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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map information and knowledge flow in six virtual project teams with members of diverse cultures in private and public sector companies in different sectors.

Due to the area of research, the authors supplemented the in‐depth interviews with an embedded SNA questionnaire and two stage analysis.

The SNA findings demonstrated that network ties are useful predictors of how information and knowledge flows in virtual project teams and can be better indicators than formal project structures. assessment of participants' prestige, activity and influence and their generic formal team functions, thus leadership, member and support roles.

SNA does not yield information about causal factors, context or history of the team contributing to the current team relationships.

SNA as a method in this study delivers information on diverse members' influence, prestige and specific team member‐related brokerage roles. It highlights what boundary‐crossing knowledge sharing activities they engage in and maps the knowledge and information flows between members of the virtual project teams within the companies.

The multi‐method research design represents a sound approach to target knowledge management in virtual project environments in international contexts.

The aim of this paper is to examine the benefits of undertaking mixed methods social network analysis (SNA) to investigate patterns of interpersonal relationships in healthcare delivery. Although SNA has roots in anthropological and ethnographic research, recent emphasis has been on the mathematical properties of social networks utilising graph theory and statistical analysis. While such studies may present interesting data on the structure of ties, this paper argues that they sidestep other important elements of patterns of social relationships; their meaning and their implications for network members. The paper identifies how SNA survey can be employed alongside ethnographic data within a qualitative framework.

The paper reports on a study that investigated how knowledge sharing in social networks can contribute to patient safety in surgical care involving a social network survey, qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations.

Results describe how each research method illuminated different elements of professional practice networks. These focus on the additional elements of networks identified through qualitative methods. The discussion examines how qualitative and quantitative findings relate to each other and could be combined within an overall qualitative methodology.

The paper answers the call for a greater utilisation of network methods in healthcare studies; demonstrates the benefits of qualitative research on social networks; and presents data on the contribution of health professionals’ interpersonal relationships in the production of safe patient care.

Anti-epidemic Emergency Projects (AEEPs) have unique characteristics such as a short construction period, high-quality requirements, complex construction environment, many construction participants and many uncertain affecting factors. The purpose of this paper was to propose the establishment method for the Construction Community (CC) of AEEPs (CC-AEEPs) by analyzing the management features of AEEPs, to establish the method of the Social Network Analysis (SNA) for CC-AEEPs, and to apply this method and the framework to Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital for their verification.

According to the CC theory, this paper explored the member composition and the establishment method for CC-AEEPs. The optimal management factors of CC-AEEPs were proposed by combining the management features of AEEPs and the SNA method for CC-AEEPs was further established. Finally, the applicability of the method was verified through a case study, and some countermeasures for the CC-AEEP social networks were proposed.

The establishment of CC-AEEPs is an important guarantee to complete AEEPs with top speed and high quality. Ten types of CC-AEEP members all played different but irreplaceable roles in cooperative construction, among which the Government, the Contractor, and the Supervisor had outstanding performances. The SNA method could effectively analyze the complexity and cooperative relationship among the members in four aspects. The case study of Huoshenshan Hospital validated the important role of CC-AEEP and its social network in the AEEP research providing beneficial enlightenment for the cooperative optimization path of the AEEP construction participants.

The new establishment method for CC-AEEPs was proposed from the perspective of “cooperation among human, society, and engineering” according to the theories of the engineering sociology and the CC. In this paper, the SNA method was applied to the research on the AEEP construction for the first time and the SNA method for CC-AEEPs was purposed. The optimal management factors of CC-AEEPs and the expansion path of the CC-AEEP social networks were proposed according to the whole-process tracking of AEEPs in Wuhan.

The application of network theory and social network analysis (SNA) to tourism and hospitality is recent. Nonetheless, several authors have been applying the method contributing to regional planning, local-level tourism networks, tourism policy and governance, innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and learning. This chapter aims to characterize the use of SNA in tourism and hospitality research. Specifically, it intends to: (i) present the framework of SNA in a methodological perspective; (ii) perform a bibliometric analysis of SNA use in tourism and hospitality research; (iii) systematize the dimensions and metrics that researchers can use to apply SNA, namely the relevance for tourism; and (iv) present a case study analyzing tourism innovation networks. This chapter brings important contributions to tourism and hospitality research and practice, by focusing on the theoretical framework and practical application of SNA, providing relevant conceptual and practical knowledge that will empower researchers to use this method in tourism and hospitality studies.

The present research is trying to construct the network of relationships between different department of an organization during the design and development of car engine. Analyzing the structure of the network, finding the patterns of collaborations, and determining the important departments are the main purposes of the present research.

Improving relationships during a project life is an effective way to enhance employee performance in project-oriented organizations. This paper examines the collaborative relationships between internal project stakeholders through social network analysis (SNA) in a project for the design and development of car engine. In the first step of the research, the network of internal stakeholders was studied based on collaboration in the common activities performed by the resources. Then, the network of correspondences between internal stakeholders was studied. Finally, the two networks were integrated into a single network.

In the integrated network, the “fuel and combustion department” had the largest degree centrality (i.e. highest collaboration with others). The “integration department” was found to have the highest closeness centrality (i.e. more rapid access to other nodes). Furthermore, the “procurement department” had the highest betweenness centrality (i.e. the most strategic department). Our results revealed the potential capabilities of SNA method for the project management in the vehicle industry.

The obtained results of the present research show us the value of applying SNA methods and concepts to analyze the inter-organizational network of the Project Stakeholders relationship.

A particular feature that makes foresight powerful is its capability to learn from past trends to help guide decision‐making for future policy. However, in studying both past and future trends, network perspectives are often missing. Since networks are capable of revealing the structure that underpins relationships between stakeholders, key issues and actions in the past, they are powerful to help envisage the future. The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodological framework to incorporate network analysis in foresight.

The paper develops a generic framework to incorporate network analysis into foresight's five stages. Trends identified by respondents of the Big Picture Survey are used to demonstrate how we operationalize this framework.

A network perspective can enrich foresight analysis in that it helps reveal structural linkages between trends and thus can better identify emerging future issues, both of which are critical in foresight.

The inclusion of network analysis can shed light on the process of understanding complex data and assist in building a model based on links and relationships. Network analysis can reveal otherwise unobservable structural features of the data and can help boundary setting discussions in foresight.

Network concepts and measures could usefully enrich the interpretation of foresight data for further analysis, or plausible scenarios.

Network analysis offers a new way of looking at the foresight data by disentangling complicated issue webs. As shaping the future becomes more essential because of the complexity of science, technology and society interrelationships, the incorporation of network perspectives in foresight might be one of the ways to propel future studies.

This paper highlights the relevance of using social network analysis (SNA) as a different methodological approach to understand the numerous complex interactions that take place within the internationalization process.

The paper is divided into three major sections: First, it identifies relevant articles on social networks published in appropriate academic journals; second, the process leading to SNA is presented; third, an illustrative case is described to show the relevance of SNA within the context of international business.

Drawing on relevant literature, the authors found that most studies in the field of social networks and internationalization rely on conventional research methods based on qualitative (e.g. multiple case studies) or quantitative studies (e.g. surveys). Without questioning the relevance of these methods, the authors claim that very few studies have used the SNA methodology, which is based on a sociometric approach addressing the interactional dynamics embedded in international relationships.

Specifically, this paper attempts to analyze the major advantages and shortcomings of the SNA methodology, which may be useful to understand interactional (or relational) effects associated with an internationalization strategy.

An increasing amount of attention is being paid to three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. The technology itself is based on diverse technologies such as laser beams and materials. Hence, 3D printing technology is a converging technology that produces 3D objects using a 3D printer. To become technologically competitive, many companies and nations are developing technologies for 3D printing. So to know its technological evolution is meaningful for developing 3D printing in the future. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

To get technological competitiveness of 3D printing, the authors should know the most important and essential technology for 3D printing. An understanding of the technological evolution of 3D printing is needed to forecast its future technologies and build the R & D planning needed for 3D printing. In this paper, the authors propose a methodology to analyze the technological evolution of 3D printing. The authors analyze entire patent documents related to 3D printing to construct a technological evolution model. The authors use the statistical methods such as time series regression, association analysis based on graph theory, and principal component analysis for patent analysis of 3D printing technology.

Using the proposed methodology, the authors show the technological analysis results of 3D printing and predict its future aspects. Though many and diverse technologies are developed and involved in 3D printing, the authors know only a few technologies take lead the technological evolution of 3D printing. In this paper, the authors find this evolution of technology management for 3D printing.

If not all, most people would agree that 3D printing technology is one of the leading technologies to improve the quality of life. So, many companies have developed a number of technologies if they were related to 3D printing. But, most of them have not been considered practical. These were not effective research and development for 3D printing technology. In the study, the authors serve a methodology to select the specific technologies for practical used of 3D printing.

Diverse predictions for 3D printing technology have been introduced in many academic and industrial fields. Most of them were made by subjective approaches depended on the knowledge and experience of the experts concerning 3D printing technology. So, they could be fluctuated according to the congregated expert groups, and be unstable for efficient R & D planning. To solve this problem, the authors study on more objective approach to predict the future state of 3D printing by analyzing the patent data of the developed results so far achieved. The contribution of this research is to take a new departure for understanding 3D printing technology using objective and quantitative methods.

Social network analysis (SNA) is an under-utilised framework for research into festivals and events. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the history of SNA and explore its key concepts, in order that they might be applied to festivals and their environments.

Secondary material underpins the paper, primarily SNA literature, tourism studies research and festival industry publications.

Festival cities offer dynamic environments in which to investigate the workings of social networks. The importance of such networks has long been recognised within the industry, yet there is scant reflection of this in the event studies literature. Uses of SNA in tourism studies publications offer some precedents.

This paper emphasises the importance of relationships between people in a festival economy, complementing and building upon stakeholder analyses. A research method is proposed, suitable for application across a diverse range of festivals and events.

The pre‐design stage of construction projects has become a focal point in design management research in the last decade, as it is primarily the source of problems such as rework, change orders, and contractual claims. In particular, it is widely acknowledged that client briefing is an intractable problem which many projects encounter. Primarily this is because little attention is given to assessing the needs of the client, stakeholders and those of the design team. With this in mind, this paper presents a soft system approach known as strategic needs analysis (SNA) to assist clients, stakeholders and their design teams in determining their strategic needs for a given project. The rationale for using a SNA approach during the early stages of the project development process and in relation to the strategic environment of the client organization is presented and discussed. The SNA process is described and applied to two case study projects. It is concluded that SNA can improve the strategic decision‐making process of a project, as clients are able to identify their strategic needs and thus improve the effectiveness of the briefing process.