The Evolution of Interorganizational Networks in NGO Communities
Peter Monge, Janet Fulk, Joyee Chatterjee, Bettina Heiss, Seungyoon Lee, Drew Margolin, Cuihua Shen, Kimberlie Stephens, Matthew Weber

This research draws on archival data sources to examine changes in the network structures of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) over time. Network analyses of these sources allow for empirical tests of a novel integration and expansion of the theories of organizational evolution and the new science of network in the context of the study of nonprofit organizing. Interorganizational network datasets were constructed based on the Yearbook of International Organizations (YIO), published annually by the Union of International Associations (UIA). Additional datasets capture the ways NGOs are linked via Internet hyperlinks. Access to link data has been provided to the researchers by Google Inc. as well as the Internet archive Wayback Machine. Secondary sources such as information on organizational websites were used to supplement these datasets. Several social network analyses tools were combined to scrutinize the properties of the NGO networks on multiple levels of analysis, ranging from individual links between organizations to the entire linkage structure of the network. Visualization software helped to illustrate the dynamic changes of NGO networks over time and to test a variety of hypotheses about their structural evolution.