Business-Economics-Management Seminar

We are happy to announce the following inter-departmental faculty seminar of the Graduate School of Business Administration, the Economics Department, and the Management Department at Bar-Ilan University

 

Speaker:

 

Prof. Terry Amburgey

Rotman School of Management,

University of Toronto

 

　

Title:

 

Heterophily and Network Evolution: Growth and Consolidation in the Biotechnology R&D Network

 

　

　

Absract:

 

Abstract: We are interested in the role of organizational status in the emergence and structural evolution of inter-organizational networks. Although network research consistently shows a tendency towards homophily (a preference for ties with organizations of similar status) it also shows consistent heterophily (ties between organizations of dissimilar status). We examine the dynamics of heterophilic ties with regard to their effects on network structure; in particular network growth and consolidation. In this paper we develop and test a number of hypotheses concerning network growth and consolidation based on status substitution. This research sheds additional light on when, how, and where new biotech firms enter the network and change their position over time. Using data on 847 biotechnology firms and their collaborative R&D relationships during the period 1973 – 2000 we examine 8 hypotheses. Our analyses of upward heterophily and upward pendant ties suggest that new firms with high scientific or institutional status utilize status substitution to forge links with central actors in the network. Other new firms are relegated to entering the network via ties to low centrality organizations in the periphery. Our research suggests that heterophily is not a residual process but rather subject to systematic effects of status substitution.

 

 

Tuesday, November 20 2012, 13:00

Seminar room (11), Ground Floor, Economics and Business School Building (504)

 

Faculty and graduate students are invited