The embeddedness of organizational performance: Multiple Membership Multiple Classification Models for the analysis of multilevel networks

We present a Multiple Membership Multiple Classification (MMMC) model for analysing variation in the performance of organizational sub-units embedded in a multilevel network. The model postulates that the performance of organizational sub-units varies across network levels defined in terms of: (i) direct relations between organizational sub-units; (ii) relations between organizations containing the sub-units, and (iii) cross-level relations between sub-units and organizations. We demonstrate the empirical merits of the model in an analysis of inter-hospital patient mobility within a regional community of health care organizations. In the empirical case study we develop, organizational sub-units are departments of emergency medicine (EDs) located within hospitals (organizations). Networks within and across levels are delineated in terms of patient transfer relations between EDs (lower-level, emergency transfers), hospitals (higher-level, elective transfers), and between EDs and hospitals (cross-level, non-emergency transfers). Our main analytical objective is to examine the association of these interdependent and partially nested levels of action with variation in waiting time among EDs – one of the most commonly adopted and accepted measures of ED performance. We find evidence that variation in ED waiting time is associated with various components of the multilevel network in which the EDs are embedded. Before allowing for various characteristics of EDs and the hospitals in which they are located, we find, for the null models, that most of the network variation is at the hospital level. After adding these characteristics to the model, we find that hospital capacity and ED uncertainty are significantly associated with ED waiting time. We also find that the overall variation in ED waiting time is reduced to less than a half of its estimated value from the null models, and that a greater share of the residual network variation for these models is at the ED level and cross level, rather than the hospital level. This suggests that the covariates explain some of the network variation, and shift the relative share of residual variation away from hospital networks. We discuss further extensions to the model for more general analyses of multilevel network dependencies in variables of interest for the lower level nodes of these social structures.     

Whom Do Centenarians Rely on for Support? Findings From the Second Heidelberg Centenarian Study

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a detailed picture of the sources and types of informal support available to centenarians, depending on their housing and care arrangements. Participants were 112 centenarians and 96 primary contacts of centenarians enrolled in the population-based Second Heidelberg Centenarian Study. Findings indicate that children of centenarians were their primary source of support in daily life. Those without living children had overall less help. Most frequently reported was help with administrative tasks, regardless of centenarians’ residence or living arrangement. All other types of help (e.g., with activities of daily living and housework) were reported by about one-third and were mostly provided by children; centenarians without children were more likely to have friends/neighbors involved in some of these tasks. The one category reported by a third of the centenarians regardless of residence, living arrangements, or presence of a child was help with socializing/companionship. Findings constitute an important step toward identifying and meeting the support needs of centenarians and their families. Policy implications are discussed.     

基于行动者网络理论的三网融合发展战略研究

行动者网络理论为三网融合的发展提供了一种新视角和新的分析工具。研究表明:三网融合既是技术创新和市场竞争推动的结果,也是政府管制的结果;作为核心行动者,政府应采取合理的手段调整行动主体的行为,引导其积极加入到网络中;在多异质行动者参与的三网融合博弈进程,由于诸多利益因素的存在,网络有可能重构,甚至瓦解。我国应从制定合理的发展路径和科学的实施步骤、完善政策资源供给和重视各方利益整合等方面加强三网融合发展战略指导。     

k-means-based algorithm for blockmodeling linked networks

The paper presents a k-means-based algorithm for blockmodeling linked networks where linked networks are defined as a collection of one-mode and two-mode networks in which units from different one-mode networks are connected through two-mode networks. The reason for this is that a faster algorithm is needed for blockmodeling linked networks that can better scale to larger networks. Examples of linked networks include multilevel networks, dynamic networks, dynamic multilevel networks, and meta-networks. Generalized blockmodeling has been developed for linked/multilevel networks, yet the generalized blockmodeling approach is too slow for analyzing larger networks. Therefore, the flexibility of generalized blockmodeling is sacrificed for the speed of k-means-based approaches, thus allowing the analysis of larger networks. The presented algorithm is based on the two-mode k-means (or KL-means) algorithm for two-mode networks or matrices. As a side product, an algorithm for one-mode blockmodeling of one-mode networks is presented. The algorithm’s use on a dynamic multilevel network with more than 400 units is presented. A situation study is also conducted which shows that k-means based algorithms are superior to relocation algorithm-based methods for larger networks (e.g. larger than 800 units) and never much worse.     

The potential of online social networking data for augmenting the study of high-risk personal networks among young men who have sex with men at-risk for HIV

Capturing dynamics in high-risk personal networks is essential for preventing HIV transmission. Online social networking data offer incentive to augment traditional selfreported approaches for network enumeration. To explore what online networks reveal about dynamics among high-risk associates, we examine the relationship between egocentric confidant and sex networks and personal Facebook friendship networks of a cohort of young Black men who have sex with men. Although overlap exists between self-reported and Facebook associates, the stabilities of each were unrelated. Confidants who were also Facebook friends with a respondent were, however, more likely to be retained. Thus, Facebook networks contain stable confidants.     

Impact of support networks for breastfeeding: A multicentre study

Background

The rates of breastfeeding worldwide are slowly improving since 1996. Europe is still trailing behind the global breastfeeding incidence and prevalence rates. Thus, breastfeeding promotion, protection, prolongation and support have become an important challenge as breastfeeding sharply decreases in the first six months of life.

Social Network Challenges to Reducing Consumption: The Problem of Gift Giving

Social networks are typically associated with recruitment tactics. In this article, I offer an additional perspective on social networks as a constraint to social change and an under‐recognized challenge to reducing consumption. I draw on 45 interviews with: voluntary simplifiers, religious environmentalists, and green home owners. Informants, failing to withdraw from gift‐giving networks, instead (1) negotiate a reduction in gift giving, (2) green gift giving, and (3) attempt to transform gift giving into a tactic for lifestyle change. Rather than viewing social networks as channels for cultural cohesion, I argue that we need to better conceptualize the way culture and networks are co‐constituted by tactics of influence within areas of contention.     

Tweeting about emergency: A semantic network analysis of government organizations’ social media messaging during Hurricane Harvey

While social media like Twitter have been increasingly adopted by public-sector organizations, it remains less explored as to how government and emergency management (EM) organizations use these platforms to communicate with the public in response to emerging natural disasters. Extending the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to the realm of social media, this study examines the emerging semantic networks from 67 government and EM organizations’ official tweets during Hurricane Harvey over a three-week period. It identifies how multiple crisis response strategies—including instructing information, adjusting information, and bolstering—are constituted of different issues, actions, and organizational actors before, during, and immediately after the disaster event. Results suggest that government agencies use the strategy of instructing information predominantly before and during the disaster, whereas adjusting information and bolstering strategies are utilized more during post-disaster recovery. The study offers theoretical and practical implications of using a semantic network approach to studying organizational crisis responses.     

Secondhand social capital: Boundary spanning,secondhand closure,and individual performance

We move beyond the performance returns of individuals’ direct network connections to study the effects of “secondhand” social capital, i.e., from the networks of one’s contacts. We propose that certain colleagues may be more valuable to one’s job performance than others when their spillovers of novel information combine with spillovers of the cooperation needed to obtain that novelty. In a study of 1273 research and development employees across 16 business units, we find that the most benefit to one’s own performance comes from having ties that span business units and that also include secondhand closure (i.e., where one’s contacts are each embedded in a constrained, dense network). Bridging the organizational boundary provides the novelty; and secondhand closure provides the cooperation. Further, by examining who in the network is constraining these contacts, we are able to trace their cooperative motivation both to reputational and organizational identity concerns, which each create a spillover of cooperation toward the focal individual, who reaps the returns.     

Mobility types,transnational ties and personal networks in four highly skilled immigrant communities in Seville (Spain)

In this study, we explore how different mobility patterns influence the composition and structure of the transnational social support networks and how personal networks allow us to elicit insightful data of mobile individuals. Ninety-five mobile individuals were selected from four distinct communities based in Seville (Spain), namely: Erasmus students, Flamenco artists, musicians from the symphonic orchestra and partners of European Commission researchers. Data were collected through an electronic survey sent by email with multiple name generators and a structured face-to-face interview utilizing a network visualization tool, VennMaker. Two distinct methods, namely qualitative case studies and cluster analysis were used to characterize mobility types. Findings reveal a heterogeneous foreign population, in which different forms of mobility are reflected in the personal networks of mobile individuals. Respondents who were settled in the city were more likely to have networks in which social support was mainly derived by hosts and people in the host location and with whom they communicated predominantly through face-to-face communication. Those who were in the host location for a study exchange, knowing that return to the county of origin is imminent were more likely to have networks linked to the home location. They relied heavily on strong transnational ties in the home country using social media to sustain their relationship. Respondents with an itinerant mobility profile, also had networks dominated by strong transnational ties, however, such ties had a higher degree of geographical spread due to previous international mobility. Participants who had a high number of hosts in the network but low connection between the ties were more likely to be linked to a specific subculture in the host society. The integration in the host location follows a different pattern to other settled individuals, mainly because their connection in the city tends to be community specific.