BEHAVIORAL FOUNDATIONS AND EQUILIBRIUM NOTIONS FOR SOCIAL NETWORK FORMATION PROCESSES

2004 ◽  
Vol 07 (01) ◽  
pp. 77-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLAS CARAYOL ◽  
PASCALE ROUX
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Small World ◽  
Payoff Function ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Limiting Distributions ◽  
Stochastically Stable ◽  
Social Network Formation

This paper develops a framework for studying social network formation. Partly built upon a formalism used in theoretical economics, the network formation process we introduce is locally driven by agents who maximize a given individual payoff function. We examine two simple models and observe the limiting distributions of stochastically stable networks. We find that these networks share some of the features observed for social networks. In particular, we find critical values of the parameters for which the selected networks exhibit small world properties.

Enabling social networks in an R&D organization

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-246
Author(s):  
Tomas Hellström
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Administrative Unit ◽  
High Level ◽  
Social Network Formation

This paper presents a qualitative study of mechanisms enabling social network formation in the R&D unit of a large technology-based organization. Drawing on interviews with 37 high-level technical and administrative unit members, a number of social network enablers could be discerned, which related to the need for effective location mechanisms, special “enrolment spaces”, and mechanisms for forging contacts. It was also possible to identify a number of higher-order factors for facilitation of network formation, namely hierarchical enablers and communicative and assimilative factors. Based on these results, the paper makes suggestions as to the theoretical and practical significance of social network enabling mechanisms in R&D organizations.

Feminist and Evolutionary Perspectives of Female-Female Competition, Status Seeking, and Social Network Formation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurette T. Liesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Reproductive Strategies ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
Social Network Formation ◽  
Evolutionary Perspectives

During the 1980s and 1990s, feminist evolutionists were instrumental in demonstrating that primate females, including girls and women, can be aggressive and seek status within their groups. Building on their insights, researchers from across disciplines have found that females use a variety of direct and indirect tactics as they pursue their reproductive success. To better understand women’s aggression and status seeking, one also must examine their social networks. Women must not only deal with the dynamics within their groups, they also must deal with pressures from other groups. Success in maintaining connections in one’s social network is vital for access to the various resources women need for their own reproductive success and to keep competitors in check. Overall, women’s social networks, while serving both supportive and competitive functions, profoundly impact on the reproductive future of women and especially the survival and future reproductive strategies of their children.

scholarly journals Understanding the Social Networks That Form within the Context of an Obesity Prevention Intervention

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina B. Gesell ◽  
Kimberly D. Bess ◽  
Shari L. Barkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Obesity Prevention ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Group Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Similar Body ◽  
Child Bmi ◽  
Social Network Formation

Background. Antiobesity interventions have generally failed. Research now suggests that interventions must be informed by an understanding of the social environment.Objective. To examine if new social networks form between families participating in a group-level pediatric obesity prevention trial.Methods. Latino parent-preschool child dyads (N=79) completed the 3-month trial. The intervention met weekly in consistent groups to practice healthy lifestyles. The control met monthly in inconsistent groups to learn about school readiness. UCINET and SIENA were used to examine network dynamics.Results. Children’s mean age was 4.2 years (SD=0.9), and 44% were overweight/obese (BMI≥85th percentile). Parents were predominantly mothers (97%), with a mean age of 31.4 years (SD=5.4), and 81% were overweight/obese (BMI≥25). Over the study, a new social network evolved among participating families. Parents selectively formed friendship ties based on child BMI z-score, (t=2.08;P<.05). This reveals the tendency for mothers to form new friendships with mothers whose children have similar body types.Discussion. Participating in a group-level intervention resulted in new social network formation. New ties were greatest with mothers who had children of similar body types. This finding might contribute to the known inability of parents to recognize child overweight.

A model of social network formation under the impact of structural balance

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (09) ◽  
pp. 1650051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Li ◽  
Jiajun Cheng ◽  
Yingwen Chen ◽  
Hui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Common Phenomenon ◽  
Structural Balance ◽  
Negative Links ◽  
Social Network Formation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Negative Relationships ◽  
Industrial Societies

Social networks have attracted remarkable attention from both academic and industrial societies and it is of great importance to understand the formation of social networks. However, most existing research cannot be applied directly to investigate social networks, where relationships are heterogeneous and structural balance is a common phenomenon. In this paper, we take both positive and negative relationships into consideration and propose a model to characterize the process of social network formation under the impact of structural balance. In this model, a new node first establishes a link with an existing node and then tries to connect to each of the newly connected node’s neighbors. If a new link is established, the type of this link is determined by structural balance. Then we analyze the degree distribution of the generated network theoretically, and estimate the fractions of positive and negative links. All analysis results are verified by simulations. These results are of importance to understand the formation of social networks, and the model can be easily extended to consider more realistic situations.

scholarly journals Simulating activation propagation in social networks using the graph theory

2010 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
František Dařena ◽  
Alexander Troussov ◽  
Jan Žižka
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Graph Theory ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Directed Graphs ◽  
Good Method ◽  
Spreading Activation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spreading Activation Algorithm ◽  
Social Network Formation

The social-network formation and analysis is nowadays one of objects that are in a focus of intensive research. The objective of the paper is to suggest the perspective of representing social networks as graphs, with the application of the graph theory to problems connected with studying the network-like structures and to study spreading activation algorithm for reasons of analyzing these structures. The paper presents the process of modeling multidimensional networks by means of directed graphs with several characteristics. The paper also demonstrates using Spreading Activation algorithm as a good method for analyzing multidimensional network with the main focus on recommender systems. The experiments showed that the choice of parameters of the algorithm is crucial, that some kind of constraint should be included and that the algorithm is able to provide a stable environment for simulations with networks.

scholarly journals Facilitating Intercultural Encounters with International Students: A Contribution to Inclusion and Social Network Formation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Resch ◽  
José Pedro Amorim
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
International Students ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Adequate Funding ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Inner Circle ◽  
Local Students ◽  
Social Network Formation

Higher education has become increasingly mobile and international, with many students taking the opportunity to study abroad during their studies. When they do so, forming and maintaining social networks is fundamental for their development of a sense of social inclusion. According to Coleman’s model of concentric circles, international students can establish networks with students from their own country (inner circle), with other international students (middle circle) and with local students (outer circle). This study explores various formats of organised student encounters in these three circles which contribute to the social inclusion of international students. The article is based on desk research of 15 formats of intercultural student encounters which facilitate social network formation during a study placement abroad in six countries in Europe. The findings show that all the studied formats of organised student encounters facilitate social networks in the middle and outer circles, while those in the inner circle are established by the students themselves and through informal social interaction. Formats embedded in the curriculum are most suited to facilitating social network formation throughout the academic year. Extracurricular formats, in contrast, tend to be single occasion activities without follow‐up. The study shows that universities can facilitate social network formation and assist social inclusion for international students through organised encounters in which international and local students meet. Organising such encounters does, however, require resources, evaluation, and adequate funding.

Networks

2020 ◽  
pp. 534-562
Author(s):  
Matthew O. Jackson ◽  
Brian W. Rogers ◽  
Yves Zenou
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Labor Market Outcomes ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Market Outcomes

What is the role of social networks in driving persistent differences between races and genders in education and labor market outcomes? What is the role of homophily in such differences? Why is such homophily seen even if it ends up with negative consequences in terms of labor markets? This chapter discusses social network analysis from the perspective of economics. The chapter is organized around the theme of externalities: the effects that one’s behavior has on others’ welfare. Externalities underlie the interdependencies that make networks interesting to social scientists. This chapter discusses network formation, as well as interactions between people’s behaviors within a given network, and the implications in a variety of settings. Finally, the chapter highlights some empirical challenges inherent in the statistical analysis of network-based data.

scholarly journals Overchoosing: A Mechanism of Tie-Formation in Social Networks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasuku Igarashi ◽  
Johank Koskinen
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Network Data ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Friendship Network ◽  
Fundamental Mechanism

We introduce the concept of overchoosing as a fundamental mechanism of tie formation in directed social networks. The parameter represents a tendency for actors to send a lot of ties but receive few nominations back, something which implies the importance of modeling reciprocity violation as a basic tie-formation process. Analyzing large friendship network data (N = 1,575) by the stochastic actor-oriented models revealed that, under controlling for several endogenous tie formation processes, the parameter captured the formation of open triads and substantially improved the goodness of fit of the model to the data.

Simulating Social Network Formation

2011 ◽  
pp. 581-599
Author(s):  
Robert Gilles ◽  
Tabitha James ◽  
Reza Barkhi ◽  
Dimitrios Diamantaras
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Agent Behavior ◽  
Graph Theoretic ◽  
Model And Simulation ◽  
Graph Theoretic Models

Social networks depict complex systems as graph theoretic models. The study of the formation of such systems (or networks) and the subsequent analysis of the network structures are of great interest. For information systems research and its impact on business practice, the ability to model and simulate a system of individuals interacting to achieve a certain socio-economic goal holds much promise for proper design and use of cyber networks. We use case-based decision theory to formulate a customizable model of information gathering in a social network. In this model, the agents in the network have limited awareness of the social network in which they operate and of the fixed, underlying payoff structure. Agents collect payoff information from neighbors within the prevailing social network, and they base their networking decisions on this information. Along with the introduction of the decision theoretic model, we developed software to simulate the formation of such networks in a customizable context to examine how the network structure can be influenced by the parameters that define social relationships. We present computational experiments that illustrate the growth and stability of the simulated social networks ensuing from the proposed model. The model and simulation illustrates how network structure influences agent behavior in a social network and how network structures, agent behavior, and agent decisions influence each other.

scholarly journals Integration in emerging social networks explains academic failure and success

2018 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 792-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Stadtfeld ◽  
András Vörös ◽  
Timon Elmer ◽  
Zsófia Boda ◽  
Isabel J. Raabe
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Academic Failure ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Academic Year

Academic success of students has been explained with a variety of individual and socioeconomic factors. Social networks that informally emerge within student communities can have an additional effect on their achievement. However, this effect of social ties is difficult to measure and quantify, because social networks are multidimensional and dynamically evolving within the educational context. We repeatedly surveyed a cohort of 226 engineering undergraduates between their first day at university and a crucial examination at the end of the academic year. We investigate how social networks emerge between previously unacquainted students and how integration in these networks explains academic success. Our study measures multiple important dimensions of social ties between students: their positive interactions, friendships, and studying relations. By using statistical models for dynamic network data, we are able to investigate the processes of social network formation in the cohort. We find that friendship ties informally evolve into studying relationships over the academic year. This process is crucial, as studying together with others, in turn, has a strong impact on students’ success at the examination. The results are robust to individual differences in socioeconomic background factors and to various indirect measures of cognitive abilities, such as prior academic achievement and being perceived as smart by other students. The findings underline the importance of understanding social network dynamics in educational settings. They call for the creation of university environments promoting the development of positive relationships in pursuit of academic success.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document