Brokerage Role Research Articles

Not all madams have a central role: analysis of a Nigerian sex trafficking network

This article applies social network analysis to a case study to analyze the role of madams in an Nigerian sex trafficking network. Using relational data on telephone conversations, the main centrality measures are calculated. They are interrelated with the roles of all the members of the network. The analysis confirms the importance of madams already highlighted by many academics, but surprisingly it also shows that not all madams are equally central in terms of their brokerage positions. Indeed, two different groups of madams are identified according to their betweenness centrality, which is the measure that best reveals the strategic positioning of the nodes within a network. The content analysis and description of the madams’ ego networks demonstrate that the main requirements for occupying a brokerage role are (i) being able to operate also outside Italian borders, and (ii) being at the same time part of relational systems involving “transnational” people whose action extends beyond national borders.

Local Knowledge Brokerage for Data-Driven Policy and Practice in Education

The concept of ‘knowledge brokerage’ focuses on promoting the integration of the best available evidence into policy and practice-related decisions. In this study, emphasis is put on the knowledge brokerage role of cities. The study aims at finding similarities and differences in existing educational knowledge brokerage initiatives, at exploring the effectiveness of knowledge brokerage initiatives, and at explaining differences in the effectiveness of educational knowledge brokerage initiatives. Four medium-sized cities were investigated using a case study methodology. During the case studies a qualitative approach using document analysis and in-depth interviews was adopted. The article firstly describes the existing knowledge brokerage initiatives. The descriptive part also looks at the effectiveness of the studied knowledge brokerage initiatives by describing their (un)intended results. Afterwards three clusters of factors are introduced that can explain differences in the success of brokerage initiatives of cities: the policy context, the users and their organisation, and the knowledge brokerage system. The article stresses the importance of a context of trust, and a context that stimulates data use, and elaborates on findings regarding the impact of data literacy, data culture, the organisations' policy-making capacities, and a sense of urgency.

PUS in turbulent times II – A shifting vocabulary that brokers inter-disciplinary knowledge

To reflect further on 20 years of the journal, we present a lexicographic and bibliometric study of all papers published in Public Understanding of Science (PUS). Lexicographical analysis of the vocabulary of 465 abstracts shows five classes of associated concepts in two periods, 1992-2001 and 2002-2010. The concern for public attitudes and mass media coverage remains on the card; while language has shifted from 'public understanding' to 'public engagement' and environmental concerns have waned then waxed. The bibliometric analysis traces the position of PUS in the inter-citation network of 165 related journals (ISI Web of Science citation database), grouped into 10 disciplines for the purpose of this analysis. Indicators derived from network logic show that the established position of PUS has been stable since 1997. PUS serves a varied brokerage role as gatekeeper into and liaison maker between disciplines. Its inter-citation network position allows PUS to perform inter-disciplinary boundary spanning work that offers a safe space for experimentation with ideas.

Enhancing science in coastal management through understanding its role in the decision making network

There is an obvious need for comprehensive interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research programs that can assist in the management of marine and coastal environments. An ongoing problem is to how to integrate this research into the ongoing development and evaluation of policy and management plans. A large scale systematic research program focused on the Ningaloo Coral Reef and its coastal terrestrial environment has been conducted. Many specific research projects were undertaken varying from bathymetry and fish behaviour to the needs and attitudes of tourists. Over fifty research projects were included. Integration of the findings is being achieved through a series of modelling activities of varying complexity including simple fish population models to a whole-of-system model. This paper provides an understanding of how this research fitted with the overall social system of interaction between decision makers and local stakeholders, and how the information could reach and be made relevant to all roles in regard to the management of Ningaloo. A network approach was developed through interviews and the construction of ego networks. The results of this study revealed clusters of groups that performed particular roles for reef management, and showed that the science cluster demonstrated the characteristics of the ‘Coordinator Role’ within their own cluster but did not demonstrate the ‘Liaison Role’ with other groups and only a low score for the representative ‘Brokerage Role’. The Research Liaison group was potentially able to reach the entire management system within three links, but it was evident that this potential was not necessarily being fully achieved. The advantages of understanding the role of science in wider decision making networks are discussed in relation to the uptake of integrated research. Specifically, in this case it was found that the scientists and key coordinating group for the program had fragile connections with the decision making community, which could have been strengthened by earlier systematic understanding of how the decision making network operated.

Among leaders and territories: the political networks of the district councillors in Naples

This work describes the role of the district councillors of Naples, through an analysis of their relational networks. District councils are the result of the administrative decentralization of the major Italian municipalities. During a 2 year field research study, I gathered 387 semi-structured interviews with the councillors and 35 unstructured interviews with a set of key informants. In order to increase the understanding of the political networks, I have also collected information through direct observation of the councillors meetings and activities. The analysis combines qualitative and quantitative data. At a formal level, district councillors don’t have any actual power, but, in practice, they gain important social capital resources by playing a brokerage role between political patrons and their potential clients. I provide evidence that, on one side, they hold strong ties with the higher level politicians; and, on the other side, they play a fundamental role in taking care of the voters and collecting the electoral consensus. In conclusion, I argue that the district councillors of Naples perform the tasks which were previously carried out by the traditional party organizations, assuming the role of the “new” professionals of grass roots politics.

Return Migration and Distributed R&D in Multinationals – A Study Using Micro Data

Is the phenomenon of multinational firms (MNCs) conducting distributed R&D across emerging markets related to the return migration of engineers and scientists from the U.S. to emerging markets? I hypothesize that local inventors at emerging market R&D centers of MNCs face constraints in securing resources from the headquarters for knowledge creation projects and that returnees can act as resource brokers. I then test for whether or not reporting to a returnee manager leads to higher patenting. I test this using hand-collected employment, travel, demographic and patent data for 1315 inventors at a Fortune 50 multinational R&D center in India. To account for endogenity and selection in measuring the impact of returnee managers, I consider new graduates, for whom manager assignment is plausibly random. I find that having a returnee manager leads to higher patenting. I also find support for the resource brokerage role of returnees - having a returnee manager leads to higher patenting but not higher headquarter co-patentees or patent citations back at the headquarters. In summary, this is one of the first empirical studies of return migration and multinationals using firm level micro data.

The role of Spanish central government in a multi-level State

The Spanish polity has made the transition in the last three decades from a centralized system to a quasi-federal one characterized as having features of a shared power model with overlapping powers among levels of government. The new system has implied a change in the functions of central government from service delivery to planning and policy design. Enquiring beyond the hierarchy—non-hierarchy role of central government of intergovernmental studies, this article applies control concepts of oversight, mutuality, competition and contrived randomness from grid & group cultural theory in order to empirically examine the evolution of the role of central government in intergovernmental relations. Although the institutional features of the Spanish polity are expected to foster cooperative intergovernmental relations and a brokerage role of central government fostering mutual (peer) relations of the regions, the text suggests that institutional praxis and the ‘youth’ of the Spanish decentralization process are accountable for the direction taken by the Spanish polity. The system is characterized by central government still embedded in the inertia of oversight (with examples of fostering mutuality at times and in some policy fields) and by the regions seeking unilateralism through contrived randomness. Points for practitioners This text tries to unveil two distinct aspects of central government’s role in intergovernmental relations. First, it crosses the traditional axis (hierarchy and autonomy) between central/federal government and the regions/states when examining intergovernmental relations by including cases of competition and collegiality among the constituent parts. Second, it assumes that early stages of intergovernmental relations are likely to be conflictual regardless of the formal (cooperative) institutional design of the system. By acknowledging this, promoters of decentralization should be aware not only of the formal aspects of cooperation, but also of the informal mechanisms for building up cooperative practices.

Nexus Work: Brokerage on Creative Projects

This study examined how brokers on creative projects integrate the ideas of others. We use the term “nexus work” to refer to brokerage requiring synthesis or integration, rather than just communication or transference of ideas. With an ethnographic investigation of 23 independent music producers in the Nashville country music industry, we examined how producers in the brokerage role fostered the integration of others' contributions throughout four phases of the creative process. We discovered that ambiguity was an inherent part of the collective creative process and identified three types: (1) an ambiguous quality metric (What makes a hit or constitutes success?); (2) ambiguous occupational jurisdictions (Whose claim of expertise entitles them to control the process?); and (3) an ambiguous transformation process (How should the work be done?). We show when each type of ambiguity became acute in the creative process and identify the practices producers used to leverage their brokerage role depending on the type of ambiguity confronted. In doing so, producers moved between two ideal conceptions of brokerage—as strategic actors extracting advantage from their position and as relational experts connecting others to foster creativity and innovation—to foster a collective creative outcome.

The Other Ride of Paul Revere: The Brokerage Role in the Making of the American Revolution

The celebrated tale of his "Midnight Ride" notwithstanding, Paul Revere's role in the events leading up to the American Revolution remains rather obscure. Joseph Warren, known as the man who sent Revere on that ride, presents a similar quandary. What was the nature of the roles they played in the mobilization process? I address the question from a social structural perspective, reassessing the evidence and reconsidering the key concept of brokerage. The analysis shows that these men were bridges par excellence, spanning the various social chasms and connecting disparate organizational elements of the movement, thus bringing together "men of all orders" to forge an emerging movement.

Nexus Work: Brokerage on Creative Projects

One body of research treats brokers as strategic arbitrageurs extracting advantage from their position, while another body of research paints brokers as relational experts connecting others to foster creativity and innovation. Because both conceptions are static, they fail to capture how brokerage evolves throughout the creative process. With an ethnographic study of music producers, we find that creative brokerage involves blending both approaches depending on the type of ambiguity involved. Producers leveraged their brokerage role not just for individual gain but to integrate project contributors’ ideas while maintaining project support. In doing so, they moved between these two ideal conceptions of brokerage and broke from them - to foster a collective creative outcome.

Modes of influence: Participation in publicly administered development programmes

AbstractThis article considers the way that farmers within a national agricultural advisory programme in Uganda were able to exert influence over that programme's policy and practice. Although the literature has tended to focus on engagement within formal programme structures as a major mode of participation, the analysis of the NAADS case reveals that farmers were able to exert an important influence over programme policy through their roles as political constituents. The brokerage role of supportive programme staff also worked to allow farmers' views to influence the programme, as did the collective weight of decisions commonly made by farmers, and to a lesser extent, the lobbying efforts of national NGOs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Brokerage roles in disaster response: organisational mediation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

When one organisation serves as an intermediary for two other organisations which are not in direct contact, that organisation is said to engage in brokerage behaviour. Using the case of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, this study demonstrates the use of formal brokerage measures to study communication among the responding organisations. We apply the brokerage role typology put forth by Gould and Fernandez (1989) to communication networks among the responding organisations in two communities: Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana and Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. We find that relatively few organisations perform most of the brokerage; primarily, these brokering organisations were locally based. The implications for predisaster planning are discussed.

Ethical and Cultural Considerations in Informed Consent in Botswana

Reflections on my experience of conducting research in Botswana are used to highlight tensions and conflicts that arise from adhering to the western conceptualization of bioethics and the need to be culturally sensitive when carrying out research in one's own culture. Cultural practices required the need to exercise discretionary judgement guided by respect for the culture and decision-making protocols of the research participants. Ethical challenges that arose are discussed. The brokerage role of nurse educators and leaders in contextualizing western bioethics is emphasized.

Explaining subsidiaries' knowledge-diffusion behaviours within MNEs

This study explores how subsidiaries can contribute their advantages for the whole MNE in knowledge diffusion processes. The research model includes both organisational factors and local resources in a host country to explain subsidiaries' diffusion behaviours. We carried out an online survey for R&D managers in 15 European countries to collect data about subsidiaries' behaviours. Different multivariate methodologies were used to examine direct and indirect (moderating) effects of the three main factors on knowledge diffusion. Both subsidiaries' innovative characteristics and subsidiaries' network resources can encourage the diffusion behaviours directly. Finally, the linkages between headquarters (HQ) and the subsidiary (e.g., personnel rotation) have both direct and indirect influences on knowledge-diffusion behaviour. The results imply that HQ has to establish a suitable organisational atmosphere to encourage subsidiaries, while subsidiaries should accumulate specific innovativeness or capabilities, and play a brokerage role to share the accumulated knowledge with the whole MNE.

Introduction of an intensive case management style of delivery for a new mental health service

Mental health case management emerged in the 1960s in response to the shift in focus from inpatient to community care. Case management per se had been used by other service industries for some time previously, particularly those involved with people with intellectual disability. The term case management describes a range of service approaches and strategies in mental health rather than a single model of care. One method of delivering case management is with an intensive model of care. Intensive case management is differentiated from other forms of case management through factors like a smaller caseload size, team management, outreach emphasis, a decreased brokerage role, and an assertive approach to maintaining contact with clients. Research has demonstrated that case management, in particular, intensive case management, can improve clients' and families' experience of mental health services but only when introduced and used for appropriately targeted client populations and suitably resourced. Determining which model of case management best suits the client population and how to introduce it is a major challenge for any mental health service. With a focus on intensive case management, a review of this process is outlined.

Beyond strategy

Seeks to explore the brokerage role of facilities manager in hospitals, based on the premise that facilities management (FM) is largely concerned with "strategic brokerage". Strategic brokerage is the term coined by Akhaghi to explain the integration of a wide range of support services to ensure the effective operation of the core business of an organization. The research was conducted in the health service sector using a single case study approach to examine the brokerage potential for FM in a hospital in the Sydney Metropolitan area. A social network analysis technique was used to identify and analyse the communication networks of players in a hospital environment. Two general questions guided the analysis. First, what is the brokerage potential within the FM process? Second, where are the opportunities for brokerage? The results indicate that identifying relationship linkages between different functional units can create potential brokerage opportunities. The proposition is made that viewing FM from a brokerage perspective can add value to the delivery of health-care services.

Graduates as strategic change agents in small firms: a case study of graduate placements and lifelong learning

Abstract Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are often resistant to the employment opportunities offered by skilled graduates. The Centre for Lifelong Learning at Brunel University ran a two‐year project aimed at encouraging local SMEs to consider unemployed graduates as suitable new employees through short‐term placements. The concept of workplace‐based learning was introduced into firms by the graduates acting as strategic change agents. A valuable learning experience can be gained by both small firms and graduates searching for work experience through the brokerage role of a university. There is a limit to the impact of external factors in generating organizational changes in small firms. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Graduates as strategic change agents in small firms: a case study of graduate placements and lifelong learning

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often resistant to the employment opportunities offered by skilled graduates. The Centre for Lifelong Learning at Brunel University ran a two-year project aimed at encouraging local SMEs to consider unemployed graduates as suitable new employees through short-term placements. The concept of workplace-based learning was introduced into firms by the graduates acting as strategic change agents. A valuable learning experience can be gained by both small firms and graduates searching for work experience through the brokerage role of a university. There is a limit to the impact of external factors in generating organizational changes in small firms. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tensions in the brokerage role. Nurses in Botswana.

Tensions in the brokerage role. Nurses in Botswana.

Application of Network Analysis to the Implementation of a Complex Project

Network analysis is applied to implementation problems in a case study of the Century Freeway Project in Los Angeles. The analysis shows the impact that network ties have on the ability of managers to implement a complex public project. The concept of “multilateral brokerage role”, is introduced to explain how managers in this setting are able to adapt.