Towards a Dynamic Framework of Network Analysis

“Classic” cross-sectional network analysis, as presented in chapter 5, captures the development state of a network at a certain point in time, i.e. it takes a snapshot of the status quo. This allows for studying the structural characteristics of the network and the positioning and embeddedness of individual actors. There is meanwhile a large body of established literature which applies this type of analysis, but there are also shortcomings with this approach. Even though we may conclude from SNA in combination with a correlation analysis that a certain network related correlation exists, the direction of causality is often very ambiguous.