In The Structure of Corporate Political Action (Harvard Univ Press, 1992) and a series of related articles (e.g., AJS, 1989), I examine the concurrent effect of a series of interfirm network variables and geographic proxmity on similarity of political behavior among firms.  Geographic proximity is measured crudely- a dummy variable indicating whether the firms' headquarters were located in the same state (I also looked at common plant locations but found that it didn't predict)- but it was measured, and it did predict similarity, as did most of the network variables.

Mark S. Mizruchi                      Phone: (734) 764-7444
Professor of Sociology and        FAX: (734) 763-6887
  Business Administration
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1382
homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mizruchi/

-----Original Message-----
From: Patricia Sachs [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 1:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Probably Naive But ...

Has anyone done studies of social networks and geographic distance
(such as 10 mintue sof commuting, working a floor apart, a building
apart, etc.) in working relationships within and across companies?

Thanks,

Patricia Sachs