The Natural Triad in Kinship and Complex Systems

Freilich, Morris

doi:10.2307/2091202

Cited by 20 publications

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“…Summarizing the power and psychological perspectives, Freilich (1964) suggested that triads tend to develop toward a common structure-the natural triad-in which actors take the roles of high-status authority, high-status friend, and low-status subordinate. His argument stems from Weber's (1947) view that action toward common goals requires high-status authority to direct and coordinate collective efforts.…”

Section: Coalitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Triads

Siltaloppi

Vargo

2017

Marketing Theory

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Triads examine the associations among three actors, involving, at a minimum, the analysis of two dyadic ties among three interrelated actors. By making apparent the indirect ties bearing on actors, the triad is the smallest unit of analysis for a network. Despite extensive conceptual and empirical work, little systematic attention is given to the triad in the marketing literature. This article reviews literature spanning multiple academic disciplines and makes three contributions. First, it provides an overview of the triad concept combining sociological insights with more recent work emerging in operations management and marketing. Second, the article identifies three distinct forms of triadic relationships in existing literature: (1) brokerage, focused on the action of the third between two others; (2) mediation, describing different mechanisms by which a dyadic relationship affects and is affected by a relationship with a third party; and (3) coalition, capturing the configuration and evolution of ties in the three-actor system as a whole. Finally, this article develops an initial research agenda for triadic marketing research.

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Section: Coalitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Triads

Siltaloppi

Vargo

2017

Marketing Theory

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“…The strength of the tie between any two actors in a triad is an important indicator of the probability of triad closure (Louch, 2000). Freilich (1964) argues that the frequency of interaction among actors in a "natural triad" of two high status actors and one low status actor increases familiarity among these actors and may change the relationship among these actors. I control for the strength of each dyad in the triad by simply computing the number of ties between each of the actors in the triad.…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Networks of Influence: Implementing Politically Sustainable Multinational Stakeholder Strategies

Nartey¹

2011

AMPROC

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In a bid to gain stakeholder support for their operations, multinational firms operating in politically uncertain environments often inappropriately apply a rational financial approach to a sociopolitical problem. Using the tools of network theory, I present an alternative sociopolitical approach to gaining stakeholder support by engendering cooperative relations and increasing tie formation while minimizing conflict. This dissertation comprises three paper chapters. The first, theory, paper chapter outlines a theory of influence exploring how the firm's strategic position within the network of stakeholders affords it positional benefits of information and reputation, while also highlighting the costs of exposure to pre-existing conflict and the fostering of conflict through asymmetric relations. The second, empirical, paper chapter explores how firms can best manage altercentric and egocentric uncertainty in the nonmarket environment and compares the efficacy of the ex ante strategies that the firm can use to manage both types of uncertainty. I hypothesize and find that through strategic network positioning that affords it information, the firm can manage its egocentric uncertainty; and, by managing how it is perceived through its associations, the firm can also manage stakeholders' altercentric uncertainty. When both strategies are assessed together, I find greater returns to firms in terms of engendering cooperation, minimizing conflict and forming ties by managing altercentric uncertainty through strategic associations. In the third, also empirical, paper chapter, I use insights from structural balance theory to explore the relationship between dyadic structure and triadic closure among networks of actors in the sociopolitical context. I outline and test hypotheses of four types of structural homophily of the actors in the triad-access to resources, status, likeability and number of ties (popularity)-on the likelihood of the closure of that triad. I find that a link that closes an open directed triad is more likely when the actors of the triad have different access to resources, different status, and similar numbers of ties to other actors. I also find that likeability among actors in the triad has no impact on the likelihood of closing that triad. My empirical papers test the relationships among firms and stakeholders in a novel hand-coded database of 51,754 stakeholder events linking 4,623 unique stakeholders of a population of 19 publicly traded gold mining firms which operate 26 mines in 20 largely emerging economies.

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“…Taking the triad as the simplest social arrangement, sociologists have long noticed that individuals have a propensity to co-orient to one another in terms of third parties (Simmel, 1964). In other words, if two parties establish a relationship, they are also likely to connect to at least one other common partner (Feld & Elmore, 1982;Freilich, 1964;Gulati & Gargiulo, 1999). In network terms this can be explained as an effect of balance theory (Scott, 2000).…”

Section: Balance Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of the Global Telecommunications Network in Bridging Economic and Political Divides, 1989 to 1999

Monge¹

2004

Journal of Communication

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This research explores the role of telecommunicative globalization in bridging world political and economic divides. Current approaches define globalization primarily in terms of increased density of network ties between nations, a perspective the present article extends into a more comprehensive framework. Exchange and balance theories are combined into a multitheoretical, multilevel model consisting of hypotheses regarding the mutuality, transitivity, and cyclicality of telephonic flows between nations that differed in economic and democratic attributes in 1989 and 1999. Statistical p* procedures demonstrate that tendencies toward mutuality and transitivity in the world telecommunications network have significantly increased between 1989 and 1999. These findings hold both for telecommunication flows among a full set of 110 nations of the world and for links between rich and poor and democratic and nondemocratic nations. The article concludes by examining implications of these results for network globalization theories.

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The Natural Triad in Kinship and Complex Systems

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Triads

Triads

Networks of Influence: Implementing Politically Sustainable Multinational Stakeholder Strategies

The Role of the Global Telecommunications Network in Bridging Economic and Political Divides, 1989 to 1999

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