Daniel Brass

University of Kentucky | UKY · Department of Management

This review of social network analysis focuses on identifying recent trends in interpersonal social networks research in organizations, and generating new research directions, with an emphasis on conceptual foundations. It is organized around two broad social network topics: structural holes and brokerage and the nature of ties. New research direct...

Online reviews are a crucial source of information for consumer decision making. Many businesses, companies, and platforms are interested in encouraging more consumers to review their products but are dubious about using financial incentives to buy online reviews. Our research describes a social way of growing online reviews. We show that cultivati...

User-generated online reviews are crucial for consumer decision-making, but suffer from under-provision, quality degradation, and imbalances across products. This research investigates whether "friend contributions cues," in the form of highlighted reviews written by online friends, can motivate users to write more and higher-quality reviews. Notin...

Network brokerage research has grown rapidly in recent decades, spanning the boundaries of multiple social science disciplines as well as diverse research areas within management. Accordingly, we take stock of the literature on network brokerage and provide guidance on ways to move this burgeoning research area forward. We provide a comprehensive r...

A key to the content diversity on user‐generated content platforms is what subject users choose to contribute on. This research investigates how two factors can shape contributors’ subject choice decisions, namely, the amount of existing content and content contributed by online friends or “friend content.” Our experimental findings show that both...

A key to the content diversity on user-generated content platforms is what subjects users choose to contribute on. This research investigates how two factors can shape contributors' subject choice decisions, namely, the amount of existing content and content contributed by online friends, or "friend content." Our experimental findings show that bot...

Although social network analysis has become a staple of research in organizational behavior, organizational theory, and strategic management, integration and utilization of this perspective has been much slower in the area of human resource management. We attempt to nudge the study of human resources management toward “Social Resource Management”—a...

Individuals differ in how accurately they perceive their social environment, but research and theory provide conflicting predictions on whether powerful people are more or less accurate than others. Drawing on social network theory and the situated cognition theory of power, we examine the relationship between individuals' formal and informal power...

“The study of power in organizations has been both plagued and blessed by the multitude of theories and approaches that have been offered”. Indeed, so much has been written about intraorganizational power, based on so little actual empirical research, that it is surprising that even a common definition of power can be distilled. Yet, it is commonly...

Prior research has indicated that employees rely on their informal social network to acquire knowledge essential for assimilating new technologies into their work practices. This study investigates the role of the help desk and online help in providing knowledge support for individual users and workgroups after the implementation of an Enterprise I...

Research summary : Inconclusive findings about the effect of national cultural differences on post‐acquisition performance may be created by the failure to distinguish among the different cultural dimensions and the asymmetry of cultural differences. To demonstrate a different approach, this study focuses on one dimension of national cultural value...

This paper investigates how friendship relationships act as pipes, prisms, and herding signals to third parties in online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending sites, which are subject to substantial information asymmetry and adverse selection. By analyzing detailed lending records at a large P2P lending site, we find that friends of the borrower, especially...

Is social network analysis just measures and methods with no theory? We attempt to clarify some confusions, address some previous critiques and controversies surrounding the issues of structure, human agency, endogeneity, tie content, network change, and context, and add a few critiques of our own. We use these issues as an opportunity to discuss t...

We offer a theory and measure for determining powerful nodal positions based on potential inter-actor control in “politically charged” networks, which contain both allies and adversaries. Power is derived from actors that are dependent on the focal actor and sociometrically weak, either due to a lack of alternative allies or from being threatened b...

We highlight the social aspects of team creativity by proposing that team creativity is influenced by two types of team social capital: bridging and bonding social capital. Going beyond the structural perspective, we posit that team-level human capital diversity is one of the potential antecedents of social capital for team creativity. We suggest t...

Individuals differ in the accuracy of their perceptions of the social environment, but research and theory provide conflicting predictions on whether those with power are more or less accurate than others. Drawing on social network theory and the situated focus theory of power, we examine the relationship between individuals’ formal power and their...

We advance competitive dynamics research by introducing alliance portfolio configuration as an important antecedent of competitive action frequency. We propose and test a model for developing effective alliance portfolio configurations that enhance a firm’s ability to discover, conceptualize, and carry out new competitive actions. Our model consist...

This paper applies a social network perspective to the study of organizational psychology. Complementing the traditional focus on individual attributes, the social network perspective focuses on the relationships among actors. The perspective assumes that actors (whether they be individuals, groups, or organizations) are embedded within a network o...

The implementation of enterprise systems has yielded mixed and unpredictable outcomes in organizations. Although the focus of prior research has been on training and individual self-efficacy as important enablers, we examine the roles that the social network structures of employees, and the organizational units where they work, play in influencing...

An introduction into the use of a social network perspective to understand issues such as structural power within a network of relationships that can affect negotiations and their outcomes.

The use of network theory and methods to explain and predict outcomes related to complex systems is on the rise across a range of sciences, from physics and biology to sociology and psychology. Indeed, the applicability of network ideas across seemingly disparate systems is one of the most distinctive and promising features. Network theory represen...

Given the growing popularity of the social network perspective across diverse organizational subject areas, this review examines the coherence of the research tradition (in terms of leading ideas from which the diversity of new research derives) and appraises current directions and controversies. The leading ideas at the heart of the organizational...

Taking an interactional perspective on creativity, the authors examined the influence of social networks and conformity value on employees' creativity. They theorized and found a curvilinear relationship between number of weak ties and creativity such that employees exhibited greater creativity when their number of weak ties was at intermediate lev...

Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in network research across the physical and social sciences. For social scientists, the theory of networks has been a gold mine, yielding explanations for social phenomena in a wide variety of disciplines from psychology to economics. Here, we review the kinds of things that social scien...

In this chapter, we consider what a social network perspective might add to the study of justice in organizations. We begin with the assumption that em- ployees are embedded in networks of relationships that provide opportunities and constraints on behavior, affect, and cognitions. Going beyond the dyad, the social network perspective distinctively...

The authors tests their hypotheses regarding the impact of interfirm rivalry using examples drawn from the automotive industry. Their study covered corporations' actions regarding 140 different automotive models taken from the eight "major" automakers: Mitsubuishi, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda, BMW, Volkswagen, Ford, and General Motors, over a period of 1...

Introduction The implementation of Enterprise Information Systems is difficult and challenging. It requires that many users learn to use the new system and coordinate their work. The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between the extent of user learning via social means and its impact on the implementation success. Full Text at Sp...

This study focuses on factors that contribute to abusive supervision, one form of nonphysical aggression, and the results of such abuse on subordinates and their family members. Using a "kick the dog" metaphor (As Marcus-Newhall, Pedersen, Carlson, and Miller (2000) state, this is a "commonly used anecdote to illustrate displaced aggression. . .a m...

We explore the role of negative relationships in the context of social networks in work organizations. Whereas network researchers have emphasized the benefits and opportunities derived from positive interpersonal relationships, we examine the social liabilities that can result from negative relationships in order to flesh out the entire "social le...

This paper uses data from the sales division of a financial services firm to investigate how a leader's centrality in external and internal social networks is related to the objective performance of the leader's group, and to the leader's personal reputation for leadership among subordinates, peers, and supervisors. External social network ties wer...

This study examines the role of social network ties in the performance and receipt of interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB), one form of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). A field study involving 141 employees of a manufacturing firm provided evidence that social network ties are related to the performance and receipt of ICB. Results sup...

The central argument of network research is that actors are embedded in networks of interconnected social relationships that offer opportunities for and constraints on behavior. We review research on the antecedents and consequences of networks at the interpersonal, interunit, and interorganizational levels of analysis, evaluate recent theoretical...

We argue that employees' organizational justice perceptions are, in part, influenced by whom they associate with in the workplace. Consequently, we examine the link between different types of social ties and the interpersonal similarity of employees' perceptions of interactional, procedural, and distributive justice through a social network study i...

In today’s de-layered, knowledge-intensive organizations, most work of importance is heavily reliant on informal networks of employees within organizations. However, most organizations do not know how to effectively analyze this informal structure in ways that can have a positive impact on organizational performance. Networks in the Knowledge Econo...

This study examines the effects of social network ties on the performance and receipt of interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB). Data from 141 employees of a manufacturing firm provided evidence that social network variables such as strength of friendship, asymmetrical friendship and influence, third-party influence, and prestige are related to t...

Interpersonal interaction depicts the wonders found in, participatory and self-expressive Web destinations, for example, YouTube, MySpace, Face book-where individuals/members uncover, talk about, uncover, and explain their own lives, dynamic urban areas, trusts, dreams, and even dreams for others to see and wonder upon. Interpersonal interaction is...

This article examines how different personality types create and benefit from social networks in organizations. Using data from a 116-member high-technology firm, we tested how self-monitoring orientation and network position related to work performance. First, chameleon-like high self-monitors were more likely than true-to-themselves low self-moni...

We analyzed employee resistance to an organizational change project in which employees were empowered to participate in the design of a new organizational structure. What emerged from our analysis was the importance of cognitive barriers to empowerment. Employees' resistance appeared to be motivated less by intentional self-interest than by the con...

This chapter explores the role of social capital in human resources management. We suggest that the recent interest in social capital has neglected the possibility that social networks may contain negative ties, and that attention to these social liabilities may provide additional insights into relationships and social networks in organizations. Re...

Using distinctiveness theory, research shows that the relative rarity of a group in a social context tended to promote members' use of that group as a basis for shared identity and social interaction. Relative majority group members, racial minorities and women in a master of business administration cohort were more likely to make identity and frie...

A study investigated the relationship between interpersonal relationships among members of different departments and individuals' perceptions of intergroup conflict within an organization. Although friendships across groups were not significantly related to perceptions of intergroup conflict, negative relationships were associated with higher perce...

Recent models of unethical behavior have begun to examine the combination of characteristics of individuals, issues, and organizations. We extend this examination by addressing a largely ignored perspective that focuses on the relationships among actors. Drawing on social network analysis, we generate propositions concerning types of relationships...

We explore the role of negative affective relationships in social networks at work. We argue that negative relationships have greater power in explaining various outcomes of interest to organizational researchers than positive relationships because they are a specific instance of a more general negativity bias. A conceptual model is developed to gu...

This article explores the possibility of efficacy-performance spirals in individuals, groups, and organizations. Spirals are deviation-amplifying loops in which the positive, cyclic relationship between perceived efficacy and performance builds upon itself. Collective efficacy is defined, and upward and downward spirals are considered. Evidence fro...

It is, of course, highly appropriate that the study of personnel and human resources management in fact focuses on individuals in organizations; and, it is to the credit of my industrial/organizational psychology friends that so much progress has occurred in the recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, compensation, and career development of em...

This study explored the relationships between potential organizational power, viewed as structural position, and the use of power through behavioral tactics. Results indicate that structural position, measured as an individual's network centrality and level in the organizational hierarchy, and behavior-use of assertiveness, ingratiation, exchange,...

The effects of a change in technology on organizational structure and power were investigated in a longitudinal study of the introduction and diffusion of a computerized information system. Employees increased their power and network centrality following the change in technology. In particular, early adopters of the new technology increased their p...

This research investigates the relationship between the extent of employees' social interaction and their perceptions of job characteristics. Employees' perceptions were compared with the perceptions of task characteristics made by an outside observer, whose perceptions were not subject to the same social influence processes. The results indicated...

This research investigated the relationships between technology, interdependence, job characteristics, and employee satisfaction, performance, and influence. Technology was operationalized at the individual level of analysis to include the dimensions of input uncertainty, conversion uncertainty, and output uncertainty. Pooled, sequential, and recip...

This research examined the relationships between structural positions and influence at the individual level of analysis. The structure of the organization was conceptualized from a social network perspective. Measures of the relative positions of employees within workflow, communication, and friendship networks were strongly related to perceptions...

This research investigates the role of job characteristics as possible mediating variables in the relationships between the organization's structural context and the attitudes and behaviors of individual employees. The organization is conceptualized as a network of task positions interrelated on the basis of workflow transactions. Three structural...

A study sought to learn how the structure or task context facing role senders affects stress experienced by role receivers. 655 employees in 55 departments of public utility were studied. It was expected that organic attributes of structure would be associated with lower levels of experienced role stress. Role receivers (professionals and technicia...

ABSTRACT This paper explores the role of social capital in human resources management. We suggest that the recent interestin social capital has neglected the possibility that social networks may contain negative ties, and that attention to these negative ties may provide additional insights into understanding relationshipsand social networks in org...