Complex network-based research on organization collaboration and cooperation governance responding to COVID-19
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
ISSN: 0969-9988
Article publication date: 4 February 2022
Issue publication date: 1 September 2023
Abstract
Purpose
With multiple-related organizations, worldwide infections, deep economic recession and public disorder, and large consumption amount of anti-epidemic resources, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been defined as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Nowadays, Wuhan has recovered from the pandemic disaster and reentered normalization. The purposes of this study are to (1) summarize organization collaboration patterns, successful experience and latent defects under across-stage evolution of Wuhan's cooperation governance mode against the pandemic, and on the basis, (2) reveal how the COVID-19 development trends and organizations' collaborative behaviors affected each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Detailed content analysis of online news reports covering COVID-19 prevention and control measures on the website of Wuhan Municipal Government was adopted to identify organizations and their mutual collaborative interrelationships. Four complex network (CN) models of organization collaboration representing the outbreak, preliminary control, recession and normalization stages, respectively, were established then. Time-span-based dynamic parameter analyses of the proposed networks, comprising network cohesiveness analysis and node centrality analysis, were undertaken to indicate changes of global and local characteristics in networks.
Findings
First, the definite collaborative status of Wuhan Headquarters for Pandemic Prevention and Control (WHPPC) has persisted throughout the period. Medical institutions and some other administrations were the most crucial participants collaborating with the WHPPC. Construction-industry organizations altered pandemic development trends twice to make the situation controllable. Media, large-scale enterprises, etc. set about underscoring themselves contributions since the third stage. Grassroots cadres and healthcare force, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), financial institutions, etc. were essential collaborated objects. Second, four evolution mechanisms of organization collaboration responding to the COVID-19 in Wuhan has been proposed.
Research limitations/implications
First, universality of Wuhan-style governance experience may be affected. Second, the stage-dividing process may not be the most appropriate. Then, data source was single and link characteristics were not considered when modeling.
Practical implications
This study may offer beneficial action guidelines to governmental agencies, the society force, media, construction-industry organizations and the market in other countries or regions suffering from COVID-19. Other organizations involved could also learn from the concluded organizations' contributions and four evolution mechanisms to find improvement directions.
Originality/value
This study adds to the current theoretical knowledge body by verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of investigating cooperation governance in public emergencies from the perspectives of analyzing the across-stage organization collaboration CNs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 71702136 and 71972018). Besides the funding, the newsmen reporting the pandemic situation, experts attending the focus group discussion, and operation and maintenance engineers on the staff of news websites and the CN software used in this research are greatly appreciated by the authors.
Citation
Yang, L., Lou, J., Zhou, J., Zhao, X. and Jiang, Z. (2023), "Complex network-based research on organization collaboration and cooperation governance responding to COVID-19", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 3749-3779. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-08-2021-0731
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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