The paper introduces the concept of organizational network interface—an individual who belongs to the intra-organizational network and at the same time connects to outside economic actors on behalf of this organization. We apply this concept—that incorporates both the function in the network and the features of individuals performing the function—to consider the costs that organizational network interfaces can present to the organization, focusing on the costs related to how information is transferred through the organizational network interface due to the characteristics of the interface. We categorize the potential mechanisms through which employees acting as interfaces can impact organization-level outcomes into six classes and take one mechanism representative of each class in the setting of microfinance organizations. We consider the six mechanisms jointly to verify whether previously reported association between women loan officers and higher rates of loan defaults in a single bank can be observed at the organizational level in a broad sample across forty-eight countries and to test which of the mechanisms are driving it. The results show that an average microfinance organization indeed experiences a higher rate of loan defaults when the percentage of women loan officers is higher but find no support for the mechanism of borrowers’ gender bias suggested by previous research. Instead, the effect is driven by the mechanisms of the educational disparity between men and women, overcorrection by women towards risk-taking in professional environments, and likely amplification of the latter effect through the interaction of women loan officers and women managers.

The United Nations’ commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will likely involve extensive inter-agency collaboration. However, understanding the role of SDGs in driving inter-agency interactions within the UN remains a critical research gap. Exploring the cooperation relationships and influence patterns between UN agencies and SDGs provides insight into the current drivers of inter-agency collaboration and suggestions for the future of UN governance strategies.

Using publicly available UN collaboration data, we construct a two-mode network of UN agencies and SDGs and analyze key structural properties to identify influential actors and cooperation patterns. Community detection and influence index analysis further reveal inter-agency dynamics and the disparities in support between green status and non-green status SDGs. These efforts inform a two-mode ERGM to consider these findings in a multivariate model.

Our initial results identify SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) as central nodes, with SDG 13 playing a critical bridge role in cross-sectoral cooperation. Agencies such as UNEP and UNICEF demonstrate high collaboration intensity, advancing multiple SDGs, including SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 4 (Quality Education). The influence analysis highlights that high organizational influence correlates with broader SDG support, as seen with UNEP’s engagement across green SDGs. In contrast, high policy influence, as demonstrated by WHO, aligns with focused advancement of specific goals. While green SDGs benefit from strong agency support, non-green SDGs, such as SDG 1 (No Poverty), face systemic challenges and require enhanced resource allocation and cross-agency coordination to address complex global issues effectively.

By leveraging network analysis, this study provides actionable insights into optimizing inter-agency collaboration and strengthening the governance system to accelerate SDG implementation.

Sustainable products are becoming increasingly important in the transformation of the construction industry towards a circular economy. They are at the heart of both product development and internal organisational processes (business models, cultural shift). Network research is particularly suitable for capturing transformation processes. However, the inclusion of materialities is still underrepresented. Initial approaches show a rough direction, but an intensive theoretical and methodological examination has yet to materialise. However, in order to be able to comprehensively map the transformation, the action potential of the materials must be included. The dissertation combines White's concepts with Barad's approaches to sociomateriality and creates the concept of agential network analysis. Thanks to White's freedom of scale and Barad's new way of thinking, new insights into the establishment of relationships were gained. This concept could also be applied in practice as part of the research programme Verbund.NRW II by the practice partner Lindner SE through participation in a construction process. The result: materials have just as great influence on the creation of types of tie by blocking or promoting actions or by acting as brokers. This research is intended to provide an impetus to give materialities more space in network research, which is still socially dominated.

Topics for my submission:

White

Sustainability

Background

Two years after the launch of the Global Epicenter of Mobility (GEM) initiative, organizations across sectors in Detroit, MI, and surrounding counties continue to collaborate to transform the local mobility industry into an inclusive, advanced mobility cluster. In partnership with the Detroit Regional Partnership, we conducted longitudinal network analysis each year to assess changes in the coalition's structure and relationships over time. This allowed us to compare updated network data to prior analyses and track the network's evolution over time.

Methods

Data collection occurred from September to November 2024 through surveys completed by coalition organizations. Participants identified their relationships with other members using a 1-5 scale adapted from the Levels of Collaboration Scale (Frey et al., 2006). Data were analyzed in R to produce organization-level and network-wide metrics, including betweenness, degree, and eigenvector centrality.

Findings

At 2 years, the analysis revealed a more diffuse and less centralized ecosystem, fostering diverse, decentralized collaboration. The updated coalition included 184 nodes and 7800 connections, with 2408 (46.33%) reflecting a connection strength of ≥ 3 (an active working relationship). There was a significant decrease in average eigenvector score (p<0.001) among organizations present in both rounds, with a strong correlation between change in eigenvector score and degree (r=0.81) and an inverse correlation with average connection strength (r=-0.73).

These findings suggest the GEM initiative is facilitating a broader distribution of influence and engagement across the mobility ecosystem. This decentralized structure presents new opportunities for innovation and highlights areas for continued strategic intervention to support network growth and collaboration.

How do LGBTQIA+ activists use international human rights instruments to advance their rights? This research explores how LGBTQIA+ activists use international human rights instruments to advance their rights, with a focus on South Africa as a unique case to understand the legalization of same-sex marriage. In this regard, I pose a hypothesis that South Africa’s anti- and post-apartheid movements, along with international human rights advocacy and women’s movements, played a key role in advancing LGBTQIA+ rights. Specifically, I focus on the causal process observations, starting with queer rights movements aligning with anti-apartheid and women’s rights movements under international human rights pressure. This coalition then became involved in post-apartheid reconstruction efforts and was critical in driving the legalization of same-sex marriage through engagement with international human rights norms and transnational actors in the 1990s. The research is divided into two periods: (1) anti-apartheid movements before 1994 and (2) the push for same-sex marriage between 1994 and 2006. This division highlights the evolution of activism and the changing landscape of rights advocacy. The study focuses on how activists leveraged CEDAW reports, non-U.N. international LGBTQIA+ instruments, and regional documents from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Ultimately, this research is expected to contribute to the fields of international relations and social movements by examining how international law is used both in theory and practice to internalize human rights norms at the domestic level.