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As I read Karen Stephenson's article, I first appreciated her title selection to include the word "argument." This invites debate - and that is exactly what continues to advance the field and study of informal networks in business. Secondly, she begins the article with the words, "No one would argue that. . . " Thus, as is often the case, I will now play the role of "No one."
My first inclination, as I continue to study informal network structures across the world in a wide range of markets and cultures, is to challenge the notion of the world becoming smaller as more and more people connect. I am becoming more and more perplexed by the 21st-century definition of a relationship, given that we seem to be using the word " connection" far more in business as opposed to "relationship."
As we discuss a network relationship, it typically comes with two active ingrethents: trust and reputation. As Ron Burt (2005) most eloquently discusses, trust is a relationship with someone in which contractual terms are incompletely specified. The more unspecified and taken for granted the terms, the more trust is involved. Without trust, I...