Network similarity and collusion
This study focuses on how collusive construction industry cartels structure their bidding patterns to increase their market shares, while preserving an illusion of competition. Using past research on the economics and social organization of bid-rigging and collusion, we examine a key issue related to similarities within bidding structures that are likely tainted by cartels. The study is empirically based on public procurement data to recreate the structure of interactions between construction industry firms in the province of Quebec (Canada) over a 12-year period (2002–2013). Cross-level multivariate analyses demonstrate...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Social network structure and the trade-off between social utility and economic performance
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Katarzyna Growiec, Jakub Growiec, Bogumił KamińskiAbstractWe put forward a computational multi-agent model capturing the impact of social network structure on individuals’ social trust, willingness to cooperate, social utility and economic performance. Social network structure is modeled as four distinct social capital dimensions: degree, centrality, bridging and bonding social capital. Model setup draws from socio-economic theory and empirical findings based on our novel survey dataset. Results include aggregate-level comparative statics and in...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Homophily and prestige: An assessment of their relative strength to explain link formation in the online climate change debate
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Hannah Schmid-Petri, Silke Adam, Ueli Reber, Thomas Häussler, Daniel Maier, Peter Miltner, Barbara Pfetsch, Annie WaldherrAbstractPrevious work has shown that hyperlinks reflect actors’ strategic choices; these dyadic relationships depend on the actors’ exogenous attributes (e.g., homophily) and the network’s endogenous features (e.g., prestige distribution among actors). We combine these factors as explanatory variables in different exponential random graph models (ERGMs) to assess the relative strength of prestige and homophily for the acto...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Mutual assent or unilateral nomination? A performance comparison of intersection and union rules for integrating self-reports of social relationships
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Francis Lee, Carter T. ButtsAbstractData collection designs for social network studies frequently involve asking both parties to a potential relationship to report on the presence of absence of that relationship, resulting in two measurements per potential tie. When inferring the underlying network, is it better to estimate the tie as present only when both parties report it as present or do so when either reports it? Employing several data sets in which network structure can be well-determined from large numbers of informant reports, we examine the...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Measuring knowledge and experience in two mode temporal networks
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Martin G. Everett, Chiara Broccatelli, Stephen P. Borgatti, Johan KoskinenAbstractTwo mode social network data consisting of actors attending events is a common type of social network data. For these kinds of data it is also common to have additional information about the timing or sequence of the events. We call data of this type two-mode temporal data. We explore the idea that actors attending events gain information from the event in two ways. Firstly the event itself may provide information or training; secondly, as co-attendees interact, they m...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The influence of parents’ social capital on their children’s transition to vocational training in Germany
This study investigates the up-to-now strongly underexplored role of parents’ social capital in the school-to-work transition of adolescents. We base our empirical analyses on unique longitudinal largescale data from the German National Educational Panel Study. Parents’ social capital is measured with a position generator. Results show that adolescents with lower secondary education have better chances of finding an apprenticeship in a company if their parents know many persons with lower-status occupations for which vocational training is sufficient. This is especially the case for parents’ social contacts that have...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Peer influence, friend selection, and gender: How network processes shape adolescent smoking, drinking, and delinquency
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Cassie McMillan, Diane Felmlee, D. Wayne OsgoodAbstractWe examine gender differences in the extent to which the social network processes of peer influence and friend selection explain why adolescents tend to exhibit similar risky behaviors as their friends for three problem behaviors (smoking, drinking, and delinquency). Using dynamic Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs), we analyze five waves of data on a large sample of 13,214 adolescents from 51 friendship networks. While both processes explain patterns of risky activities for girls and boys,...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Strategic players for identifying optimal social network intervention subjects
In this study we developed a method that we call Strategic Players, which is a solution for identifying a set of players who are close to a target subset of the network (i.e., the target group), and far away from the subset we wish to avoid (i.e. the avoid group), where the proximity to either the target or avoid group may be facilitated by network members who are in neither group (i.e. the neutral group). This solution seeks to maximize the diffusion of the behavior to the target group while minimizing contact and influence to the avoid group. We apply this method to two different social networks, and one simulated social...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The weakness of tie strength
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Matthew E. Brashears, Eric QuintaneAbstractThe relationship between network structure and access to novel information has fascinated social scientists for decades, culminating in the recent identification of the bandwidth-diversity tradeoff. Yet, existing work focuses on a unidimensional conception of network ties that leaves many important sources of novel information unexplored. We unpack bandwidth, identifying three factors that govern the transmission behavior of network ties: capacity (the ability of a tie to transmit content), frequency (the a...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Mapping social milieus and cohesion patterns between 1997 and 2014. Exploiting the potential of the occupational position generator
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Zoltán Kmetty, Róbert Tardos, Fruzsina Albert, Beáta DávidAbstractThe study joins the stream of the social network approach attempting to look beyond micro-level association patterns towards macro-structural modeling. Utilizing the versatility of the occupational position generator technique for measuring network resources generally related to hierarchical aspects, an attempt is made to apply the tool for horizontal targets. Furthermore, with some conceptual transfer, the paper applies the distinction between omnivorous and univorous patterns of...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Comparing nascent approaches for gathering alter-tie data for egocentric studies
In this study we use a randomized trial with a common stimulus to compare the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of new tools to established tools. We find interactive node-link tools are very satisfying to users and produce accurate data, however it underreported ties, and results differed considerably between users. The results have implications for any research using an interactive node-link diagram or any of the established methods for alter-tie data collection in egocentric network studies. (Source: Social Networks)
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Personal social networks and health among aging adults in Agincourt, South Africa: A multidimensional approach
This study used a multidimensional approach of SN and social determinants of health (SDH) to examine the association between SN and self-reported physical health among the aging population of Agincourt, South Africa. We analyzed the composition of personal SN and used a multiple linear regression analysis to examine both network dimensions and SDH that correlate with physical health. Results highlight the complexity and nuances of social relationships. A few recommendations were also made. (Source: Social Networks)
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Player-centric networks in League of Legends
Publication date: October 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 55Author(s): Marçal Mora-Cantallops, Miguel-Ángel SiciliaAbstractOnline competitive gaming has become one of the largest collective human activities globally and understanding motivations and social interaction is still not fully achieved. The aim of this study is to develop a basis for a systematic classification of player-centric networks in competitive online games based on structural network criteria. Using data extracted from League of Legends players, their matches and machine learning techniques, a classification of personal player networks in League of...
Source: Social Networks - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Editorial Board
Publication date: July 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 54Author(s): (Source: Social Networks)
Source: Social Networks - July 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Personal networks typologies: A structural approach
Publication date: July 2018Source: Social Networks, Volume 54Author(s): Claire Bidart, Alain Degenne, Michel GrossettiAbstractBuilding typologies allows to compare networks on multiple dimensions, and to approach a generalization grounded on empirical data. In this article, we present a typology of personal networks only based on indicators related to the structure of relations between alters. It is designed from very detailed data on young French people who were involved in a longitudinal study. Our typology mobilizes a small number of indicators to discriminate the types that compose it. In so doing, we intend to make it...
Source: Social Networks - July 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
