L. Fourné: WLU - Wilfrid Laurier University
Julia Brennecke: University of Liverpool
Tom Elfring: University of Liverpool, Radboud University [Nijmegen]

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Abstract: Building on recent efforts to bring a socio-political perspective to social capital research, we develop and test a multilevel framework that explains why middle managers who occupy brokerage positions differ in their ability and willingness to engage in entrepreneurial behavior. More specifically, we provide a contextualized understanding of the links among middle managers' brokerage, their political-support ties, and their personal initiative. Results derived from data on 383 middle managers and 72 top managers in 34 business units indicate that political-support ties with top managers strengthen the relationship between middle managers' brokerage and personal initiative. However, this positive effect depends on the social capital resources available in the focal business unit. It is attenuated in business units with a supportive and trusting social context and amplified in business units with high levels of internal connectedness. By uncovering these incompatibilities and complementarities, our study demonstrates the value of accounting for different social capital configurations and the interplay of their inherent social capital resources when examining the effects of brokerage on corporate entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Corporate entrepreneurship; Brokerage; Middle manager; Multilevel research; Personal initiative; Political support; Social capital configuration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-08-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Long Range Planning, 2021, 54 (4), ⟨10.1016/j.lrp.2020.102068⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04850403

DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2020.102068

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