Communication Patterns of Innovations: An Analysis of Enron

This study examines longitudinal email data taken from Enron Corporation, between the years 1998 to 2002. In contrast to previous studies that have assumed the transmission of information along network ties, this dataset allows for the actual observation of information transfer between organizational members. I couple social network analysis and qualitative coding with natural language processing assistance to explore how the content of information affects communication patterns and the spread of information within an organization. The central question posed here is whether the communication networks of corrupt innovations vary from legitimate innovations?

Reputation and Organizational Foundings: Evidence from Tsarist Russia, 1700-1914

A central question in the study of organizational behavior is how reputation shapes organizational performance. How does past performance of corporations influence the success of their founders in winning potential investors for future ventures? We consider reputation in terms of revealed preferences of investors to back new corporate foundings. While previous studies suggest that excessive failures will have a clear negative reputation effect, this paper documents how this effect varies systematically with structural positioning within inter-organizational networks. Using a unique data set on over 4,500 corporations and 14,000 founders in Tsarist Russia over a period of more than two hundred years (1700-1914), we reconstruct the joint affiliation ties among corporations in this period. We then consider the performance of organizations across different network clusters, taking regional differences, industry composition as well as ethnic discrimination as a barrier to entrepreneurship into account. The evidence suggests that even individual entrepreneurs with known records of failure secure initial capital for new ventures as long as they stay in the same cluster. However, high aggregate failure rates within clusters lead investors to prefer founders venturing into different clusters. In these cases, an entrepreneur's record of success does matter as a signal for attracting investors and positively affects the amount of initial capital raised.

Assessing Trustworthiness in Online and Offline Interactions

Assessing the trustworthiness of others is an essential part of the daily interactions that take place between individuals in various social settings. The level of uncertainty and the nature of what is at stake affect the risks involved in a given interaction situation. Furthermore, the mechanisms that are put in place to help individuals assess the trustworthiness of others typically vary according to the levels of uncertainty and risk in the setting. As it becomes progressively more common to interact and engage in exchanges using computer-mediated communication systems such as the Internet, the anonymity of individuals and the reduction in available social cues increase the risks as well as the possibilities for misjudging trustworthiness and thus the risk of loss or even harm. In this paper, we examine the factors that individuals use when determining the trustworthiness of exchange partners in interpersonal relationships. In particular, we argue that the competence and motivations of the exchange partner are two key bases of individuals’ inferences about trustworthiness, particularly when there are no third-party or credible institutional devices in place to reduce uncertainty and manage risk. We present the results from the first stage of a sequence of studies and experiments designed to explore the question of how individuals assess the trustworthiness of others in online (computer-mediated) and offline (non computer-mediated) interactions.

Karma or Caste Economy? An analysis of reputation and status in online exchange

Scholars commonly equate reputation with status in market exchange. Yet studies that use reputation as a determinant of exchange opportunities and market price only occasionally produce results similar to status effects. This study aims to develop a conceptual framework to understand the effects of reputation, specifically for market exchange. Building on earlier research, this paper provides a conceptualization of reputation, distinguishes reputation from status, and articulates the process by which a reputation may converge with status in exchange. The online market studied here, eBay®, is used as the functional equivalent to a neo-classical anonymous market model. I use Tobit models to estimate the effects of reputation and status-valued reputation on buyers’ willingness to bid on 1,042 items for auction. The model suggests that a reputation for trustworthiness nominally, if at all, increases the number of bids and final price for the seller. In contrast, status-valued reputation operates similarly to status in exchange and significantly improves seller’s opportunities to exchange, as well as the final price for items traded for the final model. I explore the implication of these results and suggest potential improvements upon the model for future analysis.