Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition

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Burt, Ronald S. Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1
1.The Social Structure of Competition	8
Opportunity and Capital 8
Information	13
Structural Holes	18
Control and the Tertius Gaudens	30
Entrepreneurs	34
Secondary Holes	38
Structural Autonomy	44
Summary	45
2.Formalizing the Argument	50
Network Data	50
Redundancy	51
Constraint	54
Hole Signature	65
Structural Autonomy	71
Summary	81
3.Turning a Profit	82
Product Networks and
Market Profit	82
The Study Population	85
Hole Effects	91
Market Hole Signatures 100
Summary	110
Appendix: Weighing Alternatives	111
4.Getting Ahead	115
Contact Networks and Manager Achievement	115
The Study Population	118
Hole Effects	131
Hierarchy	140
Institutional Holes	148
Selecting a Network	157
Summary	163
Appendix A: Weighing Alternatives	166
Appendix B: Causal Order	173
5.Player-Structure Duality	181
Structural Unit of Analysis	181
Players and Structures	185
Escape from Attributes	186
No Escape	190
Summary	192
6.Commit and Survive	195
Holes and Heterogeneity	195
Interface and the Commit Hypothesis	197
Population Ecology and the Survival Hypothesis	208
Summary	225
7.Strategic Embedding and Institutional Residue	228
The Other Tertius	229
Strategy Hypothesis	236
Formal Organization as Social Residue	238
Personality as
Emotional Residue	251
Summary	264
Notes	271
References	299
Index	311