Social!Network!Analysis!

The! relational! nature! of! the! collected! data! calls! for! the! inclusion! of! network! analytic! methodology! and! social! network! analysis! (SNA)! into! the! data! analysis! methods.!The!gathered!data!regarding!perceived!status,!centrality!and!perceived! trustworthiness!are!relational,!derived!from!the!social!networks.!SNA!tools!must! be! applied! to! analyse! the! collected! data! and! measure! these! constructs! so! that! they! can! be! further! used! in! the! statistical! analysis.! Furthermore,! SNA! can! also! offer! supplementary! analysis! to! reassure! the! significance! of! the! statistical! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11 _{PROCESS does not provide effect size for multiple mediation models, which include covariates. It}

analysis.!Prior!to!discussing!the!application!of!SNA!in!this!study,!it!is!important! to!review!its!theoretical!backgrounds,!historical!development,!and!implications! in!different!disciplines.!This!review!sheds!light!on!how!social!network!analysis! was!initiated!and!expanded!from!psychology!into!business!literature.!

4.6.2.1 Introduction!

Social! network! analysis! is! an! approach! for! studying! social! relations! and! their! structure.! This! approach! comprises! of! theoretical! concepts,! methods! and! techniques! to! unravel! the! social! relations! between! individuals! or! groups,! structure! of! the! relations,! and! their! influence! on! social! behaviour,! beliefs! and! knowledge! (see,! e.g.! Scott! and! Carrington! 2011,! Wasserman! and! Faust! 1994).! Basically!SNA!consists!of!theories,!models!and!applications!that!are!expressed!in! terms! of! relational! concepts! or! processes.! It! is! based! on! assumption! of! the! importance! of! relationships! among! interacting! actors! (Wasserman! and! Faust! 1994).!It!aims!to!map,!measure,!and!quantify!social!ties!between!actors.!Although! SNA! is! nowadays! considered! as! a! multidisciplinary! approach,! it! has! first! developed! by! Jacob! Moreno! in! the! field! of! psychology! through! presentation! of! sociogram! (Moreno! and! Jennings! 1934).! Moreno! was! a! Gestalt! psychology! theorist! (see,! e.g.,! Wertheimer! 1938),! and! he! was! interested! on! human! social! relations! and! its! influence! on! mind! wellHbeing.! He! also! developed! sociometry! (1953),! as! a! quantitative! method! of! measuring! structure! of! groups! and! actors'! position!within!a!group.!Building!upon!Moreno,!other!social!psychology!scholars! have! expanded! the! study! of! social! networks.! Some! of! the! most! significant! theories! that! were! influenced! by! Moreno! are! as! follows,! field! theory! (Lewin! 1936,! 1951),! centrality! theory! (Bavelas! 1948,! 1950),! and! structural! balance! theory!(Cartwright!and!Harary!1956).!

Simultaneously!social!anthropologists!were!also!attracted!to!SNA!to!explain!the! social!structures.!The!most!prominent!social!anthropologists!who!contributed!to!

advancement!of!this!approach!are!RadcliffHBrown,!Warner!and!Gluckman.!In!the! late! 60s! and! early! 70s,! SNA! became! very! popular! by! the! sociology! scholars.! Homan,! Merton,! Blau! and! White! are! the! most! prominent! sociologists! who! applied! social! network! analysis! into! their! research.! Great! contributions! of! mathematicians!in!integrating!graph!theory!and!algebraic!models!into!SNA!and! developing!algorithms!and!software!to!conduct!SNA!is!undeniable.!!

Business! studies! are! the! latest! discipline! that! recognised! the! huge! potential! of! SNA! in! explaining! and! measuring! the! structural! issues! of! an! organisational! network.! In! an! MNE,! individuals! and! groups! act! based! on! their! position! in! the! organisational! network,! and! according! to! the! nature! of! their! relationship! with! their!colleagues.!In!organisational!studies,!SNA!enables!researchers!to!study!the! behavioural!patterns!of!actors!(individuals!or!subsidiaries)!within!MNE!network! in! regards! of! their! position! and! relations! as! interdependent! actors! rather! than! independent! units.! Therefore! the! number! of! research! in! business! journals! applying! SNA! is! increasing! dramatically.! In! terms! of! interHorganisational! knowledge!transfer,!SNA!applies!quantitative!methods!to!map!the!ties!between! actors,! recognise! the! central! actors,! identify! informal! exchange! ties! between! actors!and!discover!strong!and!weak!channels!of!resource!exchange.!!

4.6.2.2 UCINET!VI!

Several! social! network! analysis! software! applications! have! been! developed! in! order! for! researchers! to! address! different! issues! of! social! networks.! Each! software! has! its! unique! characteristics! and! features! and! is! suitable! for! specific! type!of!network.!Researchers!must!apply!the!most!appropriate!software!based! on!the!nature!of!collected!data,!type!and!size!of!the!network!and!the!variables! they!want!to!measure.!!

UCINET! VI! (Borgatti,! Everett,! and! Freeman! 2002)! is! one! of! the! most! popular! software! for! a! complete! network! research.! UCINET! has! been! developed! by!

Borgatti,! Everett! and! Freeman! (1992)! and! has! been! used! as! the! most! reliable! software! for! social! network! analysis.! Its! popularity! within! the! field! of! social! network! analysis! has! grown! lately! versus! other! software! applications! such! as! Pajek! or! Siena.! This! software! includes! strong! matrix! analysis! routines! (Hanneman!and!Riddle!2005)!such!as!matrix!algebra!and!it!supports!both!binary! and!valued!matrices.!It!also!includes!the!NetDraw!programme!for!visualisation!of! the! social! networks.! UCINET! VI! is! a! matrixHoriented! programme! and! data! are! stored! and! entered! in! matrix! format! (Wasserman! and! Faust! 1994,! Carrington,! Scott!and!Wasserman!2005),!however!nonHrelational!data!can!be!also!analysed! by! this! programme.! Furthermore,! UCINET! VI! includes! powerful! routines! in! analysing! and! measuring! different! social! network! concepts! such! as! centrality! (degree,! eigenvector,! betweenness,! etc.),! identifying! cohesive! subgroups! and! clusters! and! cliques,! analysing! structural! holes! as! well! as! structural! redundancies!within!social!networks!(Scott!and!Carrington!2011).!This!software! also! works! perfectly! with! all! standard! text! processing! programmes! as! well! as! Microsoft!Excel!for!importing!and!exporting!data.!!

The!unique!characteristics!of!UCINET!have!led!to!its!growing!popularity!amongst! social! network! analysis! scholars.! This! study! requires! social! network! analysis! methods! in! two! stages.! First,! the! adjacency! matrices! that! are! derived! from! the! collected! relational! data! must! be! analysed,! and! three! constructs! of! status,! centrality!and!trustworthiness!must!be!measured!using!social!network!analysis! techniques.! Overall,! UCINET! VI! stands! out! as! the! most! fitting! social! network! analysis!software!that!can!be!used!in!study.!In!this!study!I!use!distanceHweighted! betweenness! centrality! procedure! for! measuring! the! structural! dimension! of! social!capital,!degree!centrality!of!the!trustworthiness!matrix!for!quantifying!the! relational!dimension!of!social!capital.12_!

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