Network structures both enable and constrain the development of social relations. This research investigates these features by comparing the development of commitments in structurally enabled and structurally induced exchange relations. We integrate ideas from the theory of relational cohesion and the choice process theory of commitment. In an…

To clarify "power" and "authority," the authors review the concepts' history, examine contemporary concepts of social control, identify four authority modes (based on social relations and controls), derive four power resources from these modes, discuss persuasion and exchange as social control mechanisms, and demarcate…