Applying social network analysis in economic geography: framing some key analytic issues

By Anne L. J. ter Wal, Ron A. Boschma. 2009

660 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Social network analysis attracts increasing attention in economic geography. We claim social network analysis is a promising tool for empirically investigating the structure and evolution of inter-organizational interaction and knowledge flows within and across regions. However, the potential of the application of network methodology to regional issues is far from exhausted. The aim of our paper is twofold. The first objective is to shed light on the untapped potential of social network analysis techniques in economic geography: we set out some theoretical challenges concerning the static and dynamic analysis of networks in geography. Basically, we claim that network analysis has a huge potential to enrich the literature on clusters, regional innovation systems and knowledge spillovers. The second objective is to describe how these challenges can be met through the application of network analysis techniques, using primary (survey) and secondary (patent) data. We argue that the choice between these two types of data has strong implications for the type of research questions that can be dealt with in economic geography, such as the feasibility of dynamic network analysis.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/be4b92030b20df2ce2ea4ee3304618fd74853aa7

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Citations in the corpus

Lock-in or lock-out ? How structural properties of knowledge networks affect regional resilience (2014, background): “A Social Interaction Model of Cluster Viability, Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 9, no. 3, 381-404 Ter Wal, A. and Boschma, R. 2009.”
Comparing knowledge bases: on the geography and organization of knowledge sourcing in the regional innovation system of Scania, Sweden (2013, methodology): “Recently, a number of studies in economic geography have applied social network analysis to the study of networks of knowledge and innovation (Cantner and Graf, 2006; Giuliani, 2007; Morrison, 2008; Morrison and Rabellotti, 2009; Plum and Hassink, 2011, 2013), and some key issues related to this app”
The Dynamics of Technical and Business Knowledge Networks in Industrial Clusters: Embeddedness, Status, or Proximity? (2016, methodology): “It has been acknowledged recently that SAOMs open new areas of inquiries to understand the spatial evolution of networks (Ter Wal and Boschma 2009; Maggioni and Uberti 2011; Broekel, Balland, Burger and Van Oort 2014).”
Spatial Science and Network Science: Review and Outcomes of a Complex Relationship (2014, background): “Indeed, Social Network Analysis has been little noticed by geographers until recently (Grabher, 2006; Ter Wal and Boschma, 2009; Radil et al., 2010) as sociologists increasingly consider the influence of space in their works.”
A critical review of entrepreneurial ecosystems research: towards a future research agenda (2017, background): “Also, network analysis has hardly been exploited as a tool1 while its relevance has proven useful in cluster research when focusing on the structure of knowledge networks in clusters (Ter Wal & Boschma, 2009).”
Structure and evolution of global cluster networks: evidence from the aerospace industry (2016, background): “…firm’s formal and informal connections (e.g. Morrison, 2008; Giuliani and Bell, 2005; Boschma and Ter Wal, 2007), yet a shortcoming of this data collection procedure is that it is difficult and expensive to apply to a large population across multiple industrial clusters (Ter Wal and Boschma, 2009).”
Brokerage in SME networks (2010, background): “Ter Wal, A.L.J., Boschma, R.A., 2009.”
Network analysis in conservation biogeography: challenges and opportunities (2010, background): “…of network analysis, including studies of the spatial diffusion of farmer’s practices (Hägerstrand, 1967) and the ways in which physical distances between firms and actors influence the structure and evolution of interorganizational knowledge flows (e.g. Glückler, 2007; Ter Wal & Boschma, 2009).”
Proximity and Innovation: From Statics to Dynamics (2015, background): “An advantageof network analysis is that it can be applied to any kind of data indicating a relation between two actors (TER WAL and BOSCHMA, 2009).”