The exchange of experience in a moral economy: Embedded ties and vicarious learning in kibbutz agriculture

Embedded ties between organizations facilitate vicarious learning by increasing the opportunity and motivation to share experience, and the capacity to communicate its meaning. They also form the basis of a moral economy within groups of tied organizations, where concrete resources are exchanged for compliance with other group interests. Our analysis of the profitability of kibbutz agriculture shows how embedded ties promoted learning between tied kibbutzim, and formed the basis of a normative structure which encouraged cooperation towards economic, political and social goals. Kibbutzim were made more profitable by the experience of others when they had embedded ties to those others, though the sharing of experience was partly dependent on compliance with ideological norms of tied groups.