Social Networking and Gender-Homophily in Article Publications: A Tale of Two Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)

The social networking in the context of article publications is always fascinating. This study analysed the dimensions of social capital in co-authorships. The aims of this study include: (a) to present an overview of article publications in terms of social networking (bonding and bridging), gender-homophily (b) to study and analyse variance in gender homophily in social networking in article publications at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) spanning 2010-11 to 2019-20. Adopting a longitudinal study, the data set included 1562 productive units from IIMA and 923 productive units from IIMB. In terms of social networking, the overall trend was Bridging (International) > Bridging (National) > Bonding. However, the pattern differed among the IIMs and between genders. Bonding was higher at IIMA (25.02%), compared to IIMB (20.87%). Gender-wise, female faculty bonded more than the male faculty at both the IIM’s. In terms of bridging, across genders, collaborations with international partners were higher than with national partners at both IIMA and IIM B. The gender-homophily was higher at IIMA (72.86%) compared to IIMB (68.76%). Gender-wise, while female faculty had higher collaborations with opposite gender at both the IIMs, a reverse trend was seen among male faculty, who collaborated more within the same gender. Overall the gender homophily also differed among Bonding, Bridging (National) and Bridging (International) at the two IIMs. This study puts in focus the bonding and bridging social capital and the need for its nurturing for effective knowledge recombination and for enriching the learning experiences of the researchers.