Jump-starting Social Networks: Using Lead Partnerships to Ignite - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Jump-starting Social Networks:

Using Lead Partnerships to Ignite Companies’ CSR Programs

Aline Gatignon, Rolando M. Tomasini (*), Luk N. Van Wassenhove 11th Strategy and the Business Environment conference, 3rd Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability conference, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania May 10th 2011

*with the Insead Social Innovation Center until march 2010

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• I. CSR partnerships: an emerging trend
• CSR through Private-NGO partnerships – much more than $$
• Building networks from scratch – a major challenge

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• RQ B: How can organizations design and implement efficient strategies to form networks

with partners from very distant sectors?

• RQ A: How do strategic choices and structural forces jointly influence network

evolution from scratch?

Structural Forces

e.g.: Gulati & Gargiulo (1999)

Strategic Choices

e.g: Ozcan & Eisenhardt (2009), Hallen & Eisenhardt (forthcoming)

Efficient Network Evolution ? ? ?

Research Question: How do networks form from scratch and develop over time?

• I. CSR partnerships: Research questions

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• II. Research Design
• Inductive theory building from case studies (Eisenhardt & Graebner 2007)
• Data: tracking the development of TNT’s CSR network from 2002-2008
• Interviews with key informants
• Internal surveys and employee blogs
• Data from external audit of the TNT-WFP partnership
• Survey and follow-up interviews (FF)

Phase I: symbiotic partnership Phase II: convenor networks

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008

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Phase I - 2002 Phase II - 2003 Phase I - 2002 Phase II - 2003 Phase II - 2004

• III. Case Study: 2-phase network evolution

Phase I - 2002 Phase II - 2003 Phase II - 2004 Phase II - 2005 Phase I - 2002 Phase II - 2003 Phase II - 2004 Phase II - 2005 Phase II - 2006 Overall Network - 2008

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• IV. Analysis of network evolution in light of

social network theory

Network ‘s benefits for ego Partnership 1.0: symbiosis Partnership 2.0: convenor networks Trust Collaborative inertia + iteration

• Network

learning + structural holes + + structural embeddedness + positional embeddedness + transfer of collaborative routines + knowledge sharing Absorptive capacity + iteration

“TNT put a lot of resources and people into the partnership, but when WFP was

• verburdened and unable to respond to TNT’s interest, TNT would turn up at

their offices, which didn’t fit in with the humanitarian agency’s culture and was incompatible with the emergency situations they faced in the field.” quote from employee “The partnership has brought TNT to a level of trust with the humanitarian community that is really unique” quote from employee

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• IV. New Theoretical Propositions
• P1: Jump-starting and then exploiting social capital are jointly

necessary to the efficient shaping of social networks

Social Capital

• P2: When networks are formed from scratch and partner distance is

great, it is more efficient for actors to invest in a symbiotic partnership with

• ne partner before jointly developing convenor networks, rather than

investing in multiple ties at once.

Network Exploitation Strategy Partner Distance Initial Network Strategy Efficient Network Formation Jump-starting process

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• V. Contributions and discussion points
• Partner distance determines efficient initial network strategies.
• Interaction between structural forces and strategic choices is

crucial for network evolution.

• Analysis of overall networks is indispensable to understanding network

evolution. Future directions:

• Generalizability and full range of relevant contingencies
• Theory testing

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THANK YOU VERY MUCH!