Social Networks on Stefan Breet

Organizing for Innovation: Social vs. Human Resource Management

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 10:30:00 +0200

Innovation thrives when firms manage both individual talent and the networks connecting them.

Bringing Ideas to Life: Idea Championing and Implementation

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 11:41:00 +0200

From issue-selling to execution: how social dynamics shape idea championing and implementation.

Cultivating Creativity: Idea Generation and Elaboration

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 16:38:41 +0200

This lecture explores how networks and social capital fuel idea generation and elaboration in innovation.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Context

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:00:00 +0200

A course on creativity, innovation, and intrapreneurship accross different contexts.

Network Agency and Creativity: The Mutual Interdependence between Network Actors and Social Structures

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 16:45:33 +0200

This sub-theme explores the dynamic tension between networks and agency in organizations—how social structures shape action, and how actors influence social structures.

Bottleneck or Not? The Ceiling Effect of Network Closure on Individual Innovative Performance

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 19:03:45 +1100

A presentation of a study showing that closed networks serve as social straitjackets that prevent employees from achieving high levels of innovative performance.

The Double-Edged Sword of Post-Merger Organizational Identification: How Social Ties Influence Employee Initiative Taking

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 12:11:14 +0200

This study shows that organizational identification in M&As can help or hinder employee proactivity, depending on social ties within merging firms.

Bottleneck or Not? The Ceiling Effect of Network Closure on Individual Innovative Performance

Wed, 22 May 2024 16:55:00 +0200

A presentation of a study showing that closed networks serve as social straitjackets that prevent employees from achieving high levels of innovative performance.

Changes in networking behavior: Examining network perception and proactive work behavior when employees work from home

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:03:59 +0200

This talk is part of the symposium “Relational Aspects of Working from Home: Embracing Opportunities and Navigating Challenges” organized by Michal Biron and Sumita Raghuram.

Symposium

Physical distances (e.g., office versus home), temporal difference (e.g., work time or non-work time), and distinctive role identities are greatly reduced while employees work from home. Work relationships in the context of work from home are thus likely to differ from relationships taking place in the traditional, office-based context. The key question that guides this symposium is: How do employees engage in work relationships while working from home to achieve desired goals? To begin answering this broad question, we focus on five relationship settings: relationships with coworkers in the context of networking, relationships with managers and within teams in the context of learning, relationships within teams in local and multinational contexts, relationships with customers in the context of cyber misbehavior, and relationships with the broader society in the context of cultural norms. Our goal is to spark a debate around the changing nature of boundaries, relationships, and consequences in remote work environments. This symposium brings together a collection of papers that examine how the challenges and opportunities related to working from home, which intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, can have far-reaching implications for future theorizing and research.

Changes in Networking Behavior when Employees Work from Home: The Role of Network Perception and Proactive Work Behavior

Wed, 24 May 2023 17:26:04 +0200

In this talk, I presented the first ideas I have about the effects of remote work on people’s networking behavior. The talk was part of Sub-Theme 07 SWG Beyond Social Relations – Different Forms and Shapes of Networks of the EGOS Colloquium 2023 in Cagliari.

Abstract

People’s workplace relationships affect a range of important organizational outcomes (Hollenbeck & Jamieson, 2015) and building and maintaining relationships with others is a vital part of one’s job. However, government regulations to handle the COVID-19 pandemic forced employees in Western Europe to work from home, drastically reducing the opportunity to informally meet colleagues. Prior research suggests that people respond to uncertainty and threat by either “widening” or “winnowing” their social networks (Smith, Menon, & Thompson, 2012; Woehler et al., 2021). When employees winnow their social networks by reducing the number and frequency of social interactions, they also reduce their access to valuable opportunities (Burt, 1992). Thus, identifying why employees widen or winnow their workplace social networks in response to a working from home situation—such as the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—is a vital, yet understudied undertaking

Changes in Networking Behavior when Employees Work from Home: The Role of Network Perception and Proactive Work Behavior

Wed, 24 May 2023 17:23:41 +0200

Master Thesis in Business Administration

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Students of the Master of Science (MSc) in Business Administration at the Radboud University learn to conduct an impactful scientific research project about corporate entrepreneurship, social capital, and entrepreneurial behavior

Innovation Management: Idea Development and Relational Analytics

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 13:30:49 +0200

A lecture on innovation management, focusing on the generation of ideas, social networks, and social capital.

Understanding the Perks and Pitfalls of Cross-legacy Boundary Spanning

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 09:00:00 +0200

A book chapter about the advantages and disadvantages of cross-legacy boundary-spanning.

A Network Perspective on Corporate Entrepreneurship

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0200

Abstract

Organizations often struggle to maintain or rekindle an entrepreneurial flair, which makes them vulnerable when circumstances change. Corporate entrepreneurship is a process that stimulates entrepreneurial behavior, enabling organizations to respond to changing circumstances, pursue new opportunities, and secure their long-term viability. Prior research has suggested several models that capture the corporate entrepreneurship process and identify a range of factors that stimulate or stifle entrepreneurial behavior. These models greatly improved our understanding of corporate entrepreneurship, but they do not explicitly acknowledge the social context of organizations and employees. In this dissertation, I develop and test a theoretical framework that provides a network perspective on corporate entrepreneurship (the NPCE framework). The NPCE framework shows when and why the social context plays a decisive role in the corporate entrepreneurship process. The results of three empirical studies provide support for the NPCE framework and demonstrate that the social context can evoke entrepreneurial and conservative behavior. The key implication of this finding for future corporate entrepreneurship research is that the omission of the social context leads to an incomplete understanding of the corporate entrepreneurship process.

A Network Perspective on Corporate Entrepreneurship

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This dissertation develops and tests a network perspective on corporate entrepreneurship.

Master Thesis in Business Administration

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Innovation Management: Idea Development and Relational Analytics

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 10:45:00 +0200

A lecture on innovation management, focusing on the generation of ideas, social networks, and social capital.

Who steps up after a merger? A social network perspective on post-merger taking charge behavior

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 11:30:00 -0400

A presentation on post-merger taking charge behavior and social networks at the Strategic Management Society Annual Meetgin 2021.

Who steps up after a merger? The effects of boundary-spanning on post-merger taking charge behavior

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:40:00 +0200

A presentation on post-merger taking charge behavior and social networks at the European Conference on Social Networks 2021.

Who steps up after a merger? The effects of boundary-spanning on post-merger taking charge behavior

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 15:30:00 +0200

A presentation on post-merger taking charge behavior and social networks at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2021.

Who steps up after a merger? The effects of boundary-spanning on post-merger taking charge behavior

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 09:00:00 +0200

A presentation on post-merger taking charge behavior and social networks at the EGOS Colloquium 2021.

Who steps up after a merger? The effects of boundary-spanning on post-merger taking charge behavior

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 12:30:00 +0200

A presentation on post-merger taking charge behavior and social networks at the Strategy Department of the Radboud University Nijmegen.

Master Thesis in Business Administration

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Social Constellation of Star Employees: Why an Open Network is Necessary for High Levels of Individual Innovation in Professional Service Firms

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 11:00:00 +0200

In this study, we show that an open network position is a necessary condition for achieving high levels of individual innovation in professional service firms.

Stepping Up or Laying Low? A Social Network Perspective on Post-Merger Taking Charge Behavior

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:50:00 +0200

In this study, we examine how the network ties of employees can mitigate low levels of organizational identification and stimulate employees to take charge after a merger.

Is it about who you know or what you are? A social network perspective on intrapreneurship

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 13:00:00 +0200

This lecture provides an overview of the latest research on social networks and intrapreneurship

Master Thesis in Strategic Entrepreneurship

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:00:00 +0100

Students of the Master of Science (MSc) in Strategic Entrepreneurship and the Master of Science (MSc) in Strategic Management at the Erasmus University learn to conduct a scientific research project about the effects of social capital on intrapreneurship.

Is High Innovative Performance without Brokerage Possible? A Necessary Condition Analysis

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 10:30:00 +1000

I presented my working paper on brokerage and innovative performance to the Discipline of Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship of the University of Sydney Business School"

Is High Innovative Performance without Brokerage Possible? A Necessary Condition Analysis

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 10:30:00 -0400

To kick-off my research visit to the University of Kentucky, I presented a working paper at the Department of Management’s weekly colloquium. I very much appreciate the supportive nature of the comments and the questions I received. I want to thank everybody who participated for their feedback!

Description

It is a well-established notion that the network positions of employees can constrain or stimulate the generation of novel ideas. The social network literature traditionally distinguishes between brokerage and closure, thereby positing that closed network positions serve as straitjackets that limit the ability of employees to identify and pursue promising opportunities. More recent studies challenge this claim and argue that employees can compensate for the potential drawbacks of closed networks when their personal characteristics match their social environment. A question that has remain unanswered, however, is whether employees can fully compensate for a lack of brokerage or if they can only do so up to the maximum degree associated with their network position.

Is Brokerage Necessary for Innovative Performance? A Necessary Condition Analysis

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 15:20:00 +0100

On Saturday June 30 I presented one of my working papers on workplace social networks and innovative behavior during Sunbelt 2018. In this paper—which I’m writing together with professors Jan Dul, Justin Jansen and Lotte Glaser—We examine whether high levels of innovative behavior can only be achieved if an employee has a relatively open network in which many of his contacts are not directly connected themselves.

Co-Authors: Professor Justin Jansen, Professor Jan Dul, & Professor Lotte Glaser.

Brokerage and Entrepreneurial Behavior in Organizations: The Role of Political Skill

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 13:15:00 -0400

I presented a working paper on brokerage, entrepreneurial behavior, and political skill at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2017 in Atlanta