JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Academy of Management is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Academy of Management Review.We introduce social networks theory and methods as a way of understanding mentoring in the current career context. We first introduce a typology of "developmental networks" using core concepts from social networks theory-network diversity and tie strength-to view mentoring as a multiple relationship phenomenon. We then propose a framework illustrating factors that shape developmental network structures and offer propositions focusing on the developmental consequences for individuals having different types of developmental networks in their careers. We conclude with strategies both for testing our propositions and for researching multiple developmental relationships further.We thank Tiziana Casciaro, Tim Hall, Morten Hansen, Linda Hill, Stacy McManus, David Thomas, Mike Tushman, NagsHeart conference participants, the AMR preconference workshop reviewers, associate editor Arthur Brief, and three AMR anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article, as well as John Galvin for his research assistance.

This paper investigates the contingent value of interorganizational relationships at the time of a young firm's initial public offering (IPO). We compare the signaling value to young firms of having ties with two types of interorganizational partnerships: endorsement relationships such as those with venture capital firms and investment banks, and strategic alliance partnerships. We propose that, under different equity market conditions, potential investors in an issuing firm attend to different types of uncertainty; attention to these different types of uncertainty affects investors' perceptions of the relative value of a young firm's different kinds of endorsements and partnerships and, hence, IPO success. Results from a sample of young biotechnology firms show that ties to prominent venture capital firms are particularly beneficial to IPO success during cold markets, while ties to prominent investment banks are particularly beneficial to IPO success during hot markets; a firm's strategic alliances with major pharmaceutical/health care firms did not have such contingent effects. Implications for understanding the contingent value of interorganizational ties are discussed.

We introduce social networks theory and methods as a way of understanding mentoring in the current career context. We first introduce a typology of "developmental networks" using core concepts from social networks theory-network diversity and tie strength-to view mentoring as a multiple relationship phenomenon. We then propose a framework illustrating factors that shape developmental network structures and offer propositions focusing on the developmental consequences for individuals having different types of developmental networks in their careers. We conclude with strategies both for testing our propositions and for researching multiple developmental relationships further.We thank Tiziana Casciaro, Tim Hall, Morten Hansen, Linda Hill, Stacy McManus, David Thomas, Mike Tushman, NagsHeart conference participants, the AMR preconference workshop reviewers, associate editor Arthur Brief, and three AMR anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article, as well as John Galvin for his research assistance. Academy of Management Review April Receptive TraditionalEntrepreneurial Key: D, developer; P, protege.

Young firms going public are dependent upon the decisions of investors for a successful public offering. Yet convincing investors to invest is not easy, as young firms have limited track records and, thus, face challenges associated with gaining legitimacy in their respective industries. This paper examines ways in which select information about firms undertaking an initial public offering (IPO) can affect investor decisions. Building upon recent research on upper echelons and signaling theory, we propose that the composition of a firm's top management team can signal organizational legitimacy that in turn affects investor decisions. In the context of young firms undertaking an IPO, such signals are critical, especially when objective measures of firm quality are not easily available. We introduce a typology of signals of organizational legitimacy to elaborate on our hypotheses. Analyses of a comprehensive set of data on the career histories of the top management teams of young biotechnology firms show that investor decisions are affected by the extent to which a firm's top management team has employment affiliations with prominent downstream organizations (e.g., pharmaceutical companies), with a diverse range of organizations, and upon the role experience of one key member of the top management team-the Chief Scientific Officer. We assess and find that these effects are not mediated by the prestige of a firm's lead underwriter. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our study for strategy research on upper echelons and organizational legitimacy. two core groups of leaders has proceeded in parallel. Some research on boards has, for instance, drawn upon agency theory and resource dependency theory to suggest that boards both monitor and provide resources to firms, affecting firm performance (Hillman and Dalziel, 2003). Further, research on boards has often emphasized the signaling value of board affiliations, particularly in the context of large firms (e.g., Westphal and Zajac, 1998;Zajac and Westphal, 1995). Research on top management teams (TMT) has, in contrast, often focused on how the composition of the TMT of large firms affects top management strategic decision making (e.g., Hambrick, Cho, and Chen, 1996). Rarely has TMT research focused on the signaling value of the composition of the top

SummaryThis paper examines the effects of individuals' primary and multiple developmental relationships in a longitudinal study of the careers of lawyers. By juxtaposing the effects of the primary developmental relationship with those of individuals' sets or`constellations' of developmental relationships, the present study lends insight into if and when these two perspectives on mentoring yield different results regarding the effects of mentoring on prote Âge  career outcomes. The ®ndings from the present study show that while the quality of one's primary developer affects short-term career outcomes such as work satisfaction and intentions to remain with one's ®rm, it is the composition and quality of an individual's entire constellation of developmental relationships that account for long-run prote Âge  career outcomes such as organizational retention and promotion. Further, results from the present study provide evidence that the constellation perspective explains greater variance with respect to prote Âge  career outcomes than does the primary or more traditional perspective on mentoring. Implications for research on mentoring, developmental relationships, and careers are discussed.