Actors' Responses to Outcomes in Exchange Networks: The Process of Power Development

Abstract

Leading theories of power in exchange networks make assumptions about actors' reactions to being included in or excluded from exchanges. These assumptions, that actors consistently included increase their demands on others and that actors consistently excluded decrease their demands, provide the behavioral mechanism by which structural differences in position convert into power advantages or disadvantages. We test these assumptions with data gathered by experiment from five different networks. We find that while actors generally respond as assumed, the parameters of response to inclusion and to exclusion are not symmetric, depend on the level of experience of the subjects, and interact both with type of network (strong power versus weak power) and with network position.