J.J. Ebbers

Networking Behavior and Contracting Relationships Among Entrepreneurs in Business Incubators

Many studies focus on the relationship between social networks and performance. I study networking behavior as an antecedent of tie formation among entrepreneurs in business incubators. I distinguish between two types of networking behavior: individual networking orientation or building potentially valuable ties for personal gain, and tertius iungens orientation or facilitating tie formation between others. I find that both types of networking behavior are positively related with the number of business partners to whom entrepreneurs give business assignments. Contrary to expectations, I find no relationship between networking behavior and the number of business partners from whom entrepreneurs receive business assignments.

Disentangling the effects of reputation and network position on the evolution of alliance networks

This study uses the panel data social network analysis program SIENA to estimate the effect of actor reputation derived from past performance on alliance formation, while controlling for other constant actor attributes and network position. The authors distinguish between individual reputation based on the past performance of the organizations the individual actor has been involved in, and composite reputation that takes into account reputation spillover effects from the similarly constituted reputations of past alliance partners. The empirical setting is the project-based film industry, which can be regarded as a constantly changing network of alliances. The study focuses on artistic reputation, based on the reviews of earlier films, and finds that the strength of that reputation and closeness in the network of past alliances are strong predictors of alliance formation. The study finds weak evidence of actors with similar reputations being more likely to form alliances with each other.

Organizational memory: from expectations memory to procedural memory

Organizational memory is not just the stock of knowledge about how to do things, but also of expectations of organizational members vis-a-vis each other and the organization as a whole. The central argument of this paper is that this second type of organizational memory –organizational expectations memory– is a necessary precondition for successfully creating and maintaining organizational procedural memory, which is at the basis of organizational performance. If members of organizations have fewer expectations of being rewarded beyond what is stipulated in formal contracts, these individuals are less likely to risk investing in collective tacit and firm-specific knowledge resources and more likely to focus on building individual and mobile knowledge resources that have value outside the boundaries of the organization. A case study of latent organizations in the Dutch film industry is presented to support the central argument and suggests further avenues of research, in particular concerning the effects of labour mobility on organizational expectations memory.

Betwixt and between : role conflict, role ambiguity and role definition in project-based dual-leadership structures

Project-based organizations in the film industry usually have a dual-leadership structure, based on a division of tasks between the dual leaders – the director and the producer – in which the former is predominantly responsible for the artistic and the latter for the commercial aspects of the film. These organizations also have a role hierarchically below and between the dual leaders: the 1st assistant director. This organizational constellation is likely to lead to role conflict and role ambiguity experienced by the person occupying that particular role. Although prior studies found negative effects of role conflict and role ambiguity, this study shows they can also have beneficial effects because they create space for defining the role expansively that, in turn, can be facilitated by the dual leaders defining their own roles more narrowly. In a more general sense, this study also shows the usefulness of analyzing the antecedents and consequences of roles, role definition, and role crafting in connection to the behavior of occupants of adjacent roles.

The Effects of Source Credibility and Salience on Sales Performance: A Study of Corporate Art Collectors

Signaling theory (Spence, 1973) focuses on using signals as proxies of quality and helps explain how signals reduce uncertainties in pre-purchase decision-making. Signals convey information about a product or producer’s unobservable or indiscernible quality (Kirmani and Rao, 2000), and are important in all markets but particularly those with informational gaps (Akerlof, 1970), where for example, product quality is difficult to determine prior to consumption (Nelson, 1970) or perhaps even after consumption (Darby and Karni, 1973).

Stuck in the Middle: Crafting Roles in Dual Leadership Structures

Role crafting denotes the behavior of individuals who, on their own initiative, change the tasks and responsibilities associated with their role. Organizational faultlines can potentially divide groups and negatively influence collaboration. In dual leadership structures the main faultline runs through the whole organization, right up to the top where each of the dual leaders is primarily responsibility for what is on their side of the faultline. Crisscrossing actors occupy a role right on the main organizational faultline. As a result, crisscrossing actors experience role conflict and role ambiguity that are usually assumed to have negative effects. This study argues the opposite; role conflict and role ambiguity provide space for role crafting by increasing the associated resources and demands. In addition, the more dual executives keep to their side of the faultline, or engage in contractive role crafting, the more space crisscrossing actors have to expansively craft their role. Our empirical case focu...