Influence flows in the academy: Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers

Craig M. Rawlings; Daniel A. McFarland

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002

Influence flows in the academy: Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers

Craig M. Rawlings^*, Daniel A. McFarland

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

Little is known about how influence flows in the academy, because of inherent difficulties in collecting data on large samples of friendship and advice-seeking networks over time. We propose taking advantage of the relative abundance of "affiliation network" data to assess aggregate patterns of how individual and dyadic characteristics channel influence among researchers. We formulate and test our approach using new data on 2034 faculty members at Stanford University over a 15-year period, analyzing different affiliations as potential influence channels for changes in grant productivity. Results indicate that research productivity is more malleable to ongoing interpersonal influence processes than suggested in prior research: a strong, salient tie to a colleague in an authority position is most likely to transmit influence, and most forms of influence are likely to spill over to behaviors outside those jointly produced by collaborators. However, the genders and institutional locations of ego-alter pairs significantly affect how influence flows.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1001-1017
Number of pages	17
Journal	Social Science Research
Volume	40
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002
State	Published - May 2011

Funding

We wish to thank Skye Bender-deMoll, Linus Dahlander, Noah Friedkin, Ted Mouw, Walter Powell and the audiences of the Organizations and Networks workshop and Mimir Project meetings at Stanford University for useful comments on earlier drafts of this work. These data were collected by the Mimir Project conducted at Stanford University by Daniel McFarland, Dan Jurafsky, Chris Manning, and Walter Powell. This material is based upon work supported by the Office of the President at Stanford University and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0835614 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stanford University or the National. The first author also gratefully acknowledges the support of the IES postdoctoral program and the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (IREPP) at Stanford University Science Foundation.

Keywords

Complex organizations
Peer effects
Research productivity
Social networks

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Sociology and Political Science

Access to Document

10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002

Cite this

@article{7aa4f69795344e078495468465de79aa,

title = "Influence flows in the academy: Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers",

abstract = "Little is known about how influence flows in the academy, because of inherent difficulties in collecting data on large samples of friendship and advice-seeking networks over time. We propose taking advantage of the relative abundance of {"}affiliation network{"} data to assess aggregate patterns of how individual and dyadic characteristics channel influence among researchers. We formulate and test our approach using new data on 2034 faculty members at Stanford University over a 15-year period, analyzing different affiliations as potential influence channels for changes in grant productivity. Results indicate that research productivity is more malleable to ongoing interpersonal influence processes than suggested in prior research: a strong, salient tie to a colleague in an authority position is most likely to transmit influence, and most forms of influence are likely to spill over to behaviors outside those jointly produced by collaborators. However, the genders and institutional locations of ego-alter pairs significantly affect how influence flows.",

keywords = "Complex organizations, Peer effects, Research productivity, Social networks",

author = "Rawlings, {Craig M.} and McFarland, {Daniel A.}",

note = "Funding Information: We wish to thank Skye Bender-deMoll, Linus Dahlander, Noah Friedkin, Ted Mouw, Walter Powell and the audiences of the Organizations and Networks workshop and Mimir Project meetings at Stanford University for useful comments on earlier drafts of this work. These data were collected by the Mimir Project conducted at Stanford University by Daniel McFarland, Dan Jurafsky, Chris Manning, and Walter Powell. This material is based upon work supported by the Office of the President at Stanford University and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0835614 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stanford University or the National. The first author also gratefully acknowledges the support of the IES postdoctoral program and the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (IREPP) at Stanford University Science Foundation.",

year = "2011",

month = may,

doi = "10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "40",

pages = "1001--1017",

journal = "Social Science Research",

issn = "0049-089X",

publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Influence flows in the academy

T2 - Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers

AU - Rawlings, Craig M.

AU - McFarland, Daniel A.

N1 - Funding Information: We wish to thank Skye Bender-deMoll, Linus Dahlander, Noah Friedkin, Ted Mouw, Walter Powell and the audiences of the Organizations and Networks workshop and Mimir Project meetings at Stanford University for useful comments on earlier drafts of this work. These data were collected by the Mimir Project conducted at Stanford University by Daniel McFarland, Dan Jurafsky, Chris Manning, and Walter Powell. This material is based upon work supported by the Office of the President at Stanford University and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0835614 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stanford University or the National. The first author also gratefully acknowledges the support of the IES postdoctoral program and the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (IREPP) at Stanford University Science Foundation.

PY - 2011/5

Y1 - 2011/5

N2 - Little is known about how influence flows in the academy, because of inherent difficulties in collecting data on large samples of friendship and advice-seeking networks over time. We propose taking advantage of the relative abundance of "affiliation network" data to assess aggregate patterns of how individual and dyadic characteristics channel influence among researchers. We formulate and test our approach using new data on 2034 faculty members at Stanford University over a 15-year period, analyzing different affiliations as potential influence channels for changes in grant productivity. Results indicate that research productivity is more malleable to ongoing interpersonal influence processes than suggested in prior research: a strong, salient tie to a colleague in an authority position is most likely to transmit influence, and most forms of influence are likely to spill over to behaviors outside those jointly produced by collaborators. However, the genders and institutional locations of ego-alter pairs significantly affect how influence flows.

AB - Little is known about how influence flows in the academy, because of inherent difficulties in collecting data on large samples of friendship and advice-seeking networks over time. We propose taking advantage of the relative abundance of "affiliation network" data to assess aggregate patterns of how individual and dyadic characteristics channel influence among researchers. We formulate and test our approach using new data on 2034 faculty members at Stanford University over a 15-year period, analyzing different affiliations as potential influence channels for changes in grant productivity. Results indicate that research productivity is more malleable to ongoing interpersonal influence processes than suggested in prior research: a strong, salient tie to a colleague in an authority position is most likely to transmit influence, and most forms of influence are likely to spill over to behaviors outside those jointly produced by collaborators. However, the genders and institutional locations of ego-alter pairs significantly affect how influence flows.

KW - Complex organizations

KW - Peer effects

KW - Research productivity

KW - Social networks

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79953181601&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79953181601&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002

DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:79953181601

SN - 0049-089X

VL - 40

SP - 1001

EP - 1017

JO - Social Science Research

JF - Social Science Research

IS - 3

ER -

Influence flows in the academy: Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this