Core-periphery structure and power imbalance in disaster management networks: a Bayesian approach to interorganizational response to a public health disaster

ABSTRACT

This article examines the power imbalance associated with core-periphery structure in disaster response networks, drawing on resource dependence, institutional, and network theories. By employing Borgatti and Everett’s (1999) algorithm and Bayesian logistic mixed-effects models to analyse data on collaborative ties among organizations that responded to the 2015 epidemic in South Korea, the authors found that a network with a small core emerged during the public health crisis. The ability for organizations to not only provide but also attract resources and the professional and governmental positions that they had held in the disaster management system were associated with the core-periphery structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Disaster management network
• resource dependence
• institutional theory
• core-periphery analysis
• Bayesian modeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The core-periphery structure was somewhat distant from the idealized matrix, but could still reasonably be viewed as a core-periphery network with some clusters among the peripheral nodes. Kim et al. (2021) provide a detailed examination of clusters in the response network, using the Leiden algorithm.

2. While law enforcement in Korea has been nationalized since 1948, the national disaster management system was legally established under the Emergency Management Act in 1995 and local governments were responsible for fire and emergency management until 2020.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea [No. 2018R1A5A7059549]

Notes on contributors

Minyoung Ku

Minyoung Ku is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her research interests include public administration and policy, information and knowledge management, intra- and inter-organizational coordination, emergency management, and social network analysis.

Min Su Kim

Min Kim is an associate professor of the MPA program at Georgia College. During his tenure at Georgia College, Dr. Kim served as the interim department chair and director of the MPA program. His primary research interests include public management, non-profit management, and local & state government finance.

Seong Soo Oh

Seong Soo Oh is an associate professor of public administration at Hanyang University, Korea. His research interests include public management and public sector human resource management.