🔎 New Approach to How IOs Borrow From One Another

Diffusion across states is well studied, but diffusion among international organizations (IOs) is less understood. A novel three-part approach reframes IO diffusion by centering how connections among IOs create pathways for policy and institutional spread, by clarifying different kinds of convergence effects, and by combining dyadic and spatial analytic tools to capture networked influence.

🧭 Three Elements of the Approach

• A focus on connectivity among IOs as the concrete pathways through which ideas and institutional forms travel.
• A conceptual distinction between alternative types of convergence effects (e.g., broad alignment versus precise model imitation).
• A methodological strategy that pairs dyadic analysis (organization-to-organization links) with spatial analysis (the role of nearby or network-proximate IOs) to detect diffusion dynamics.

📊 Evidence: Participatory Governance Arrangements, 1970–2010

• The approach is illustrated with an empirical case analyzing the diffusion of participatory governance arrangements among IOs from 1970 to 2010.
• Data cover organizational linkages and the presence of specific participatory institutional designs over the four-decade period.

🔁 Key Findings

• Connectivity among IOs contributes to institutional convergence.
• Convergence most often appears as imitation of very specific institutional models rather than vague policy alignment.
• Combining dyadic and spatial techniques helps reveal how direct ties and network proximity jointly shape diffusion across IOs.

💡 Why This Matters

• Results refine understanding of how IOs change: not only through state pressure or internal reform, but via inter-organizational networks that transmit concrete institutional templates.
• The three-part framework offers both theoretical clarity and a practical toolkit for studying diffusion in organizationally complex, networked settings — with implications for broader diffusion research beyond IOs.