Do Networks Really Work? A Framework for Evaluating Public‐Sector Organizational Networks

• Date: 01 July 2001
• Author: Keith G. Provan,H. Brinton Milward
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/0033-3352.00045
• Published date: 01 July 2001

414 Public Administration Review •July/August 2001, Vol. 61, No. 4

Keith G. Provan

University of Arizona

H. Brinton Milward

University of Arizona

Do Networks Really Work? A Framework for

Evaluating Public-Sector Organizational Networks

Although cooperative, interorganizational networks have become a common mechanism for

delivery of public services, evaluating their effectiveness is extremely complex and has generally

been neglected. To help resolve this problem, we discuss the evaluation of networks of commu-

nity-based, mostly publicly funded health, human service, and public welfare organizations.

Consistent with pressures to perform effectively from a broad range of key stakeholders, we

argue that networks must be evaluated at three levels of analysis: community, network, and

organization/participant levels. While the three levels are related, each has its own set of effec-

tiveness criteria that must be considered. The article offers a general discussion of network

effectiveness, followed by arguments explaining effectiveness criteria and stakeholders at each

level of analysis. Finally, the article examines how effectiveness at one level of network analysis

may or may not match effectiveness criteria at another level and the extent to which integration

across levels may be possible.

Keith G. Provan is a professor in the School of Public Administration and

Policy at the University of Arizona. Dr. Provan’s research interests focus on

the study of interorganizational and network relationships, including net-

work structure, evolution, governance, and effectiveness. His empirical work

on these topics includes studies of buyer–supplier relations, small-firm manu-

facturing networks, and especially network relations among public and not-

for-profit health and human service agencies. Recent work in this last area

has focused on the organization of networks of service delivery for individu-

als with serious mental illness under managed care, and on community-

based disease prevention networks. Email: kprovan@bpa.arizona.edu.

H. Brinton Milward is the McClelland Professor of Public Management at the

University of Arizona. His research interests revolve around the intersection

of public policy and management. Dr. Milward has focused much of his

recent work on understanding how to efficiently manage networks of organi-

zations that jointly produce public services such as mental health and the

impact of privatization on public-service provision. Email: bmilward@

bpa.arizona.edu.

An important issue in the delivery of publicly funded

health and human services at the local-community level is

the integration and coordination of organizational provid-

ers into service-delivery networks. The development and

utilization of these networks has been a focus of organiza-

tional and public policy scholars since at least the 1960s.

Much of the early work on the topic (Levine and White

1961; Warren, Rose, and Bergunder 1974) focused on the

importance of cooperative relationships among individual

organizations, such as referrals and joint programs, how

they work, and the impact of such relationships on organi-

zational structure and behavior.

Recently, the focus has broadened from a concern with

individual relationships among organizations to an ex-

amination of the multiple interactions that comprise full

networks, including discussion of how public policy is

implemented through networks of cooperating service

providers (Agranoff 1991; Alter and Hage 1993; Jennings

and Ewalt 1998; O’Toole 1997). Empirical researchers,

often using sophisticated network-analysis techniques,

have tried to understand exactly how agencies coordinate

and integrate their activities, often emphasizing differ-

ences in network structures and governance (Bolland and

Wilson 1994; Laumann and Knoke 1987; Provan and

Milward 1995).

What has been lacking in most of this work, however, is

an examination of the relationship between interorgan-

izational network structures and activities and measures

of effectiveness. Evaluating network effectiveness is criti-

cal for understanding whether networks—and the network

form of organizing—are effective in delivering needed ser-