Do board contacts matter? : an analysis of the relationship between boards of directors’ ties and the performance of Australia’s largest companies.

Boards of directors are thought to provide access to a wealth of knowledge and resources for the companies they serve, and are considered important to corporate governance. Under the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm (Wernerfelt, 1984) boards are viewed as a strategic resource available to firms. As a consequence there has been a significant research effort aimed at establishing a link between board attributes and company performance. In this thesis I explore and extend the study of interlocking directorships (Mizruchi, 1996; Scott 1991a) by examining the links between directors’ opportunity networks and firm performance. Specifically, I use resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) and social capital theory (Burt, 1980b; Coleman, 1988) as the basis for a new measure of a board’s opportunity network. I contend that both directors’ formal company ties and their social ties determine a director’s opportunity network through which they are able to access and mobilise resources for their firms. This approach is based on recent studies that suggest the measurement of interlocks at the director level, rather than at the firm level, may be a more reliable indicator of this phenomenon. This research uses publicly available data drawn from Australia’s top-105 listed companies and their directors in 1999. I employ Social Network Analysis (SNA) (Scott, 1991b) using the UCINET software to analyse the individual director’s formal and social networks. SNA is used to measure a the number of ties a director has to other directors in the top-105 company director network at both one and two degrees of separation, that is, direct ties and indirect (or ‘friend of a friend’) ties. These individual measures of director connectedness are aggregated to produce a board-level network metric for comparison with measures of a firm’s performance using multiple regression analysis. Performance is measured with accounting-based and market-based measures. Findings indicate that better-connected boards are associated with higher market-based company performance (measured by Tobin’s q). However, weaker and mostly unreliable associations were found for accounting-based performance measure ROA. Furthermore, formal (or corporate) network ties are a stronger predictor of market performance than total network ties (comprising social and corporate ties). Similarly, strong ties (connectedness at degree-1) are better predictors of performance than weak ties (connectedness at degree-2). My research makes four contributions to the literature on director interlocks. First, it extends a new way of measuring a board’s opportunity network based on the director rather than the company as the unit of interlock. Second, it establishes evidence of a relationship between market-based measures of firm performance and the connectedness of that firm’s board. Third, it establishes that director’s formal corporate ties matter more to market-based firm performance than their social ties. Fourth, it establishes that director’s strong direct ties are more important to market-based performance than weak ties. The thesis concludes with implications for research and practice, including a more speculative interpretation of these results. In particular, I raise the possibility of reverse causality – that is networked directors seek to join high-performing companies. Thus, the relationship may be a result of symbolic action by companies seeking to increase the legitimacy of their firms rather than a reflection of the social capital available to the companies. This is an important consideration worthy of future investigation.

Corrupt police networks : uncovering hidden relationship patterns, functions and roles

This article applies social network analysis techniques to a case study of police corruption in order to produce findings which will assist in corruption prevention and investigation. Police corruption is commonly studied but rarely are sophisticated tools of analyse engaged to add rigour to the field of study. This article analyses the ‘First Joke’ a systemic and long lasting corruption network in the Queensland Police Force, a state police agency in Australia. It uses the data obtained from a commission of inquiry which exposed the network and develops hypotheses as to the nature of the networks structure based on existing literature into dark networks and criminal networks. These hypotheses are tested by entering the data into UCINET and analysing the outcomes through social network analysis measures of average path distance, centrality and density. The conclusions reached show that the network has characteristics not predicted by the literature.

The application of social network analysis in the construction industry of Hong Kong

The Hong Kong construction industry is currently facing ageing problem and labour shortage. There are opportunities for employing ethnic minority construction workers to join this hazardous industry. These ethnic minority workers are prone to accidents due to communication barriers. Safety communication is playing an important role for avoiding the accidents on construction sites. However, the ethnic minority workers are not very fluent in the local language and facing safety communication problems while working with local workers. Social network analysis (SNA), being an effective tool to identify the safety communication flow on the construction site, is used to attain the measures of safety communication like centrality, density and betweenness within the ethnic minorities and local workers, and to generate sociograms that visually represent communication pattern within the effective and ineffective safety networks. The aim of this paper is to present the application of SNA for improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong. The paper provides the theoretical background of SNA approaches for the data collection and analysis using the software UCINET and NetDraw, to determine the predominant safety communication network structure and pattern of ethnic minorities on site.

El análisis de las redes sociales: una herramienta matemática aplicada a una situación educativa

En este trabajo se presenta una aplicación del Análisis de Redes Sociales (ARS) al estudio de las relaciones entre alumnos de segundo año de una Escuela Técnica. El ARS se apoya en la teoría de grafos cuyo bagaje matemático permite analizar y medir, en términos generales, propiedades de las estructuras sociales en particular la escuela. La vida escolar es una trama compleja de factores que influirían en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos, tales como: tiempo de estudio que comparten, desde cuándo se conocen entre los compañeros, la proximidad de sus domicilios, sexo, edad, entre otros. Los factores sexo y edad no son relevantes dado que el grupo bajo estudio está formado por varones alrededor de los 16 años. En este trabajo se mostrarán los resultados obtenidos por el primer factor mencionado que fueron procesados a través de los software Ucinet 6 y Netdraw.

Using social network analysis to identify key child care center staff for obesity prevention interventions: a pilot study

Introduction. Interest has grown in how systems thinking could be used in obesity prevention. Relationships between key actors, represented by social networks, are an important focus for considering intervention in systems. Method. Two long day care centers were selected in which previous obesity prevention programs had been implemented. Measures showed ways in which physical activity and dietary policy are conversations and actions transacted through social networks (interrelationships) within centers, via an eight item closed-ended social network questionnaire. Questionnaire data were collected from (17/20; response rate 85%) long day care center staff. Social network density and centrality statistics were calculated, using UCINET social network software, to examine the role of networks in obesity prevention. Results. “Degree” (influence) and “betweeness” (gatekeeper) centrality measures of staff inter-relationships about physical activity, dietary, and policy information identified key players in each center. Network density was similar and high on some relationship networks in both centers but markedly different in others, suggesting that the network tool identified unique center social dynamics. These differences could potentially be the focus of future team capacity building. Conclusion. Social network analysis is a feasible and useful method to identify existing obesity prevention networks and key personnel in long day care centers.

A cultura organizacional e a centralidade nas redes sociais: um estudo exploratório em uma empresa de serviços

O presente artigo apresenta uma pesquisa de campo sobre cultura organizacional e redes sociais que foi realizada junto a uma empresa prestadora de serviços. A questão central de pesquisa é: Como os valores da cultura organizacional se interligam as redes sociais? O objetivo foi verificar se existe a influência da cultura da organização nas características dos grupos sociais, com ênfase na centralidade. A literatura nacional e internacional evidencia que trabalhar com a centralidade significa identificar a posição em que o ator se encontra em relação às trocas e à comunicação na rede; a centralidade em uma rede traz a ideia de poder, isto é, quanto mais central é o indivíduo, mais bem posicionado ele está em relação às trocas e a comunicação como destacam Hanneman e Riddle (2005). Em relação aos procedimentos métodológicos,trata-se de um estudo exploratório de natureza quantitativo; o levantamento feito através de dois questionários elaborados por Nelson (2006) e Nelson e Vasconcelos (2007). O primeiro relativo à cultura organizacional denominado Perfil de Valores Agregados (PVA), que identifica a presença e as prioridades atribuídas dentro de uma organização quanto aos temas: Trabalho “tarefa”, Relações “sociais”, Controle “poder“ e Cognição “Pensamento”. O segundo relativo às redes formadas cujo instrumento constituiu-se da apresentação de uma lista com todos os participantes da pesquisa e foi solicitado a cada membro que informasse sobre a natureza dos contatos adjacentes a cada nome. Os campos nome e cargo já foram entregues pré-preenchidos pelos pesquisadores, os campos aprovações e número de e-mails recebidos e enviados foram preenchidos por meio de estimativa do respondente e o campo dependência foi respondido respeitando-se uma escala de 1 a 6, onde 1 representava pouca e 6 muita dependência da outra pessoa. Utilizou-se uma amostra de 58 respondentes, todos funcionários próprios da empresa prestadora de serviços. Os dados foram tratados pela técnica estatística nãoparamétrica Mann Whitney para os valores da cultura e para os dados das redes Sociais os índices foram apurados por meio do software Ucinet 6.0 de Borgatti, Everett, e Freeman (2002). Os resultados mostraram que os elementos centrais, ou seja, aqueles que têm o maior número de contatos na rede têm um maior alinhamento dos seus valores com os padrões da cultura organizacional e se concluiu que estes podem influenciar e participar na disseminação dos valores presentes na cultura organizacional. O que se pode perceber ao se analisar relação de nomes e funções dos colaboradores é que os quatro atores mais centrais da rede (centralidade) exercem funções gerenciais ou exercem algum tipo de liderança dentro da organização pesquisada; o primeiro é gerente de departamento pessoal, o segundo elemento mais central é gerente do departamento jurídico, o terceiro elemento mais central e sub-gerente operacional e trabalha diretamente com o Gerente Operacional, o quarto elemento é supervisor operacional. Os benefícios e a minimização de custos nas interações sociais caso a empresa utilize estes elementos centrais em programas de coaching ou mentoring, ou em outras ações de mudança, pode favorecer a retirada dos colaboradores da sua zona de conforto e ajudar a disseminar mais rapidamente a Missão, Visão e Valores Organizacionais.

Análise de redes em procedimentos de cooperação indireta: utilização no sistema de recomendações da Biblioteca Karl A. Boedecker

Sistemas de recomendação baseados cooperação indireta podem ser implementados em bibliotecas por meio da aplicação de conceitos e procedimentos de análise de redes. Uma medida de distância temática, inicialmente desenvolvida para variáveis dicotômicas, foi generalizada e aplicada a matrizes de co-ocorrências, permitindo o aproveitando de toda a informação disponível sobre o comportamento dos usuários com relação aos itens consultados. Como resultado formaram-se subgrupos especializados altamente coerentes, para os quais listas-base e listas personalizadas foram geradas da maneira usual. Aplicativos programáveis capazes de manipularem matrizes, como o software S-plus, foram utilizados para os cálculos (com vantagens sobre o software especializado UCINET 5.0), sendo suficientes para o processamento de grupos temáticos de até 10.000 usuários.

Links hipertextuais na comunicação científica: análise webométrica dos sítios acadêmicos latino-americanos em ciências sociais

VANTI, Nadia. Links hipertextuais na comunicação científica: análise webométrica dos sítios acadêmicos latino-americanos em Ciências Sociais. Porto Alegre, 2007. 292 f. Tese (Doutorado em Comunicação e Informação) – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre, 2007.

Proposta de uma abordagem para análise dos relacionamentos na rede da FEB/UNESP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Aportes bibliométricos à produção científica nos principais periódicos da área de Ciência da Informação no Brasil, no período de 2006-2010

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Proposta de uma abordagem para análise dos relacionamentos em uma rede de ensino: a Faculdade de Agudos/SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo da produção científica dos docentes de pósgraduação em Fonoaudiologia, no Brasil, para uma análise do domínio

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Scientific collaboration network among Brazilian universities: an analysis in Dentistry area

This paper analyses the scientific collaboration network formed by the Brazilian universities that investigate in dentistry area. The constructed network is based on the published documents in the Scopus (Elsevier) database covering a period of 10 (ten) years. It is used social network analysis as the best methodological approach to visualize the capacity for collaboration, dissemination and transmission of new knowledge among universities. Cohesion and density of the collaboration network is analyzed, as well as the centrality of the universities as key-actors and the occurrence of subgroups within the network. Data were analyzed using the software UCINET and NetDraw. The number of documents published by each university was used as an indicator of its scientific production.

Investigadores de mayor visibilidad en Organización y Representación del Conocimiento: un estudio desde el análisis de cocitaciones

The most visible researchers in Knowledge Organization and Representation were identified, from the perspective of Brazilian researchers, based on cocitations from the papers presented in the last five meetings of the Encontros Nacionais de Pesquisa of the Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós- Graduação em Ciência da Informação (ENANCIBs) from 2003 to 2008. First, the total number of references was identified, a total of 134 articles. Second, a citation analysis was conducted, being considered the most cited authors those who received 12 citations or more, which resulted in 31 most cited authors. Third, the Pajek software was used for the construction of the co-citation network and, thereafter, some indicators were calculated with the Ucinet software, which describe the structure and cohesion of the generated network, and, particularly, its density, and its degree of centrality, betweenness and proximity. The high cohesion of the network and the compliance between the most co-cited authors and the calculated indicators were verified.