Core-periphery structure and power imbalance in disaster management networks: a Bayesian approach to interorganizational response to a public health disaster

Abstract

This article examines the power imbalance associated with core-periphery structure in disaster response networks, drawing on resource dependence, institutional, and network theories. By employing Borgatti and Everett's (1999) algorithm and Bayesian logistic mixed-effects models to analyse data on collaborative ties among organizations that responded to the 2015 epidemic in South Korea, the authors found that a network with a small core emerged during the public health crisis. The ability for organizations to not only provide but also attract resources and the professional and governmental positions that they had held in the disaster management system were associated with the core-periphery structure.