A Social Network Analysis of Information Diffusion for Anti-Corruption Cooperation in Thailand

Abstract

Systematic and efficient collaboration are key contributing factors to efficiency in anti-corruption efforts. Research shows Thailand’s anti-corruption networks are decentralised. There are no formal central nodes responsible for coordinating between them. This makes the network not as efficient as it should be. Nevertheless, the work had its limitations. They only studied static relationships and analysed only missions. Thus, this study employs experimental networking to design surveys on information communication within networks, with social network analysis as a tool to analyse data and study dynamics of communication in the network. The results confirm the scattered communication pattern. The advantage is economies of scale in information distribution. However, such a pattern obstructs the efficient flow of information in the network. Information would flow slowly, leading to the risk of losing important information. This poses a significant challenge to collaboration in the network. Thus, Thailand’s anti-corruption networks should be structured systematically, with a focus on efficiency in information communication, based on the findings from this paper.