building weak ties
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BUILDING WEAK TIES.
ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL
MECHANISMS OF REFERRALS
EXCHANGE WITHIN BUSINESS
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Ivana Pais
University of Brescia
pais@jus.unibs.it
Aalborg, June 9th, 2009
SOCIAL NETWORK AND SOCIAL
CAPITAL
2
APPROPRIABLE SOCIAL
ORGANISATIONS/
INTENTIONAL ORGANISATIONS
� Literature: social capital as a by-product of
activities initiated for other purposes. Coleman:
appropriable social organisations, multiplexity
� Today: emerging of “intentional organisations”
aimed at mobilising/creating social capital
directly pursuing business purposes
(employability of workers and competitiveness of
companies)
� new spaces of sociality, online and off line
BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORK3
MY RESEARCH: GOAL
Exploratory analysis of business social networks
aimed at examining:
1. the reasons that lead a professional to register in
a business social network,
2. the profile of such professionals,
3. the social mechanisms governing its functioning
4. the impacts on the professional performances of
its members.
4
MY RESEARCH: METHOD
Case-study of three business social networks
� BNI Italia, referral organisation, set up in
California in 1985, 220 members in Italy
� Milan IN, non profit association set up in Milan
(Italy) in 2005 to allow members of LinkedIn to
meet each other, 5300 members
� Xing in Italy: online business social network, set
up in 2003 in Hamburg, 7 million of users
5
MY RESEARCH: TECNIQUES
� Analysis of documentation and observation (September 2008 – May 2009)
� Online questionnaire:� BNI Italy, May 8th-15th 2009, 90 respondents out of
218 (41%)
� Milan IN, May 15th-22nd 2009, 1563 respondents out of 5386 (29%)
� Xing in Italy, still to be done
� Social network analysis of referral exchange between BNI members
� Experimentation on 3 chapter between October 2008 and March 2009
� In-dept interviews – still to be conducted 6
SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS:
EXAMPLE
7
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORKS:
FORM OF ORGANISATION
� Aims: enhancing already existing contacts, establishing new social relations
� Distintion from other organisation (entrepreneurial associations, trade unions, lobbies, service clubs…): no politics or religion
� Legal form� Xing public limited company
� BNI limited liability company
� Milan IN non profit organisation
� Activities
� Xing: online contacts via web-based platform
� Milan IN: weekly meeting + web-based platform
� BNI: weekly meeting in presence 8
NETWORKERS: FEATURES
� Self-selection based on shared rules and values not on ascribed characteristics:
� 80% males
� High educational level: 80% bachelor’s degree in Milan IN and 48% in BNI (in Italy 11,6%)
� Average age: 39 Milan IN, 46 BNI
� High mobility (55% changed job in the last 3 years); international mobility (57%)
� Entrepreneurs (57%) and self-employed (40%) in BNI, more employed (65%) in Milan IN
� Sectors: IT and telecom (27%), consultancy and services (19%) for Milan IN; building and real estate (19%), IT and telecom (14%) for BNI.
� Satisfied with their job: on average, 7 (scale 1-10) 9
PARTECIPATION IN BUSINESS
SOCIAL NETWORK
� Linked In registrations peaked in 2007 and
Milan In in 2008; BNI 60% of interviewed is
member since less than 1 year
� Sources: word-of-mouth
� Objectives when registering:
� LinkedIn: keeping in touch with colleagues, but also
finding a job;
� Milan IN: curiosity and exchange with colleagues,
updating;
� BNI: looking for new customers and updating.
� Information to company in BNI, not in Milan IN10
EXCHANGE MECHANISM AND
RESULTS: BNI
� BNI: they mainly pass (and receive) referrals to people with whom they have a good personal relationship; presence of “reciprocated exchange” in SNA
� Expectations are fulfilled on average, as far as business enlargement and updating is concerned; fewer people find customers than those who would like to do so, whereas more people achieve better results in terms of socialisation than those who were looking for contacts.
� Respondents who declared having acquired new customers via BNI total 40%, and they represent on average 20% of the respondent’s new customers.
� Satisfaction with BNI is on average 5.3 on a scale ranging from 1 to 10.
11
EXCHANGE MECHANISM AND
RESULTS: MILAN IN
� 78% of respondents accept contacts in LinkedIn
even if they are unknown to them, primarily by
analysing their profile.
� Milan IN meetings: 44% choose according to the
topic dealt with, whereas a third of respondents
states that they participate every time they have
the chance to do so.
� Respondents declaring that they have not
achieved results are only 13% in LinkedIn,
whereas they total 39% in Milan IN. In both
cases, respondents are confident about future
prospects. Satisfaction: 6 (scale 1-10) 12
NEXT STEPS
� Short term:
� multivariate analysis and content analysis of the
answers to questions
� social network analysis of exchange of referrals in
BNI
� questionnaire to Xing Members
� Medium term:
� modelling of business networking strategies on and
off-line
� content analysis of online social network profile
� focus on professional group
� comparative analysis among different countries and
cultures13
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