Coworking and Social Support among Peers. A Multivariate ERGM of Economic and Social Exchange...

Coworking and Social Support among Peers.

A Multivariate ERGM of Economic and Social Exchange between ICT Freelancers

Federico Bianchi, Niccolò Casnici and Flaminio Squazzoni

GECS – Research Group in Experimental and Computational Sociology,

Department of Economics and Management, Univers ity of Brescia

f e d e r i c o . b i a n c h i 1 @ u n i m i . i t

From economic to social exchange«Under which structural conditions do purely instrumental exchange relations develop into expressive ones that are valued in their own right?» (Thye, Yoon & Lawler 2002, p. 140)

STRUCTURAL LOGIC

What structural patterns drive the emergence of ties of social support among peers who interact for business purposes?• Direct exchange (Lawler, Thye & Yoon 2008)

• Indirect (generalized) exchange (Molm, Collett & Schaefer 2007)

MULTIPLEXITY

How do ties of social support form from previously existing economic relationships?• Successful negotiated exchange (f.i., professional collaboration) (Lawler, Thye & Yoon 2008)

• trust in risky situation (Molm, Collett & Schaefer 2007)

4/18/2016 XXXVI SUNBELT CONFERENCE - NEWPORT BEACH, CA, USA 2

Talent Garden coworking space


n 29

Age (average) 32

Seniority (average, months) 20

5

25

Gender

F M

• Freelance workers (6 agencies) no formal organizational structure

• Spontaneous collaborations• No formal status differences• All in ICT: no relevant differences in

competencies

Data collection

Preliminary ethnography• 2 months participant observation• Semi-structured interviews to office manager and owners (not included in the survey)• Aims: (i) adjusting the survey to the context; (ii) maximizing participation by getting

acquainted with subjects

CAPI survey• 1 interviewer, 4 weeks of total interviewing time• 30’ time• 100% response rate


Relations and measurementRelation Measurement References

Social support• Material resources• Expressive resources

Attitudinal and passive:• Expectations based on

experience• High contingency of events

van der Poel (1993), Lin (1999), De Lange et al. (2004), Stoltis et al. (2013)

Professional collaboration• Incoming work• Outsourced work• Common projects

Event-based:Proxy for actual negotiated exchanges

Satisfaction for collaborators 1-7 Likert

Trust in business Attitudinal and Passive De Lange et al. (2004), Lusher et al. (2012)

Previous acquaintance Actual


Hypotheses

Hp. 1. If i collaborates with j and positively evaluates him/her, then it is likely that iexpects support from j for non work-related issues

Hp. 2. If i trusts j for business issues, then it is likely that i expects support from jfor non work-related issues

Hp. 3. Expectations of social support are likely to be reciprocated directly

Hp. 4. Expectations of social support are likely to form cycles


Social support


Statistics Values

# ties 29

# edges 99

Density 0.12

Mean in/outdegree 3.41

Min indegree 0

Max indegree 7

Indegree centralization 0.13

Min outdegree 0

Max outdegree 8

Outdegree centralization 0.17

# reciprocated pairs 25

# transitive triads (030-T) 11

# cyclic triads (030-C) 0

Social support: reciprocated ties


Positive collaboration


Statistics Values

# ties 29

# edges 130

Density 0.16


Min indegree 0

Max indegree 11


Min outdegree 0

Max outdegree 12





Trust in business


Statistics Values

# ties 29

# edges 235

Density 0.29


Min indegree 0

Max indegree 16


Min outdegree 0

Max outdegree 20






Multivariate EGM: Support and TrustParameters

Social Support Trust in Business

Est. S.E. Est. S.E.

Endogenous effects

Arc -7.289 (1.636)* -2.408 (1.732)

Reciprocity 0.793 (0.639) 0.767 (0.363)*

Simple 2-Path -0.353 (0.200) 0.053 (0.025)*

Popularity (in-degree) -0.422 (0.507) -0.064 (0.573)

Activity (out-degree) -0.296 (0.428) 0.820 (0.460)

Path closure (ATA-T) 0.686 (0.237)* 0.588 (0.207)*

Cyclic closure (ATA-C) -0.137 (0.210) -0.250 (0.109)*

Multiple connectivity (A2PA-T) 0.038 (0.215) -0.048 (0.056)

Multivariate endogenous effects

Entrainment of Support and Trust in business 2.058 (0.444)*

Exchange of Support and Trust 0.853 (0.350)*

Controls

Demographics

Age (sender) 0.057 (0.027)* -0.026 (0.015)

Age (receiver) 0.100 (0.027)* -0.027 (0.018)

Age (homophily) -0.064 (0.032) 0.011 (0.018)

Gender (homophily) 0.054 (0.296) 0.108 (0.167)

Experience

Seniority (sender) 0.007 (0.015) -0.018 (0.007)*

Seniority (receiver) 0.024 (0.016) 0.011 (0.008)

Seniority (homophily) -0.008 (0.014) -0.028 (0.009)*

Exogenous structure

Collaboration (covariate network) 0.928 (0.864) -0.693 (0.593)

Positive Collaboration (covariate network) -0.322 (1.045) 1.348 (0.602)*

Previous Acquaintance (covariate network) 2.021 (0.861)* 1.247 (0.501)*

Agency Co-Membership (covariate network) 0.916 (1.341) 0.659 (0.975)

1. No significant reciprocity

2. Positive transitive closure

3. No significant cyclic closure

STRUCTURAL MECHANISMS FOR SOCIAL SUPPORT

MULTIPLEXITY

6. High multiplexity between Trust in Business and Social Support

4. No significant multiplexity between Positive Collaboration and Social Support

5. Multiplexity between Positive Collaboration and Trust in Business

Conclusions


1. No evidence of direct (tie reciprocation) nor generalized (cyclic closure) exchange among peers

2. Emergence of local hierarchiecal clusters in a globally decentralized network: support expectations seem to self-organize along informal status differences

3. A collaboration between two peers, however successful, is not enough to foster the development of support ties.

4. A successful collaboration fosters the formation of trust in business, which is highly correlated with expectations of support. Trust might work as an endogenous mechanisms.

Limitations and further developments


Cross-sectional data New measurements?

Agent-Based Model calibrated on network data:• Testing the emergence of informal hierarchy• Avoid homogeneity assumption in ERGM

Comparison with formal hierarchical organizations


Thank you for your attention

[email protected]

Coworking and Social Support among Peers. A Multivariate ERGM of Economic and Social Exchange...

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