Review of the application of social network analysis (SNA) in construction project management research

• Social network analysis (SNA) has elicited increasing attention from researchers.
• 63 SNA papers published between 1997 and 2015 are analyzed quantitatively.
• The papers are categorized into eight topics using a scientometric technique.
• An emerging trend of SNA-based research design and methodologies is identified.
• Three future directions for SNA application in CPM are provided.

Over the past two decades, social network analysis (SNA) has elicited increasing attention in construction project management (CPM) research as a response to the emerging perspective of viewing projects as network-based organizational organizations. However, a thorough review of SNA application in CPM research is unavailable. This study aims to address this gap by reviewing 63 SNA papers published in eight peer-reviewed journals from 1997 to 2015 to ascertain the status of this research area and identify future research directions. The papers are analyzed in terms of institutional and individual contribution, citations, topic coverage and research design and methodologies. Three research directions, namely, internal stakeholder networks for outcome-related values, external stakeholder networks for process-related values, and external stakeholder networks for outcome-related values, are identified. The findings of this study are believed to provide useful references for the future application of SNA in CPM research.