Network Formation During Disasters: Exploring Micro-Level Interorganizational Processes and the Role of National Capacity

ABSTRACT

Despite common assumptions about the processes associated with interorganizational network formation, the resulting structures and relevant factors often vary. This variation suggests that there are likely contextual or meta-network variables that moderate the influence of well-established micro-level mechanisms. Because much of the existing research on disaster response networks relies on single case studies, the role of meta-network variables in shaping network formation remains unexplored. We look to fill this gap by comparing network formation patterns in multiple countries that vary in their disaster management capacity. This article uses social network analysis to analyze the formation of response networks after earthquakes in Indonesia, Haiti, and Japan. This study contributes to existing literature by examining how transitivity, homophily, and brokerage vary in their salience under different macro-level constraints. The results suggest that national response capacity may influence the jurisdictional level at which bridging and bonding strategies take place.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• comparative analysis
• disaster response
• network analysis
• networks

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Louise Comfort, Simon Andrew, and Scott Robinson for their comments and insights on earlier versions of this paper. We would also like to thank Leonard J. Huggins and Jian Cui for their help in coding the Indonesia data as well as Steve Scheinert, Aya Okada, Ralitsa Konstantinova, and Louise Comfort at the Center for Disaster Management at the University of Pittsburgh for providing the Japan and Haiti data.