Bruce Cronin

Journal citation among heterodox economists 1995‐2007: dynamics of community emergence

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the pattern among 17 heterodox economic journals over a prolonged period to provide evidence about the social dynamics among the group of researchers who publish in them and the extent to which they hold or develop a collective identity as heterodox economists.Design/methodology/approach – Traditional approaches to citation analysis are extended by the use of techniques from social network analysis. In addition to citation counts, measures of network position and clique membership are used to identify key journals and turning points in a longitudinal analysis.Findings – Important shifts in the nature of citation within the network of journals are identified in the 1998‐2001 period and evidence is found of the emergence of a collective identity.Research limitations/implications – The methods prove a valuable extension of citation analysis and also focus greater consideration on the social relationships that citations represent. They are well suited to addressing the...

Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Heterodox Economics

Despite the important critiques of the mainstream offered by heterodox economics, the dominant method remains econometrics. This major new Handbook provides an invaluable introduction to a range of alternative research methods better suited for analysing the social data prominent in heterodox research projects, including survey, historical, ethnographic, experimental, and mixed approaches, together with factor, cluster, complex, and social network analytics. Introductions to each method are complemented by descriptions of applications in practice.

National and Transnational Structuring of the British Corporate Elite

Corporate power in Britain is multifaceted, multilayered and geographically structured. In contrast to the classic rise of the capitalist class, the established landed aristocracy was not overthrown in Britain but became embedded in its ascendancy, an articulation that strongly marks institutional forms of power to this day (Anderson 1964). The industrial revolution that drove the accumulation of national wealth in nineteenth-century Britain had its catalyst in the wealth of international trade and plunder, and in turn was quickly followed by international corporate expansion. British capital dominated international investment through to the Second World War and today still accounts for the world’s second largest overseas direct investment stock (Dunning and Archer 1987; United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2011). So the British corporate elite are intimately structured by a complex of national and transnational influences. Periodic attempts to delve into the growing documentary archive of elite relationships in Britain have barely pierced the outer layers of the structures of corporate elite cohesion, however. The availability of data and the potentially strategic importance of a director’s role have led attention primarily towards interlocking directorships (Aaronovitch 1956; Useem 1984; Windolf 2002), while the mining of biographical databases provides an entry-point into elite schools, clubs and social circles (Sampson 1962). But these are only limited components of the taxonomy of multiple layers of inter-organizational bonds proposed by Scott and Griff (1984) as constituting elite cohesion, let alone extended to national and transnational dimensions (see Table 8.1). This chapter takes a modest taxonomic step through these layers, reviewing and extending John Scott’s periodic studies (1986, 1991a, 1991b, 2003; Scott and Griff 1984) of British director interlocks, temporarily and methodologically, and then considers the pattern of interlocks in the context of transnational influences on the British economy.

The Rise and Decline of the Business Roundtable

This chapter reviews the rise of the Business Roundtable, examines the organizational methods underpinning its success, and considers whether it is now, as some have argued, in a state of decline. An historical method is employed, drawing on a variety of accounts of the major policy battlegrounds over the last 50 years in some detail. This method is supplemented by a social network analysis of the changing position of the Roundtable in the network of congressional lobbying, employing a little-used dataset. The author finds that the persistence of the Roundtable and its effective modus operandi indicates that the forces of elite cohesion are wider than those formed by the interlocking personnel between organizations. It has been able to accommodate new powerful organizational entities that have emerged with changes to the structure of the economy, and continues to become increasingly central to the US policy advocacy network.

Multiple and mixed methods research for economics

Where economics is dominated by a monolithic methodology of axiomatic theorizing and econometric analysis of secondary datasets, multiple and mixed methods research offers a much and richer toolkit to examine economic problems from a variety of perspectives with custom methods suited for the particular task. Rather than limiting analysis to the application of approved methods to an approved dataset, with little consideration of its content, a multiple or mixed method approach inherently interrogates choices and limitations of data and methods from the outset. This chapter aims to equip readers with a grounding in the principles of multiple and mixed methods research and to consider benefits and limitations of triangulation of methods, issues in research design, choices of methods and their integration, and issues of validity and ethics.

Social network analysis

Social network analysis comprises a powerful set of techniques for quantifying, differentiating, and interpreting social interactions or relational data in general. This provides a means of interrogating assumptions of independent yet homogeneous actions and pay-offs in economic processes, a particular interest of heterodox approaches to economics. Contemporary applications include modelling opinion leadership among consumers, search and matching in labour markets, collaboration in research and development, patterns of innovation diffusion among firms, and global commodity chains. This chapter introduces the central concepts and methods of social network analysis, including data collection and interpretation considerations and a brief discussion of specialized software in the field. Each is illustrated with an economic application, either a heterodox example or with a discussion of its heterodox implications.

A Social Network Analysis of Managerial Migrations: The Case of Large Companies in the United Kingdom

The migration of an executive manager from one company to another involves not only the recruitment of a capability set but also the transfer of organizational knowledge. In order to account for a range of dependencies among companies in such migrations, we utilize exponential random graph models to examine executive migrations among large UK companies in a cohort observed in 2006 and 2011. We find executive management migrations related mainly to tenure length, residual income added, particular industrial classifications, company value, cost-benefit per employee and operating revenue to cost per employee at the company of origin. We conclude that company value of the originating firm is used as a heuristic proxy of the value adding capabilities of managers, which reflects an underlying social selection mechanism.

Challenging the mainstream practice of planned change in cases of higher-order transformation

This paper examines some of the fundamental assumptions and usual pitfalls of the mainstream linear and deterministic logic of planned change that appear when dealing with complex problems or in cases of higher-order transformation. Adopting the complex adaptive character of human systems, the paper considers that non-linear change methodologies are more appropriate in such cases and outlines some of their principles. Finally, it presents the main phases of a suggested methodology, based on non-linearity, along with the skills necessary to apply it.

Revealing hidden issues and assessing intangible assets in organisations and communities

This paper aims to discuss possible ways of making sense of the tacit issues of a system, and aspects of the organisational or community life that usually remain hidden; yet, are considered of crucial importance. Different methodological tools, following linearity and complexity will be discussed, while special attention will be given on the limitations encountered in using such assessment tools provided by both approaches. Finally, a new assessment tool, based on archetypes and aided by geometry will be presented.

Complex Dynamics in Information Sharing Networks

This study examines the roll-out of an electronic knowledge base in a medium-sized professional services firm over a six year period. The efficiency of such implementation is a key business problem in IT systems of this type. Data from usage logs provides the basis for analysis of the dynamic evolution of social networks around the depository during this time. The adoption pattern follows an “s-curve” and usage exhibits something of a power law distribution, both attributable to network effects, and network position is associated with organisational performance on a number of indicators. But periodicity in usage is evident and the usage distribution displays an exponential cut-off. Further analysis provides some evidence of mathematical complexity in the periodicity. Some implications of complex patterns in social network data for research and management are discussed. The study provides a case study demonstrating the utility of the broad methodological approach.