Network embeddedness and organizational performance. The strength of strong ties in Dutch higher education

With only few exceptions, current research in public management on the effects of inter-organizational networks on organizational performance focuses either on network activity or on the inter-organizational network structure. The present paper theoretically links both approaches and tests two different types of network effects—‘network centrality’ and ‘cohesive subgroup membership’. The paper develops a model, which integrates organizational performance at the level of the organization and at the level of the individual client. To test hypotheses, data on the inter-organizational network of all Dutch colleges for the training of primary education teachers (n = 28) was combined with college-level performance data for 2002-2005, and the evaluations of graduates of the colleges in a large sample of graduates for the same period (n = 7,119). Multilevel logistic regression analyses show that embeddedness in cohesive subgroups rather than network activity significantly contributes to positive evaluations by individual graduate