Bridging the knowledge gap:
The impact of strong ties, network cohesion and network range
Ray Reagans
Carnegie Mellon
Abstract
Organizational gatekeepers perform a critical task in organizations. Gatekeepers facilitate the
transfer of knowledge between organizational units and in so doing allow organizations to avoid a
potential trade-off between unit-level and system-wide performance outcomes. While the importance
of gatekeepers is understood, the network features that contribute to the gatekeeper’s success remain
unclear. In particular, prior research has documented the importance of tie strength, network cohesion
and network range for effective knowledge transfer. Researchers have not considered how much each
network feature contributes to the transfer of knowledge between versus within organizational units
and as a result, ambiguity about the network foundation for the gatekeeper’s advantage persists. Using
data on several hundred scientists located in different units of a large multinational high-tech company,
we consider how tie strength, network cohesion and network range contribute to knowledge transfer
with a focus on cross-unit transfers. The empirical results indicate each network feature contributes to
knowledge transfer. The findings also indicate the positive effects that tie strength and network
cohesion have on knowledge transfer are even more positive for cross-unit transfers, whereas the
effectfor range is invariant. However, when compared to tie strength and network cohesion, network
range has the most positive effect on cross-unit knowledge transfer. We discuss the implications of the
empirical results for scholars with an interest in knowledge transfer and the benefits of different kinds
of social capital.