Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Introduction <s> This article identifies and describes the development of three parallel streams of literature about network theory and research: social network analysis, policy change and political science networks, and public management networks. Noting that these traditions have sometimes been inattentive to each other's work, the authors illustrate the similarities and differences in the underlying theoretical assumptions, types of research questions addressed, and research methods typically employed by the three traditions. The authors draw especially on the social network analysis (sociological) tradition to provide theoretical and research insights for those who focus primarily on public management networks. The article concludes with recommendations for advancing current scholarship on public management networks. <s> BIB001 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Introduction <s> This article reviews and discusses the empirical literature on interorganizational networks at the network level of analysis, or what is sometimes referred to as “whole” networks. An overview of the distinction between egocentric and network-level research is first introduced. Then, a review of the modest literature on whole networks is undertaken, along with a summary table outlining the main findings based on a thorough literature search. Finally, the authors offer a discussion concerning what future directions might be taken by researchers hoping to expand this important, but understudied, topic. <s> BIB002 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Introduction <s> This article provides an overview of the key research findings and core concepts on the topic of organizational networks. The primary focus is on goal-directed “whole” service delivery networks, which are prevalent in the public and nonprofit sectors. The findings and ideas presented are especially salient for helping public managers build, maintain, operate, and govern multiorganizational networks in ways that will enhance their effectiveness. Because research and theory on networks extend well beyond the boundaries of public management and administration, the authors draw on thinking from a number of fields, providing a broad understanding of public networks and network functioning. The article is intended to provide usable information on networks for both practitioners and students, as well as to suggest directions for future research for the many public management scholars who now study organizational networks. <s> BIB003 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Introduction <s> The raise of social networks in the last decades in various fields has called upon the need for their analysis. This phenomenon gave birth to Social Network Analysis (SNA) in the 1970s. Parallel to this quick development and the increasing need for such a methodology to analyze social networks, researchers developed a number of software for SNA. For these reasons, the authors of the present book (Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G. & Johnson, J. C.) made their practical guide about analyzing social networks available for researchers working on social media. Many details about data collection, analysis and interpretation are provided mainly by using the UCINET and NetDraw software designed for SNA. <s> BIB004
Social network analysis (SNA) refers to a method and set of tools used to analyze social structures and interactions within social structures, relational processes, and outcomes of these processes BIB004   . Over the past few decades, SNA has garnered increasing attention from researchers in public administration BIB003 . Researchers applied SNA to examine a wide array of management problems and policy issues. A number of authors reviewed the development of network scholarship in public administration and identified areas for further research (e.g., BIB001   BIB002 . A few researchers have called for the use of a mixed-methods approach to enhance the validity and reliability of network research BIB001   . Yet relatively few studies reviewed the use of specific methods for network data collection and analysis in the public administration literature. The studies show that use of quantitative approaches such as survey methods still dominates network research, and the use of qualitative approaches remains limited  . Documents, especially government documents such as emergency management plans, can serve as important guidelines for public management practices. In network research, scholars can use documents as primary data sources or supplementary data sources. In this study my aim was to examine the status and potential of using content analysis of documents in network research. Two research questions were addressed: How did researchers conduct content analysis of documents to collect network data? How can researchers better utilize documents and content analysis to contribute to existing network research? I identified 18 articles in public administration journals that had used content analysis of documents as their primary network data collection methods. Through a content analysis of the 18 articles, I found that only few researchers have tapped into new forms of documents such as social media data for network data collection. I also found that interorganizational collaborations was the main focus of these studies. In only few studies, the researchers collected longitudinal network data from documents. With regard to the content analysis process, I found that there was not sufficient information about the coding process of content analysis in existing network research. After presenting the findings, I make suggestions about conducting content analysis of documents for network research. The following section discusses the use of documents and content analysis in public administration, in general, and in network research. The data and methods section details the process of selecting the 18 articles and the analyses conducted. The last section reports the key findings and discusses the advantages and caveats of using content analysis of documents for network research.