While the outcomes of brokerage have been extensively investigated, the issue of when and why brokerage structures persist or decay has attracted relatively little research interest. Taking the perspective of the disconnected firms to whom the broker is tied, the ‘alters,’ we argue that structurally induced ‘inequity’ in opportunity, or the broker’s potential recombination of a larger share of alters’ knowledge than vice versa, exerts a destabilizing effect on brokerage persistence. Furthermore, geographic distance, via its role in the cognitive classification of rivals, enhances alters’ tolerance for inequity and contingently weakens the brokerage destabilizing effect of structural inequity in knowledge recombination opportunity that benefits the broker. Specifically, we postulate about the socio-cognitive prismatic nature of geography in that geographic distance makes it less likely that alter firms ‘see’ the broker as a rival, and hence are less sensitive to inequity. We test our hypotheses with 260 broker and 517 alter firms in the global biopharmaceutical industry over 1985-2005, yielding 53,377 triad-year observations using a complementary log-log discrete time survival estimator. Our results support the hypotheses, highlighting the interplay between structural inequity and geographic distance in explaining brokerage decay.

中文翻译：

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网络稳定性：地理和经纪结构不公平的作用

虽然经纪业务的结果已被广泛研究，但经纪结构何时以及为何持续或衰退的问题吸引了相对较少的研究兴趣。从与经纪人联系在一起的脱节公司的角度来看，“改变者”，我们认为结构性诱发的机会“不公平”，或者经纪人对更大份额的改变者知识的潜在重组，反之亦然，产生了不稳定对经纪持久性的影响。此外，地理距离通过其在竞争对手的认知分类中的作用，增强了改变者对不公平的容忍度，并偶然削弱了有利于经纪人的知识重组机会中结构性不平等的经纪人不稳定效应。具体来说，我们假设地理距离的社会认知棱镜性质使得改变公司不太可能将经纪人“视为”竞争对手，因此对不公平的敏感度较低。我们在 1985 年至 2005 年期间与全球生物制药行业的 260 家经纪人和 517 家其他公司一起检验了我们的假设，使用互补对数对数离散时间生存估计器产生了 53,377 个三元年观察结果。我们的结果支持了这些假设，强调了结构性不平等和地理距离在解释经纪业务衰退方面的相互作用。使用互补对数对数离散时间生存估计器的 377 个三元组观测值。我们的结果支持了这些假设，强调了结构性不平等和地理距离在解释经纪业务衰退方面的相互作用。使用互补对数对数离散时间生存估计器的 377 个三元组观测值。我们的结果支持了这些假设，强调了结构性不平等和地理距离在解释经纪业务衰退方面的相互作用。