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In this paper we focus on the temporal and historical conditions under which bridging ties from the past affect current organizational outcomes. Whereas previous research has shown that bridging ties have high decay rates and short-term effects, we explore the possibility that bridging ties may produce benefits over an extended period of time. In particular, we contrast the conventional view of bridging ties having rapidly decaying effects with two alternative network dynamics suggesting “accumulating” and “imprinting” effects. We propose that bridging ties have accumulating effects as a result of learning and redeployment of cumulated knowledge. We also predict that bridging ties exhibit an imprinted effect whereby the founding conditions surrounding the formation of some, but not all, ties yield long-lasting network benefits. We test our theory in the context of Nashville's legal industry, studying the formation and evolution of the professional network of lawyers' coemployment ties between 1933 and 1978. Consistent with our theory, we find that bridging ties produce network benefits over an extended period of time and trace back to the point of tie formation. Surprisingly, we also find that the imprinted effect is more robust than the rapidly decaying effect of bridging ties.

How do spin-offs—new ventures created by former employees of an incumbent firm—affect the technological performance of their parents? Conventional wisdom holds that spin-offs hurt parent firms: the parent loses key staff, routines are disrupted, and performance declines. Although having some basis in fact, we think the negative effects are overstated. We argue that spin-offs can enable parent firms to realign with their environment, thereby avoiding the oncoming obsolescence arising from the combination of organizational inertia and environmental drift. Using data from the hard disk drive industry, we find evidence that although the main effect of having a spin-off on a parent firm's technological performance is positive, the overall impact of a spin-off depends upon the technological sophistication of the spin-off and the time since the spin-off occurred. Indeed, parent firms of technologically sophisticated (successful) spin-offs initially suffer poorer technological performance, but over time they outperform firms that had no spin-offs. Both effects are amplified to the extent that the spin-off is more successful, which we attribute to both increased environmental realignment and the positive signal that successful spin-offs transmit to the broader labor market about the parent organization's reputation as an incubator of entrepreneurs and a desirable place to work.

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