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Social and Collaborative NetworksRemove Social and Collaborative Networks →

New research on social and collaborative networks from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including developing effective social media strategies, ethnic and other clustering patterns, and communication networks inside organizations.
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Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in the Field

by Reshmaan Hussam, Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth

Based on a field experiment involving 1,345 microentrepreneurs in India, this study provides insight into the depth and breadth of social knowledge contained in rural and peri-urban social networks. Harnessing community information directly from a microentrepreneur’s peers helps to identify high-growth microentrepreneurs and predict their returns to capital.

Working (From Home) During a Crisis: Online Social Contributions by Workers During the Coronavirus Shock

by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Wesley W. Koo, and Xina Li

This study shows that people working from home (WFH) make more online contributions to socially helpful topics, yet face higher psychic costs and anxiety about time constraints. Managers might consider giving WFH workers more temporal flexibility to deal with time constraints during this crisis.

Goldman Sachs’ $500 Million Bet on Small Businesses

Re: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Launched during the financial crisis in 2009, the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program provided free business education, support, and access to capital for small businesses, graduating 7,300 participants. Len Schlesinger discusses the program's impact. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

by George Riedel

America's 2016 presidential election was the target of voter manipulation via social media, particularly on Facebook. George Riedel thinks history is about to repeat itself. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Powerful Strategic Tool Companies Should Not Try to Control

by Danielle Kost

3QUESTIONS More executives are tapping user communities for strategic guidance, but productive relationships with fan groups require a nuanced approach, Frank Nagle says. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Are You a Digital Manager?

by Martha Lagace

Linda Hill explains how the digital workplace is generating greater burdens on managers but also creating new opportunities to shine. PLUS: Book excerpt. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Incubators Take Notice: Your Entrepreneurs Are Networking with the Wrong People

by Danielle Kost

Startup incubators used by cities and companies to jump-start innovation have a problem to overcome. Attendees tend to network with people they already know, says research by Rembrand M. Koning. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Will Startup Fishbowl Become the Social Media App for Your Industry?

Re: Leslie K. John

Fishbowl's founders have built a social media platform allowing professionals to connect anonymously and with candor within their companies and industries. Can they grow? Leslie John discusses her case study on the boundaries of social media and personal privacy. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Immigrant Networking and Collaboration: Survey Evidence from CIC

by Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

This study compares United States-born and immigrant entrepreneurs’ use of networking opportunities provided by CIC, the former Cambridge Innovation Center. Immigrants clearly take more advantage of networking opportunities at CIC, especially around the exchange of advice. It remains to be seen whether this generates long-term performance advantages for immigrants.

How Companies Managed Risk (and Even Benefitted) in World War Internment Camps

by Julia Hanna

Foreign businesses located in at-war countries are often victims of expropriation. Historian Valeria Giacomin explores how German businesses in the United Kingdom and India mitigated risk and even benefitted when their employees were placed in internment camps during the World Wars. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

by Dina Gerdeman

Research by Rembrand Koning and colleagues says the best-performing startups are those where the founder is hands-on with people management. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Shopping for Confirmation: How Disconfirming Feedback Shapes Social Networks

by Paul Green, Jr., Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats

Managers who use feedback processes often assume that employees will respond to them with dutiful efforts to improve. This study finds that negative feedback instead causes employees to reshape their networks in order to shore up their professional and personal identity. This reshaping lowers performance—a result at odds with the goal of performance feedback.

Should Industry Competitors Cooperate More to Solve World Problems?

by Sean Silverthorne

George Serafeim has a theory that if industry competitors collaborated more, big world problems could start to be addressed. Is that even possible in a market economy? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Civic Benefits of Google Street View and Yelp

by Michael Blanding

Cities are increasingly rich in citizen-created data, which can be used to improve programs and services, says Michael Luca and his research colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

by William R. Kerr & Martin Mandorff

This research looks at why entrepreneurs from certain ethnicities cluster in particular industries, such as Vietnamese nail care salons.

The Surprising Benefits of Oversharing

by Michael Blanding

In a social media culture that encourages sharing of embarrassing information, revealing too much can benefit individuals but hurt businesses. New research papers from Leslie John and Michael Luca help explain why. Open for comment; 10 Comment(s) posted.

Cultural Disharmony Undermines Workplace Creativity

by Michael Blanding

Managing cultural friction not only creates a more harmonious workplace, says professor Roy Y.J. Chua, but ensures that you reap the creative benefits of multiculturalism at its best. Closed for comment; 13 Comment(s) posted.

Collaborating Across Cultures

by Michael Blanding

Learning to collaborate creatively with people from other cultures is a vital skill in today's business environment, says professor Roy Y.J. Chua, whose research focuses on a key measure psychologists have dubbed "cultural metacognition." Closed for comment; 24 Comment(s) posted.

The Inner Workings of Corporate Headquarters

by Michael Blanding

Analyzing the e-mails of some 30,000 workers, Professor Toby E. Stuart and colleague Adam M. Kleinbaum dissected the communication networks of HQ staffers at a large, multidivisional company to get a better understanding of what a corporate headquarters does, and why it does it. Closed for comment; 6 Comment(s) posted.

Do Online Dating Platforms Help Those Who Need Them Most?

by Carmen Nobel

The $2 billion online dating industry promises the possibility of a priceless product: romantic love. Associate Professor Mikolaj Piskorski investigates whether these sites are helping the lonely—or just making life easier for young singles who are popular already. Key concepts include: Researchers studied a random sample of 500,000 OKCupid members, focusing on two important stages of forming a relationship: spotting a potential mate, and initiating contact. Older, shorter, and relatively overweight men tended to view more profiles than their younger, taller, slimmer counterparts. However, those who were most likely to view lots of profiles were least likely to initiate contact with an e-mail message. Some of the features on OKCupid helped users to overcome the normative restrictions of the offline world, while others only served to help those who really needed the least help. Closed for comment; 17 Comment(s) posted.