Network Memory: The Influence of Past and Current Networks on Performance

This paper investigates the efficacy of alternative network structures from the perspective of time. We connect social structures to outcomes, using the history of relations to capture past social capital. In this way, time becomes a contingent factor with which to evaluate the relative efficacy of alternative network structures. We show that, in the Italian TV production industry, current structural holes rather than past ones, but past closure rather than current closure, help current network performance. Thus, structural holes and closure are both valuable but at different points in time.