Network Theory Approach Research Articles

An actor–network theory approach to developing an expanded conceptualization of collaboration in industrialized building housing construction

Our aim is to examine the value of selected actor–network theory (ANT) elements in contributing to the development of an expanded theoretical and empirical conceptualization of collaboration in industrialized building construction for the housing sector. A review of collaboration meta-analyses literature from different disciplines suggests that collaboration is still commonly portrayed in a limited way as a strategy of integration driven in a top-down manner by a “convenor” of human stakeholders in ways that privilege simplified notions of coherence. We use specific ANT concepts empirically grounded in five case studies of innovative housing construction projects to describe an expanded conceptualization of the infrastructure of actor-networks. We examined a range of issues with respect to collaboration in industrialized building particularly in relation to network formation and disintegration. As the collaboration networks formed they sought coherence but not conformity and aimed for the management of tensions between integration and separation as well as stabilization and destabilization. This expanded conceptualization of collaboration describes the material-semiotic characteristics arranged around industrialized building technologies that are simultaneously stabilizing yet disruptive and proposes new ways by which the ideal of integration can be pursued in a fundamentally fragmented industry.

Guru is a Donut

How are global gurus successful in enchanting thousands of devotees? Common descriptions tend to highlight attributes of the actors, e.g. the charisma of the guru or the biographies and socio-economic backgrounds of the devotees. In my opinion this does not sufficiently explain the growth or stability of these movements. By using a social network theory approach, I focus on the types of ties between the involved actors. From this relational perspective, the network position of the actors and the qualities of the ties between them are the „material“ a guru-centered movement is made of. Instead of searching for more and more characteristics of the actors to explain the phenomenon (e.g. the guru's rhetoric skills and theological virtuosity or the devotee's disappointment with more conventional forms of religion), this approach helps to see a distinctive pattern of social organization that both enables and restricts interaction.

Associative nature of event participation dynamics: A network theory approach.

The affiliation with various social groups can be a critical factor when it comes to quality of life of each individual, making such groups an essential element of every society. The group dynamics, longevity and effectiveness strongly depend on group’s ability to attract new members and keep them engaged in group activities. It was shown that high heterogeneity of scientist’s engagement in conference activities of the specific scientific community depends on the balance between the numbers of previous attendances and non-attendances and is directly related to scientist’s association with that community. Here we show that the same holds for leisure groups of the Meetup website and further quantify individual members’ association with the group. We examine how structure of personal social networks is evolving with the event attendance. Our results show that member’s increasing engagement in the group activities is primarily associated with the strengthening of already existing ties and increase in the bonding social capital. We also show that Meetup social networks mostly grow trough big events, while small events contribute to the groups cohesiveness.

How Nordic companies in Nigeria respond to host-country risks: a network theory approach

Kidnappings by Boko Haram, the destruction caused by the Niger-Delta militancy, and attacks by Omo Onile do not paint Nigeria as a welcoming host country for your next international project. However, despite these turbulences, international business in Nigeria is thriving. This paper investigates how project marketers deal with the country's uncertainties. Through multiple case study, it analyses the risk management behaviours of Nordic companies operating in this key African market. Drawing from the network theory, we analyse the nature of the host-country risks. We then show that international project managers harness local networks to identify, evaluate and manage risks, as well as link different risks to specific strategic responses. This paper contributes to the project management literature by expanding the existing risk management typologies to the context of international projects, and elaborates on the risks prevalent in the emerging developing economies. We disclose the role of technological leadership and organisational leadership in influencing the Nigerian business environment rather than solely avoiding the corruption-prone projects. We show that exerting leadership is possible by maintaining corporate culture governed by the rules of the home country, even when the company localises its operations through employing host-country natives. This combined approach mitigates the negative risk of the psychic distance, while assuring the transparency of company operations.

How Nordic companies in Nigeria respond to host-country risks: a network theory approach

How Nordic companies in Nigeria respond to host-country risks: a network theory approach

Steady state equivalence among autocatalytic peroxidase-oxidase reactions.

Peroxidase-oxidase is an enzymatic reaction that can exhibit dynamical scenarios such as bistability, sustained oscillations, and Shilnikov chaos. In this work, we apply the chemical reaction network theory approach to find kinetic constants such that the associated mass action kinetics ordinary differential equations induced by three four dimensional structurally different enzymatic reaction systems can support the same steady states for several chemical species despite differences in their chemical nature.

A Complex Network Theory Approach for the Spatial Distribution of Fire Breaks in Heterogeneous Forest Landscapes for the Control of Wildland Fires.

Based on complex network theory, we propose a computational methodology which addresses the spatial distribution of fuel breaks for the inhibition of the spread of wildland fires on heterogeneous landscapes. This is a two-level approach where the dynamics of fire spread are modeled as a random Markov field process on a directed network whose edge weights are determined by a Cellular Automata model that integrates detailed GIS, landscape and meteorological data. Within this framework, the spatial distribution of fuel breaks is reduced to the problem of finding network nodes (small land patches) which favour fire propagation. Here, this is accomplished by exploiting network centrality statistics. We illustrate the proposed approach through (a) an artificial forest of randomly distributed density of vegetation, and (b) a real-world case concerning the island of Rhodes in Greece whose major part of its forest was burned in 2008. Simulation results show that the proposed methodology outperforms the benchmark/conventional policy of fuel reduction as this can be realized by selective harvesting and/or prescribed burning based on the density and flammability of vegetation. Interestingly, our approach reveals that patches with sparse density of vegetation may act as hubs for the spread of the fire.

A network theory approach for a better understanding of overland flow connectivity

AbstractHydrological connectivity describes the physical coupling (linkages) of different elements within a landscape regarding (sub‐) surface flows. A firm understanding of hydrological connectivity is important for catchment management applications, for example, habitat and species protection, and for flood resistance and resilience improvement. Thinking about (geomorphological) systems as networks can lead to new insights, which has also been recognized within the scientific community, seeing the recent increase in the use of network (graph) theory within the geosciences. Network theory supports the analysis and understanding of complex systems by providing data structures for modelling objects and their linkages, and a versatile toolbox to quantitatively appraise network structure and properties. The objective of this study was to characterize and quantify overland flow connectivity dynamics on hillslopes in a humid sub‐Mediterranean environment by using a combination of high‐resolution digital‐terrain models, overland flow sensors and a network approach. Results showed that there are significant differences between overland flow connectivity on agricultural areas and semi‐natural shrubs areas. Significant positive correlations between connectivity and precipitation characteristics were found. Significant negative correlations between connectivity and soil moisture were found, most likely because of soil water repellency and/or soil surface crusting. The combination of structural networks and dynamic networks for determining potential connectivity and actual connectivity proved a powerful tool for analysing overland flow connectivity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

USING NETWORK THEORY TO DETECT DOMINANT CARTEL FIRMS

Despite multiple applications of network theory in different fields of social and legal sciences in general, the possibility of applying this theory to the economic analysis of the antitrust law and, more specifically, to the study of cartels has not yet been considered. Nevertheless, the study of cartels as networks can advance some general elements and measurements that can help the detection and elimination of these organizational forms that cause evident harm to general well-being. This is the first time that the approach of network theory has been used to analyze cartels. This article uses a set of classical measures such as clustering and centrality measures, taken from network theory, and applies them to a specific case of a cartel sanctioned as such by the European Commission. This approach has enabled us to quantify some characteristic elements of the cartel, such as, for instance, a remarkable asymmetry between operators (nodes in the network), its different degree of influence (study of links), as well as the critical importance of some operators versus other cartelized agents, such that their elimination from the organization would not enable them to create their own cartel. This finding warrants reconsidering the antitrust policy based on leniency programs.

A three dimensional finite deformation viscoelastic model for a layered polymeric material subject to blast

The aim of this paper is to carry out a three dimensional finite deformation simulation of a layered polymeric structure subject to blast loading. Such a simulation may be of use to evaluate the relative capabilities of different layered composites at the design phase to identify suitable candidates for detailed testing. While this is a follow up to studies carried out by Alagappan et al. (2014, 2015) within the context of one and two-spatial dimensions and time respectively, both the earlier works are related to the capturing of small strain nonlinear response of composite using a implicit two network theory. Here we provide a significant extension to a thermodynamically consistent finite deformation, fully three dimensional approach based on a two-network theory. We show that the implicit two network theory approach is able to accommodate ideas of time temperature superimposition and requires far fewer material parameters than that needed for either Prony series expansions or linear spring dashpot type models. We extend to the previously developed finite volume method (which was originally 2-dimensional, small deformation) to three-dimensional finite deformation problems. We apply the method to study the attenuation of blast by different layered structures in a fully three dimensional setting and demonstrate the effect of different layering sequence on the response of polymers subjected to impact.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: Multiple steady states in ammonia synthesis

Using a chemical reaction network (CRN) Theory approach, three well-accepted mechanisms of ammonia synthesis over iron catalyst taking place within an isothermal Continuous Flow Stirred Tank Reactor (CFSTR) are analyzed. Together with its deficiency analysis, the CRN Theory provides a suitable framework to assert whether a particular reaction network has the capacity to support multiple steady states using the reaction mechanism structure alone. Through deficiency analysis, we argued that the presence of two surface catalytic sites during absorption-desorption of nitrogen (microscale) is causative of bistability (macroscale) in two of the three ammonia synthesis mechanisms here considered.

Framing built environment change through materials, agency and influence

Place-keeping urges design and management professionals to collaborate towards sustaining quality places for users. However, local life, maintenance and contextual aspects contribute to places changing in unexpected manners. The current place-keeping conceptualisation focuses on the organisations behind space provision and management, leaving a knowledge gap in tying their work to the material dynamics of places’ built environments. This article translates the Actor Network Theory (ANT) approach to analyse formal and informal built environment changes, seeking to understand specific actors that affect change in an environment beyond formal institutions. The approach focuses upon the action mechanisms behind, contributing to and preventing specific material changes, holding the potential to reflectively inform practice.A case excerpt is analysed to illustrate the proposed ANT methodology. It reconstructs the changes to a hedge line and related repercussions upon the life and management of an urban residential space in Oslo. The analysis demonstrates how maintenance, use and material adjacencies affect built environment change, together with how relationships to external agendas, adjacent programming, municipal budgeting and climatic forces can limit spatial management’s response capabilities.The ANT approach can contribute the following to place evaluation and place-keeping thought:•Understanding change in the built environment as the output of multiple, heterogeneous factors;•Recognizing that intentional and unintentional actions contribute to place changes;•Tracing place dynamics across established boundaries of discipline, property and responsibility;•Re-conceptualizing place-keeping based on the mechanisms that a place’s perceivable, material quality.This article offers a perspective of understanding place use and spatial management work through the mitigating agency materials have upon practice. Offering an adaptable framework for reflective place evaluation and a material-focused re-conceptualisation of place-keeping, this article encourages relational research into the mechanisms that link spatial management and use dynamics.

"Centrality, brokerage and in-role performance in professional organizations"

In this paper, we present a comprehensive view of centrality, brokerage and individual performance by integrating a structural approach and contingency view of network theory. Network theory up unt...

Moving to the peoplemetered audience: A sociotechnical approach

Using an actor–network theory approach, this article argues that the audience exists only from the moment it is circumstantiated and instantiated. To observe the audience, sociology thus needs to identify its practices, discourses and manifestations. This hypothesis is illustrated through a historical case study: the adoption of a new television audience measurement, the peoplemeter (a new audimeter machine nowadays widely used by professionals) in France in the late 1980s. It opens the technology’s black box at a time when changes forced actors to reconsider their collective and individual audience definitions. Through analysing the implementation of the peoplemeter, this article shows how a triple process of routine, consensus and trust led the actors to accept this new system. This process, it is argued, explains how actors translated a state of their own construction of the audience into a technological system.

A Network Theory View on the Thalamo-Cortical Loop

We used a network theory approach, based on the dynamic core hypothesis (DCH), to study the thalamo-cortical loop (TCL) and its subsets regarding their role in consciousness. We used the Collation of Connectivity Data on the Macaque Brain (CoCoMac) and calculated the degree distributions, transmission coefficients, connection density, clustering coefficients, path lengths, and modularity. Our results showed that the TCL and cortex exhibit exponential degree distributions, and the ratio of efferent/afferent connections in the thalamus is smaller than 1.0 This may support the notion that the connections received by the thalamus from the cortex play a key role in improving information processing in the conscious states. The average values of transmission coefficients for the cortex and TCL were found to be equal to 1.49 and 1.28, respectively. This indicates that: (i) the cortex is a system that mainly transmits information outward rather than receives it; (ii) the TCL is a cooperative system that performs this in a give-and-take manner; (iii) connections of the cortex are denser than those in the TCL, showing that the cortex might be advantageous for processing of complicated information during consciousness; (iv) both the TCL and cortex are small-world systems; (v) the scaled value of the characteristic path length in the TCL is smaller than that in the cortex, which implies a higher speed potential for information processing in the TCL than in the cortex; (vi) the scaled value of the clustering coefficient is nearly the same in the cortex and TCL, and (vii) the number of modules is 5 in the cortex and 6 in the TCL.

How Actors of Local Society (Community) Influence the Development of Decentralized General Education, and their Attitude to it.

One of the most urgent problems is to find ways to involve local society in the development of general education in municipalities. One of the solutions is to increase the influence of local society on the decision-making processes of municipalities. The aim of the research is to find out the role of local society groups – students, their parents and principals – in the decision-making process, and their influence on the development of decentralized general education. The opinions of different actor groups are compared in order to find out their attitude to the decentralization processes of general education promoted by the LEA, and analyse the possible factors that influence the actor groups in the administrative decision-making processes which are used in the development of the LEA's policy and strategies.Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods are used – polls and profound interviews. The approach of the actor network theory is used in the research, which gives an opportunity to create an actor network for the decentralization process of general education. The most important actor groups in the process of decentralization have been identified. The results of the research show that in order to achieve the goals of development of general education, it is necessary to estimate the optimal degree of decentralization of educational management. The results of the research also show that sociological research gives substantial support to the planning of the development of general education towards decentralization and the achievement of the set aims.

Common cold outbreaks: A network theory approach

In this study, at first we evaluated the network structure in social encounters by which respiratory diseases can spread. We considered common-cold and recorded a sample of human population and actual encounters between them. Our results show that the database structure presents a great value of clustering. In the second step, we evaluated dynamics of disease spread with SIR model by assigning a function to each node of the structural network. The rate of disease spread in networks was observed to be inversely correlated with characteristic path length. Therefore, the shortcuts have a significant role in increasing spread rate. We conclude that the dynamics of social encounters’ network stands between the random and the lattice in network spectrum. Although in this study we considered the period of common-cold disease for network dynamics, it seems that similar approaches may be useful for other airborne diseases such as SARS.

A social network analysis of social cohesion in a constructed pride: implications for ex situ reintroduction of the African lion (Panthera leo).

Animal conservation practices include the grouping of captive related and unrelated individuals to form a social structure which is characteristic of that species in the wild. In response to the rapid decline of wild African lion (Panthera leo) populations, an array of conservational strategies have been adopted. Ex situ reintroduction of the African lion requires the construction of socially cohesive pride structures prior to wild release. This pilot study adopted a social network theory approach to quantitatively assess a captive pride’s social structure and the relationships between individuals within them. Group composition (who is present in a group) and social interaction data (social licking, greeting, play) was observed and recorded to assess social cohesion within a released semi-wild pride. UCINET and SOCPROG software was utilised to represent and analyse these social networks. Results indicate that the pride is socially cohesive, does not exhibit random associations, and the role of socially influential keystone individuals is important for maintaining social bondedness within a lion pride. These results are potentially informative for the structure of lion prides, in captivity and in the wild, and could have implications for captive and wild-founder reintroductions.

Old dogs, new tricks – Rethinking country‐image studies

ABSTRACTIn international marketing, countries are often conceptualised as image constructs that have an influence on product image formation. Destination image and country of origin image are held to account for bias in consumer perceptions towards products because of the country from which they originate. Studies in these areas are typically underpinned by attitude‐based Likert or semantic differential scale methods, analysed using structural equation models. This paper achieves two key outcomes. Firstly, it adds to the small but growing body of literature that looks at the impact of tourism on post‐tour, export product evaluations. Secondly, it compares this traditional attitude‐based approach to country‐image studies with an alternative associative network theory approach, operationalised with a free‐choice, pick‐any survey method, which is popular within the branding literature. We compare the two methods by applying each to the same set of respondents to establish if the two methods are complementary, and find they produce different outcomes that could have critical implications for how country‐image studies are conceptualised and executed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Triple Helix and Innovation in the Life-Science Industry

AbstractThe paper analyses the impact of the “Triple Helix” on innovation by assuming a network theory approach. The aim is to build a theoretical framework to improve the understanding of the effect of clusters involving industrial, academic and institutional players on the cluster’s innovation. In particular the work is focused on intra-cluster and inter-cluster structural and nodal characteristics in the life-science industry.