劣勢者的優勢連結：由資源交換重塑社會地位

The Weakness’ Strong Tie: Reshaping Social Position by Exchanging Resources

企業必須跳脫劣勢情境，才能有效取用優勢資源，進而改變社會地位。過去社會網絡理論提出強弱連結差異，強連結可以降低交易成本，弱連結常是創新與異質資源來源；不過卻少討論社會網絡中的地位優劣差異，劣勢地位者如何取得優勢連結，進而取用資源，成為本研究重點。本文調查台灣知名夜市如何謀取優勢資源以改變社會地位。貢獻一，由社會場域辨識優勢者的隱憂，以建構連結契機。貢獻二，由劣勢資源的社會價值，交換優勢資源的經濟價值，並由多次交換建構社群網絡。貢獻三，由外部地位進化推動內部結構演化，以改變劣勢者的核心價值。實務貢獻言，本研究提醒組織應學會換位思考以辨識機會；換價得利以取用優勢資源；換取新機以創新資源價值。

Organizations have to leverage advantageous resources to break through the inferior situations and reshape social positions. Social network theory suggests organizations to have strong tie to reduce transaction cost, or to have weak ties to get heterogeneous resources. However, the inferior social position in the network becomes a missing link for social network theories. How the weak actor builds the social ties and leverages advantageous resources needs more discussion. This study investigates a well-known night market in Taiwan and learns how it transforms its social position strategically. There are three main theoretical contributions. First of all, this paper emphasizes the importance of opportunity recognition to build link with the strong actors by detecting the weakness of the strong. Secondly, this paper suggests players who posited at inferior situations have to redefine its resources’ social value to exchange for advantageous resources. Also, by multiple resource exchange process, organization could turn the weak ties into strong ties with particular social club. Thirdly, this paper highlights the importance of social reposition to explore more opportunities. By upgrading the social positions, organizations also experience internal transformation for more advantageous resources. Practically, this article suggests organizations to recognize opportunities by repositioning itself at the advantageous situations and redefining resource values for exchange. By upgrading its social positions, organizations may explore more opportunities for more advantageous resources.