Connecting the Dots: Leveraging Social Network Analysis to Understand and Optimize Collaborative Dynamics Within the Global Film Production Network

In recent years, the global film industry has observed a notable surge in international cooperation and cross-border investments. However, a comprehensive overview of these collaborative investments within the industry is lacking. This study employs social network analysis to delve into the possibilities that lie in collaborative efforts and joint investments within the film sector. The research constructs a network of 150 countries based on shared creative elements in their film productions, comprising over 7800 interconnected links. Employing measures of centrality, certain pivotal nations such as the United States, China, and England emerge as influential nodes, showcasing a strong potential to steer industry growth through collaborative engagement. Through a more detailed exploration involving community identification, distinct clusters centered around thematic commonalities that have converged through joint creative endeavors become evident. For example, the "Global Thrill Seekers" community focuses on action films, whereas the "Cultural-Social Cinema Group" addresses worldwide cultural and social issues. Each of these communities presents distinctive perspectives for international cooperation and the collaborative creation of content. This analysis significantly enhances our understanding of the global film network's structure and dynamics, while concurrently highlighting promising pathways for future investment and collaborative initiatives. The research underscores the critical role of leveraging social network analysis methodologies to optimize informed decision-making concerning collaborative investments, thereby paving the way for anticipatory outcomes. This study not only contributes insights but also serves as a model for investigating data-centric participation within the creative industries

A Comparative Study Based on Provincial Performance

This thesis attempts to transfer the spotlight upon the political issue about democratization in China to something else that has not been spared enough attention yet. Here it refers to the transformation of governance mode. The rather rapid industrialization and urbanization in the process of modernization in China does not aggravate the swelling of bureaucratic system to the extent that largely increases financial burden, internal disorder, and inefficiency. The maintenance of a stable and controllable government on both national and local level benefits from the transformation of governance mode from command mode to network mode

Advancing the knowledge of local health care policy through the growth machine thesis.

A disciplined-configurative case study design was carried out to explore whether a growth machine exists and shapes local healthcare policy in Louisville. A historical analysis first explored whether a growth machine existed in Louisville in the past and shaped healthcare policy. Second, a network analysis was used to identify the recent contours of the Louisville growth machine. Third, qualitative interviews were conducted with central individuals as indicated by the social network analysis to assess the degree to which local healthcare policy is shaped and driven by the growth machine. The results show that Louisville has consistently had a growth machine which has shaped the limited local healthcare politics and policy allowed by the higher levels of government. The Federal Government\u27s policy to require pluralistic boards of average consumers on public health agencies actually has detached the growth machine as the local power structure from those agencies. The growth machine has not always had consensus due to differing growth agendas as demonstrated by the construction of Southwest Hospital, the break up of the University of Louisville Hospital management consortium, and the reorganization of the Louisville Medical Center Development Corporation. Regardless the growth machine has generally been able to keep the general public out of such decisions and in vi turn find new ways to be unified in the name of growth. Local government in Louisville was and continues to be a supportive player versus dominant player in the growth machine in local healthcare politics and has not been the driver of local healthcare policy

Turkey’s New Strategic Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Somalia and Sudan

This thesis presents a detailed perspective of SSA relations with Turkey. It seeks to understand the elements that influence SSA nations' acceptance of Turkey's relationship in great detail. Initially, Turkey-SSA relations were viewed as unidirectional. The existing literature focused on Turkey's motives, interests, and foreign policy choices. SSA countries have been perceived as passive targets that solely accept relations for the sake of foreign aid. While acknowledging that SSA are impoverished nations seeking foreign aid, in this study, I explore various factors that influence SSA nations' acceptance of Turkey's relations. The first of which is historical and cultural ties. Religion and Turkey's anti-colonial history have the potential to be perceived as legitimising force and have acted as one of the soft-power pillars supporting SSA acceptance of Turkey. Moreover, SSA nations are autonomous agencies with their own foreign policy agendas other than shared history and culture. Their individual reasons for developing and maintaining a relationship vary due to differing political, security, social and economic contexts. This research employed a structured, focused comparison. The instrument utilised to collect the data important to this study was semi-structured interviews meant to assess relevant information. And, as one cannot draw definite conclusions from a single example, the study adopted multiple case study method to achieve more robust results. Somalia and Sudan were chosen as the two most prominent examples of the phenomenon under examination. Somalia and Sudan were chosen because they are the two SSA countries with whom Turkey has formed the most extensive partnerships in recent years, yet their reasons, motivations and benefits of the relationship differ. The former established its ties with Turkey reasons related Somalia's national sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity while assisting it in reestablishing its economy, political stability, and robust national army. Sudan's relationship with Turkey is personal rather than national or strategic in character due to the country’s one-man-show leadership style. Discussing SSA's political, economic, and security benefits as well as their shared historical and cultural affinities, the thesis claims that the relationship between Turkey and SSA is likely to continue for two primary reasons. Initially, both Turkey and SSA are mutually benefiting from the relationship. Second, because Somalia and Sudan lack viable alternatives to Turkish backing, it is probable that the relationship will continue. On the other hand, the thesis identified prospective impediments to the partnership, particularly the disadvantages of SSA's poor political institutions and internal challenges

Dual governance of chinese family businesses: case study of Bin Valley group

JEL: M10; D21This thesis first reviews relevant theories on governance of family businesses and investigates the development of Chinese family businesses on the whole. It adopts the research method of single-case study and Bin Valley Group, a family business, is the case of this thesis. It systematically analyzes the conflicts between family system and corporate system, relational governance, contractual governance, dual governance model of Bin Valley Group during different phases. After all these analyses, it proposes that contractual governance and relational governance should be integrated differently during different phases and further concludes that pan-familism is the best for dual governance model. Also, it puts forward the corresponding research limitaions and prospects.Esta tese investiga as teorias principais sobre governança de empresas familiares e aplica essas teorias ao desenvolvimento das empresas familiares na China. Nesta tese adotamos o método de estudo de caso único. O Grupo Bin Valley, o objeto de estudo desta tese, é analisado sobre o prisma das teorias da governança contratual e da governança relacional ao longo das fases da sua vida. Ao longo do desenvolvimento do Grupo Bin Valley assistimos a um conflito entre o sistema familiar e o sistema empresarial, assim como ao conflito entre a governança contratual e a governança relacional. Esta tese propõe que a governança contratual e a governança relacional devem ser adotadas de acordo com a etapa de desenvolvimento das empresas familiares e que a governança dualista exige o pan-familismo

Multilingual Use of Twitter: Language Choice and Language Bridges in a Social Network

Social media is international: users from different cultures and language backgrounds are generating and sharing content. But language barriers emerge in the communication landscape online. In the quest for language diversity and universal access, the vision of a cosmopolitan Internet has stumbled over the language frontier. Expatriates, minorities, diasporic communities, and language learners play an important role in forming transnational networks, creating social ties across borders. Many users of social media are multicultural and multilingual; they are mediating between language communities. In the microblogging site Twitter, information spreads across languages and countries. How are multilingual users of Twitter connecting language groups? What are the factors influencing their language choices? This research advances a step towards understanding the network structures and communication strategies that enable intercultural dialog, cross-language sharing of information, and awareness of global problems. This dissertation research aims at: (1) exploring the ways in which multilingual users of Twitter are connecting different language groups in their social network; (2) modeling how the network influences their language choices; (3) and exploring what the textual features of their posts can elicit about language choices and mediation between groups. This dissertation goes beyond survey information about multilingualism and provides a deeper understanding about the structural relations between language communities in Twitter. This research work is one of the few that apply social network analysis to the study of sociolinguistic questions on the Internet. Focusing on the social networks of multilingual users, this dissertation contributes an original classification of network types based on the patterns of connections between language groups. Also, it applies the novel idea of modeling the influence of network factors in the language choices of the user. Finally, this dissertation tests the hypothesis that the type of exchange influences language choice, and explores with a theme analysis how other textual features might elicit cross-cultural awareness. These results can inform the design of social media platforms