Do People Who Identify as Popular Become Popular in a New Network? A 9-Month Longitudinal Network Analysis

Although scholars have argued that people actively shape and reshape their social networks (e.g., Parks, 2016), this aspect of relational development has received little attention. This study sought to determine if people’s self-perceptions of interpersonal communication skills translated into behavior that led to relationship formation in a new network. A 9-month longitudinal social network analysis (N = 94) of the residents of a first-year university residence hall using Facebook tie data was conducted to assess network changes. Results indicate that both self-perceived network centrality in a hypothetical friendship sociogram (Smith & Fink, 2015) and self-reported connector scores (Boster et al., 2011) are good longitudinal predictors of relationship development. Those who began by self-identifying as central, became central

Relational event models for longitudinal network data with an application to interhospital patient transfers

The main objective of this paper is to introduce and illustrate relational event models, a new class of statistical models for the analysis of time-stamped data with complex temporal and relational dependencies. We outline the main differences between recently proposed relational event models and more conventional network models based on the graph-theoretic formalism typically adopted in empirical studies of social networks. Our main contribution involves the definition and implementation of a marked point process extension of currently available models. According to this approach, the sequence of events of interest is decomposed into two components: (a) event time, and (b) event destination. This decomposition transforms the problem of selection of event destination in relational event models into a conditional multinomial logistic regression problem. The main advantages of this formulation are the possibility of controlling for the effect of event-specific data and a significant reduction in the estimation time of currently available relational event models. We demonstrate the empirical value of the model in an analysis of interhospital patient transfer within a regional community of health care organizations. We conclude with a discussion of how the models we presented help to overcome some the limitations of statistical models for networks that are currently available

Do People Who Identify as Popular Become Popular in a New Network? A 9-Month Longitudinal Network Analysis

Although scholars have argued that people actively shape and reshape their social networks (e.g., Parks, 2016), this aspect of relational development has received little attention. This study sought to determine if people’s self-perceptions of interpersonal communication skills translated into behavior that led to relationship formation in a new network. A 9-month longitudinal social network analysis (N = 94) of the residents of a first-year university residence hall using Facebook tie data was conducted to assess network changes. Results indicate that both self-perceived network centrality in a hypothetical friendship sociogram (Smith & Fink, 2015) and self-reported connector scores (Boster et al., 2011) are good longitudinal predictors of relationship development. Those who began by self-identifying as central, became central

The classroom as context for bullying:a social network approach

School bullying is a complex social problem as it involves the characteristics of the perpetrator, the target, and the social context. Recognizing that bullying is relational―who bullies whom, this dissertation uses a social network perspective to study the impact of classroom characteristics on bullying and defending relationships, focusing on classroom structure and stability, and on social relations and social norms. Based on data from Dutch elementary school students, the findings from four different studies show that the examined classroom characteristics have a small impact on the formation of victim-bully as well as victim-defender relationships. No evidence was found that younger children are more likely to be victimized by older classmates, either in multigrade or single-grade classrooms. Bullying relationships were found to develop most easily between children in the same grade, more so in stable classrooms than in classrooms with changing classroom composition, with no clear evidence that newcomers are more at risk of becoming victimized. The finding that bullies tend to become friends and bullies influence their friends to bully, provided further evidence for group processes in bully-victim networks. Examining the relationships between victims and their defenders, it was found that regardless of the number of bullies in the classroom, defending is primarily driven by the direct positive relationship between victim and defender, and to a lesser extent by the shared relationships with other classmates. This dissertation provided more insights in the dynamics of network relationships and school bullying

Middle manager’s innovative work behavior and their social network position:A search on slippery ice

Central to this dissertation is the question why some middle managers are more innovative than others. This question has been examined from three related perspectives. A primary role of middle managers consists of analyzing, processing and passing on information. Middle managers maintain intensive contacts with, among others, other middle managers. Therefore it has been investigated how the structure of a social network facilitates or limits innovative behavior. Secondly, it was investigated to what extent individual characteristics influence innovative behavior. Individual characteristics determine how a middle manager deals with opportunities and restraints. The third factor focuses on the complexity of modern organizations. Middle managers often operate in organizations with multiple locations that are at a certain distance from the head office and in complex partnerships such as franchising or joint ventures. Such complex structures influence the autonomy and thus possibly the innovative behavior of middle managers. Three empirical studies have been carried out: Students of a business school, an international company with a complex organizational structure and multiple locations, and the administration of a municipality in Mexico City. In addition, a simulation study was carried out to determine an optimal strategy for dealing with missing data in the network analyses carried out. The results suggest that innovative behavior of middle managers is likely to be influenced by individual differences in personality and goal orientation. Potential influences of network position were not found. Influence of organizational factors related to autonomy could not be identified

Bridging the Gaps: Connecting Research Streams in Organizational Network Research

Apart from an introduction and conclusion, the present dissertation consists of four chapters in the form of three research papers and one essay. Each of these chapters revolves around organizational networks and attempts to bring research streams together that deal with the same – or similar – phenomena, yet are largely disjunct. In that sense, each chapter is attempting to bridge gaps. The first of these chapters investigates partner selection in business ecosystems and brings together the ecosystem and network literature. Second is an essay which introduces four new effects to a popular method for analyzing network dynamics, bringing together management science and mathematics. Third is a research paper analyzing the interdependence between corporate strategic actions and board interlock networks, bringing together the antecedents and outcomes of the latter. And finally, the fourth of these chapters brings together director- and firm-level research on board interlock networks by estimating the formation of such a network when introducing both levels into a stochastic model. The dissertation advances our understanding of organizational networks and the methods we can use to learn about them

Assessing and accounting for time heterogeneity in stochastic actor oriented models

Stochastic actor oriented models, Longitudinal analysis of network data, Time heterogeneity, Score-type test, 62M02,

PARTICIPATION IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN SUPPORTING LEARNING AND COLLECTIVE ACTION

Climate change is a complex problem affecting the world in different ways and posing challenges at varying governance levels. It is widely acknowledged that broad stakeholder participation is needed to adapt to increasing climate impacts. However, interactions between stakeholders are complex and not enough is known about the social processes that support stakeholder participation or how to measure its effectiveness. The main goal of this dissertation is to increase the understanding of stakeholder participation in addressing climate change problems. Using the State of Maryland (USA) as a case study, I (1) evaluate the magnitude of climate change impacts and map the stakeholder landscape in this region, and (2) I focus on a local participatory process in the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, the Deal Island Peninsula Partnership (DIPP), to study how stakeholder networks facilitate learning and collective action. I found the Chesapeake Bay is experiencing severe impacts from sea-level rise, scientists and state government produce more data and indicators at larger scales, while fewer data are produced at the local level where is needed. Increasingly, participatory approaches are being employed to bridge the knowledge gap between experts, scientists, and local stakeholders. Moreover, I found that DIPP stakeholder views are predicted by their social networks of mutual understanding, respect, and influence. Finally, by modeling the co-evolution of mutual understanding ties, co-attendance, and climate change perceptions, I found that stakeholder participation enables stronger and denser social networks of mutual understanding, yet these ties do not facilitate changes in perceptions. These results suggest that fostering mutual understanding among a diverse group of stakeholders may be more relevant for collective action than changing their perceptions. This dissertation provides empirical evidence that stakeholder participation is important in climate adaptation policies and contributes to the development of measures for stakeholder participation effectiveness

A Longitudinal Investigation of Leader Development and Leadership Emergence

Although it requires time to develop and emerge as leaders, there is a shortage of longitudinal research on these topics. Across two essays, this dissertation aims to address this gap in the literature. Essay 1 examines the nature and degree of leader self-view development during formal leadership training. Drawing upon theories of leader development, it is suggested that as individuals acquire new leadership skills and knowledge, their leader efficacy and identity will develop. Testing competing predictions between developmental readiness (i.e., openness to change) and developmental necessity (i.e., room to change) perspectives, Essay 1 further examines whether learning goal orientation and motivation to lead predict how much and in what ways trainees developed in their leader self-views. Cadets (N = 240) participating in a leadership development course self-reported their leader self-views throughout the program. Using latent growth models, results provide evidence that individuals’ leader efficacy and identity developed–although differently–during leadership training. Moreover, results highlight the need to consider the developmental necessity perspective when allocating leadership development opportunities. Essay 2 examines the dynamic co-occurrence of leadership and trust over time. Drawing upon social exchange theory and models of social entrainment, it is suggested that trust can facilitate the emergence of informal leadership and informal leadership can facilitate the development of trust over time. Cadets (N = 123) participating in a leadership development course provided peer ratings of trust and leadership over time. Using stochastic actor-oriented models, results provide support that, over time, individuals initially perceived as trustworthy emerge as leaders and individuals initially perceived as leaders are trusted. Moreover, being trusting of others can facilitate one’s own leadership emergence over time. Overall, results across these two essays shed light on the longitudinal processes that affect how leaders develop and emerge

Processes of Peer Selection and Influence in Adolescents' Academic Achievement

In this dissertation study, I focused on changes in peer affiliations within a grade-based network and students' academic achievement, as measured through curricular grades from 7th to 9th grade. Specifically, my intent was to assess the independent roles of selection and influence on both peer affiliations within the network and grades over time. This study was unique in that I explore the processes of peer selection and influence independently of each other within a statistical modeling framework, stochastic actor modeling, which considers changes in network affiliations as well as changes in individuals' behaviors simultaneously. Stochastic actor modelling using Siena was implemented to examine the following research questions: 1) What is the nature of changes to adolescents' affiliative patterns within the grade-level peer network? 2) To what extent and in what ways do network structural characteristics; (i.e., density, reciprocity, transitivity, and hierarchy), influence affiliative patterns? 3) To what extent and in what ways do individual characteristics derived from network analysis and individual demographic characteristics change the network? 4) To what extent and in what ways do selection and influence account for the co-evolution of changes to peer affiliations within the network and academic achievement? 5) To what extent and in what ways do individual characteristics derived from network analyses and demographic characteristics of adolescents influence academic achievement? 6) To what extent and in what ways do these individual demographic moderate the relationships between peer selection and peer influence, and academic achievement? This study used four waves of data on peer affiliations and academic achievement from the Processes of Peer Influence Study (Golonka et al., 2007), collected from 2002 to 2007, in a magnet school in an urban district in North Carolina. Overall, the results revealed that, 1) processes of peer selection, not influence, were important to understanding academic achievement and 2) different patterns of peer selection occur for African American and European American students. Implications for understanding adolescent peer networks and academic achievement were discussed.Doctor of Philosoph