The competing impact of network politics and hamula (clan) politics on perceived network performance: the case of minority networks

Studies of network governance have found that network management contributes to the effective performance of the network. Nevertheless, the influence of politics on the relationship between network management and network performance has not yet been examined. This is particularly true within traditional minority communities that have only partially adopted aspects of modernity and democratic governance. We conducted a survey among 160 Arab Israeli network members to examine the relationship between network management and perceived network performance by taking into account the effect of internal and external politics. Our findings show that network politics and hamula politics have a moderated mediation effect on this relationship. The study makes a theoretical contribution by emphasising the role of socio-cultural, managerial and political aspects of traditional communities when trying to develop local network governance. In these frameworks, the adoption of local network governance is challenging because democracy and network governance are still under-developed.