Driving Results Through Social Networks: How Top Organizations Leverage Networks for Performance and Growth

Chapter 4. DRIVING FINANCIAL RETURN THROUGH NETWORK INVESTMENTS

The challenge in deriving value from networks is to know how much to invest and where to allocate resources. Research on social networks has tended to focus on relationships as instrumental ties—task-related communication, information flow, work flow, or decision making^[24]—but has ignored the value that is created through these interactions. With a slight shift in perspective, leaders can better understand how interactions in networks generate economic return—a very different sense of where value is created or cost incurred than is conveyed in traditional financial reports and budgeting processes.

Halliburton—one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the petroleum ...