Specification and Estimation of a relational event model for 2-Mode networks: an application to organisational problem-solving
Marco Tonellato, Guido Conaldi, Eric Quintane, Alessandro Lomi · Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (University of Greenwich) · 2011
We specify and estimate a relational event model for two-mode networks using data that we have collected on problem solving activities within a community of open source software developers. Data pertain to a F/OSS project team consisting of 135 volunteer developers involved in the development of an open source web browser. We reconstructed the two-mode network generated by problem-solving activities undertaken by the software developers on 719 software problems (or “bugs”). Each network tie records a voluntary action taken by a developer to engage a specific problem observed during a full release cycle of the software. The relational event model enables us to examine the regularities in action sequences that developers engage in collectively, across different time frames. Here, the model uses past action sequences undertaken by the developers towards a given problem to predict its resolution. We discuss the possible implications of our preliminary results for views of organizations as structured social settings that encourage the interaction between problems, solutions and decision makers. By doing so, we aim to provide further insights into the mechanisms that lead to the emergence of routinized collective action.