Collaborative Networks and Environmental Governance Performance: A Social Influence Model

This study aims to answer the following research question: how do collaborative networks affect the performance of individual policy actors embedded in the network? We examine this question with a unique dataset on water governance in Dongguan city, China. We hypothesize that collaborative network affects the environmental performance of policy actors through a social influence mechanism, and that the performance of an ego actor will emulate that of alters in the network. We test this hypothesis by estimating network/spatial autoregressive models, and the results confirm the presence of a social influence effect.

Huang, Chen, Wenna Chen*, Hongtao Yi. 2021. Collaborative Networks and Environmental Governance Performance: A Social Influence Model. Public Management Review 23(12), 1878-1899.