Helping Behavior in Multinational Executive Networks

This study develops a framework that draws upon the socio-psychology and network literatures to explain helping behavior in an executive’s multinational network. Focusing on executives' perceptions of willingness to help, we examine network structure (geographic and organizational boundaries), strength of relational ties (frequency of interaction and duration of relational ties), and relational dependence (with respect to performance and replaceability). Our empirical results show support for the ties strength and relational dependence hypotheses. Moreover, they reveal unique findings for the role of network structural characteristics in that organizational boundaries rather than geographic boundaries influence perceived helping behavior.