Administration & Society 2014, Vol. 46(7) 796–824 © 2013 SAGE Publications DOI: 10.1177/0095399712473985 aas.sagepub.com 73985AAS 46 7 10.1177/0095399712473 ation & SocietyMorçöl et al. Publications 1 Penn State University, Middletown, PA, USA Corresponding Author: Göktug ˘ Morçöl, Penn State University, 777 W. Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA 17057-4898, USA. Email: Gxm27@psu.edu Business Improvement Districts in Urban Governance: A Longitudinal Case Study Göktug ˘ Morçöl 1 , Triparna Vasavada 1 , and Sohee Kim 1 Abstract Using a longitudinal case study, we analyzed the centralities and roles of the actors in an urban governance network. The results of our network text analyses and social network analyses of newspaper articles show that the director of the business improvement district, the city council, and mayors were the most central actors in the governance network. Our thematic content analyses of the policy-related actions of these actors show that while the council and mayors played their prescribed roles, the director’s roles were more diversified than what his position requires. We discuss the implications of these findings for urban governance. Keywords business improvement districts, urban governance networks, thematic content analysis, network text analysis, social network analysis Business improvement districts (BIDs) have become increasingly popular mechanisms of local service delivery in urban areas recently. They have spread to all states of the United States, most provinces of Canada, and a few other countries around the world (the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Article