Untangling how policy collaboration and citation networks shape policy diffusion: empirical evidence from the ICT field

Network governance offers a way to address increasingly complex challenges in public management. However, how policy network structures shape policy diffusion and through which mechanisms remains unclear. Focusing on information and communication technology (ICT) industrial policies in China, we screen 10,628 policy documents and use the 1,474 retained documents to construct a policy collaboration network based on intergovernmental co-issuance relationships and a policy citation network based on policy referencing relationships. We measure network structure using three indicators: degree centrality, structural holes, and clustering coefficient. We then use regression models to examine their associations with policy diffusion. The results show that degree centrality in both networks is positively associated with policy diffusion, whereas structural holes show an inverted U-shaped association. The clustering coefficient is positively associated with diffusion in the policy citation network but negatively associated with it in the policy collaboration network. These findings show how different network structures are associated with policy diffusion in China’s ICT sector. They suggest developing influential focal policies, enhancing cross-departmental collaboration and cross-sectoral policy integration, and adopting differentiated governance strategies tailored to distinct types of policy networks to support policy diffusion.