11/17/2023

The Network Effect

Why companies should care about employees’ connections

In today's high-tech economy, it's not just quant skills and R&D know-how that confer competitive advantage. Relationships still matter—maybe more than ever, as social media turbocharges old-fashioned networking.

A new study mapped LinkedIn connections among firms woven out of 2 billion individual employee relationships at 7,715 public U.S. companies representing 19 industries. The researchers found that companies whose real-world employee connections put them at the center of their professional communities performed better than peer companies whose workforces were less well-connected and, as a result, on the periphery of the same community.

"What we're trying to say is there are many more jobs than you might imagine where having the right connections can be helpful to your company."

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.