BUSINESS NETWORKING: MANAGING SOCIAL

NETWORKS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS

COURSE OVERVIEW
Nobody succeeds alone. In most life situations, things we do require the cooperation of a wide variety of
people. Our relationships and social network, being the totality of our relationships, are central to the
effectiveness and success of our actions. Naturally, most of us acknowledge that social networks are
important when it comes to what gets done in organizations. But do we know exactly how our network
impacts the outcome of our work? Managers often believe that network effectiveness depends on the
number and the quality of their immediate contacts. In reality, it is more important to take a closer look at
the pattern of direct and indirect relationships among these contacts: it is the people you know and the
connections to people whom you do not know (yet!) that give you access to resources and getting things
done. The social network with its distinctive nature of relationships, structure, and resources is the social
capital which can be utilized to enhance the competitive advantage of individuals and organizations.
Given the importance of social networks and their sometime counter-intuitive influence on business
effectiveness, the main objective of this course is to introduce concepts and findings in the areas of social
capital and social network analysis in order to advance students’ understanding on how to effectively
manage network relations and structures to achieve success in business.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. To appreciate the direct and indirect impact of social networks in social and business affairs
2. To understand how to measure characteristics of social networks and assess the social capital that
associates with difference structures of social network
3. To understand the different strategies to build the network of social relationships that constitute
an individual’s social network/capital
4. To apply the ideas of social network in business such as entrepreneurship, organizational
innovation, and social media marketing
5. To understand and analyze “intra” and “inter” organizational relations from a network perspective
6. To understand the economic and political implications of the networks that link businesses,
families and political organizations.
 COURSE OUTLINE

PART 1: GENERAL THEORIES OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Session 1. Introduction of network theory
Session 2. Introduction to Social Capital & Social Network Analysis

PART 2: ARCHITECTURE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Session 3. Building effective social networks
Session 4. The architecture of social network – Closure and Brokerage

PART 3: NETWORK STRATEGIES

Session 5. Applications of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in business & management
Session 6. Managing inter-organizational relations
Session 7. Understanding and using virtual networks – social media
Session 8. Social networks and entrepreneurship

PART 4: NETWORKS OF CAPITAL & POWER

Session 9. The social and institutional dimensions of social networks – Interlocking directorate
studies
Session 10. The Network Economy: Business Groups in Asia

COURSE RUNDOWN

Teaching Topics and activities

Dates/session

Day ONE Discussion: Introduction to network theory in general

AM Activity: Video on the discovery of network theory

Reading: Small World Networks and Management Science Research

Day ONE Discussion: Introduction to Social Capital Theory and Social Network
Analysis
PM
Activity: Practical on Social Network Analysis using UCINET

Reference: UCINET User Guide

Day TWO Discussion: Building effective networks

AM Activity: Video on the Science of Persuasion

Readings: (a) Harnessing the Science of Persuasion

(b) Improving the Quality of Conversation
(c) On the Intricacies of Chinese Guanxi
Day TWO Discussion: The architecture of social networks – Brokerage and
Closure
PM
Case Study: Heidi Roizen (please check out her web-site too)

Reference: The Network Structure of Social Capital - #1 download from

the Web in ‘List of further Readings’

Readings: (a) How Leaders Create and Use Networks

(b) How to Build your Networks

Day THREE Discussion: Application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) on Business

and Management
AM
Activity: Demonstration of actual application of SNA in business and in
class

Readings: (a) How to invest in Social Capital

(b) Better Sales Network

Day THREE Discussion: Managing inter-organizational relations

PM Case Study: Proactive Medicare

Reading: Finding, Forming and Performing: Creating Networks for

Discontinuous Innovation

Day FOUR Discussion: Virtual networks – Social dimension of doing business

online
AM
Activity: (a) Video on Social Media
(b) Social Media exercise

References: (a) Book – Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed

By Social Technologies

Day FOUR Discussion: Social Network and Entrepreneurship

PM Activity: case study on The Entrepreneur’s Network as a Source of

Resources

References: to be distributed

Day FIVE Discussion: The social and institutional dimensions of social networks -
Interlocking directorate studies
AM
Activity: (a)Video on Network Governance
(b) Demonstration of Interlocking Directorates Networks

Reading: Financial Networks and Informal Banking in China

 Day FIVE Discussion: The Network Economy – Business Groups in Asia

PM Activity: Presentation of End-of Term Project plan

Reading: *Global Strategies Lessons from Japanese and Korean

Business Groups

FORMAT AND TEACHING METHODS

The course will be highly interactive and consists of a mix of case studies, video presentations, in-
class discussions of current research and practice, self-assessment exercises, and short in-class
projects. A final course project will ask student to apply what they learned during the course in a
real-life situation.

A course-pack of required readings and cases will be provided to students before the course starts.

PRE-REQUISITES AND INPUT REQUIRED

There are no pre-requisites for attending this course. However, students will be required to bring
their notebooks to all sessions and to install 60-day trial versions of UCINET and NETDRAW
software packages for social network analysis before the first session. The software can be
downloaded here: http://www.analytictech.com/downloaduc6.htm. Students will be required to
learn the basic use of the software in order to carry out course projects.

Students may also like to browse the website www.orgnet.com.

ASSIGNMENTS

There will be three types of assignments to complete during the course:

1. End- of-Course INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP project

Students, individually or in small groups, will apply network analysis concepts and techniques
for the explanation of management/business phenomenon and/or identification of business
opportunities and applications in real-life situations. These situations could include the
relationships in their personal life/career, the work and social organizations they are affiliated
with and the actual network of business relations of their companies/organizations. The
students may also use databases given by the instructors or acquired/generated by them.

Students may choose one of the following projects

a. Identify the social network of a key group(s) of employees/individuals (e.g. the top
management team or project teams) in an organization by administering a network
 analysis questionnaire. Discuss the management issues that could be understood and/or
resolved by a review of and/or action on the social network.

b. Promote a product/business/social cause with the use of not less than 4 social media. (You
have to identify and/or make assumptions about the ‘technographic’ profile of the media
users.)

c. Analysis of social capital or power of business and social organizations using the
position/resource generator or archival data.

2. Short in-class GROUP projects

There will be 2-3 short group projects for students to work on during the class. These may
include: (i) assessment of individual’s and the student team’s social capital; (ii) creating
entrepreneurial and/or business application with of on-line social networking tools and (iii)
analysis of network data from a database. ONLY ONE of these will be assessed

3. Case studies

There will be THREE full-length case studies. Each student team is required to prepare an
analysis report for each case study before class discussion.

ASSESSMENT

- Case analysis reports (group) 30%

- Short in-class projects (group) 10%

- Course project (individual or group) 40%

- Contribution to class discussion (individual) 20%

- Total 100%

ASSIGNMENT EVALUATION CRITERIA

C – Assignment reflects the student(s) barely understands the basic concepts

B – Assignment reflects the student(s) understand the basic concepts; is able to present them in
his/her own words logically and apply them in real-life situation realistically; with original thinking
and critical analysis

A – All of B above AND with substantial and convincing original thinking and critical analysis