Evaluating tacit knowledge diffusion with algebra matrix algorithm based social networks

Abstract

Tacit knowledge is the knowledge existing in human brain which is not easy to be recorded or quantified, and often is learned in the face-to-face interactions. The tacit knowledge diffusion depends on the decision-making of tacit knowledge owners, and the expression of explicit knowledge carriers. However, the comprehensive influence of the tacit knowledge owners, explicit knowledge carriers and the relations of them were not attracted enough attention. In this paper, an algebra matrix method is used to integrate the multidimensional information of network structures and the nodes’ states. By the algebra matrix method, the diffusion threshold of the tacit knowledge is calculated, which is called algebra matrix evaluation. This evaluation method is proven to be effective by comparing with Monte Carlo simulations on three types of artificial networks and five reals. With applications of the algebra matrix evaluation, we construct a co-author network according the data of the academic papers from 1980 to 2017 on Aminer platform, and define states of tacit knowledge owners and the explicit knowledge carriers by the scholar’s career lengths and the paper’s cited quantities respectively. It is found that the thresholds of tacit knowledge diffusion are decreasing with the expansions of the scale of the largest connected components, whether tacit knowledge diffuses in the co-author networks or in the largest connected components. And with the evolution of cumulative co-author network, the diffusion thresholds of tacit knowledge in the largest connected component decrease in ladder-like with unequal steps. Furthermore, it is find ignoring the state factor will lead to the deviation in the evaluation of tacit knowledge diffusion thresholds, which is 16.33% in the largest connected components and 45.07% in the whole network.