The State of Network Research and Network Analysis in Public Administration

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA • ORLANDO

UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The State of Network Research and Network Analysis in Public

Administration


SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Dr. Naim KapucuUniversity of Central Florida

Email: [email protected]

Public Management Research Association ConferenceAdvances in Statistical Methods for Network Analysis Workshop

Minneapolis, MinnesotaJune 10-13, 2015

mailto:[email protected]



Introduction• Interest• Networks in PA• Social Network Analysis (SNA) in PA

• Conclusion



Questions• What is the current state of SNA in the study of public administration (and policy)?

• What network analysis methods/measures are used?

• In what (policy) domain social network analysis was used?

• Is PA specific SNA research also being utilized in (neighboring) disciplines?



Networks in PA• Network research is gaining momentum and becoming

popular in the Public Administration (Berry et al. 2004), however, it still remains a young field of inquiry (Isett et al. 2011).

• The use of networks has become more prevalent in PA with the move away from traditional service delivery to more network management approaches.

• NPM, governance, networked governance, hollow state, and collaborative public management have influenced the use of networks in PA (Berry et al. 2004; Parkhe et al. 2006; Isett et al. 2011) .

• Popularly used as a metaphor to explain intergovernmental, cross-sector, and inter-organizational relationships



Definitions of Networks • Networks are different than markets and hierarchies and exhibit “reciprocal patterns of communication and exchange” (Powell 1990, 295)

• Networks are “flexible structures that are inclusive, information rich, and outside the scope of direct bureaucratic control” (Isett et al. 2011, i159)

• The element of exchange in the form of distinctive competencies (skills and knowledge), and in the form of resources seems to be integral to network structures.

• Abstract: A representation of "relational data" in the form of a mathematical graph…. A set of nodes along with a set of edges connecting some pairs of nodes.



Types of Networks• Research in the field has followed three streams as identified through literature:– Policy networks (the oldest stream that reflects decision-making in resource allocation and delivery)

– Collaborative networks (focuses on the collaborative production and provision of public services)

– Governance networks (where the focus is to work towards common goals and integrate both collaborative service provision and collective policy making)


UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONSocial Network Analysis

(SNA)• Social network analysis is the study of social entities (called actors), and their interactions and relationships

• SNA is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, animals, computers, or other information/knowledge processing entities

• A method to understand networks and their participants is to evaluate the location of actors in the network. These measures help determine the importance, or prominence, of a node in the network.

• It is a unique methodology comprising data collection, statistical analysis and visualization of the results

• Enables to see how actors are located or “embedded” in the overall network (structure)

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UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONWhat is Social Network Analysis?• Network researchers have developed a set of

distinctive theoretical perspectives as well. Some of the hallmarks of these perspectives are: – focus on relationships between actors rather than attributes of actors

– sense of interdependence: a molecular rather atomistic view

– structure affects substantive outcomes – emergent effects

• Network theory is sympathetic with systems theory and complexity theory

• Social networks is also characterized by a distinctive methodology encompassing techniques for collecting data, statistical analysis, visual representation, etc.

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Social Network Analysis• SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of relationships

• From the network, we can study the properties of its structure, and the role, and position of each (social) actor

• We can also find various kinds of sub-graphs, e.g., communities formed by groups of actors– Set of Connected Units: People, Organizations– Can Belong to Multiple Networks, Cliques– Examples: Friendship, Organizational, Inter-Organizational, World-System, Internet…

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Social Network Analysis (SNA)• Social network analysis presents a set of qualitative and quantitative; descriptive and inferential approaches to relational data.

• Widely used in sociology, psychology, and anthropology to analyze social structure in various contexts (Knoke & Yang 2008; Wasserman & Faust 1994).

• In the study of public organizations researchers use it to study social structure within an organization as well as external relations of that organization.

• Since the use of SNA is relatively new in PA it warrants a detailed study of how it is being used in the field today.



SNA Use in PA• Method

– Bernick and Krueger (2010) and Forrester and Watson’s (1994) rankings of public administration and policy journals• Forrester and Watson (1994):results from elite perceptions of journal editors and editorial board members

• Bernick and Krueger (2010) citation based rankings, impact factors, & elite perceptions

• Journal Sample – Both lists are integrated, total 39 journals– Since publication of O’Toole’s (1997) “taking networks seriously” till January 2013 (sabbatical project!)

• Search cycles– Networks, collaboration, partnerships, etc. use– Second: Networks defined, empirical studies– Social Network Analysis as a method (Non-PA articles omitted)



Overall Search Results• # of articles identified in 1st Cycle: 1247• # of articles identified in 2nd Cycle:667• # of articles identified in 3rd Cycle:139• Some of the journals such as Organization Studies, Human Relations and the Journal of Management Studies had a number of articles utilizing SNA but were on topics that do not fall under the realm of PA

• Final screening about 80 articles to examine • PA journals with most PA related SNA articles are: JPART, Policy Studies Journal, PAR, ARPA


UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONSearch Results of Top Ten PA Journals

Journals Ranking Bernick & Krueger

Ranking Forrester & Watson

1st cycle

2nd

cycle3rd cycle-

SNA4th cycle-SNA PA focus

Public Administration Review 1 1 133 94 8 8Journal of PA Research &Theory 2 4 76 59 15 15

Administration & Society 3 2 61 28 4 3American Review of PA 4 3 45 34 6 6

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

5 7 29 19 18 3

Public Performance and Management Review

6 8 20 9 4 1

International Journal of Public Administration

7 6 36 23 2 2

State & Local Government Review 8 10 8 7 0 0

Public Administration Quarterly 9 5 14 3 1 0

Policy Studies Journal 10 - 55 29 13 10



Articles use SNAFigure 1: Number of SNA articles published in recent years


UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONSNA Use & Network Research

Streams

Figure 1: Number of SNA articles published in recent years


UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONTopics in PA Network Research


UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONNetwork Research Streams & Topics



Unit of Analysis• The unit of analysis in most of the SNA publications has predominantly been organizations and agencies.

• Around 50% of the articles have organizational networks as unit of analysis

• Individuals are also commonly used as a unit of analysis in these articles

• Some articles use dyads as unit of analysis



Data Collection MethodPrimary data collection methos Secondary data collection methodInterviews (in-person, semi-structured, etc.)Surveys (web-based, field)Compuer Aided telephone interview (CATI)QuestionnairesDirect and phone contactObservationsEmailsCompositional dataFocus groups

Archival dataContent analysis (newspapers, reports)Systematic county level dataCompany recordsDocument analysis (company reports, government reports, etc.)Online researchDirectory data



SNA Software & Tools• UCINET (Borgatti, Everett, & Freeman, 2004) appears to be

the most popular SNA software program used for social network analysis in PA – Out of the 80 SNA articles shortlisted, 50 of them employ UCINET – Also it is interesting to note that around 21% of articles do not

mention the software utilized in carrying out SNA• 2 articles use the software VISONE (Brandes & Wagner,

2004)• Other than UCINET some articles utilize the StOCNET

software package for advanced statistical analysis of networks

• This software is a comprehensive tool and includes higher level analysis for structural equivalence/blockmodeling using the BLOCKS and SIENA routine

• 20 articles out of the 80 were utilizing SNA as a secondary methodology in their analyses



SNA Measures in PA• Most articles utilize both whole network measures such as

density, visual maps and centralization measures along ego network measures such as degree centrality, betweenness centrality etc.

• It is rather refreshing to see some articles employing advanced techniques of analysis such as QAP, ERGM, and Structural equivalence/blockmodeling.

• This reflects that the field of PA is maturing in terms of its applications of SNA and moving beyond simple measures albeit integral and important measures of analysis

• About 65% of the articles utilize some measure of centrality (Most commonly used are degree centrality, betweenness centrality and eigenvector centrality).

• The second most commonly applied measure is network density which is found in 46% of the articles and is a measure of analysis applied for whole networks.



SNA Measures in PA• A total of 9 articles also utilize the centralization measure for analyzing the whole network.

• At the group level of analysis two measures have been applied in few articles. Only two articles Kapucu et al. (2010) and Kapucu et al. (2009) apply clique analysis in their article and in explaining disaster response networks.

• Some articles also employ studying groups of three individuals/organizations, also referred to as triads.

• The measure used for analyzing and studying triades is Transitivity triad effect/ Transitivity triplets.



SNA Measures in PA• Advanced level SNA measures such as Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) have also been utilized in articles that are comparing dyadic data sets

• QAP is a measure and test for identifying autocorrelation in network data (Borgatti,Everett,& Freeman, 2002).

• Inferential social network analysis is carried out through ERGM which has been used by some authors

• 8 articles in the sample also use the measure of structural equivalence/blocking modeling using CONCOR



Google Scholar Citations• Thurmaier, Kurt; Wood, Curtis (2002) (PAR)- 150

• Kapucu (2006), ARPA- 142• Isett and Provan (2005), JPART – 115• Ruigrok, Peck and Keller (2006)- JMS - 83

• Kapucu and Van Wart (2006) ( A & S)- 82• Sandström and Carlsson (2008)-(Policy Studies)- 71



Conclusion• Significant interest on the topic and the method• PA is behind on the use of SNA compared to other disciplines

• Two parallel universes (some exceptions)– Substantive knowledge but lack of sophisticated methods/tools

– Methodological rigor but lack of substance (relevance)• Interdisciplinary perspectives (missing SNA articles)• Workshops/training on method

– Sunbelt– Political networks (APSA section and separate conference)– SCNS (ASPA) (Complexity, Governance, Networks)– LINKS, CASOS

• The field will benefit greatly from meta-studies carried out to develop a better theoretical framework for network research in PA



AcknowledgementDrs. Qian Hu & Sana KhosaUCF School of Public Administration

Kapucu, N., Hu, Q., & Khosa, S. (2014). The state of network research in Public Administration. Administration & Society. doi: 10.1177/0095399714555752.


UCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONUCF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

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The State of Network Research and Network Analysis in Public Administration

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