Network entrepreneurial personality, network constraint and social learning: An experimental test of Burt’s theory

These data where gathered to study causal assumptions of Burt’s social network theory. The first assumption that was studied is the assumption that actors with stronger network entrepreneurial personalities more actively pursue a strategic network position of low constraint compared to actors with weaker network entrepreneurial personalities. The second assumption that was studied is whether being in a lower network constraint position leads to more success in advantageous decision making via social learning. What is also studied is whether actors with stronger network entrepreneurial personalities remove more ties and let others free ride more on costs they make for establishing ties compared to actors with weaker network entrepreneurial personalities. The data where gathered by conducting a laboratory experiment in which subjects formed a network of connections with each other, which they subsequently used to gather information in an individual decision making game (gambling task). Via a questionnaire we determined their ‘network entrepreneur personality index’ score. The data do not support the reliability of the index and for causality between entrepreneurial personality and pursued network constraint. The data do also not support causality between entrepreneurial personality and certain tie formation behavior. Furthermore, the data show that degree centrality is more important for advantageous decision making than low network constraint. In the master's thesis that can be found in this data package the theoretical background of this study, the experiment and the results are discussed in detail