This extensive summary contains all the theory presented in the JBE140 Business Insights course given at the TU/e in cooperation with TiU in 2021/2022. This includes explanation of relevant concepts as well as a 20-page description for using R for Social Network Analysis to help you prepare for the...
Lieve Göbbels
Business Insights (JBE140)
Semester 1, 2021-2022
Business Insights
Introduction to Organizations and their Environment 2
Organizations and the environment 2
Interorganizational Networks 4
Networks 4
Social capital (bene ts and constraints) 4
Determinants of IORs 6
Determinants of IORs 6
Social Network Analysis 9
The study of social networks 9
Relational data 9
Network Dynamics and Evolution 13
Ego network dynamics 13
Managing IORs 15
Alliances and governance structure 15
Interactive Learning and Innovation 17
Learning through external collaboration 17
SNA in R 19
R basics 19
Basic SNA and networks 24
SNA and visualization 30
Advanced SNA 39
, Introduction to Organizations and their Environment
In short:
• Organizations and the environment
This course focuses on relationships of organizations, the antecedents and consequences of
interorganizational relationships (IORs), support and hinder to the innovation process caused by
networks, the SNA paradigm. For this it combines insights from organizational theory, sociology and
strategic management.
Organizations and the environment
Organizations are goal-directed social entities that are designed as systems of activities that are
consciously structured and coordinated, which are connected to the external environment. So, it can
be argued that an organization consists of four characteristics:
• it is a social entity;
• it is goal-directed;
• it is a consciously structured and coordinated system;
• it is connected to the external environment.
Performance feedback is an important concept regarding organizations and refers to (lack of) change
within organizations. Greve states that in general, organizations are inclined not to change, because
of the general risk-adversity and inertia of organizations. He found that if an organization performs
above their aspiration level, they are less likely to change and vice versa. There are two types of
aspiration levels that can be used:
1. social aspiration level: performance this year versus a peer group (social comparison theory);
2. historical aspiration level: performance this year versus last year (learning theory).
Regarding inconsistent feedback (e.g. having a higher performance this year but lower than the peer
group), there are two theories: the re-alarm rule (bad on one indicator so change) and the self-
enhancing rule (good on one indicator so no change). So, organizations monitor their environment to
benchmark their performance which in uences their behavior and decisions.
Within the landscape of organizational theories, intervening is seen as not just some
improvisation, but as something that assumes analysis and knowledge about the causal relationship
between potential interventions (antecedent) and the outcome. Organizational theories generally
focus on three levels: micro (intra-organziational), meso (organizational), and macro (inter-
organizational). In this course the focus is on the meso and macro levels.
The customer journey
The dominant logic of service is that the service (o ering) is only valuable when it is used by a
customers. This di ers from product dominant logic. The customer journey refers to the service
delivery network a customer goes through, where it usually has several service encounters
(touchpoint) with the di erent stakeholders involved in the service o ering(s).
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