Leveraging the Ties of Others to Build a Reputation for Trustworthiness Among Peers

Drawing on social exchange and network structure theories, we investigate how third parties' social network structures are associated with managers' reputations for trustworthiness among their peers. Using a sample of senior managers from a large emergency response firm, we show that a manager's advocate network attributes such as network heterogeneity, nonoverlapping contacts, and network density all play key roles in enhancing a manager's peer reputation. We extend prior work on triads and trust by elucidating which third party will act as a focal manager's advocate and how an advocate's social network structure in turn enhances a manager's peer reputation.