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This article explains a simulation of the Co-Author Model (CAM) applied in strategic alliance setting where firms use and optimize their network resources. To understand its process casualty better, I explain the model's mechanisms in terms of its interactive dynamics and resulting equilibrium structure. Classified as a Boolean network with two inputs, CAM's dynamics cause a biased equilibrium structure that could then be explained by the Simmelian tie and the completion of structure through structural balance. These explanations not only could answer the criticism that a simulation model is merely a toy model without much realism but could also explain and give insights to both substantive theory and methodology development in strategic alliance research. The results include the effect of a third party, the embeddedness of firms in their alliances, and the real-world implications of the "frozen web": a phenomenon drawn parallel to the financial crisis beginning in 2007.

Advances in text analysis, particularly the ability to extract network based information from texts, is enabling researches to conduct detailed socio-cultural ethnographies rapidly by retrieving characteristic descriptions from texts and fusing the results from varied sources. We describe this process and illustrate it in the context of conflict in the Sudan. We show how network information can be extracted from vast quantities of unstructured texts-based information using computer assisted processes. This is illustrated by an examination of changes in the political networks in Sudan as extracted from the Sudan Tribune. We find that this approach enables rapid high level assessment of a socio-cultural environment, generates results that are viewed as accurate by subject matter experts, and match actual historical events. The relative value of this socio-cultural analysis approach is discussed.

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