Keith G Provan
Biographic Data
| ID | 298525 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Keith G Provan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Keith G |
| FAMILY NAME | Provan |
| SIGNATURE | PROVAN K G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1,638 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Managing Collaborative Effort
The research reported here is a structural analysis of the significance of ties to network leaders in securing the essential effort necessary to whole, goal-directed network functioning. Drawing on the work of Chester Barnard, we focus on one of Barnard’s three functions of the executive, securing essential effort and then examine the importance of certain network ties for securing effort in a goal-directed network. We specifically focus on Simme…
Implementation of Tobacco Cessation Quitline Practices in the United States and Canada
Objectives. We examined relationships between implementation of tobacco quitline practices, levels of evidence of practices, and quitline reach and spending. Methods. In June and July 2009, a total of 176 quitline funders and providers in the United States and Canada completed a survey on quitline practices, in particular quitline-level implementation for the reported practices. From these data, we selected and categorized evidence-based and emer…
Awareness of Evidence-Based Practices by Organizations in a Publicly Funded Smoking Cessation Network
This research examines the awareness of evidence based practices by the public organizations that fund services in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC). NAQC is a large, publicly funded, goal-directed "whole network," spanning both Canada and the U.S., working to get people to quit smoking. Building on prior research on the dissemination and diffusion of innovation and evidence based practices, and considering differences between network…
Mapping Tobacco Quitlines in North America
Objectives. This study was designed to better understand how the network of quitlines in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) interact and share new knowledge on quitline practices. Methods. Network relationship data were collected from all 63 publicly funded quitlines in North America, including information sharing, partner trust, and reputation. Results. There was a strong tendency for US and Canadian quitlines to seek information from…
Core Concepts and Key Ideas for Understanding Public Sector Organizational Networks
This article provides an overview of the key research findings and core concepts on the topic of organizational networks. The primary focus is on goal‐directed “whole” service delivery networks, which are prevalent in the public and nonprofit sectors. The findings and ideas presented are especially salient for helping public managers build, maintain, operate, and govern multiorganizational networks in ways that will enhance their effectiveness. B…
Resource Tangibility and the Evolution of a Publicly Funded Health and Human Services Network
This article is a longitudinal examination of a publicly funded network of health and human services organizations that provide services to mentally ill adults. Data were collected at two points in time from a single network in a large U.S. metropolitan area: when the network was completely reorganized, and again when it had matured, four years later. Analysis focuses on changes in the patterns of interaction within and across five resource‐based…
Governance and Collaboration
As examples of a state of agents, this paper will present a comparative analysis of the evolution of two community mental health networks that both have similar contracts from the State of Arizona and operate under the same set of rules. One of these is governed by a for-profit firm that both produces services directly and buys them from a network of nonprofit agencies. The other is governed by a community based nonprofit that contracts with four…
Towards an Exogenous Theory of Public Network Performance
This article offers insights into the complexity of assessing the performance of public networks. We have identified three so‐called exogenous factors: form of the network, type of inception—whether the network was initially formed as voluntary or mandated—and developmental stage of the network. We argue that where a network stands on each of these factors will determine the appropriateness of specific criteria for assessing the performance of th…
The Evolution of Structural Embeddedness and Organizational Social Outcomes in a Centrally Governed Health and Human Services Network
This research examines the effects, over time, of network embeddedness, on three organizationally based social outcomes. We argue that in a centralized, publicly funded but mixed sector health and human services network, an organization's structural embeddedness in the network, as measured by its centrality, will be related to its trustworthiness, reputation, and influence, as rated by other network members, and that this relationship will streng…
Interorganizational Networks at the Network Level
This article reviews and discusses the empirical literature on interorganizational networks at the network level of analysis, or what is sometimes referred to as “whole” networks. An overview of the distinction between egocentric and network-level research is first introduced. Then, a review of the modest literature on whole networks is undertaken, along with a summary table outlining the main findings based on a thorough literature search. Final…
Modes of Network Governance
This article examines the governance of organizational networks and the impact of governance on network effectiveness. Three basic models, or forms, of network governance are developed focusing on their distinct structural properties. Propositions are formulated examining conditions for the effectiveness of each form. The tensions inherent in each form are then discussed, followed by the role that management may play in addressing these tensions.…
Resource Tangibility and Patterns of Interaction in a Publicly Funded Health and Human Services Network
This article examines a publicly funded mental health services network, focusing on the patterns of interaction in five resource-based subnetworks. We argue that the structure of network relationships can be explained by the nature of the resources that are at the source of the interaction. Depending on whether a particular resource is tangible or tacit, subnetwork structures will differ in predictable ways. We found that the pattern of interacti…
The Use of Network Analysis to Strengthen Community Partnerships
Community partnerships or networks of collaborating public and nonprofit organizations are an important way of addressing a wide range of problems and needs that communities face. In the academic literature, network analysis has been used to analyze and understand the structure of the relationships that make up multiorganizational partnerships. But this tool is not well‐known outside the small group of researchers who study networks, and it is se…
Managing the hollow state Collaboration and contracting
This article presents what the authors have learned about managing networks of public, private and nonprofit service providers in the context of decentralized and devolved governmental regimes - what the authors have termed the hollow state. The characteristics of the hollow state are discussed along with two strategies for managing networks of organizations that jointly produce a public service - collaboration and contracting. The article revisi…
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 community‐based, mostly publicly funded health, human service, and public welfare organizations. Consistent with pressures to perform effectively from a broad range of key stakeh…
Governing the Hollow State
For the past ten years the authors have conducted a concentrated research program on the dimensions and impact of the hollow state. The hollow state is a metaphor for the increasing use of third parties, often nonprofits, to deliver social services and generally act in the name of the state. The types of structures, incentives, and mechanisms used to control third-party providers have been the focus of this research. The empirical thrust of this …
Research Notes. Networks Within Networks
This study explored the use of clique analysis for explaining network effectiveness. In data from networks of mental health agencies in three cities, effectiveness, measured as client outcomes, was...
Measuring Network Structure
Networks have been a research issue in public administration for many years. Because of the difficulty of measuring networks, they have often been treated as a metaphor, a conceptual scheme, or a management technique (networking). The work on networks in public administration is almost all of the case study and rarely of the comparative case variety. This article presents the results of two studies of networks using social network analysis as a t…
Principles for Controlling Agents
The authors of this article have developed a preliminary theory of network effectiveness wherein the unit of analysis is not the organization but the ties between the parts of a network of organizations that jointly produce a service (Provan and Milward 1995). This theory and the study that produced it differ from most studies of interorganizational relations and networks in that it has a performance-based dependent variable. The leading text in …
Services Integration for Vulnerable Populations
This article discusses the presumed benefits and problems concerning integration of health and human services for vulnerable clients. Findings from a study of services integration in community mental health are summarized and conclusions are drawn about whether integration is beneficial for client outcomes. In contrast to the generally held wisdom that “more integration is better,” results indicate that high integration among provider agencies do…
Institutional-Level Norms and Organizational Involvement In a Service-Implementation Network
This article, which focuses on organizations that serve seriously mentally ill adults in a single community, is an attempt to explain the involvement of these organizations in a network of service delivery, a “service-implementation network.” With the use of an institutional theory perspective four hypotheses were developed, each focusing on an aspect of an organization's service orientation thought to reflect its commitment to and support of ins…
Organizational and Decision Unit Characteristics and Board Influence in Independent versus Multihospital System-Affiliated Hospitals
Keith G. Provan, Organizational and Decision Unit Characteristics and Board Influence in Independent versus Multihospital System-Affiliated Hospitals, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sep., 1988), pp. 239-252
Modes of Network Governance
This article examines the governance of organizational networks and the impact of governance on network effectiveness. Three basic models, or forms, of network governance are developed focusing on their distinct structural properties. Propositions are formulated examining conditions for the effectiveness of each form. The tensions inherent in each form are then discussed, followed by the role that management may play in addressing these tensions.…
Governing the Hollow State
For the past ten years the authors have conducted a concentrated research program on the dimensions and impact of the hollow state. The hollow state is a metaphor for the increasing use of third parties, often nonprofits, to deliver social services and generally act in the name of the state. The types of structures, incentives, and mechanisms used to control third-party providers have been the focus of this research. The empirical thrust of this …
Principles for Controlling Agents
The authors of this article have developed a preliminary theory of network effectiveness wherein the unit of analysis is not the organization but the ties between the parts of a network of organizations that jointly produce a service (Provan and Milward 1995). This theory and the study that produced it differ from most studies of interorganizational relations and networks in that it has a performance-based dependent variable. The leading text in …
The Use of Network Analysis to Strengthen Community Partnerships
Community partnerships or networks of collaborating public and nonprofit organizations are an important way of addressing a wide range of problems and needs that communities face. In the academic literature, network analysis has been used to analyze and understand the structure of the relationships that make up multiorganizational partnerships. But this tool is not well‐known outside the small group of researchers who study networks, and it is se…
The Evolution of Structural Embeddedness and Organizational Social Outcomes in a Centrally Governed Health and Human Services Network
This research examines the effects, over time, of network embeddedness, on three organizationally based social outcomes. We argue that in a centralized, publicly funded but mixed sector health and human services network, an organization's structural embeddedness in the network, as measured by its centrality, will be related to its trustworthiness, reputation, and influence, as rated by other network members, and that this relationship will streng…
Towards an Exogenous Theory of Public Network Performance
This article offers insights into the complexity of assessing the performance of public networks. We have identified three so‐called exogenous factors: form of the network, type of inception—whether the network was initially formed as voluntary or mandated—and developmental stage of the network. We argue that where a network stands on each of these factors will determine the appropriateness of specific criteria for assessing the performance of th…
Measuring Network Structure
Networks have been a research issue in public administration for many years. Because of the difficulty of measuring networks, they have often been treated as a metaphor, a conceptual scheme, or a management technique (networking). The work on networks in public administration is almost all of the case study and rarely of the comparative case variety. This article presents the results of two studies of networks using social network analysis as a t…
Governance and Collaboration
As examples of a state of agents, this paper will present a comparative analysis of the evolution of two community mental health networks that both have similar contracts from the State of Arizona and operate under the same set of rules. One of these is governed by a for-profit firm that both produces services directly and buys them from a network of nonprofit agencies. The other is governed by a community based nonprofit that contracts with four…
Resource Tangibility and Patterns of Interaction in a Publicly Funded Health and Human Services Network
This article examines a publicly funded mental health services network, focusing on the patterns of interaction in five resource-based subnetworks. We argue that the structure of network relationships can be explained by the nature of the resources that are at the source of the interaction. Depending on whether a particular resource is tangible or tacit, subnetwork structures will differ in predictable ways. We found that the pattern of interacti…
Institutional-Level Norms and Organizational Involvement In a Service-Implementation Network
This article, which focuses on organizations that serve seriously mentally ill adults in a single community, is an attempt to explain the involvement of these organizations in a network of service delivery, a “service-implementation network.” With the use of an institutional theory perspective four hypotheses were developed, each focusing on an aspect of an organization's service orientation thought to reflect its commitment to and support of ins…
Awareness of Evidence-Based Practices by Organizations in a Publicly Funded Smoking Cessation Network
This research examines the awareness of evidence based practices by the public organizations that fund services in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC). NAQC is a large, publicly funded, goal-directed "whole network," spanning both Canada and the U.S., working to get people to quit smoking. Building on prior research on the dissemination and diffusion of innovation and evidence based practices, and considering differences between network…
Managing Collaborative Effort
The research reported here is a structural analysis of the significance of ties to network leaders in securing the essential effort necessary to whole, goal-directed network functioning. Drawing on the work of Chester Barnard, we focus on one of Barnard’s three functions of the executive, securing essential effort and then examine the importance of certain network ties for securing effort in a goal-directed network. We specifically focus on Simme…
Mapping Tobacco Quitlines in North America
Objectives. This study was designed to better understand how the network of quitlines in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) interact and share new knowledge on quitline practices. Methods. Network relationship data were collected from all 63 publicly funded quitlines in North America, including information sharing, partner trust, and reputation. Results. There was a strong tendency for US and Canadian quitlines to seek information from…
Implementation of Tobacco Cessation Quitline Practices in the United States and Canada
Objectives. We examined relationships between implementation of tobacco quitline practices, levels of evidence of practices, and quitline reach and spending. Methods. In June and July 2009, a total of 176 quitline funders and providers in the United States and Canada completed a survey on quitline practices, in particular quitline-level implementation for the reported practices. From these data, we selected and categorized evidence-based and emer…
Organizational and Decision Unit Characteristics and Board Influence in Independent versus Multihospital System-Affiliated Hospitals
Keith G. Provan, Organizational and Decision Unit Characteristics and Board Influence in Independent versus Multihospital System-Affiliated Hospitals, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sep., 1988), pp. 239-252
Institutional-Level Norms and Organizational Involvement In a Service-Implementation Network
This article, which focuses on organizations that serve seriously mentally ill adults in a single community, is an attempt to explain the involvement of these organizations in a network of service delivery, a “service-implementation network.” With the use of an institutional theory perspective four hypotheses were developed, each focusing on an aspect of an organization's service orientation thought to reflect its commitment to and support of ins…
Services Integration for Vulnerable Populations
This article discusses the presumed benefits and problems concerning integration of health and human services for vulnerable clients. Findings from a study of services integration in community mental health are summarized and conclusions are drawn about whether integration is beneficial for client outcomes. In contrast to the generally held wisdom that “more integration is better,” results indicate that high integration among provider agencies do…
Research Notes. Networks Within Networks
This study explored the use of clique analysis for explaining network effectiveness. In data from networks of mental health agencies in three cities, effectiveness, measured as client outcomes, was...
Measuring Network Structure
Networks have been a research issue in public administration for many years. Because of the difficulty of measuring networks, they have often been treated as a metaphor, a conceptual scheme, or a management technique (networking). The work on networks in public administration is almost all of the case study and rarely of the comparative case variety. This article presents the results of two studies of networks using social network analysis as a t…
Principles for Controlling Agents
The authors of this article have developed a preliminary theory of network effectiveness wherein the unit of analysis is not the organization but the ties between the parts of a network of organizations that jointly produce a service (Provan and Milward 1995). This theory and the study that produced it differ from most studies of interorganizational relations and networks in that it has a performance-based dependent variable. The leading text in …
Governing the Hollow State
For the past ten years the authors have conducted a concentrated research program on the dimensions and impact of the hollow state. The hollow state is a metaphor for the increasing use of third parties, often nonprofits, to deliver social services and generally act in the name of the state. The types of structures, incentives, and mechanisms used to control third-party providers have been the focus of this research. The empirical thrust of this …
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 community‐based, mostly publicly funded health, human service, and public welfare organizations. Consistent with pressures to perform effectively from a broad range of key stakeh…
Managing the hollow state Collaboration and contracting
This article presents what the authors have learned about managing networks of public, private and nonprofit service providers in the context of decentralized and devolved governmental regimes - what the authors have termed the hollow state. The characteristics of the hollow state are discussed along with two strategies for managing networks of organizations that jointly produce a public service - collaboration and contracting. The article revisi…
The Use of Network Analysis to Strengthen Community Partnerships
Community partnerships or networks of collaborating public and nonprofit organizations are an important way of addressing a wide range of problems and needs that communities face. In the academic literature, network analysis has been used to analyze and understand the structure of the relationships that make up multiorganizational partnerships. But this tool is not well‐known outside the small group of researchers who study networks, and it is se…
Resource Tangibility and Patterns of Interaction in a Publicly Funded Health and Human Services Network
This article examines a publicly funded mental health services network, focusing on the patterns of interaction in five resource-based subnetworks. We argue that the structure of network relationships can be explained by the nature of the resources that are at the source of the interaction. Depending on whether a particular resource is tangible or tacit, subnetwork structures will differ in predictable ways. We found that the pattern of interacti…
Interorganizational Networks at the Network Level
This article reviews and discusses the empirical literature on interorganizational networks at the network level of analysis, or what is sometimes referred to as “whole” networks. An overview of the distinction between egocentric and network-level research is first introduced. Then, a review of the modest literature on whole networks is undertaken, along with a summary table outlining the main findings based on a thorough literature search. Final…
Modes of Network Governance
This article examines the governance of organizational networks and the impact of governance on network effectiveness. Three basic models, or forms, of network governance are developed focusing on their distinct structural properties. Propositions are formulated examining conditions for the effectiveness of each form. The tensions inherent in each form are then discussed, followed by the role that management may play in addressing these tensions.…
Towards an Exogenous Theory of Public Network Performance
This article offers insights into the complexity of assessing the performance of public networks. We have identified three so‐called exogenous factors: form of the network, type of inception—whether the network was initially formed as voluntary or mandated—and developmental stage of the network. We argue that where a network stands on each of these factors will determine the appropriateness of specific criteria for assessing the performance of th…
The Evolution of Structural Embeddedness and Organizational Social Outcomes in a Centrally Governed Health and Human Services Network
This research examines the effects, over time, of network embeddedness, on three organizationally based social outcomes. We argue that in a centralized, publicly funded but mixed sector health and human services network, an organization's structural embeddedness in the network, as measured by its centrality, will be related to its trustworthiness, reputation, and influence, as rated by other network members, and that this relationship will streng…
Governance and Collaboration
As examples of a state of agents, this paper will present a comparative analysis of the evolution of two community mental health networks that both have similar contracts from the State of Arizona and operate under the same set of rules. One of these is governed by a for-profit firm that both produces services directly and buys them from a network of nonprofit agencies. The other is governed by a community based nonprofit that contracts with four…
Mapping Tobacco Quitlines in North America
Objectives. This study was designed to better understand how the network of quitlines in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) interact and share new knowledge on quitline practices. Methods. Network relationship data were collected from all 63 publicly funded quitlines in North America, including information sharing, partner trust, and reputation. Results. There was a strong tendency for US and Canadian quitlines to seek information from…
Core Concepts and Key Ideas for Understanding Public Sector Organizational Networks
This article provides an overview of the key research findings and core concepts on the topic of organizational networks. The primary focus is on goal‐directed “whole” service delivery networks, which are prevalent in the public and nonprofit sectors. The findings and ideas presented are especially salient for helping public managers build, maintain, operate, and govern multiorganizational networks in ways that will enhance their effectiveness. B…
Resource Tangibility and the Evolution of a Publicly Funded Health and Human Services Network
This article is a longitudinal examination of a publicly funded network of health and human services organizations that provide services to mentally ill adults. Data were collected at two points in time from a single network in a large U.S. metropolitan area: when the network was completely reorganized, and again when it had matured, four years later. Analysis focuses on changes in the patterns of interaction within and across five resource‐based…
Awareness of Evidence-Based Practices by Organizations in a Publicly Funded Smoking Cessation Network
This research examines the awareness of evidence based practices by the public organizations that fund services in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC). NAQC is a large, publicly funded, goal-directed "whole network," spanning both Canada and the U.S., working to get people to quit smoking. Building on prior research on the dissemination and diffusion of innovation and evidence based practices, and considering differences between network…
Implementation of Tobacco Cessation Quitline Practices in the United States and Canada
Objectives. We examined relationships between implementation of tobacco quitline practices, levels of evidence of practices, and quitline reach and spending. Methods. In June and July 2009, a total of 176 quitline funders and providers in the United States and Canada completed a survey on quitline practices, in particular quitline-level implementation for the reported practices. From these data, we selected and categorized evidence-based and emer…
Managing Collaborative Effort
The research reported here is a structural analysis of the significance of ties to network leaders in securing the essential effort necessary to whole, goal-directed network functioning. Drawing on the work of Chester Barnard, we focus on one of Barnard’s three functions of the executive, securing essential effort and then examine the importance of certain network ties for securing effort in a goal-directed network. We specifically focus on Simme…
Business (18 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Political science (14 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (13 works) · Public relations (12 works) · Community Health and Development (10 works) · Economics (10 works) · Knowledge management (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Marketing (8 works)