Reference no: EM134025634
Network Analysis Final Assessment
SECTION I - Essay Question
Question 1
A firm has established a mentorship scheme, linking junior staff with a mentor to aid in career progression. The firm wants to better understand how mentorship affects promotions outcomes, and how they can improve the process of matching staff with mentors. Discuss how social network analysis could be used, along with the different types of networks and data that should be utilised.
Relevant analytical methods may also draw upon Operation Research techniques to evaluate organisational relationships and decision-making processes.
Maximum word limit: 1800 words
OR
Question 2
Given the increasing importance of sustainability, firms are often required to better implement and adopt green practices. As a result, firms frequently collaborate on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. Examples of collaborative ESG initiatives include carbon data management schemes, shared recycling programmes, and biodiversity commitments. Please describe the benefits of a network analysis of inter-organisational collaboration on ESG initiatives, and what metrics and measures would be the most informative and beneficial.
Maximum word limit: 1800 words
SECTION II - Mandatory Research-based Essay Questions
Read the pre-released article:
Lozano, S. and Gutiérrez, E. (2018). A complex network analysis of global tourism flows. International Journal of Tourism Research, 20(5), 588-604.
A researcher is interested in understanding tourism patterns in the modern global economy. The researcher has constructed a set of global tourism networks for 2024, drawing on Eurostat data on the top five tourism destinations for EU countries. The researcher constructs one-mode, directed, and binary networks, with countries as nodes and directed links from each country to its top tourism destinations. Appendix 1 provides network visualisations and Appendix 2 provides network statistics and centrality measures.
Students may find it useful to review concepts related to Statistics when interpreting network measures and quantitative findings.
Question 1
(a) Compare Figure 1 and Figure 2 (Appendix 1) and provide an evaluation of the researcher's decision to analyse only the reduced network.
(b) Interpret Figure 3 and Figure 4 (Appendix 1), including the subgroup analysis and the group-level E-I Index results (Appendix 2, Table 1), commenting on the main patterns and trends.
(c) Interpret the centrality measures and network statistics (Appendix 2, Tables 2 and 3), discussing them in the context of global tourism.
Maximum word limit: 1350 words
Question 2
(a) Compare and contrast the analysis presented in Appendices 1 and 2 with the findings of Lozano & Gutiérrez (2018), focusing on Figure 2, Table 3, Table 6, and Table 9 of the paper.
(b) Critically evaluate how the network analysis presented in the appendices could be strengthened, considering additional analytical approaches and external datasets that could be incorporated into the study. It is encouraged to also reflect on the analysis contained in the pre-released paper.
Researchers may also consider broader Quantitative Research Techniques when evaluating alternative analytical methods and datasets.
Maximum word limit: 1350 words