cristofoli public networks say americans, public networks reply europeans but are they talking about...
TRANSCRIPT
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“Public networks” say Americans, “public networks” reply Europeans, but
are they talking about the same issue?
Daniela Cristofoli
Assistant Professor in Public Management
University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
e-mail [email protected]
Myrna Mandell
Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles, US
Adjunct Faculty, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
Marco Meneguzzo
Full Professor in Public Management
University of Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy
University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
e-mail: [email protected]
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“Public networks” say Americans, “public networks” reply Europeans, but
are they talking about the same issue?
Since the end of the Seventies, public networks have been implemented in many
countries to solve “wicked” public problems, addressing such issues as health, social care,
local development and education (Agranoff & McGuire, 1998; Ferlie & Pettigrew, 1996;
Ferlie et al. 2011; O’Toole, 1997; Milward & Provan, 2003; Provan & Milward, 1995, 2001;
Provan & Sebastian, 1998).
Accordingly, scholars from Scandinavian to Italy and from Australia to the US have
started to investigate the topic, and the literature on public networks have tremendously
grown up.
Despite the “global” nature of the phenomenon, some doubts raise about the existence of
a “global” community of public network scholars. In a tentative to systematize the literature
on governance and governance network, Klijn (2008) shed lights on similarities and
differences between the American and the European approach at public networks, and invite
researchers to search from greater levels of integration in the future.
Our paper aims at empirically exploring the existence of different geographical/“Country-
based” communities of public network scholars, investigating their similarities and
differences, and analyzing their evolution over time.
For these purposes we conducted a content analysis on the abstracts of the articles
published on 10 leading public administration/public management academic journals since the
end of the Seventies, and correlated some of their characteristics (theoretical framework, main
topics and research methods) with the authors’ Country of origin. 160 articles were
considered and data were analyzed through the usual statistical correlation tests.
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Results seem to suggest the existence of at least two public network scholar communities
in the world, more managerial-oriented and “American” the former and more governance-
oriented and “European” the latter. More specifically, whereas the community of American
scholars (Agranoff, 1986, 2006; Agranoff & McGuire 1998, 2001; Huang & Provan, 2007a,
2007b; Isett & Provan, 2005; Mandell, 1994; Mandell & Keast, 2008; McGuire, 2002;
McGuire & Agranoff, 2011; Meyer & O’Toole, 2001, 2003, 2010; Milward & Provan 1995,
1998a, 1998b, 2003; Milward et al. 2010; O’Toole 1995, 1996; O’Toole & Meyer 1999,
2004a, 204b 2006; Provan & Milward 1991, 1995, 2001; Provan & Sebastian, 1998; Provan
et al.. 2005; Provan et al. 2009) seem to prefer taking a managerial approach at service-
delivery networks, investigate how to make them really work and use quantitative research
methods, the European scholars (Borzel, 2011; Ferlie et al, 2011; Kickert et al. 1997; Klijn,
2008; Klijn & Koopenjan, 2000, 2006; Klijn & Sckelcher, 2007; Klijn et al. 2010; Koopenjan
& Klijn, 2004; Raab, 2003; Skelcher, 2005; 2010; Toke, 2010; Toke & Marsh, 2003; Voets,
2008) seem to prefer taking a governance approach at policy networks, investigating their
formation and governance rules and using qualitative research methods. Nevertheless, in the
last years, as auspicated by Klijn (2008), a convergence seems to be identifiable between the
two communities.
The final section of our paper discusses these results and suggests some instruments to
foster the dialogue and build a bridge between the existent public network academic
communities.
The development of literature on inter-organizational relations and networks
The study of networks is an outgrowth of the study of interorganizational relations. The
study of interorganizational relations began in the 1960s. As organizations grew more
complex, the problems facing managers could no longer be easily answered by looking only
at variables from the intraorganizational level of analysis. Instead, investigators began to look
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for answers outside the boundaries of the organization. The study of interorganizational
relations therefore began with the relationship of the organization to its environment (Aiken
& Hage, 1968; Emery & Trist, 1965; Thompson, 1967).
The literature on interorganizational relations, in America, developed based on two
separate, but complementary trains of thought. One was based on the study of organizations
by sociologists. The other was based on the studies of organizations from a management
perspective.
The study of interorganizational relations by sociologists was related to the concern of the
government, in the 1960’s, to achieve better “coordination” among various health and social
service agencies. It was believed that better coordination was needed between these agencies
in order to improve the delivery of services. The problem for the government was to devise
new ways for organizations to behave in order to carry out this coordination. The environment
of these agencies was viewed as a constraint and sociologists looked at the problems of
manipulating variables within the structure of the individual organizations (Zeitz, 1980).
One of the central problems for researchers in these studies, however, was to be able to
determine which the “relevant” portions of the environment were. Certainly an organization
had to learn to deal with other organizations and to manage the resulting interdependencies.
The question was how to determine which were the “relevant” organizations within the total
environment. The work of Evan (1966) on the “organization set” was the first attempt to
provide a conceptual framework in which the boundaries of relationships could be
determined.
Just as the concept of the “organization set” was constructed by Evan (1966) to provide a
framework for viewing the interaction of sets of organizations, the “interorganizational
network” was developed to provide a framework in which to view the interactions of a
network of organizations. As interactions between organizations became more and more
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complex, the use of the concept of the “organization set” for studying these interactions
became less useful. The concept of the interorganizational network was developed to try to
broaden the spectrum within which these interactions could be understood.
Tichy (1984) points out that the study of networks is not new and has its roots in
anthropology, social psychology, and sociology. Studies by sociologists, for example, include
viewing cities and whole communities as networks (Laumann, et al, 1978; Perucci & Pilsuk,
1970; Turk, 1970, 1973, 1977; Warren, 1973; Warren, et al, 1974). In addition, in the
literature on intraorganizational theory, the idea of networks in terms of social network
analysis (Tichy, et al, 1979) and communication patterns in organizations (Rogers &
Argawala-Rogers, 1976) has been explored. The application of this concept to the study of
interorganizational relations, however, was a relatively new phenomenon (Aldrich &
Whetten, 1981; Provan, 1983; Zeitz, 1980).
The study of interorganizational relations from the management tradition was centered on
the practical concerns of managers in operating their businesses. The increasing complexities
of the environment forced managers to consider the effects of the environment in a more
systematic manner. This work looked at which aspects of the environment could be
manipulated or controlled to achieve their management objectives (Zald, 1966).
The focus was therefore on practical problems of managing within a “turbulent
environment”. The concern, however, was not in understanding the underlying social
structure of which businesses were a part, but rather on discovering “what aspects of the
environment could be better predicted and controlled in order to achieve management
objectives, whatever those objectives might be” (Zeitz, 1980, p. 42).
From these initial beginnings of interorganizational relations, however, the importance of
interorganizational networks as a field of study grew (Aldirch, 1977, 1979; Aldrich &
Whetten, 1981).
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In the early literature, Aldrich (1979) indicated that an interorganizational network “is
identified by tracking down all of the ties binding organizations in a population defined and
explicitly bounded by an investigator” (Aldrich, 1979, p.324). The problem for researchers
has been to define the boundaries of the interorganizational network. This problem can be
seen in the number of definitions used in the literature. The interorganizational network has
been defined as:
All organizations linked by a specific type of relation. The network is
constructed by finding the ties between all organizations in a population (Aldrich,
1979, p. 324);
All of the groups and organizations, as well as the consumers, (who usually
are not organized into either groups or organizations, one of the basic reasons why
their interest remain unrepresented), associated with a particular production system
designed to service some client or customer (Hage, 1973, p. 18);
A context in which interaction takes place, and it may affect the nature and
intensity of relations between organizations (Molnar & Rogers, 1979, p. 414);
Consists of a number of distinguishable organizations having a significant
amount of interaction with each other (Benson, 1979, p. 230).
In addition to being able to define networks, a number of other considerations have
delineated the early work on networks. The early work of Warren (1967) on the
interorganizational field emphasizes the characteristics or patterns of networks as a whole. An
interorganizational field is the population of all organizations with the same functional
interests. The importance of this concept of the interorganizational field is the notion that
decision-making within this context is “allowed to form out of the interaction of various
organizations” (Warren, 1967, p. 411). The focus is on the structure of the interaction of
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actors, rather than on the constraints of the boundaries of the interorganizational network. The
concept of the interorganizational field thus points to the centrality of the interaction
processes within the interorganizational network. Further, it allows us to look at the total
structure of interorganizational linkages.
In the work of Hanf et al (1978) and Porter (1980) on “implementation structures” (i.e.,
interorganizational networks) they found that there were a number of arrangements possible.
Their structures are constantly changing and do not necessarily have to be hierarchically
arranged. Finally, networks include an array of actors (both organizational and individual)
with a variety of goals and objectives.
This early work led to a number of studies that focused on various aspects of networks
(Agranoff, 1986; Gray, 1989; Hanf & Scharpf, 1978; Kickert et al, 1997; Mandell, 1988,
1994). These studies led to a revised definition by O’Toole (1997). He defined networks as:
…structures of interdependence involving multiple organizations or parts
thereof, where one unit is not merely the formal subordinate of the others in
some larger hierarchical arrangement (p.45).
This definition has been adapted by most researchers as what is meant today by networks.
Many of the early works on interorganizational networks (Aldrich, 1979; Aldrich &
Whetten, 1981; Negandhi, 1980; Nystrom & Starbuck, 1984; Wright, 1983) focused on
studies of interorganizational relations from the perspective of a particular organization rather
than on a network of organizations. One notable exception was a study done by Stern (1979)
on intercollegiate athletics. This was one of the earliest studies that focused on a network of
organizations. The emphasis, however, is from a private sector perspective. A number of such
early studies focus on arrangements between organizations that are generally competitive in
nature, but recognize the need for collaboration. Pennings (1981) refers to these organizations
as strategically interdependent organizations. Another area of concern in the private sector is
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what Horwich & Prahalad (1981) refer to as multi-organizational enterprises. They see this as
an emerging form of collaboration between private and public sector organizations1.
The early literature on interorganizational relations and specifically interorganizational
networks in the public sector has been extensive. These arrangements have been referred to in
a number of different ways:
Interorganizational systems (Milward, 1982);
Mandated networks (Porter & Warner, 1979);
Implementation structures (Hjern & Porter, 1981; Porter, 1985; Porter &
Warner, 1979);
Management networks (Wright, 1983);
Directed interorganizational systems (Lawless, 1981);
Federations (Provan, 1983).
The emphasis on interorganizational networks in the public sector grows out of the need
to better understand the complexities involved in managing intergovernmental relations. The
importance of understanding how managing in networks is different from managing within
individual organizations was made clear initially by the work of Agranoff & McGuire (2001)
on network management.
Over the years, they and many other researchers from US to Europe and from Europe to
Australia (Agranoff, 2003, 2006; Agranoff & McGuire, 2001, 2003; Huxham, 2000; Huxham
& Vangen, 1996; Innes & Booher, 2010; Keast, 2004; Keast, et al, 2004; Koppenjan & Klijn,
2004; O’Leary et al,, 2006; Mandell, 2001, 2008; Provan & Milward, 1995, 2001) have
1 It should be noted that these types of arrangements are seen as distinct from public‐private partnerships
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emphasized the importance of understanding how management in networks needs to be
differentiated from management in single organization.
In spite of a plethora of literature on networks, on a variety of topics, it is not clear if there
is a single theory of networks or many theories, or if networks are just a metaphor for the
different ways we work together. This paper is therefore meant to begin the dialogue of what
we really mean by networks.
Network approaches around the world: so close, so far
Little by little that studies on public networks grew up, many authors have started to
claim that the conceptual frameworks, the key terms and the methods employed in the public
network literature created a “complex and confusing picture” (Berry et al. 2004). In the
tentative to wind a skein into a ball, then, during the last years, some authors have started to
systematize the existent literature, thus shedding light on similarities and differences among
communities of researchers.
In 2004 Berry at al. proposed to identify three communities of network researchers,
characterized by a different theoretical background (i.e., sociology, political science and
public administration/public management), and their own assumptions about human
motivation, their own principal research questions and their own research methods. The first
community, focused on “social network analysis”, is grounded in the sociological tradition
and more specifically in the sociometric studies rooted in Gestalt psychology (Moreno,
(1934), in the Manchester anthropologists (Mitchell and Clyde, 1969; Nadel, 1957), and in the
Harvard structuralists (Dahl, 1961; Dahrendorf, 1959; Grannovetter, 1973, 1974, 1985).
According to this approach, “structure matters” as predictors of various micro or macro
outcomes. In this perspective, some of the most investigated topics deal with the
consequences of network structure on attitude similarity, job satisfaction, individual power,
leadership (at micro-level), and board interlock, joint-ventures, alliances and shared
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knowledge (at macro-level). The employed methods range from case study to quantitative
approaches, as block modeling analysis, Euclidean distance analysis, regression analysis and
dynamic-network modeling. The second community, Berry et al. (2004) identified, labeled
“policy network” community, is rooted in the political science field, and more specifically in
studies concerning policy innovation (Berry & Berry, 1990; Mintrom, 2000; Walker, 1969),
policy change and agenda setting (Dahl, 1961; Kingdom, 1984; Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith,
1999), and new institutional economics (North, 1990; O’Toole, 1997; Schneider et al 2003;
Williamson, 1975, 1982). Coherently with this theoretical background, studies in the policy
network tradition focused above all on how policy actors achieve desired policies, and how
their roles within the network influence the policy outcomes. Method employed range from
case study to regression analysis, to time series and event history analysis. The third
community, “public management network” community (in the Berry et al. (2004) parlance), is
rooted in the public administration and public management field. The main aim of studies in
this tradition is to understand (1) whether networks exist and how they function (Mandell
1988), (2) how the network managers can successfully manage them and what competences
and skills are necessary for this purpose (Agranoff & McGuire 2001; Gage & Mandell, 1990)
and (3) what impact networks have on service delivery and clients satisfaction (Agranoff &
McGuire, 2003; Provan & Milward 1995). Research methods are above all based on multiple
and comparative case study, social network analysis and regression analysis.
At the end of their article, Berry et al. (2004) also showed how the managerial community
is the youngest of the three communities, developed firstly in the US, where scholars
produced a wide variety of articles and books focusing on managing networks (Agranoff &
McGuire, 1998; O’Toole, 1997; Provan & Milward, 1991, 1995, 2001), and later in Europe,
where “a parallel literature developed” (Kickert et al. 997; Marsh & Rhodes, 1992).
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Some years later, in one of the first tentative to conceptualize the “governance and
governance network” approach in Europe, Klijn (2008) came back to those differences in the
public network literature (in terms of what is studied, the used theoretical assumptions and the
employed methods) and explicitly related them at the authors’ Country of origin, thus
implicitly arguing the existence of two geographical/Country-based communities of network
scholars, “American” the former and “European” the latter.
More specifically, first, Klijn (2008) proposed three different theoretical approaches at the
study of public networks. The first deals with research on policy networks and is rooted in the
British political science tradition (we will label it “British policy networks approach”). It
draws back to the works of Rhodes (1988), Marsh & Rhodes (1992), Marsh (1998) on the
policy outcomes of different policy networks. This approach conceives networks as a pattern
of formal or informal ties linking government and interest groups (politicians, public servants,
ministries, municipalities, interest organization, etc.) and focuses on the actors participating in
policy networks and having the power to influence the policy agenda and the decision-making
process. The second approach concerns research on interorganizational service delivery and
policy implementation networks (“service delivery and implementation tradition”, in the Klijn
parlance) (Agranoff, 1998; Mandell, 1994; Provan & Milward, 1995). It draws back to the
organizational science tradition (Rogers & Whetten, 1982) and views network as instruments
to deliver services. It is focused on how to construct and coordinate the activity of different
network partners in order to ensure the service production. The third approach is based on
research on governing networks (“governance network”, as Klijn labeled it) (Kickert, 1997;
Klijn & Koopenjan, 2000), and is rooted in the public administration tradition and in the
research on inter-organizational decision-making (Hanf & Scharpf, 1978). It focuses on the
complexity of the decision-making to achieve policy outcomes and aims at reconstructing and
improving the network functioning and governance. All the three approaches used qualitative
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(case study) and quantitative (social network analysis and survey) methods, even if it is easier
to find quantitative researches in the service delivery tradition and qualitative ones in the
policy network or governance traditions.
Secondly, later in his article, Klijn (2008) explicitly linked these theoretical traditions at
what he calls the American and the European approach at network studies. Whereas, in fact,
the policy network tradition crosses over the two scholars’ communities, he argued (2008),
the service delivery and implementation tradition is typical of the American approach, more
focused on the problems of how to ensure the effectiveness of the service-delivery, and the
governance network tradition is more proper of the European approach, more interested in the
complexity of public decision-making and in the effective policy network governance. Klijn
(2008) also suggested a different methodological approach in the two scholar communities:
Americans normally employ greater use of quantitative methods (in the classical forms of
regression analysis or social network analysis), whereas Europeans almost exclusively relies
on case studies and discourse analysis.
On top of it, other authors shed light on some regional differences in the network
literature, thus arguing the existence of “subregional” communities of network researchers.
Pedersen (2010) spoke of a Danish policy network approach, Taylor (1992) shed light on the
differences between the German and the British approach at policy networks and Klijn (2008)
also spoke of some differences in the network community between the South and the North of
Europe.
Method
The aim of our paper is to empirically investigate the existence of different
geographical/“Country-based” communities of public network scholars, explore their
similarities and differences, and analyze their evolution over time.
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For this purpose we conducted a content analysis on the abstracts of the articles published
from 1979 to 2011 in 10 leading public administration/public management journals, and
analyzed either the existence of a correlation between certain article characteristics
(theoretical framework, main topics and research methods) and the authors’ Country of origin,
either the evolution of such article characteristics over time (1979-2011).
More specifically, starting from the 1979 Stern’s article on public networks, we designed
a three-step procedure to analyze the existing literature on public networks.
The first step concerned the data/article collection. First, we considered all the public
administration/public management journals included in ISI, and then selected the top five
American journals and the top five European journals (Table 1). As far as American journals
are concerned, we took into consideration the five highly ranked journals according to their
impact factors: American Review of Public Administration (ARPA); Journal of Policy
Analysis and Management (JPAM), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
(JPART), Public Administration (PA), Public Administration Review (PAR). As far as the
European journals are concerned, we considered Governance (GOV), Local Government
Studies (LGS), Public Money and Management (PMM), Public Management Review (PMR)
and the recently admitted in ISI International Public Management Journal (IPMJ) (as younger
than the American journals, in fact, only four European journals have received an impact
factor in 2011) (Table 1). We chose to consider five American and five European journals in
order to avoid biases in the article selection, due to the fact that it could be easier for
American scholars to publish on American journals (and for European scholars to publish on
European journals). Secondly, we collected all the articles published from 1979 to 2011 in the
ten journals, containing the word “public networks” in their abstract. We chose 1979 as
starting point as, as previously showed, we assumed the work published by Stern (1979),
“The development of an interorganizational control network: The case of intercollegiate
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athletics”, on Administrative Science Quarterly as the first article using the word “network”.
384 articles were then collected (Table 1); the titles and abstracts of those articles were
quickly screened in order to be sure they dealt with “public networks”: 224 articles were then
dropped. First we considered only articles, research notes, responses and rejoinders, whereas
book reviews were excluded, as were letters to the editor. Secondly, we eliminated all the
articles generically referring to network as link among people or organizations, and using the
word network to indicate the infrastructure in the utility industry, etc. etc. At the end, 160
articles were retrieved and included in our data base (Table 1).
Insert Table 1 about here
The second step concerned the data reduction. By reading the abstracts of the retrieved
articles, we systematically copied and pasted sentences referring to their theoretical
background, their research questions and their research methods. When those information
were not available on the abstract, we considered the article full text. Then, by comparing the
collected data and considering the existent literature, we could identify some umbrella
concepts dealing with the theoretical framework, the main topics and the methods of public
network research (Table 2). The 160 articles were then coded according to those categories.
Following Klijn (2008), we identified three categories to code the article theoretical
background; we labeled them: policy network approach (Marsh, 1998; Marsh & Rhodes,
1992; Rhodes, 1988); public management network approach (to recall McGuire & Agranoff,
2010) and governance network approach (Klijn, 2008). The article main topics were also
coded depending on the fact that the articles dealt with the network establishment (in terms of
network formation and characteristics), the network functioning (in terms of network
management and governance) or the network performance (in terms of network effectiveness
for the clients of the provided services or in terms of policy outcome). The research methods
were categorized into qualitative or quantitative depending on the fact studies employ
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qualitative data analysis procedures (Miles & Huberman, 1994), or quantitative data analysis
techniques (eg. social network analysis, regression models, etc.). According to this approach,
works using a case study research design, but then collecting data through a survey and
analyzing them through social network analysis techniques, correlation tests or regression
models (eg. Provan & Milward, 1995) were coded as quantitative. As it is usual in citation
analysis (eg. Usdiken & Pasadeos, 1995) the assignment of an article to a specific country or
geographic areas (eg. American, European, Asian, Others, etc. etc.) depends on the University
affiliation of the first author (eg. location of the home institution of the author or, in the case
of multiple authorship, on the institutional affiliation of the first author).
Insert Table 2 about here
The third step concerned the data analysis. First, we considered the characteristics of the
160 article, by simply analyzing their distribution of frequencies along our four categories
(author’s Country of origin, theoretical framework, main topics and methods); secondly, in
order to identify different communities of public network scholars, we empirically explored
the existence of a correlation between the author’s Country of origin and the other articles
characteristics (Chi test based on Pearson’s index); thirdly, we conducted a longitudinal
analysis by mapping the evolution of the identified communities of researchers from 1979 to
2011.
In the following, we will present the study results, in terms of (1) sample description and
article characteristics; (2) correlation tests and communities of public network scholars; (3)
longitudinal analysis and evolution of the public network scholar communities over time.
Results and discussion
Table 3 describes the main characteristics of the public network articles published from
1979 to 2011 in the ten journal included in our analysis, thus shedding light on the main
characteristics of the community of scholars generally focusing on public networks.
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Insert Table 3 about here
Out of the 160 articles included in our data base, 52 articles are theoretical and 108
articles are empirical in nature. The high number of theoretical and conceptual articles shows
the need of the public network scholar community to think over its origin and characteristics;
the most of those articles in fact systematize the existent literature in order to understand
“Where We Are and Where We Need to Go” (to recall Isett et al. 2011). As far as the article
theoretical framework is concerned, the 29.4% of the considered articles assumes the policy
network approach, the 33.8% takes the public management network approach and the
remaining 28.1% is based on the governance network approach, thus witnessing a main focus
of network scholars on the most consolidated British and American approach, whereas the
governance approach, typical of the North European Countries, appears new and again in its
preliminary steps of development. Concerning the most investigated topics, scholars seem to
concentrate more on network performance (39.4% of the articles) and network formation
(with the 37.5% of the articles dealing with the network establishment), whereas the aspects
concerning the network functioning and management appear to be more neglected (only the
15.6% of the network articles focuses on them). The remaining 7.5% of the considered
articles are systematization of the existent literature. About method, the public network
scholars reveals a preference for the qualitative approach, dominating in the policy network
and governance network community, and also greatly employed in the managerial
community: the 68.5% of the considered articles are in fact qualitative in nature and the
31.5% are quantitative.
As far as the author’s Country of origin is considered, the European scholars seem to be
more numerous than the American ones, coherently with the early development of the British
policy network theory at the beginning of the Eighties (the public management network
approach and the governance approach developed only during the nineties). The 54.4% of our
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articles are in fact authored by an European scholar (and as better detailed later, the 44.8% of
them is written by an English scholar), whereas only the 38.8% is authored by an American
scholar. Then, the 6.9% of our articles are written by scholars of other Countries, mainly
Australia, Canada and China (Table 4). As far as European articles are considered, the 44.8%
of the considered articles are written by English scholars and the 41.3% comes from the North
of Europe (Netherlands 21.8% and Nordic Countries 19.5%), thus revealing the North
European nature of public network scholar community in Europe. Only, in fact, the 5.7% of
the considered articles comes from the South of Europe: France (2.3%), Spain (2.3%) and
Italy (1.1%) (Table 4).
On the basis of these considerations, two communities of public network scholars seem to
clearly emerge: American the former and European the latter. As a consequence, in the
following we will focus our analysis on them and better explore their characteristics and
evolution over time.
Insert Table 4 about here
Normally, American scholars seem to prefer publishing on American journals: the
85.48% of the American-authored articles are in fact published on the five American journals
considered. Americans seem also to prefer the two journals of JPAR and PAR as target
journals for their publication, where the most of their articles appears (JPART 41.98% and
PAR 22.58%). Only, the 14.52% of the American scholars published on the other side of the
Atlantic, and the most of those articles was published on a special issue of IPMJ. Europeans
seem to be more prone to glance across the Atlantic; the 41.38% of the European-authored
articles was published on European journals, but the 58.62% was published on American
journals. The high number of European publications on American journals can be explained
by taking into consideration the peculiarities of PA, as journal both trying to match the
American and the European tradition, and giving room at the policy network approach (the
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57% of the articles published on PA assumes in fact the British policy network tradition as
theoretical framework) (Table 5).
As far as the target journals are considered, then, the European community seems to be
more open and “cross-section” than the American one, appearing, instead, focused on a few
journals and forming a sort of elite group. This different approach can be also explained by
taking into consideration the journal history and reputation, being the American journals
normally older and more highly ranked than the European one. Nevertheless, as academic
journals are an extraordinary instrument to spread ideas and to favour the researcher
communities’ meeting, an invitation can be addressed to American scholars to take into
consideration also European journals.
Insert Table 5 about here
As far as the article theoretical background is considered (Table 6), American scholars
seem to prefer the public management network approach (64.52% of the published articles),
coherently with their main focus on networks for the joint provision of public services, even if
they seem also to take often the policy network theory as their theoretical framework
(17.74%). On the other side of the Atlantic, the picture is completely different: Europeans
focus mainly on the governance approach (45.98% of the published articles) and neglect the
managerial approach (13.79%). They seem to find a point of contact with the American
community in the policy network tradition, representing the theoretical background of the
33.33% of the European-authored articles (Table 5). That can also be explained by taking into
consideration the origin of the European network approach and its main focus on policy-
making networks (Klijn, 2008).
When considering the research topics, coherently with the managerial approach,
Americans seem to be more focused on how to measure the network performance and predict
the network success (47.37% of the published articles), and how to explain the network
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formation and development (29.82%). On the other side, the network functioning and
management seems to be more neglected (22.81%). A similar focalization on network origins
and results can also be identified among the European scholars, even if the European scholars
seem to be more interested to explain the network rationalities (and justify the network
formation in comparison with the most traditional organizational forms of market and
hierarchies) (48.78% of the published articles) than investigating the network impact on
policies and policy outcomes (37.8%). As for the American communities, the internal
network functioning seems to be an under-investigated topic, despite the number of
invitations to try to better understand the policy network governance and management
(13.41%) (Table 6).
As far as methods are considered, American scholars seem to be more quantitative-
oriented than the European ones. The 62.79% of the American articles employs in fact
quantitative instruments and techniques for the data analysis, whereas the European articles
seem to rely almost exclusively on more qualitative and interpretative data analysis
instruments (87.5%) (Table 6).
Such insights are confirmed by the results of the correlation test (Table 6). A strong
correlation seems in fact to exist between the authors’ Country of origin and both the article
theoretical framework (X20.05 (df3) = 7.82, p = 2.24694E-11) and methods (X2
0.05 (df1) = 3.84,
p = 1.75849E-07). A weaker correlation can also be identified with the main topics public
network researchers normally focus on (X20.1 (df2) = 4.61, p =0.067).
On the basis of these considerations, the results of our study seem to suggest the
existence of two distinct, and not well integrated, communities of network scholars in the
world, more managerial-oriented and “American” the former (Agranoff, 1986, 2006;
Agranoff & McGuire 1998, 2001; Huang & Provan, 2007a, 2007b; Isett & Provan, 2005;
Mandell, 1994; Mandell & Keast, 2008; McGuire, 2002; McGuire & Agranoff, 2011; Meyer
20
& O’Toole, 2001, 2003, 2010; Milward & Provan 1995, 1998a, 1998b, 2003; Milward et al.
2010; O’Toole 1995, 1996; O’Toole & Meyer 1999, 2004a, 204b 2006; Provan & Milward
1991, 1995, 2001; Provan & Sebastian, 1998; Provan et al. 2005; Provan et al. 2009) and
more governance-oriented and “European” the latter (Borzel, 2011; Ferlie et al. 2011; Kickert
et al. 1997; Klijn, 2008; Klijn & Koopenjan, 2000, 2006; Klijn & Sckelcher, 2007; Klijn et al.
2010; Koopenjan & Klijn, 2004; Raab, 2003; Skelcher, 2005; 2010; Toke, 2010; Toke &
Marsh, 2003; Voets, 2008). More specifically, whereas the community of American scholars
seem to prefer taking a managerial approach at the networks for the provision of public
services, to investigate how to make them really work and to use quantitative data analysis
techniques, the European scholars seem to prefer assuming a governance approach at policy-
making networks, to investigate their formation and main characteristics and to use qualitative
and interpretative data analysis techniques.
Insert Table 6 about here
The longitudinal analysis conducted on the American and the European public network
communities from 1979 to 2011 does not seem to lead to significantly different results. As far
as the evolution of the characteristics of the two communities are considered, in fact, the
American and the European communities seem to remain consistent with their main spirit,
and seem to weakly invest in the development of a common field. Since its origin, the
American community seems to be managerial-oriented, concerned by the problems of
network performance and quantitative in nature. From 1979 to 2011, it seems to develop by
strengthening those characteristics. The number of articles taking the public management
approach remained always higher than that of articles taking the policy network or
governance network approach; on top of it, it has been growing tremendously since 1996.
Similarly, since 2000 the number of articles focusing on the network performance has been
significantly increasing. Concerning methods, the American community has always been
21
focused on quantitative data analysis techniques, even if the number of qualitative studies has
significantly increased during the last years (Figure 1). A similar history can be told if we
consider the European community, developing by strengthening its own characteristics, even
if some signals of a greater openness toward the American approach can also be identified. As
Figure 2 shows the European community developed by strengthening its own characteristics
as community focused on network governance, investigating above all the network
establishment and qualitative in nature. Nevertheless, during the last years the number of
studies focusing on the network outcome and employing quantitative data analysis techniques
seem to have been significantly increased.
Insert Figure 1 and Figure 2 about here
Conclusion
The results of our study witness the existence of at least two distinct scholar communities
in the world: American the former and European the latter, each one with its own theoretical
framework, main interests and research methods.
This can be explained by taking into consideration the peculiarities of the American
public administration (Peters 1998) and the distinctiveness of the European one (Kickert
2005).
In this perspective, the development of the managerial approach to public networks in
America, and of the governance approach to public networks in Europe can be explained
against the historical nature of the public administration and state-society relationships in
those countries. In the US, the minimalist State normally engages in public-public and public-
private networks to jointly provide public services, thus leading to a prevalent focus on
service delivery networks and problems related to their functioning in the network literature.
On the other side, the prominent role of European governments in the welfare state in Europe
and of the strength interest groups in these societies (Kooiman, 1993; Schmitter & Lembruch,
22
1979) naturally lead to focus on actors’ role within policy networks and their power to
influence policy-making.
What is more difficult to explain is the manifest separation between the two communities,
that seem to have no or few points of contact, when, as Berry et al (2004) and Klijn (2008)
argue, there are many point of contacts between the different theoretical and methodological
traditions at public networks that should be positively merged and contaminated.
To follow such invitation, initiatives as the Transatlantic Dialogue Conference organized
every year within the framework of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) to
foster the dialogue between American and European scholars seem to be particularly
important. On top of it, internationally co-authored articles can be useful to facilitate the
contamination among the existent network communities, but are traditionally neglected. In
our data base, in fact, only the 14% of the selected articles are international (i.e. co-authored
by authors of different countries). Fostering the collaboration among scholars working in
different Universities around the world is, in this perspective, another instrument to encourage
the dialogue and build a bridge between the existent and independent public network
academic communities.
23
Table 1 – Public network articles published from 1979 to 20011
available on publisher web‐site
Total no. of articles retrieved
Total no. of articles screened as relevant
% of relevant articles
US ‐ American Journals
The American review of public administration 1917‐2011 27 12 11%
Journal of Policy Analisys and Management 1981‐2011 8 0 0%
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
1991‐2011 57 33 31%
Public Administration 1923‐2011 117 44 41%
Public Administration Review 1940‐2011 61 18 17%
US ‐ American Journals Total 270 107 100%
EU ‐ European Journals
Governance 1988‐2011 35 11 21%
International Public Management Journal 2005‐2011 11 6 11%
Local Government Studies 1975‐2011 14 7 13%
Public Money and Management 1988‐2011 19 7 13%
Public Management Review 2000‐2011 35 22 42%
EU ‐ European Journals Total 114 53 100%
US + EU Total 384 160
24
Table 2 – Methods for data analysis
Keywords Public network Databases Journal publisher web site Search criteria
“network” in the abstract
Results
Total # of articles retrieved: 384 Total # of articles screened as relevant: 160 Total # of empirical studies: 108 Total # of normative/theoretical paper: 52 Total # of US-authored articles: 62 Total # of EU-authored studies: 87 Total # of articles from other countries: 11
Coding system
Author origin country: affiliation of the article first author Theoretical framework Policy network approach: (Rhodes 1988; Marsh and Rhodes 1992; Marsh 1998) Public management network approach (Mandell 1994; Provan and Milward 1995; Agranoff 1998) Governance network approach (Kickert et al. 1997; Koppenjan and Kickert 2004; Klijn, 2008) Main topics Network formation (network establishment, network structural characteristics and their predictors, rationales for networks against market and hierarchy, role of government in policy network, network development) Network functioning (network management, competences and skills of the network managers, control and accountability issue) Network performance (effectiveness of service-delivery network, predictors of public network effectiveness, policy outcomes, network effects on policy outcomes, network impact on democracy) Methods Qualitative approach (interpretative data analysis techniques, discourse analysis) Quantitative approach (social network analysis, regression models, correlation tests)
25
Table 3 – Sample description and article characteristics
Total no. of articles screened as relevant 160 US-authored articles 38.8% EU-authored articles 54.4% Others 6.9% Normative/theoretical papers 32.5% Empirical papers 67.5% Theoretcal framework Policy network theory 29.4% Public Management network theory 33.8% Governance network theory 28.1% Organization and economic theory 8.8% Main topics Network formation 37.5% Network functioning 15.6% Network performance 39.4% Literature review 7.5% Methods Quantitative approach 31.5% Qualitative approach 68.5%
Table 4 – Geographical distribution of public network articles
US-authored articles 38.8% EU-authored articles 54.4% Others 6.9% EU-authored articles UK 44.8% Netherlands 21.8% Nordic Countries 19.5% Italy 1.1% Germany 4.6% France 2.3% Spain 2.3% Belgium 2.3% Turkey 1.1%
26
Table 5 – US and EU authored articles – target journals
Total no. of articles
screened as relevant
US-authored articles
EU-authored articles
Others
US - American Journals The American review of public administration 12 11.29% 5.75% 0.00% Journal of Policy Analisys and Management 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
33 41.94% 8.05% 0.00%
Public Administration 44 9.68% 41.38% 18.18% Public Administration Review 18 22.58% 3.45% 9.09% US - American Journals Total 107 EU - European Journals Governance 11 1.61% 5.75% 45.45% International Public Management Journal 6 6.45% 2.30% 0.00% Local Government Studies 7 0.00% 8.05% 0.00% Public Money and Management 7 0.00% 8.05% 0.00% Public Management Review 22 6.45% 17.24% 27.27% EU - European Journals Total 53 US + EU Total 160 100% 100% 100%
Table 6 - US and EU authored articles – main characteristics
US - authored articles
EU - authored articles
Theoretical framework Policy network theory 17.74% 33.33% Public Management network theory 64.52% 13.79% Governance network theory 4.84% 45.98% Organization and economic theory 12.90% 6.90% X2
0.05 (df3) = 7.82. p = 2.24694E-11
Main topics Network establishment 29.82% 48.78% Network functioning 22.81% 13.41% Network performance 47.37% 37.80% X2
0.1 (df2) = 4.61. p =0.067
Methods Quantitative approach 62.79% 12.50% Qualitative approach 37.21% 87.50% X2
0.05 (df1) = 3.84. p = 1.75849E-07
27
Figure 1 – Evolution of the American community on public networks
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2011
Policy network theory
Public Managementnetwork theory
Governance networktheory
Organization andeconomic theory
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2011
Network establishment
Network functioning
Network performance
Review
28
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2011
Qualitative studies
Quantitative studies
Figure 2 - Evolution of the European community on public networks
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2011
Policy network theory
Public Managementnetwork theory
Governance networktheory
Organization andeconomic theory
29
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2011
Network establishment
Network functioning
Network performance
Review
0
5
10
15
20
25
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2011
Qualitative studies
Quantitative studies
30
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