Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SIENA)

Instructor: Filip Agneessens

This mini-module focuses on the longitudinal analysis of social networks using actor-oriented (SIENA) models. SIENA models have become vastly popular in recent years, as they allow one to understand changes (dynamics) in networks over time (potentially combined with changes in behavior).

This mini-module will: 1) provide a non-technical overview of the type of questions such models can answer, and 2) discuss some standard results from published papers. The focus is on the interpretation of results, and not on the underlying method. (The “stochastic models” session provides a more in-depth understanding of the methods).

We will discuss the results for the following two papers in detail.

• • Agneessens, F. Wittek, R. (2012). Where do intra-organizational advice relations come from? The role of informal status and social capital in social exchange. Social Networks 34, 333-345.

  • de Klepper, M., Labianca, J., Sleebos, E., Agneessens, F. (2017). Sociometric status and peer control attempts: A multiple status hierarchies approach. Journal of Management Studies 54, 1-31.

To get the most out of this mini-module, we recommend going over the papers ahead of time.