Institutions and Organizations

1
Emergence of Networks Summary

• Relationships
• consist of repeated exchange of resources and
  commitments
• are governed by rules of the game pre- or
  proscribing behavior, shared by two or more
  actors
• Rationalist Explanation
• Externalities from functional interdependence
• Low transaction costs
• Structuralist Explanation
• Network embeddedness through structural
  interdependence
• Monitoring
• Culturalist Explanation
• Shared identities through cognitive
  interdependence
• Credible signals

2
Theoretical Implications

• Good network explanations
• require the specification of interdependencies
• explicate the theoretical paradigm and its
  underlying actor assumptions
• explicate a social mechanism linking the macro
  condition and the collective outcome

3
Interdependencies
4
InterdependenciesKula Example

• Tie Content
• Visits
• Ceremonial items
• Food
• Pottery etc.
• Social approval

• Structure
• Ring
• Triad
• Centrality (Tubetube)
• Power (M. Bennets)
• Density

5
Social Mechanisms
6
Social Mechanisms Example

• Village A
• High mean calory intake
• Dense social structure

• Village B
• Low mean caloryintake
• Sparse social structure

7
Social Mechanism 1 Control
Village Physcial Well-Being
Village Network Density
Macrolevel
Individual Sharing
IndividualSocial Conrol
Microlevel
8
Social Mechanism 2 Solidarity
Village Physcial Well-Being
Village Network Density
Macrolevel
Sharing
Prosocial Motivation
Microlevel
9
Social Mechanisms Summary

• Macro-conditions

• Collective Outcome

Macro-Level
Situational Mechanism
Transformation Mechanism
Individual restrictions and preferences
Micro-Level
IndividualBehavior
Action-Formation Mechanism
10
Theories of Action
11
Theories of Action and Actor Assumptions Compared
12
Theories of Action and Actor Assumptions Compared

Source Lichbach (2003), p. 132
13
Example Networks and Social Control in
Organizations

• The Case of a Management Team in a German Paper
  Factory