The COVID-19 response system and collective social service provision. Strategic network dimensions and proximity conside
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The COVID‑19 response system and collective social service provision. Strategic network dimensions and proximity considerations José Antonio Belso‑Martínez1 · Alicia Mas‑Tur2 · Mariola Sánchez1 · María José López‑Sánchez1 Received: 5 June 2020 / Accepted: 13 July 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This paper aims to study and question the emerging social response network to the COVID-19 health crisis in the Valencian region (Spain). Our approach is twofold: a network approach using social network analysis techniques and a social services approach. We seek to analyze the different roles, strategic positions, ego-density and brokerage of the participating organizations. Furthermore, we examine the critical factors for explaining why the different organizations in the ecosystem cooperate. We find that associations and knowledge agents play the most relevant roles. Conversely, local and non-local governments rarely played brokerage roles to coordinate or inter-connect isolated operations of individual organizations. Finally, our results suggest important guidelines for practitioners that may facilitate the collaboration, coordination, and performance of a response network in the future. Keywords Social services · Response networks · Systems · COVID-19 · SNA
* Alicia Mas‑Tur [email protected] José Antonio Belso‑Martínez [email protected] Mariola Sánchez [email protected] María José López‑Sánchez [email protected] 1
Economics and Financial Studies Department, Miguel Hernández University, Alicante, Spain
2
Business Management Department, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
13
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1 Introduction The global pandemic has created a medical crisis and along with it, a severe economic crisis. The virus has affected 216 different countries with a total of 371,166 deaths (World Health Organization 2020a). According to the IMF World Economic Outlook (2020), this health disease is projected to sharply contract the global economy by 3%, this being much worse than during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. From a socio-economic perspective, the outbreak has exposed vulnerabilities and created challenges on many fronts. Among developed countries with universal coverage, health systems have been shown up as being quite fragile. The stagnation on health spending in aging societies and the prioritization of cost saving has revealed the persistence of inequalities in health status and unmet needs for care still persist, especially in crisis contexts such as COVID-19. Quarantine and social isolation have worsened the situation of the most vulnerable social groups of our society. Among others, violence during lockdowns against women and children has risen (Nigam 2020) and an increase in the global poverty at around 0.3–0.7 percentage points in 2020 is expected (World Bank 2020). These facts reinforce the importance of social services to protect and support people against vulnerability. Service research has increasingly found its way into the domain
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