The strength of weak ties is among the most important theories in the social sciences. One paradoxical element of the theory has been widely understood and valued—that weak ties connect disparate regions of social structure. Less appreciated, however, is the arguably more paradoxical implication that someone only weakly connected to another would provide value beyond that which is provided by the recipient’s (ego’s) strong ties. Once this paradoxical feature of the theory and associated empirical literatures is acknowledged, the interests of the resource provider (alter) demand consideration. To do so faithfully requires first, the concession that different types of content can be transmitted across ties (e.g., financial, informational, physical, social) and content varies in important ways that relate to alter’s interests and concerns. This article considers social network content and the strength of ties that provide different forms of it. The case of startups is used as a fruitful strategic research site because of the varied resources required at various stages of the startup process. Novel insights are proposed concerning what content flows across different types of social relationships in the context of “nascent” entrepreneurship. Examples from other contexts such as job search are also discussed to exemplify scope. Importantly, this article takes the perspective of the resource provider, alter, and considers her concerns about trust, misuse, and unauthorized transfer in dyadic exchange. In the process, a second paradoxical feature of the theory is identified and theorized, which usefully reveals the boundaries of exchange.

中文翻译：

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Alter与它有什么关系？对网络内容及其提供的社会联系的考虑

弱势关系的强度是社会科学中最重要的理论之一。该理论的一个自相矛盾的要素已被广泛理解和重视，即薄弱的纽带将社会结构的不同区域联系起来。然而，人们认为，只有一个人与他人之间的联系较弱的人所提供的价值会超出接受者（自我）的牢固联系所提供的价值。一旦认识到理论和相关经验文献的这种自相矛盾的特征，就需要考虑资源提供者（改变者）的利益。要忠实地做到这一点，首先需要做出这样的让步，即不同类型的内容可以在各种纽带之间传输（例如，财务，信息，物理，社会），并且内容以与改变者的兴趣和关注相关的重要方式变化。本文考虑了社交网络的内容以及提供不同形式的联系的强度。由于在启动过程的各个阶段需要各种资源，因此将启动案例用作富有成效的战略研究基地。提出了关于“新生”企业家精神中哪些内容在不同类型的社会关系中流动的新颖见解。还讨论了来自其他上下文（例如求职）的示例，以举例说明范围。重要的是，本文从资源提供者的角度出发，进行了修改，并考虑了她对二元交换中信任，滥用和未授权转移的担忧。在此过程中，该理论的第二个悖论特征得到了识别和理论化，从而有效地揭示了交换的边界。