5. Beyond Networking, Creativity Collaboration and Growth Jan – Feb ’10Each workshop programme consists of 4-6 sessions, cohorts of 15 -20 companies.
6. Workshop Program 3 Beyond Networking Creativity, Collaboration and Growth
7. Six Degrees of Separation First mentioned in 1920’s by FrigyesKarinthy in short stories called ‘Everything Is Different’
8. “Everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet. The president of the United States. A gondolier in Venice… It’s not just the big names. It’s anyone. A native in a rain forest. An Eskimo. I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people…” John Guare'sSix Degrees of Separation
9. First test: Stanley Milgram’s experiment Stanley Milgram sent mails to random people in Kansas and Nebraska, and asked them to readdress the mail to their acquaintance who may know the ‘target’ person in Boston. S. Milgram (1977) The Individual in a Social World
10. Second test: Erdos number Paul Erdos is very famous mathematician who published + 1500 papers. A person who writes a paper with him has Erdos Number of 1. A person who writes a paper with a person whose Erdos Number is 1 has Erdos Number of 2. And so on. http://www.oakland.edu/enp/ Paul Erdős (1913-1996)
11. The results The average Erdös number is 4.69 and the median is 5. Average number of intermediate people in Stanley Migram experiment is 5.5
12. Third test: The Kevin Bacon game Connect any actor to Kevin Bacon, by linking actors who have acted in the same movie. Oracle of Bacon website uses Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) to find the shortest link between any two actors: http://oracleofbacon.org/
13. Only six people between me and ..... ?? Just because a path exists, doesn’t mean you can easily findit. You don’t know all of the contacts whom your friends know.
14. How do businesses get benefits from the latest development of knowledge?
15. Academic terms and concepts sometimes need to be translated into ‘business language’. People like to have FUN!!
16. Design activity: SMEs mapped their networks Organized by the SME in a way that makes sense to them
17. Geographical distance – spatial proximity Network is local when most of contacts are located in a close proximity. Network is global /non-local when most of contacts are located in a distant proximity.
18. Strength of ties – Relational characteristics Strong ties are described as long-term and intense interactions between entrepreneurs and their contacts. Weak ties are described as infrequent and irregular interactions between entrepreneurs and their contacts.
19. Heterogeneity – Social proximity Government Owner of a small business Academic Academic Executive in a large company Employed Employed Homogeneous means that entrepreneurs have contacts that come from relatively similar backgrounds. Heterogeneous means that entrepreneurs have contacts that come from relatively diverse backgrounds.
20. Connectedness of networks – Structural characteristics Tight or dense networks are networks in which everyone is connected to each other. Loose networks are networks in which not everyone knows each other.
21. Benefits of network Knowledge spillovers, reduce loneliness, etc New information and Knowledge Exchange of fine-grained Information and tacit knowledge, trust, etc Access to new opportunities Access to a variety of resources, experiences, and knowledge Strong support in certain issues and share similar value Cooperation, trust, credibility and transfer of tacit knowledge Brokerage opportunities
22. How to make these people happy and back to their office with something real?
25. How business can benefitfrom their network? How to optimizenetwork to reap the benefits? How to find the important node, the supernetwork?
26. 9 of 10 articles in networks use conventional techniques of data collection. Why not start something different?
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29. Guide SMEs to fill this questionnaire in an interactiveway. Contacts are divided into fourcategories: Core contact Contacts who help with new ideas Contact who could help to test out ideas Contact who could help to bring ideas to market
32. Starting from my PhD work How do social networks influencethe growth of university spin-offs? To what extent, and under what conditionsare the characteristics of social networks beneficialfor growth? Research in Delft, the Netherlands and Trondheim, Norway (+/- 100 spin-offs)
33. Confused!!!!! Network is complex! Strong and weak ties, diversity, geographical distance bring positive benefits to firms in different contexts.
41. In the workshop we worked with SMEs to… Identify contacts that helped in the past Construct network for the future to solve specific problems
42. Firms use different contacts to solve problems. However, the presence of core contacts(local and strong ties) is still important. More than onecore contactalways appears in the process of problem solving.
