Brokers in Disguise: The Joint Effect of Actual Brokerage and Socially Perceived Brokerage on Network Advantage

Interpersonal networks can be conceptualized not only as actual social structures surrounding individuals but also cognitive stemming from individuals’ perceptions of those relationships. Yet most research on adopts either a structural or perceptual perspective. In this article, I blend these two traditions to examine how and brokerage jointly determine innovation performance. hypothesize that while benefits by exposing them nonredundant information, socially perceived brokerage—being bridge groups regardless one’s network configuration—may trigger skepticism brokers’ motives could hinder their ability innovate. Thus argue others’ focal actor’s opportunities constitute critical contingency underlying advantage. Using multimethod approach, including field study in global consulting firm preregistered experiment, find spanning holes achieve higher performance when colleagues perceive have closed rather than open networks, trust is the mechanism driving effect. Integrating insights into theory, illustrates importance considering both mechanisms modeling reap brokerage.