Table V Research gaps and directions... | Emerald Publishing

Table V

Research gaps and directions

Focus	Research gaps	Potential research directions
Social support	Exploring social capital in disaster preparedness, response and rebuilding Analyzing embeddedness in humanitarian systems	Operationalization of tie strength among humanitarian organizations and stakeholders Empirical investigation of cohesion, homophily, propinquity and affinity
Coordination	Discovering key players in humanitarian networks Investigating the versatility of humanitarian organizations’ functions during crisis Analyzing controllability in humanitarian systems	Implementing metrics beyond commonly used centrality measures Operationalization of multiplexity in a humanitarian context Identifying sets of driver nodes that can guide the system’s entire dynamics
Structure	Impact of indirect node connectivity on humanitarian outcomes Exploring network motifs in humanitarian networks and strengthening statistical inference Lack of community structure analysis from a whole-network perspective	Exploring under-studied network metrics such as reach centrality Comparing structural properties of existing humanitarian networks to random graphs Empirical assessment of humanitarian affiliation using network partitioning methods
Longitudinal analysis	Characteristics of humanitarian dynamics over time Analyzing humanitarian collaboration patterns across multiple time periods	Studying network behavior of humanitarian organizations through multiple disasters Studying network churn and its effect on network structure humanitarian outcomes

Focus	Research gaps	Potential research directions
Social support	Exploring social capital in disaster preparedness, response and rebuildingAnalyzing embeddedness in humanitarian systems	Operationalization of tie strength among humanitarian organizations and stakeholdersEmpirical investigation of cohesion, homophily, propinquity and affinity
Coordination	Discovering key players in humanitarian networksInvestigating the versatility of humanitarian organizations’ functions during crisisAnalyzing controllability in humanitarian systems	Implementing metrics beyond commonly used centrality measuresOperationalization of multiplexity in a humanitarian contextIdentifying sets of driver nodes that can guide the system’s entire dynamics
Structure	Impact of indirect node connectivity on humanitarian outcomesExploring network motifs in humanitarian networks and strengthening statistical inferenceLack of community structure analysis from a whole-network perspective	Exploring under-studied network metrics such as reach centralityComparing structural properties of existing humanitarian networks to random graphsEmpirical assessment of humanitarian affiliation using network partitioning methods
Longitudinal analysis	Characteristics of humanitarian dynamics over timeAnalyzing humanitarian collaboration patterns across multiple time periods	Studying network behavior of humanitarian organizations through multiple disastersStudying network churn and its effect on network structure humanitarian outcomes