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This article investigates the social network dimension in processes of cross-national transfer. The empirical focus is the conscious attempt to appropriate, in France after 1945, the American model of the large firm. Structural conditions -- internal crisis & geopolitical dependence -- created the context in which country-to-country transfer could take place. Our findings also show, however, that the transfer itself required the activation of concrete mechanisms &, there, social networks proved key. Our evidence shows in fact the tight & reciprocal interaction, the co-construction, as it were, of social networks on the one hand & processes of institutionalization on the other. Building upon our empirical findings, we propose furthermore that successful cross-national transfer hinges on a particular kind of network structure. In the story recounted here diffusion across national borders called for the smooth & successful articulation of two types of social networks -- a cross-national "weak ties" network & national "strong ties" ones. In the end, this article accords with the current calls for cross-fertilization of institutional theory & social network theory. & we argue that both approaches are useful & complementary when dealing with country-to-country transfers. 1 Table, 3 Figures, 103 References. Adapted from the source document.

This concept paper examines the nature and role of social networks in the complex production and service relations of the contemporary globalizing political economy. As structural patterns of social interaction and relations among sets of actors or nodes, strategic networks are conceived as new organizational forms and as alternatives to institutional constructs such as bureaucratic hierarchies, rational or natural systems, democratic associations, governmental polities, and markets. The emergence and operation of networks are seen as instances of institutional transformation or extrainstitutional exchange, strategic alliance, and governance at the level of organizations as well as regional, national, and transnational political economies. Contemporary interactive information and telecommunications technology has significantly enhanced the effectiveness and innovativeness of informal, privatized, non-regulated and unaccountable social networks as alternatives to their institutional counterparts in production, research and development, marketing, and transnational, knowledgeintensive business services. ; Der Artikel analysiert die Art und Funktionsweise sozialer Netzwerke in den komplexen Produktions- und Dienstleistungsverhältnissen der gegenwärtig sich global entwickelnden politischen Ökonomie. Strategische Netzwerke werden begrifflich als strukturelle Muster sozialer Interaktionen und Beziehungen zwischen Akteuren oder Knotenpunkten erfasst und stellen neue organisatorische Formen dar, sowie Alternativen zu institutionellen Strukturen wie bürokratische Hierarchien, rationale oder natürliche Systeme, demokratische Verbände, Regierungsordnungen und Märkte. Die Entstehung und Funktionsweise von Netzwerken werden als Beispiele des Institutionenwandels gesehen sowie als ausser-institutionelle Formen des Tausches, strategischer Bündnisse, und der Steuerung auf organisatorischer Ebene wie auch auf der Ebene regionaler, nationaler, und transnationaler politischer Ökonomien. Die gegenwärtige Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik hat die Wirkungskraft und Innovationsfähigkeit informeller, privater, nicht-regulierter und unantastbarer sozialer Netzwerke als Alternativen zu ihrem institutionellen Spiegelbild in Produktion, Forschung und Entwicklung, Vertrieb und transnationalen, wissensintensiven, unternehmensorientierten Dienstleistungen bedeutend erhöht.

We can only understand the scope, nature and underlying driving forces of the major changes now occuring in telecommunications networks if we grasp the linkages between the technical design of the relevant technologies, the corporate and government policy decisions shaping telecommunications products and services and the changing perceptions and behaviours of network users. In this article we attempt to grasp these linkages by developing a socio-spatial understanding of telecommunications networks. We extend and adapt the theorizing of Giddens, Goffman and others on the dynamics of social interaction in physical settings to electronic settings. This is done by delineating a series of socio-spatial concepts — `space', `environment', `proximate space', `virtual space', `public space', `private space'. We suggest these concepts, when integrated with `institutional' and `strategic conduct' analysis, provide a framework for guiding research on these linkages. The introduction of `call management services', particularly Calling Line Identification, in the United States is discussed as an exemplar of the utility of the framework. We conclude by discussing some of the policy implications of the proposed concepts.

AbstractThe key question addressed in this paper is in what ways strategies at the community level make a difference to urban governance and for whom? The research on which it draws was concerned with two issues of relevance. The first was what poor people and communities do for themselves when city governments are unable or unwilling to extend resources to them. The second was to understand the institutional relationships, both formal and informal, between people in poverty and the organizations of city governance. In addition to local government, business and NGOs, these are understood to include associations of mutuality and community level organizations, particularly households, social networks, and political and developmental CBOs (see also Beall and Kanji, 1999). Drawing on research conducted in the nine case study cities, evidence of local level networks and associational life is examined to assess where benefits accrue when they are harnessed in the interests of city governance. These are very different cities and livelihood strategies and patterns of public action and urban governance are undoubtedly context‐specific. However, patterns emerge that are comparable and worthy of comment. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A cursory look at the ways that environmental activists seek to shape a growing global environmental agenda reveals a wide range of tactics that do not conform to traditional definitions of institutional versus disruptive politics. Zald and Diani argued in a recent Mobilization forum that our understandings of elite-movement relationships need revision to account for the variety of ways that movement actors relate to economic and political decision makers. While political opportunity analysts have shown that the presence or absence of sympathetic elites has important implications for movement outcomes, this article provides evidence about how the relationships between movement organizations and sympathetic transnational elites affect relationships within movements. By incorporating concepts and techniques from social network analysis, I derive a model to assess the effect of elite alliances on the structural positions in the network of environmental transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs). Findings indicate that elite alliances affect TSMO network positions differently, depending on the type and number of relationships the TSMO has with elites.

The question of third-party access to the networks has become central to the debate around the liberalisation of the European electricity markets due to the natural monopoly characteristic of the transmission network. The European Union?s electricity directive provides three institutional options for the organisation of network access: the single buyer procedure, the negotiated third-party access and the regulated third-party access. This paper analyses these regimes in a framework of an imperfect decision-making regulation authority which can commit errors when supervising the transmission tariffs. It will be shown that the equivalence of the systems required in the directive is usually not achieved. In addition, conditions for deciding between the three systems are derived under social welfare considerations. ; Bei der Liberalisierung der europäischen Elektrizitätsmärkte ist wegen der natürlichen Monopoleigenschaft des Übertragungsnetzes die Frage des Netzzugangs Dritter von zentraler Bedeutung. Die EU-Stromrichtline bietet drei institutionelle Alternativen zur Organisation des Netzzugangs an: Das Alleinkäufersystem, den regulierten und den verhandelten Netzzugang. Dieser Beitrag untersucht diese drei Netzzugangsregime im Kontext einer fehlerhaft entscheidenden Aufsichtsbehörde. Er kommt zu dem Ergebnis, daß die in der Richtlinie postulierte Ergebnisäquivalenz der Systeme in der Regel nicht erreicht wird. Darüberhinaus werden Kriterien für die Entscheidung zwischen den Alternativen unter Effizenzgesichtspunkten hergeleitet.

The authors motivate social capital arguments at the world-system level through the analysis of world-trade flows and nation status, 1965 to 1980, with specific attention to contextual changes in global trade and stratified effects on participation in trade within it. They generate measures of structural autonomy based on world-trade data from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Index and incorporate these measures into robust regression models of the determinants of nation status. The authors find support for the overall positive effects of structural autonomy on nation status in 1965 and 1970 but find that these effects dissipate by 1980. They then use quantile regressions to find that only high-status countries experience significant returns on structural autonomy in any of the 3 observation years. The authors combine network and institutional perspectives on trade to argue that changes in the context of world trade between 1965 and 1980 affect the benefits that social capital can reap and for whom.

Local innovation networks have been considered to be particularly important to innovation and technological change and to the growth prospects of regions and cities in Germany. Accordingly, innovation is a process that results from various (economic and social) interactions of different institutions located in a given region. Consequently, when analysing the local (or regional) innovation system, one should not only investigate the (horizontal and vertical) relations among firms but also the contacts with universities and other research institutions. Furthermore, the role of government agencies and interest groups that provide financial support as well as commercial and technical information should also be taken into account in the context of the regional innovation system. However, the review of relevant theoretical and empirical investigations related to the German experience shows that such innovation and R&D cooperation networks appear to be less significant than expected. In particular those high-tech firms in small-sized German cities have a direct access to the international innovation network, which quite often has made a more crucial contribution to their business performances than the regional and national ones have done. In general various regional technology policy measures adopted in German states (provision of research infrastructure, establishment of technology centres, innovative SME support programmes, etc.) have been more successful in already economically better-off large cities but failed to establish a significant intra-technological cooperation among partners in the rather less-developed areas which lack sufficient know-how, a socio-cultural and institutional infrastructure and a certain degree of entrepreneurial tradition. Apat from offering a critical review of relevant theoretical and empirical research, this study introduces the present regional technology and R&D promotion policies in German states and examines the distinctive characteristics of the local innovation system, emphasising the experiences of two small cities, Landshut and Bochum.

Local innovation networks have been considered to be particularly important to innovation and technological change and to the growth prospects of regions and cities in Germany. Accordingly, innovation is a process that results from various (economic and social) interactions of different institutions located in a given region. Consequently, when analysing the local (or regional) innovation system, one should not only investigate the (horizontal and vertical) relations among firms but also the contacts with universities and other research institutions. Furthermore, the role of government agencies and interest groups that provide financial support as well as commercial and technical information should also be taken into account in the context of the regional innovation system. However, the review of relevant theoretical and empirical investigations related to the German experience shows that such innovation and R&D cooperation networks appear to be less significant than expected. In particular those high-tech firms in small-sized German cities have a direct access to the international innovation network, which quite often has made a more crucial contribution to their business performances than the regional and national ones have done. In general various regional technology policy measures adopted in German states (provision of research infrastructure, establishment of technology centres, innovative SME support programmes, etc.) have been more successful in already economically better-off large cities but failed to establish a significant intra-technological cooperation among partners in the rather less-developed areas which lack sufficient know-how, a socio-cultural and institutional infrastructure and a certain degree of entrepreneurial tradition. Apat from offering a critical review of relevant theoretical and empirical research, this study introduces the present regional technology and R&D promotion policies in German states and examines the distinctive characteristics of the local innovation system, emphasising the experiences of two small cities, Landshut and Bochum.