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Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness

Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019.

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Other Authors: Wocke, Albert
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Wocke, Albert
author_browse Wocke, Albert
author_facet Wocke, Albert
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:24.077Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/73863 Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness Wocke, Albert ichelp@gibs.co.za Mguni, Khanyiso UCTD social network research knowledge transfer social cognition dynamic brokerage boundary spanner brokerage Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. Extant brokerage literature is teeming with explanations of brokerage across structural holes (open networks), but lean on the accounting for brokerage opportunities in closed networks. Predominantly, brokerage is presented as a structural construct and brokerage opportunities that exhibit temporal dependencies are not easy to explain using extant literature. The explanation of the dynamic properties of brokerage, such as the ability of brokers to adjust their roles as the network context changes, is eschewed. This study introduces the concept of boundary spanner brokerage and defines a dynamic construct, that is able explicate temporal adjustments to brokerage roles as a consequence of cognition in the social environment. The South African agribusiness sector presents an ideal opportunity for the exploration of this phenomenon. The network environment is characterised by small-world networks that impose cognitive boundaries between established white agribusiness and emerging black farmers. Building relationships across these socio-cognitive boundaries is a challenge for emerging agribusiness. Traditional brokerage methods have failed, but cases of successful boundary spanner brokerage have been reported. The expectation that such brokerage could be a silver bullet, for the sustainable connection of emerging agribusiness to industry value networks is, a motivation for this study. Applying a contextualist perspective, the research design considers change dynamics at network, process and actor levels. Social network scholarship posits that any study of network change should consider the interconnectedness of context, action and change, hence the study of microfoundations of network change and in particular, how agency secures on-going brokerage returns. The longitudinal study combines historical and real-time data, spanning the period 2008 to 2018. It relies on 18 semi-structured interviews with business managers, board members and senior members of partner organisations, as well as news media reports and previous academic studies. A necessary complement to the research design is that of ethnographic observation. It allows the phenomenon of boundary spanner brokerage to be studied in its environmental context Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) PhD Unrestricted 2020-03-30T08:50:09Z 2020-03-30T08:50:09Z 2020 2019 Thesis Mguni, K 2019, Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness, PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/73863> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/73863 en © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
social network research
knowledge transfer
social cognition
dynamic brokerage
boundary spanner brokerage
Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness
title Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness
title_full Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness
title_fullStr Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness
title_full_unstemmed Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness
title_short Dynamic brokerage across socio-cognitive boundaries : external boundary spanners in South African agribusiness
title_sort dynamic brokerage across socio cognitive boundaries external boundary spanners in south african agribusiness
topic UCTD
social network research
knowledge transfer
social cognition
dynamic brokerage
boundary spanner brokerage
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/73863