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

Ahoba-Sam, Rhoda and Charles, David (2019) Building of Academics’ Networks – An analysis based on Causation and Effectuation theory. Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, 39 (2). pp. 143-161. ISSN 0173-7600

[img]
Preview
Text (Final published version)
Ahoba-Sam-Charles2019_Article_BuildingOfAcademicsNetworksAnA.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (409kB) | Preview
[img]
Preview
Text (Advance online version)
Ahoba-Sam-Charles2019_Article_BuildingOfAcademicsNetworksAnA.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (421kB) | Preview
[img]
Preview
Text
Ahoba-Sam, Charles - Building of Academics’ Networks AAM.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (370kB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10037-019-00134-2

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.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Academic scientists, effectuation, causation, networking, Industry, Academia, University of Stavanger
Subjects: N100 Business studies
X900 Others in Education
Department: Faculties > Business and Law > Newcastle Business School
Depositing User: Paul Burns
Date Deposited: 03 Sep 2019 09:06
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 12:31
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/40484

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics