Principal investigator: Omar Barroso Khodr
Authors: Noh et al. (2025)
Original title: The Impacts of Political Leaders' Social Capital on Policy Success: The Case of Local Food Systems
Location of the Intervention: New York (USA)
Sample Size: 185 municipal leaders.
Primary Variable of Interest: Access to food
Type of Intervention: Collaborative leadership between governments.
Methodology: Mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative research) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression.
Summary
According to Noh et al. (2025), network approaches to collaborative leadership indicate that the success of local leaders depends on their ability to connect the organization to multiple stakeholders and resource sources. Based on the literature on management networks and using a mixed-methods approach—which includes 38 semi-structured interviews and a survey of 185 municipal leaders in New York State—the authors investigate how these leaders' networking efforts influence food access and security in their communities. They hypothesize that different forms of social capital (bridging, linking, and connecting) affect the performance of public policies. The results show, however, that only bridging social capital has a significant impact on food access. The study concludes with suggestions for future research and public policy recommendations.
- Policy Problem
First, Noh et al. (2025) identify a central public policy issue: how can local governments address complex problems in a context of fiscal austerity and increasing responsibilities? Cities and towns are increasingly pressured to solve challenges such as access to food, even in the face of reduced state and federal support. This creates a critical dilemma: local leaders need to find new ways to produce effective results without relying on traditional structures of vertical funding and coordination. The study investigates how collaborative leadership can fill this gap, recognizing that contemporary public problems require multi-sectoral and multi-level approaches that exceed the capacity of any single government.
Secondly, the study seeks to clarify how collaborative leadership works in practice. Although widely recognized as essential, its internal dynamics—especially the role of different stakeholders—are still poorly understood. Without clarity on which networking behaviors are most effective, local governments cannot strategically direct their limited resources. There is a lack of guidance on whom to mobilize, how to define problems, and which channels to use to obtain support. The study advances this point by going beyond simply measuring the intensity of networks and examining with whom leaders connect and how these specific relationships influence policy outcomes.
Thirdly, the study addresses the challenge of identifying which types of relationships are most effective in achieving public objectives. While not all collaborations have the same value, previous research has treated networking as a homogeneous activity, focusing only on the strength or frequency of ties. This hinders strategic decisions about where to invest time and energy. By differentiating between bonding, bridging, and linking capital, the study offers a more precise understanding of which relationships function as effective channels for essential resources. The research question, therefore, directly examines the impact of these different types of networking on the effectiveness of local policies.
Consequently, the study uses access to food as an empirical field to explore broader issues of networked governance. Food policy is a clear example of the challenges faced by local governments: it depends on a constellation of actors—suppliers, non-profit organizations, regional food banks—operating at multiple levels to connect citizens' needs to available resources. Local leaders need to interact with actors who often extend beyond the boundaries of their communities. By analyzing how municipal supervisors and mayors in New York State build networks to improve access to food, the study generates insights applicable to other areas of complex policy, where local governments need to leverage external relationships to compensate for limited internal capacities and reduced support from higher levels.
- Policy Implementation Context
This study stems from a network-based vision of collaborative leadership, shifting the focus from individual managerial skills to their ability to build and coordinate relationships across organizational boundaries. This perspective is particularly relevant at the local level, where governments grapple with scarce resources and complex problems—such as access to food—that cannot be solved in isolation. In this approach, leadership is a relational process that involves acting beyond traditional structures, allocating resources efficiently, and balancing the interests of multiple stakeholders. The literature shows that effective local leaders tend to be articulators capable of forging links with civil society, other public managers, and political actors to achieve results.
Noh et al. (2025) address an important theoretical gap: understanding how managerial networking works. Previous research, such as the seminal work of Meier and O'Toole (2003; 2010), emphasized the intensity of networking activities, but this metric does not capture the different types of resources, information, and support that emerge from distinct relationships. To advance this, the study integrates the literature on managerial networks with social capital theory, proposing a framework that differentiates the types of stakeholders with whom leaders connect. This allows for an analysis of how the nature of each relationship shapes opportunities and limitations in policy implementation.
Based on this theoretical integration, the study defines three forms of managerial social capital: bonding capital, bridging capital, and linking capital. Bonding capital refers to a leader's connections with homogeneous groups, especially their local community. These strong ties, based on trust, facilitate communication, coordination, and collective action, and can improve access to food through sharing and equitable distribution.
Next, bridging capital, in turn, involves connections with external and heterogeneous actors—such as other municipalities, non-profit organizations, and businesses. These ties broaden access to new perspectives, innovative resources, financial support, and volunteers, helping local governments overcome their structural limitations. In this way, linking capital encompasses vertical relationships with higher-level authorities, such as municipal and state governments. These links are expected to provide political support, subsidies, and technical guidance, strengthening the legitimacy and implementation capacity of local policies.
- Evaluation Details
The methodology employed by Noh et al. is organized into two distinct phases of data collection: a qualitative phase, based on semi-structured interviews, followed by a large-scale quantitative survey. In the qualitative phase, the sampling base consisted of a comprehensive directory of public officials from counties, cities, towns, and municipalities incorporated throughout the state of New York, excluding New York City. The target population for the interviews was elected officials from the five regions with the highest concentration of rural residents.
In this context, the researchers combined random and snowball sampling techniques, resulting in 38 interviews recorded via Zoom, each lasting approximately one hour. The protocol contained 15 open-ended questions addressing topics such as local food systems, governance, and public policies. In the quantitative phase, the survey was distributed to all public authorities in the state's nine economic regions through the Qualtrics platform. The distribution process included an initial email invitation on January 4, 2023, followed by two reminders, with a closing date of February 1.
According to the authors, a total of 254 responses were received, which were later refined to 185 complete questionnaires after excluding incomplete forms, resulting in a response rate of 14,2%. Although they acknowledge that this rate is low, the authors contextualize it in light of previous studies with elected local authorities, in which electronic surveys usually register rates between 13% and 22%. To assess possible response bias, a chi-square goodness-of-fit test was performed comparing the sample distribution among economic regions with the expected population distribution [1].
Thus, the research instrument was developed from a preliminary analysis of the interviews and consisted of 25 questions distributed across six sections: access to food, food production, policies and practices, compensation, governance and motivation, in addition to a final block of demographic questions. The final sample was mostly composed of municipal supervisors or village mayors (approximately 80%), predominantly men (66%), aged between 60 and 69 years, and with university or higher education (64,1%). Almost half of the respondents (46,4%) had less than five years of experience in the position, and a significant portion (approximately 40%) reported working 20 hours per week or less, often on a voluntary or unpaid basis.
- Method
The authors adopt a mixed-methods approach to operationalize key variables and analyze the data, combining quantitative analysis of questionnaires with qualitative evidence from interviews. In the quantitative component, the dependent variable—access to food—is measured using three location-based indicators: accessibility to seven types of food retailers (such as supermarkets, farmers' markets, and food banks); access to stores and organizations serving residents experiencing food insecurity (including establishments that accept SNAP and social assistance entities); and access to food production sites, such as community gardens and farms.
Noh et al. highlight that the independent variables capture the networking activity of local leaders, measured by questions about the frequency of interaction with different stakeholders, using a five-point Likert scale. These interactions are classified into three forms of social capital: linking capital, referring to collaboration with community members (voters, local entrepreneurs); bridging capital, related to cooperation with local supervisors, universities, non-profit organizations, and private companies; and liaison capital, which involves relationships with formal institutions of higher authority, such as municipal and state authorities and government agency officials.
The control variables include factors associated with organizational capacity (resources, dedicated staff, budget), type of government (cities versus towns), individual characteristics of leaders (gender, age, education, term of office, political ideology), and socioeconomic characteristics of the locality (median family income, employment rate, population, and a local revenue index as an indicator of fiscal health).
For data analysis, the study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to test hypotheses about the relationship between networking activities and food access outcomes. To complement and contextualize the statistical findings, the authors incorporate qualitative data from semi-structured interviews conducted in the initial phase. This data is analyzed through a systematic two-stage coding process. In the first stage, a rapid coding technique, based on a summary model, organizes the responses into 12 main categories, such as food production, compensation, and internal and external collaboration.
In the second stage, the first author revisits the material to conduct an iterative inductive coding, focusing specifically on the categories of collaboration, identifying five refined themes: bonding, bridging, connection, resources, and leadership. To ensure analytical rigor and avoid biased selection of excerpts, the second author reviews and verifies the coding, and the conclusions are validated through the presentation of comprehensive evidence and detailed citations that support the thematic analysis.
- Main results
Quantitative results show that bridging capital is the only form of social capital with a positive and statistically significant association with access to food. Each one-unit increase in this type of capital raises access to retailers by 0,408, support for food-insecure residents by 0,479, and access to food production by 0,375. According to the authors, these effects remain consistent across the three measures analyzed. In contrast, link capital (relationships with local citizens and volunteers) and liaison capital (relationships with municipal and state authorities) do not show a significant impact.
Among the control variables, organizational capacity only improves access to retailers, while municipal governments—compared to villages—exhibit negative effects on access to retailers and support for food-insecure residents. Individual characteristics of leaders, such as gender, also stand out: male leadership is associated with greater access to food support than female leadership.
Thus, the authors report that the qualitative results help to explain these patterns. In the case of community capital, the interviews reveal strong heterogeneity: some municipalities have active volunteerism, while others face a sharp decline in community participation and difficulties in mobilization. This variability suggests that community engagement does not constitute a consistent mechanism for improving public policy outcomes.
In this sense, bridging capital, in turn, appears recurrently in 31 of the 38 interviews as an indispensable element for success. Leaders report that external networks—such as monthly supervisory meetings, informal collaborations with neighboring cities, and partnerships with non-profit organizations, churches, and businesses—provide stable information, resources, and spaces for cooperation. These connections are especially important given limited local resources, allowing access to external funding and infrastructure that municipalities, in isolation, do not possess.
Finally, linking capital is described as marked by strained relationships with higher levels of government. While some acknowledge the importance of federal programs, such as ARPA funds, many report a lack of guidance, difficulty contacting state agencies, and a perception that state and federal governments do not support—or even hinder—smaller municipalities and villages. This predominantly negative experience helps explain why linking capital does not translate into significant improvements in food access in quantitative analysis.
- Lessons in Public Policy
Noh et al. (2025) offer a message about how communities can truly address complex challenges, such as ensuring everyone has access to food. The study's first surprise is that internal bonds—that trust between neighbors, the sense of belonging, mutual aid—were not enough to improve access to food. Even in very close-knit communities, these relationships did not generate the necessary mobilization. Often, there was a lack of genuine reciprocity or simply no resources to transform goodwill into concrete action.
In this way, the authors highlight that the same applies to relationships with state and municipal governments. In theory, having good connections with authorities should facilitate the implementation of public policies. In practice, conflicts between different levels of government and the perception of a lack of support have undermined these channels. The study dismantles the idea that simply having a cohesive community and a well-defined governmental hierarchy is enough for policies to work. When there are conflicting priorities and few resources, these paths become too narrow.
The key finding comes when the authors analyze so-called bridging capital—external connections with nonprofits, churches, businesses, and even other cities. This is where the magic happens. These partnerships were the only form of social capital that truly expanded access to food. They bring new ideas, fresh resources, and creative solutions that wouldn't emerge solely within the community. In times of tight budgets and limited local capacities, seeking allies beyond municipal boundaries ceases to be a luxury and becomes an essential strategy.
In this context, the study also sheds light on a sensitive point: the relationship between local and higher-level governments. Top-down approaches, when they ignore the specificities of each community, can generate friction and stall the process. The authors show how municipal leaders prefer bottom-up solutions, while state and federal governments tend to see local structures as inefficient and advocate for consolidation. This clash of perspectives creates real barriers. For policies to work, governments need to act as partners—offering support, guidance, and respect for local autonomy, and not just imposing structural reforms.
Finally, the study leaves a direct message for those who lead public policy: invest time and energy in building external networks. That's where the most concrete results emerge. And, for those who evaluate policies, the lesson is clear: it's not enough to measure how many connections a manager has. It's necessary to understand the quality of these relationships—whether there is trust, alignment of objectives, and lasting commitment. The study also paves the way for future research on how different types of social capital can combine in specific contexts, offering a promising roadmap for smarter and more effective policies.
References
Meier, K.J., & O'Toole, L.J. (2003). Public management and educational performance: The impact of managerial networking. Public Administration Review, 63(6), 689–699. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6210.00332
Meier, K.J., & O'Toole, L.J. (2010). Beware of managers not being gifts: How management capacity increases the impact of managerial networking. Public Administration, 88(4), 1025–1044. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2010.01853.x
[1] The test result (χ² = 22,77, df = 8, p = 0,004) indicated that the sample was adequately representative.
