Higher-order Perspective Research Articles

Insight into a new perspective on the complex propagation processes in networks: dynamic link equations

Insight into the spread of epidemics under different transmission mechanisms in networks has long been an important research question in the field of complex network dynamics. Currently, under simple transmission mechanisms, our analysis of the dynamic processes in networks starts only from the node level, considering the scale of infected nodes in the network. However, the information provided by this lowest-order approach to considering dynamic processes in networks is very limited. Most importantly, it is not applicable to the analysis of dynamic processes in networks under more common complex transmission mechanisms, as it neglects the interactions between nodes. Therefore, in this article, we propose a set of closed link dynamic equations to gain insight into complex propagation processes from a microscopic perspective. Fundamentally, we have developed a set of analytical tools for analyzing complex dynamic behaviors at the link level, enabling us to reexamine the complex dynamic processes on networks from a higher-order perspective. Additionally, we apply the proposed analytical framework to complex SIS epidemiological models on two real and synthetic networks, and extensive numerical simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Synchronization on higher-order networks

Network science has already been fruitful and confirmed effective on the description of real-world or abstract systems. An increasing number of researches and instances have successfully verified, however, that interactions in systems may occur among three, four, or even more components. The introduction of higher-order perspective brings a revolution on network science, and refreshes researchers’ understanding of synchronization. Hence, an overview is presented here in regard of synchronization on higher-order networks. We start from an introduction of how the higher-order networks are represented using algebraic tools. Then a series of landmark researches on synchronization is reviewed under circumstances of whether or not the dynamics contains control. Finally, we summarize our conclusions and propose our outlooks on expectations of future works.

Power-Based Typology of Marketing Systems: Foundation for Alternative Marketing Theory in the Post-Capitalist Marketing Era

To date, orthodox marketing has regarded markets and marketing systems as static and mechanistic rather than dynamic and emergent under the aegis of neoclassical economics. Nevertheless, today, as we transition to a post-industrial era, multiple marketing systems coexist to create consumer satisfaction. This paper, synthesizing Follett's power dichotomy with Alderson's systems approach, aims to typologize marketing systems from a political economic paradigm, which stresses the importance of power phenomena in developing an alternative marketing theory. The present paper also aims to contribute to theory from a higher-order perspective by integrating various phenomena (i.e., marketing systems and power), which have previously been addressed in a piecemeal fashion across diverse domains. The author proposes the “power-with oriented marketing system” as the ideal marketing system, which aims to facilitate resource transfers and the fair distribution of co-created value in a prosumption disposed, post-capitalist marketing era.

A solution for the chicken and egg paradox in taxi e-hailing platforms: some evidence from the MyTaxi – FreeNow case

PurposeThis study aims to explore the chicken and egg paradox in the taxi e-hailing business contributing to define a condition of system emergence. This paradox is a meaningful one as these platforms represent a system where the passengers systems have no reason to participate if they have no drivers-systems to answer their call, but, at the same time, the platform is not useful to the drivers-system if there are no passengers-systems using the platform.Design/methodology/approachTo understand how this paradox has been dealt with in the taxi e-hailing business, this study focused on a case study on a best practice in Italian taxi e-hailing industry (i.e. MyTaxi/FreeNow). This study wants to comprehend which actions have been implemented to solve this paradox and has tried to identify the interconnections between the various strategies to create a closed loop diagram for further testing.FindingsThis study has found that the company did not choose a single “subsystem” (passenger or driver), but it has stimulated the creation of several mutually reinforcing motivation for have both subsystems interact to help the company grow.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paradox has never been studied using the complex adaptive system perspective. This perspective is particularly useful in this case and in the similar ones with several different interacting factors that cannot be really studied without using a higher order perspective.

Habitus as a value lens to link customer engagement and value cocreation

PurposeThis paper uses practice theory to strengthen the theoretical relationship between customer engagement (CE) and value cocreation (VCC), thereby demonstrating how customers may become engaged and remain engaged through VCC practices.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a problematization approach to identify shared assumptions evident in service-dominant logic (SDL) and CE research. Practice theory, as a higher-order perspective, is used to integrate the iterative and cyclical processes of VCC and CE, specifically through the theoretical mechanism of habitus.FindingsHabitus acts as a customer value lens and provides a bridging concept to demonstrate how VCC and CE are joined via sensemaking processes. These processes determine how customers perceive, assess, and evaluate value, how they become engaged through VCC, and how their experience of engagement may lead to further VCC practice. The temporally bound experiences, states, and episodes are accumulated and aggregated through an enduring customer value lens comprised of habituated dispositions, interests, and attitudes.Research limitations/implicationsThis work responds to calls for research to strengthen the theoretical link between VCC and CE and to take account of customers' lived realities and their contextualized experiences. A key suggestion for future research is the use of a rope metaphor to stimulate thinking about the complex, temporally unfolding, and interrelated processes of VCC and CE.Practical implicationsThe customer value lens and CE rope are introduced to simplify the complex, abstract, theoretical research on VCC and CE for a nonacademic audience. To understand how customers' value lenses are formed and change, and how a CE rope is strengthened, firms, service designers, and practitioners need to understand sensemaking processes through customer narratives and to use platforms and feedback to support and trigger sensemaking.Originality/valueThis paper provides a theoretical mechanism to explain the iterative and cyclical nature of VCC and CE processes and how accumulation and aggregation occur in these processes. In doing so, it demonstrates that CE occurs by virtue of, and is typified by, sensemaking processes that reproduce and shape a customer's habituated value lens, which perceives, assesses, and determines VCC and thus provides a basis for further customer engagement.

Community Detection Using Attribute Homogenous Motif

Network community detection with higher-order features has become a hot research topic recently since higher-order features that are captured at the level of small network subgraphs can help to gain new insights into the higher-order organizations of the overall network. However, most of the existing higher-order community detection methods only leverage the structural information of networks, yet fail to consider the rich information of node attributes, which typically makes them incapable of discovering semantically meaningful communities. To address this problem, we propose a novel method for community detection based on a newly designed higher-order feature termed Attribute Homogenous Motif (AHMotif), which integrates both node attributes and higher-order structure of the network in a seamless way. Specifically, the statistically significant motifs are identified for the network in terms of the topological structure, and homogeneity values are computed for structural motifs according to the attributes of the nodes that are involved in the motif. Then, the given attributed network can be further represented via a newly designed AHMotif adjacency matrix. The AHMotif adjacency matrix encodes both structures and attribute information and can characterize the network from a higher-order perspective. Afterward, several proximity based methods are utilized to obtain the final community detection results. Extensive experiments on several real-world data sets have shown the superiority of our AHMotif-based method in community detection.

A Higher-Order Solution to the Problem of the Concept Horse

This paper uses the resources of higher-order logic to articulate a Fregean conception of predicate reference, and of word-world relations more generally, that is immune to the concept horse problem. A prominent style of expressibility problem for views of broadly this kind, versions of which are due to Linnebo, Hale, and Wright, is then addressed. Central to an account of the relationship between language and reality is an account of that between predicates and reality. Frege’s problem of the concept horse (§1) threatens one prominent style of account, on which predicates refer to extra-linguistic entities fundamentally different in kind from those to which singular term refer. Here, I explore the interaction between this classic problem in the analytic tradition’s history and a contemporary view about the interpretation of higher-order logic, developing a higher-order Fregean semantics and metaphysics that is immune to the problem. At the heart of my approach is a seemingly anti-Fregean semantic framework that appears to withhold reference from predicates. I argue (§ 2) that this appearance is misleading: from a higher-order perspective, this seemingly anti-Fregean semantics can be seen to treat predicates referentially. After articulating the conception of higher-order logic on which this argument depends (§3), I show how to combine this approach with other central principles of Fregean semantics and metaphysics without giving rise to the concept horse problem (§4). I then (§5) address a prominent style of objection to views of broadly this kind, versions of which are due to Oystein Linnebo, Bob Hale, and Crispin Wright. The lesson is that the concept horse problem for Fregean conceptions of predicate reference—and of the language-reality relationship more generally—and their apparent conflict with non-referential treatments of predicates, both stem from a failure to take seriously the existential import of higherorder quantification alongside unwarranted insistence on formulating Fregean semantics in first-order terms.

The PRO-wh connection in modal existential wh-constructions

Recent discussion of obligatory control in the literature mostly concentrates on the issue of which syntactic module (movement, agreement, etc.) is responsible for the establishment of the control relation. This paper looks at the issue of control from a higher order perspective. Abandoning the presupposition that control constituents denote propositions and that, therefore, control must be syntactic, I deliver an argument in favor of the property-type analysis of control constituents and, by transitivity, for a semantic resolution of the control relation. The argument comes from modal existential wh-constructions and in particular from a strong parallelism between obligatorily controlled PRO and wh-expressions. It is revealed that PRO and wh-words form a natural class, to the exclusion of all other types of nominal expressions. This is then turned into an argument of treating PRO (and wh-words) essentially as a logical lambda-operator, naturally leading to the property theory of control. In addition, the article contributes to our understanding of the syntax, semantics, and typology of modal existential wh-constructions. It is argued that at least one type of these constructions, what I call “control MECs”, is embedded (minimally) by a complex predicate BE+FOR which expresses the state of availability (BE) which makes it possible for someone to profit (FOR) from the event characterized by the modal existential wh-construction.

Nominal Unification from a Higher-Order Perspective

Nominal logic is an extension of first-order logic with equality, name-binding, renaming via name-swapping and freshness of names. Contrarily to lambda-terms, in nominal terms, bindable names, called atoms, and instantiable variables are considered as distinct entities. Moreover, atoms are capturable by instantiations, breaking a fundamental principle of the lambda-calculus. Despite these differences, nominal unification can be seen from a higher-order perspective. From this view, we show that nominal unification can be quadratically reduced to a particular fragment of higher-order unification problems: higher-order pattern unification. We also prove that the translation preserves most generality of unifiers.

Consciousness: Essays from a Higher‐order Perspective ‐ By Peter Carruthers

Consciousness: Essays from a Higher‐order Perspective ‐ By Peter Carruthers

Review: Consciousness: Essays from a Higher-Order Perspective

Review: Consciousness: Essays from a Higher-Order Perspective

Elucidation of the brain correlates of cognitive empathy and self-awareness

Self-awareness is thought to be tied to processes of higher-order perspective taking including empathy. These abilities appear to be reserved for humans, great apes, and possibly, dolphins. Recent examinations reveal that both self-awareness and empathy may have origins in the right hemisphere. It is possible that, as in language, lateralization plays a key role in the development of higher-order perspective taking and self-awareness.