| Proposal to the Bechtel Initiative: A
Network Study of Silicon Valley By Mark Granovetter Summary: Research Proposal for Silicon Valley Networks Analysis Project |
|
| Centrality and Influence in the Semiconductor Industry Association: An Exploratory Study By Jennifer Van Stelle Abstract: The intent of this study is to apply social network methods to historical data at the firm level for the U.S. semiconductor industry, to address empirically certain issues regarding the governance of the manufacturers’ trade association, the SIA. This paper thus offers a preliminary network analysis of one of the major trade associations in the semiconductor industry. The main research questions upon which the paper focuses are: Which committees and firms have the greatest influence over the direction of the association? What might account for this? Were different committees and firms more or less influential at different time points in the association’s history? What factors might affect their ability to make their influence felt? Data was gathered from eleven directories of the Semiconductor Industry Association, spanning the decades 1980-2000. A measure of centrality is used to explore firms’ and committees’ influence within the association over time. Working hypotheses address issues of associational governance and the changing influence of committees and firms over time, the correspondence of the association’s stated objectives to the centrality of committees, and the interrelationship of firm centrality, membership type, and firm size. The committee governance structure is clearly dynamic over time. In addition, it is found that institutionalist perspectives may further inform organizational research on trade associations. Steps for future research are outlined, including a board interlock study of semiconductor firms. |
|
| Mechanisms of Silicon Valley’s Venture Capital
Co-Investment Networks By Denis Trapido Abstract: This paper distinguishes four performance-related mechanisms, or functions, of venture capital (VC) syndication networks: 1) trust generation through collaboration with stable partners; 2) prevention of opportunism; 3) experience sharing; and 4) sharing and management of investment risks. It suggests operational measures of these mechanisms and describes their evolution in the United States VC industry between 1980 and 2002. Next it examines the mechanisms’ effects on investment recipients’ performance. The trends in partner stability and experience took conservative turns at the onset of the economic recession in 2000: unstable partnerships proliferated throughout the 1990s but declined after 2000; the average experience of active investors declined and then grew again. The effects of VC network mechanisms were strikingly similar for positive and negative outcomes. Notably, investors who worked with stable partners were unlikely to fail but also unlikely to take a company public. They tended to achieve neutral results. Investors’ experience did not affect the risk of either positive of negative outcomes. Interpreting these results in light of social capital literature suggests that rigid industrial networks may stifle technological innovation. |
|
| Binding Conflict: The Competition-to-Cooperation Switch in Firm Dyads By Denis Trapido Abstract: The Parsonian wisdom that social conflict has dissociating and disruptive effects guides the thinking of many students of economy. It leads them to believe that economic competition and cooperation are “polar opposites” and, consequently, competition between firms should hinder cooperation between them. I challenge the applicability of this intuitively appealing wisdom to economic life. My analysis of investment syndicates in venture capital industry demonstrates that the likelihood of cooperation between two firms is significantly and positively related to the intensity of competition between these firms in the preceding period. The likely mechanism leading to this outcome is the familiarity and knowledge-based trust, which both are greater between competitors than between non-competitors or two randomly selected actors. |
|
| A Guide for the Visually Perplexed: Visually
Representing Social Networks By Sean Everton, version 0.42 (January 2004) Summary: A manual for using Ucinet, MS Access, MS Excel, Mage, and Pajek for social network analysis |
|
| Social Networks in Silicon Valley By Emilio J. Castilla, Hokyu Hwang, Ellen Granovetter, and Mark Granovetter Summary: Chapter 11, The Silicon Valley Edge: A Habitat for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. |
|