Building of Academics’ Networks—An analysis based on Causation and Effectuation theory

Abstract

Individual academic scientists engage in various collaborations through their involvement in both regional and extra-regional networks. However, little is known about how these networks are actually formed. Focusing on university and industry networks, we take the view that the process of building new networks is an entrepreneurial activity that involves unpredictability and often goal ambiguity. This paper thus employs the theories of causation and effectuation to explore how the personal networks of academics are initiated. With evidence from the networks of 12 academics based at the University of Stavanger, Norway we show that both causation and effectuation are employed by academics when building their networks. The usage of causation was found to be more consistent with building industry networks whereas effectuation was employed when building networks in academia. Consequently, effectuation was characteristic of the international networks which were found to be mostly constituted by other academics. On the regional level, a mixture of both approaches of causation and effectuation was observed, with more industry linkages suggesting a tendency to be more causal than effectual. Furthermore, while causation was employed for project level networking, effectuation was employed for establishing more individual level ties.

Socioeconomic status and entrepreneurial networking responses to the COVID-19 crisis

“…Unexpected contingencies can arise by discovering new facets in existing ties and through contact with new people (Busch and Barkema 2022a , b ). This effectual networking can lead to a changed network but also to the appearance of serendipitous new goals (Engel et al 2017 ; Ahoba-Sam and Charles 2019 ; Kerr and Coviello 2020 ). Through these interactions with the environment, entrepreneurial outcomes emerge and change (Sarasvathy 2001 ; Alvarez and Barney 2007 ; Welter et al 2016 ; Engel et al 2017 ; Kerr and Coviello 2020 ).…”

“…This research concludes that, since outcomes in entrepreneurial environments are hard to predict, specific networking outcomes are not at the center of social interactions in entrepreneurial networking. Instead, entrepreneurs mainly base their social interactions on the joint generation of serendipitous objectives and reciprocal value creation (Engel et al 2017 ; Ahoba-Sam and Charles 2019 ; Kerr and Coviello 2020 ; Busch and Barkema 2022a , b ). As such, entrepreneurial networking contrasts models of agency involving goal-directed networking (social ties as an instrument to a predefined objective: Hallen and Eisenhardt 2012 ; Vissa 2012 ) versus effectual networking (social ties to generate serendipitous objectives based on reciprocity: Sarasvathy 2001 ; Engel et al 2017 ) and ultimately starts a conversation about what constitutes networking agency in entrepreneurship.…”