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Networking is thought to facilitate the development of personal and professional opportunities ([4] Baker, 1994; [54] Wolff and Moser, 2009) and contribute to organizational functioning by supporting greater organizational communication and access to resources ([17] Forret and Dougherty, 2004). Some in the popular press have gone as far as to suggest that the quality of one's network carries as great or greater of an influence on an individual's career success than their abilities, knowledge, and experience ([48] Torres, 2005), a belief summarized by the common maxim, "it's not what you know, it's who you know." Thus, it is not surprising that a significant demand exists for services that help individuals to develop and nurture their networks. Capitalizing on this interest, a variety of popular books are available which offer to teach readers how to grow and use their networks to achieve success (e.g. [4], [5] Baker, 1994, 2000; [42] RoAne, 1993). Moreover, many professional conferences hold special networking events for members to interact with new people and websites that provide a technological interface through which individuals can grow and develop their networks have gained significant followings in recent years, as evidenced by the almost 200 million registered members for [31] LinkedIn (2013) and the success of similar web sites such as BranchOut, or Zerply.
This demand stems from the widespread belief that networking probably leads to many positive personal and professional outcomes. However, interest in networking has not been limited to popular thinking. Many scholars have shown interest in studying networking, although they are generally less enthusiastic about the ubiquity of its benefits relative one's knowledge, skills, and abilities. The roots of networking research in management can be traced back to work by [35] Mintzberg (1973), who called attention to the role of managers as making and maintaining of contacts and interactions with other people that were outside the formal organizational chain of command. Around the same time, [20] Granovetter (1973) articulated the value that relationships can bring to an individual in his seminal article on the strength of weak ties. This early work on managers and relationships established a theoretical foundation to which later networking research owes a great deal. Shortly after, empirical work on networking began shifting the focus toward considering networking as...