Formation of social networks and diffusion of innovations

The performance-based reform programme launched by Fujian province in 2000 has been adopted by many other Chinese provinces, including Zhejiang, Hebei, Anhui and Sichuan, over the past 12 years. This article aims to explore the antecedents of the adoption of this programme, in particular, the effects of senior figures' political promotion incentives and diffusion mechanisms. Specifically, event history analysis based on probit regression is used to examine data from 31 Chinese provinces for the 2000–2012 period. The results show that leaders' relative age and chances of being appointed to the Politburo, and distance to the general election, are significantly negatively correlated with the reform programme's adoption, but top-down diffusion is significantly positively correlated with it. Points for practitioners This study confirms that the nomenklatura system in China shapes the diffusion of innovations through the mechanisms of political promotion incentives and intergovernmental interactions. Thus, the dynamics of innovation diffusion are, to some extent, rooted in particular political institutions and shaped by political contexts. Furthermore, the desire for political promotions may figure as a general deep reason for decisions about whether to adopt innovations; therefore, strengthening these incentives for adopting reforms becomes a key strategy.

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Visualizations of personal social networks on Facebook and community structure: an exploratory study

10.31235/osf.io/8aaxa ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Christina Gkini ◽

Alexios Brailas

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Community Structure ◽

Single Point ◽

Community Formation ◽

Structure Pattern ◽

Diffusion Of Information ◽

Qualitative Interpretation ◽

Network Topologies ◽

Personal Social Networks ◽

And Diffusion

We studied the community structure pattern in the visualizations of ten personal social networks on Facebook at a single point in time. It seems to be a strong tendency towards community formation in online personal, social networks: somebody’s friends are usually also friends between them, forming subgroups of more densely connected nodes. Research on community structure in social networks usually focuses on the networks’ statistical properties. There is a need for qualitative studies bridging the gap between network topologies and their sociological implications. To this direction, visual representations of personal networks in social media could be a valuable source of empirical data for qualitative interpretation. Most of the personal social networks’ visualizations in the present study are very highly clustered with densely-knit overlapping subgroups of friends and interconnected between them through wide bridges. This network topology pattern seems to be quite efficient, allowing for a fast spread and diffusion of information across the whole social network.

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Adoption of digital technology in the New Zealand motion picture industry

10.26686/wgtn.17006236 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Rachel Gwendoline McInnes

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Motion Picture ◽

Digital Technology ◽

Diffusion Of Innovations ◽

Motion Picture Industry ◽

Supply Side ◽

Traditional Research ◽

Adoption And Diffusion ◽

And Diffusion ◽

Supply Side Factors

<p>This research applies Frambach's integrated model of the adoption and diffusion of innovations to the adoption of digital technology in the New Zealand motion picture industry. Previous models concerning innovation adoption have typically focused on adopter side variables. The model employed here integrates supply-side variables with the adopter-side variables focused on in traditional research. This research extends Frambach's model to consider the time and extent of adoption. The model is tested through a mail-out survey. Tests of associations between dependent and independent variables are carried out through four measures of association in a bivariate fashion. The results show that supply-side and adopter-side variables are both important influencers of the extent of adoption of digital technology in the motion picture industry. However supply-side factors do not appear to be important determinants of the time of adoption of digital technology in this industry.</p>

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Divide and diffuse: Comparing digital divide and diffusion of innovations perspectives on mobile phone adoption

Mobile Media & Communication ◽

10.1177/2050157915590469 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 401-424 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Ronald E. Rice ◽

Katy E. Pearce

Keyword(s):

Mobile Phone ◽

Digital Divide ◽

Diffusion Of Innovations ◽

And Diffusion

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Innovation

The European Guilds ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.003.0008 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 438-510

Author(s):

Sheilagh Ogilvie

Keyword(s):

Technological Innovation ◽

Diffusion Of Innovations ◽

Spatial Clustering ◽

Technological Knowledge ◽

The Other ◽

Market Failures ◽

New Techniques ◽

The One ◽

And Diffusion

This chapter addresses how guilds dealt with technological innovation. Innovation is a final sphere in which market failures are widespread in premodern economies, as in modern ones. On the one hand, contemporaries frequently complained that guilds blocked new techniques and practices. On the other hand, guilds were in a position to generate cartel rents, and this might have encouraged their members to incur the costs of invention. Guilds might also have encouraged diffusion of technological knowledge through compulsory apprenticeship, mandatory travelling by journeymen, or the spatial clustering of practitioners. Guilds could also affect innovation unintentionally by things they did for other reasons. Guilds thus provide a rich context for investigating the role of different institutional mechanisms in encouraging the invention and diffusion of innovations.

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