  This article contributes to the network effectiveness literature by
identifying the theoretical mechanisms and network measures scholars in public
administration and policy use to draw inferences between network structures and
network effects. We conducted a systematic review of empirical network effects
research in 40 journals of public administration and policy from 1998 to 2019.
We reviewed and coded 89 articles and described the main social theories used
in the network effectiveness literature and the associated mechanisms that
translate network structures to network effects. We also explain how scholars
operationalize those theoretical mechanisms through network measures. Overall,
our findings reflect that there is a limited use of social theories for the
explanation of network effects and in some cases, there is an inconsistent use
of network measures associated with theories. Moreover, we identify the main
challenges related to network effects, including the difficulty of isolating
specific mechanisms related to a particular social theory, the use of network
structures both as a mechanism and as a measure, and the lack of data to
examine network dynamics and coevolution.
