A paradox of brokerage: alter distrust, network self-promotion, and the willingness to accept referrals from brokers

Abstract

Individuals embedded in networks rich in structural holes are well positioned to broker referrals between otherwise disconnected others. Yet these hole-rich networks create a paradox: although they help brokers identify valuable opportunities, they also undermine the trust required for others to accept a referral—an action that makes recipients vulnerable to the broker's judgment and motives. We address this paradox by examining how brokers use network self-promotion, strategically highlighting their network quality and matchmaking competence, to mitigate trust deficits. Across a field study and two experiments, we show that network structure and network self-promotion jointly shape referral acceptance. Specifically, network self-promotion has asymmetric effects across the facets of trust: it substitutes for the reputational cues of a broker's ability where shared contacts cannot supply them, but amplifies the integrity-based trust that shared network ties convey where those ties are present, and does not condition the role of benevolence-based trust. By situating brokerage within the psychological literature on trust, we demonstrate how brokers' strategic impression management interacts with network structure to overcome the trust deficits inherent in networks that are rich in structural holes.