Why Networks Can Benefit Entrepreneurs On The Individual And Collective Level Essay

The Actor Network Theory (ANT) is a social theory which treats objects as part of the overall social network. This approach places emphasis on the capacity of nonhuman objects to interact and even participate in various social networks and systems. The following information will explain Actor Network Theory, provide examples of how it is believed to work, and explore the relationship this theory has in regards to power and politics.

In our first unit of sociology, I felt I could relate with the term social network, " The term social network refers to the people who are linked to one another(Henslin,116.)"Social networks include everyone you know. I can relate to social networking because I 'm on a social salsa team. When I joined my dance team , we all had the same passion, the love of dance. After a few years of performing and hanging with the same clique all the time for they have the same interests as me. After a while we all seemed to cluster together and they are now more than just a clique to me they are my fiends.

Brian V. Carolan. (2014). 1: The Social Network Perspective and Educational Research Introduction. In Social Network Analysis and Education: Theory, Methods & Applications. (pp. 3-23). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org.library.gcu.edu:2048/10.4135/9781452270104.n1

Many of the new forms developed are a direct relationship between self-organization and network. The inner workings of the organization help to develop a massive network. Thus, increasing the number of quality relationships with other business, organization, or school districts. The development of networks is invaluable to any organization. Business managers, principals, superintendents, and etc. use their networks to ensure that the organization, or school they are crafting is one that will represent success.

According to Burt, strategic “structural holes” within networks can diversify networks to include not only the strong connections between homogenous nodes, but weaker ties to more heterogenous nodes and networks. Structural holes are defined as “the separation between nonredundant contacts… a relationship of nonredundancy between two contacts… the two contacts provide network benefits that are in some degree additive rather than overlapping” (Burt 1992, 18). In other words, strategic weak ties in a network have the possibility of connecting one to a relatively heterogeneous set of contacts. Burt provides a mechanism through which mostly White primary networks of faculty members can be transformed to reach other, potentially “hidden” networks of scholars of

Link analysis/social network analysis, which can be used to understand critical links between individuals, institutions, and other components.

In most labor markets and economies, social networks are one of the most powerful players. Social networks affect economic outcomes because it affects the flow and quality of information. Also, individuals use social contracts and networks already in place in order to invest in each other. Immigrant entrepreneurs rely on the communities of individuals within their cultural and ethnic group for venture start up and continuity of business. Immigrant business owners use mutual trust and informal relationships in order to gain financial start-up and knowledge. Many Jamaican entrepreneurs found that common cultural or ethnic connections have created networks of support, contacts, financing, infrastructure, and equipment’s. Inner group networking is defined as organized informal networking created by a group who share with each other their business interests, personal contacts, insider secrets, trade, financial resources and employees. Jamaican entrepreneurs pass along techniques of venture startup and continuity to less established businesses sin order to maintain their ethnic presence in communities. Furthermore, the informal networks of Jamaican businesses are created in their host countries through networking during employment, and by purchasing goods and services

In a social environment, individuals can be both products and creators. More specifically, individuals are part of a complex system of social relations, which determine their socio-economic choices, and affect the market outcomes. People’s opinions, which products to buy, how much to invest in their retirement funds, commit crimes, etc. can all be influenced by friends and acquaintances. The density, segregation and the central positions of a relationship network are the key factors determining how information spreads and how people behave. Over the last few decades, economists and social science scholars have contributed to the research on how social interactions shape individuals’ behavior and how social networks strengthen policy-related goals with its unique mechanisms.

Social network can be defined as, the social ties radiating outward from the self that link people together. The social network consists of people who are connected to one another. The social network that requires to everyone is friends, family, acquaintances, people at work or school, and even your friends “friends” so to speak. The social network can be looked at like an extremely big spider web, and you’re in the middle of it with lines extending outward connecting to more and more people. The clique in social network can be described as the cluster of people within a larger group who can choose to interact with one another. For example, in school there always happen to be that one group that was a part of a much bigger group that chose

Social capital is the network of relationships that individuals have throughout the organization. Relationships are critical in sharing and leveraging knowledge and in acquiring resources. Social capital can extend beyond the organizational boundaries to include relationships between the firms and its suppliers, customers and alliance partners. The concept of social capital also stresses that social networks lead to increased productivity in individuals, teams and organizations. This increased productivity can be both financial and otherwise.

Organizational groups are a key component of a well-functioning. These groups are composed of individuals who have come together to achieve a common goal. Some researchers feel that this type of social group is at risk of declining membership with the younger generation. This fear is justified through the Major Impact organizational groups have on social capital. Social Capital includes all resulting benefits to to organizational memberships ability to grow Collective knowledge and broaden potential influence. This relationship between the gain of social capital in the connectivity of an organizational group provides benefits for both the individual, and the overall group, in ways it not could have not accomplished alone.

Social networks are seen by many people in society as a drain of time, resources and focus from more important tasks that can be accomplished in person. Yet these critics are missing a vital link of social networks and their embryonic state today

In a society where we spend more time with the people we work with than our own families, Social Relationships in the workplace could not be more important. In order for our work to feel satisfactory we must connect and maintain social relationships and networks. Social communication is almost as important in the workplace as the actual work itself is. It is getting harder and harder to be able to separate social and work relationships. This is why we must examine how to maintain these things because ultimately the success of our work is highly effected by it.

* What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites."

From the perspective of social network theory, it asserted that social structures where actors located would determine what they found and get from relations (Granovetter, 1985). Some studies pointed out two central networking strategies and explored structural effects of a network on collective actions. As actors embedded in densely connected networks as subgroups or cliques, due to social cohesiveness based on mutual and frequent interactions, homogeneity and unity would be developed (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). The structural advantage of building densely connected networks or so called as strong ties, an expression action that consists with the principle of homophily, is to maintain and reinforce existing resources by increasing closure(Lin, 2002).For example, regularly playing golf together among acquainted celebrities in the upper class is one mean to maintain membership and cultivate exclusive cultural capital. This is identical to the finding of Andrew and Carr (2013) that because local actors embedded in bonding relationship identity with the good of the group, taking part in regional preparedness planning activities would contribute to the improvement of the group’s preparation for the emergency. Also, within this cohesive group, it is easier to monitor deviated action or verify information quality by redundantly circulating information, so that actors are bound together with certain social norms. In line with this notion, most hypothesis that connecting strong ties