Social Capital and Value Creation in a Community Action Network

Date

2018-12

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Background: One way social change organizations like healthcare and academic institutions pursue opportunities for innovation is by joining or building networks within their local communities. These community networks catalyze groups of professionals toward a shared goal like improving population health. Members of these networks often come from varied professional disciplines, business activities, or civic groups and are motivated by more than a promise of financial gain. Rather, they are interested in collaborating on a shared goal of improving the human condition in some way. The value created by a community network focused on healthcare improvement can be measured in the design of new techniques for disease prevention, health-focused hardware devices, policy changes, and collective strategies that improve health outcomes and ultimately a reduction in human suffering. Though it is not known why, some community action networks are successful in reaching their goals, while other similarly structured networks are not. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the structure and mechanisms of these networks through the assessment of a community action network. Furthermore, this study seeks to describe a model for understanding characteristics of the network structure while value is being created. Methods: This study used an online survey instrument with questions adapted from similar social capital research. Data were gathered from a network of graduates of a local civic leadership program about their collaborative actions with fellow graduates. Five social capital variables (interaction ties, trust, shared vision, resource exchange, and value creation), theorized to have significant impact on network outcomes, were used to examine the network. These data were analyzed using quantitative analysis, conventional content analysis and social network analysis to assess the characteristics of the community action network. Results: Of the 794 network members who received the electronic survey, 127 or sixteen percent completed a survey, either fully or partially, and 83 cases were used in the study analysis. A component-based approach to analyzing the reliability of the measures was utilized. Descriptive analyses were used to assess the community action network, both at the network and cohort groupings levels. Differences were observed in perceptions and outcomes of network members dependent on when they joined. Members engaged in the network the longest had larger betweenness scores than those who joined more recently. Overall, the perception of trust and a shared vision were high among all cohorts. Interactions involved in the resource exchange increased over time by cohort grouping. Value creation was defined by the organization and the majority of value that was created was the result of individual as opposed to collaborative action. Conclusion: Leaders of community action networks can learn about the structure and characteristics of their network through descriptive assessment and visualizations. This can inform strategic decision-making for catalyzing network members toward collective action. The implications for theory suggest an alternate utility of the Tsai and Ghoshal (1998) model of social capital and value creation in a new context of a network focused on social value creation.

Description

Keywords

Social capital, Social networks, Value creation

Citation