New Developments in Social Network Analysis

This review of social network analysis focuses on identifying recent trends in interpersonal social networks research in organizations, and generating new research directions, with an emphasis on conceptual foundations. It is organized around two broad social network topics: structural holes and brokerage and the nature of ties. New research directions include adding affect, behavior, and cognition to the traditional structural analysis of social networks, adopting an alter-centric perspective including a relational approach to ego and alters, moving beyond the triad in structural hole and brokerage research to consider alters as brokers, expanding the nature of ties to include negative, multiplex/dissonant, and dormant ties, and exploring the value of redundant ties. The challenge is to answer the question “What's next in social network analysis?”