Social Links Research Articles

Unraveling the effects of network, direct and indirect reciprocity in online societies

Network, direct and indirect reciprocity are three widely recognized mechanisms driving and sustaining cooperation, and each one of them is well understood when acting alone. However, these forms of reciprocity are barely found to be isolated from one another in the real circumstances, and it is still unclear which is the specific role played by each form of reciprocity works when they take action in parallel. With a unique data set from online societies, we find that direct and indirect reciprocity are actually moderated by network reciprocity. On the one hand, the cooperation boosting effect of direct and indirect reciprocity is stronger when subjects have more social connections, indicating that network reciprocity facilitates the formation of direct and indirect reciprocal interactions. On the other hand, this effect declines dramatically for upstream indirect reciprocity (also known as generalized reciprocity) and completely disappears for downstream indirect reciprocity (regarding reputation) when social connections are absent, indicating that social links is a pivotal factor in transmitting gratitude and building reputation. Our study deepens, therefore, the understanding of simultaneous effects of different mechanisms on the evolution of cooperation, and provides a fresh framework for empirically disentangling the factors of cooperative actions in real-world networks.

Hybrid Recommendation Network Model with a Synthesis of Social Matrix Factorization and Link Probability Functions

Recommender systems are becoming an integral part of routine life, as they are extensively used in daily decision-making processes such as online shopping for products or services, job references, matchmaking for marriage purposes, and many others. However, these recommender systems are lacking in producing quality recommendations owing to sparsity issues. Keeping this in mind, the present study introduces a hybrid recommendation model for recommending music artists to users which is hierarchical Bayesian in nature, known as Relational Collaborative Topic Regression with Social Matrix Factorization (RCTR-SMF). This model makes use of a lot of auxiliary domain knowledge and provides seamless integration of Social Matrix Factorization and Link Probability Functions into Collaborative Topic Regression-based recommender systems to attain better prediction accuracy. Here, the main emphasis is on examining the effectiveness of unified information related to social networking and an item-relational network structure in addition to item content and user-item interactions to make predictions for user ratings. RCTR-SMF addresses the sparsity problem by utilizing additional domain knowledge, and it can address the cold-start problem in the case that there is hardly any rating information available. Furthermore, this article exhibits the proposed model performance on a large real-world social media dataset. The proposed model provides a recall of 57% and demonstrates its superiority over other state-of-the-art recommendation algorithms.

Kinship, gender and social links impact on micro group lending defaults

AbstractJoint liability aspires to improve micro‐loan performance through the support of, and pressure from, the group borrowers. This paper examines how the group composition, in terms of the mixture of kinship (Family) ties and social (Friends and Neighbours) ties among the borrowers, affects the default rates. Using binary logistics regression and three machine learning models, responses from 507 group micro‐loan borrowers from four major Moroccan cities were analysed. The results show that the stronger the family and kinship ties are within a loan group, the higher is the default rate. On the contrary, the stronger the social ties are among the group, the lower is the default rate. Other key findings include that the diversion of fund usage from investment to consumption is not found to significantly cause default. Also, loan default can be a consequence of borrowers' strategic choice rather than financial distress. As compared to the female members, male borrowers are found to be causing higher default rates. Interestingly, the gender‐related default rates are lower when more of the male borrowers are only socially related. Finally, group size is found to be positively associated with default. Our findings can help micro‐finance institutions refine their lending policies and guidance on groups' composition and size to reduce default rates.

Social Relationship Link Inference Based on Graph Convolutional Networks

In the study of social relationship inference, social relationship link inference aims to infer whether there is a social relationship between users. Most previous works applied the unsupervised graph random walk sampling, which had sampling bias and lost much information. In this paper, a Social Relationship Link Inference Based on Graph Convolutional Networks (SLiGCN) is proposed, which learns the spatiotemporal information of check-ins and the impact of related users’ trajectories. It firstly employs the end-to-end supervised learning and applies a recurrent neural network to extract spatiotemporal sequence features from trajectories. Then the graph convolutional network fuses the features of neighboring nodes and employs the fully connected network to infer social relationship links. Finally, it is evaluated with AUC on three real-world datasets. The experiment results show that, compared with baseline models, it not only avoids hand-crafted feature construction that requires much prior knowledge, but also achieves 10% improvement on average.

Influence of Social Capital on Small and Medium Enterprises Performance in Wakiso District, Uganda

Purpose: This study examined the influence of Social Capital (SC) on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Wakiso District. Specifically, we identified forms of SC and assessed how they influenced SMEs’ performance in Kitemu Ward. Research methodology: Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the study solicited data from 40 participants through interviews and a self-administered questionnaire. Data were edited, cleaned, coded, and entered into MS Excel to generate frequencies and graphs. Content value analysis was used to transcribe the qualitative data and group them into subthemes. Results: The results revealed internal forms of SC, such as friends/peers, trustworthiness, personal saving, family, and social links, while external forms of SC were customers, financial institutions, governments, and companies. Further, SC influences the customer base, leads to high profits, increases sales volume, and enhances creativity and innovation. Limitations: Financial constraints prevented researchers from eliciting data throughout the study area. Furthermore, the small sample size might limit the generalization of the study results to the entire district. In addition, time and data collection biases have implications for this study. Contribution: This study is vital because there are no studies carried out in Kitemu Ward on SC and its influence on SMEs’ performance. The findings can be used by policy and decision-makers to design mechanisms for SMEs’ proprietors to integrate SC into business operations. The literature reveals that SC forms enhance sales, profits, market share, customer base, and accessibility to finance. Novelty: This original study was conducted primarily among women proprietors and managers of SMEs because they are reliable and provide firsthand information as compared to men. Thus, if adopted, the findings are vital for other business proprietors and managers to improve business performance.

Patterns of Typical Chinese Urban Agglomerations Based on Complex Spatial Network Analysis

The two prerequisites for monitoring SDG11.A “support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning” are the classification of the urban–rural continuum and the extraction of spatial links. However, the complexity and diversity of urban patch distribution make it difficult to achieve a global rapid assessment. Based on the self-developed high-resolution global impervious surface area 2021 (Hi-GISA 2021) product, this study combined the complex network with remote sensing technology to propose a new method to delineate and evaluate the pattern and inner spatial links of the urban–rural continuum for five typical urban agglomerations in China, including the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA), the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA), the Greater Bay Area (GBAUA), the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration (CYUA), and the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River urban agglomeration (MRYRUA). The research results are in good agreement with Chinese government documents. First, the five urban agglomerations are all small-world networks with a low degree of overall polycentricity, and the urbanization degrees of GBAUA and YRDUA are higher than BTHUA, CYUA, and MRYRUA. Second, the imbalanced development of YRDUA is higher than the other regions, and the siphon effects of BTHUA and MRYRUA are more significant than YRDUA, CYUA, and GBAUA. Third, some multi-centers show significant siphon effects. The urbanization degree is highly correlated with the urbanization potential but not positively correlated with the degree of balanced development. The results can provide data, methods, and technical support for monitoring and evaluating SDG11.A.

Inferring student social link from spatiotemporal behavior data via entropy-based analyzing model

Social link is an important index to understand master students’ mental health and social ability in educational management. Extracting hidden social strength from students’ rich daily life behaviors has also become an attractive research hotspot. Devices with positioning functions record many students’ spatiotemporal behavior data, which can infer students’ social links. However, under the guidance of school regulations, students’ daily activities have a certain regularity and periodicity. Traditional methods usually compare the co-occurrence frequency of two users to infer social association but do not consider the location-intensive and time-sensitive in campus scenes. Aiming at the campus environment, a Spatiotemporal Entropy-Based Analyzing (S-EBA) model for inferring students’ social strength is proposed. The model is based on students’ multi-source heterogeneous behavioral data to calculate the frequency of co-occurrence under the influence of time intervals. Then, the three features of diversity, spatiotemporal hotspot and behavior similarity are introduced to calculate social strength. Experiments show that our method is superior to the traditional methods under many evaluating criteria. The inferred social strength is used as the weight of the edge to construct a social network further to analyze its important impact on students’ education management.

The Effects of Teacher Relationships on Student Academic Achievement: A Second Order Meta-Analysis

This study aims to determine the correlational effect sizes between teacher relationships and student academic achievement. Teacher relationships were categorized as intrapersonal and interpersonal relationship types. Intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships are directed at different individuals. Intrapersonal relations refer to the inner life and thoughts of a teacher which are effective on the way of teaching and human relations. Interpersonal relations refer to social links between a teacher and the other people of the school community. The method of the study is second order meta-analysis. In this method, effect sizes of the first order meta-analyses are combined to get an average effect size score. Totally, 17 eligible first order meta-analyses are included in the study. The findings indicate that the correlational effect size between a positive teacher intrapersonal relationship and student academic achievement is positively small, positive teacher student relationship and student academic achievement is positively medium, a positive teacher school community relationship and student academic achievement is positively at a very large level. Also, correlational effect size representing a negative teacher intrapersonal relationship and student academic achievement is negatively medium, a negative teacher student relationship and student academic achievement is negatively small. As for moderator analyses, the variance of the effect sizes is statistically significant according to the positive relationship types and the publication types. In light of the findings some suggestions were made to improve teacher and school community relations that may help teachers and students to be more successful.

Levels of anxiety and postcoital depression in early childhood care in a Colombian municipality. A case study

The crisis caused by COVID - 19, brought with it serious mental health problems, which represented in many countries a public health problem, it is emphasized that mental health is of great importance in different contexts, both family and work, taking into account that it is essential to generate social and productive links. The objective of this article is to describe the levels of anxiety and depression of an early childhood worker in a municipality of Colombia, due to the return to the workplace and contact with children, through a descriptive quantitative approach methodology where the DASS- 21 Scale (Depression, Anxiety, Stress -21) was applied, Anxiety Stress -21) established with seven items in each level, extremely high scores of anxiety and depression were evidenced, for which reason, proposals for action were designed individually and organizationally in order to help reduce those levels currently presented in the worker.

‘Step by step’: the role of social connections in reunited refugee families’ navigation of statutory systems

ABSTRACT For asylum route refugees, the existence and persistence of structural barriers to navigating statutory systems are well-documented. Even when initial barriers are overcome, further transitions may disrupt refugees’ lives. One such is the arrival in the UK of family members from whom they had been separated during their flight from persecution. This paper draws upon data gathered using a Social Connections Mapping Tool methodology with reunited refugee families to make three contributions to the field of refugee studies. Firstly, families’ accounts of navigating statutory systems confirm the multi-directionality of integration. Refugees’ efforts to build and leverage social links proceed differentially across key statutory domains and cannot alone overcome systems barriers that require adaptation on the part of public services. Secondly, our findings contribute to scholarship that critiques the division of social relationships into categories of bonds, bridges and links, and the distinctions made between these based on ethnicity or nationality. Rather, refugees’ social relationships are more appropriately understood as a fluid continuum, with their nature and purpose subject to change. Finally, refugee families’ descriptions of settling in the UK highlight the influence of time on integration and the importance to refugees of re-building independence in a new country context.

Creating the Metaverse: Consequences for Economy, Society, and Law

Objective : to define the degree of influence of such developing technological field as metaverse on various spheres of society and to identify the need for reaction on the part of law. Methods : the key method used for the research is the systemic-structural method, which allows establishing connections between various elements of the society as a complex system, analyzing the regularities generated by the spreading influence of metaverse prototypes in one sphere on other ones. Additional methods used are formal-logical, comparative-legal methods, as well as the methods of legal modeling and forecasting. Results : the practical implementation of the metaverse concept will open new opportunities for people, but will be accompanied by drastic changes in the economic subsystem of the society, in particular, the multifold growth of the share of virtual economy and structural changes in employment. The changes will also occur in the social subsystem: the social links and the education models will transform, new personal demands will occur. Changes in the economic and social spheres will entail the need to adapt law to them, in order to preserve the effective legal regulation of social relations. Also, it should be noted that the metaverse will increase the capabilities of not only people but also the artificial intelligence, for which virtual environment is actually the “natural” one. Legal norms must provide protection of a human under the increased virtual component in people’s lives, accompanied by intellectualization of the environment. Scientific novelty : the author has systematically analyzed the changes taking place in various spheres of the modern society in connection with the development of the technological field of metaverses; highlighted the key issues arising due to the said development and requiring legal solution both at the constitutional level and at the level of sector legislation; and proposed the necessary changes in legal regulation. Practical significance : the research materials can be used when preparing proposals on changes and amendments in the current legislation, as well as in pedagogical activity, in particular, for implementation of educational courses or modules related to law under digital transformation of the society.

Social anhedonia, communication, and marital satisfaction in newlywed couples.

Social anhedonia is associated with disinterest in social interactions and poor relationship functioning, yet little is known about the specific mechanisms underlying associations between social anhedonia and romantic relationship behaviors and satisfaction. We examined the links between social anhedonia, perceptions of conflict communication patterns, and marital satisfaction. The current research examined the role of social anhedonia on marital quality and functioning longitudinally across a year in a sample of 100 newlywed couples using an actor-partner interdependence framework. Social anhedonia was negatively associated with own and partner's marital satisfaction. It was also negatively associated with constructive communication and positively associated with destructive communication. Furthermore, cross-sectional mediation analyses showed that communication patterns mediated the social anhedonia-satisfaction link. Taken together, these findings suggest that social anhedonia is likely to lead to lower marital satisfaction, partly through its effect on communication between partners.

Aspect-oriented unsupervised social link inference on user trajectory data

We focus on representation learning for social link inference based on user trajectory data. While traditional methods predict relations between users by considering hand-crafted features, recent studies first perform representation learning using network embedding or graph neural networks (GNNs) for downstream tasks such as node classification and link prediction. However, those approaches fail to capture behavioral patterns of individuals ingrained in periodical visits or long-distance movements. To better learn behavioral patterns, this paper proposes a novel scheme called ANES (Aspect-oriented Network Embedding for Social link inference). ANES learns aspect-oriented relations between users and Point-of-Interests (POIs) within their contexts. ANES is the first approach that extracts the complex behavioral pattern of users from both trajectory data and the structure of User-POI bipartite graphs. Our extensive experiments on several real-world datasets show that ANES outperforms state-of-the-art baselines.

THIRD-COUNTRY NATIONALS AND STATELESS PERSONS LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF HOST COUNTRY: WHAT POSSIBILITIES ARE AVAILABLE IN LITHUANIA?

Learning and mastering the language of host country is considered to be an essential prerequisite for successful integration of third-country nationals and stateless persons that preconditions their successful position in the labour market, social relations, even strengthening of their self-confidence. The empirical research allowed stating that there is a huge demand for virtual learning needs and following the theoretical insights of this article, it is possible to emphasise that virtual aids that are oriented towards the development of social links with local residents or already established migrants and formation of positive personal qualities and positive feelings are particularly needed.

Contacts on LinkedIn: equity crowdfunding platforms' networks and creators' innovation performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how the innovation performance of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that collect funds using equity crowdfunding (EC), i.e. creators (or proponents), and the EC performance are influenced by the social media networks (SMNs) in which EC platforms' managers and firms exchange their ideas with investors and customers.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis is conducted on a sample composed by all the creators that collected funds in EC platforms over the three-year period 2018–2020. For each creator, the innovation performance is computed as the percentage of sales from new or significantly improved product and services compared to total sales of firm. For each campaign, the EC performance is considered as the ratio between the total amount of funding raised at the end of the campaign and the target capital for the campaign. To investigate EC platform social media activity, LinkedIn profiles of EC platforms managers are analyzed using the social network analysis (SNA) methodology, which permits to observe the quantity and the quality of managers' interactions with other users. A regression analysis is thus performed to observe the relationship between managers' LinkedIn activities, EC performance and creators' innovation performance.FindingsData reveal that EC platforms managers display different activities in networking, with some individuals more active than others and more oriented to interact with business profiles rather than personal ones. The variables related to managers' LinkedIn activities are shown to impact both on the EC performance and on the ability of creators to innovate, suggesting the existence of a link between creators, EC platforms and the activity of the subject who manages it.Originality/valueThe present study is the first to examine the link between the ability of creators to innovate and SMNs, focusing on the social links of platforms managers and considering the LinkedIn social media; moreover, the analysis is conducted analyzing the quality of the interactions in addition to their number. The study is original also in that rather than focusing on specific EC platforms it considers all those purposefully authorized by the Italian financial market supervisory authority over a three-year time span. From a managerial point of view, the observation of the relevance of social networks by personnel with specific professional skills reveals it can be a successful driver for operators in the sector, not only to safeguard their reputation, but to stimulate the processes of co-creation of value that is essential in the crowdfunding market.

Social Links and Predictable Returns

Social Links and Predictable Returns

Is territorial governance “measurable”? Operationalizing SDG11.a in the metropolitan city of Turin

The United Nations explicitly recognise the central role of urbanization processes in global development trajectories in the Agenda 2030, mainly through one of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. SDG11. This goal emphasises making human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The progress achieved towards the targets that articulate this goal is constantly monitored through a system of indicators. However, this process is complex, especially for those targets that concern the quality of the policies intended to guide development phenomena. This is the case with SDG11.a, which aims to «Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning» and therefore regards territorial governance activities. In a recent contribution, the authors explored the contents and implications of SDG11.a and developed a system of procedural, instrumental, and financial indicators aimed at evaluating the quality of territorial governance. This paper operationalises some of these indicators concerning a real territorial context - the Metropolitan City of Turin - to reflect on their practicability and the added value they can provide in decision-making and monitoring. The work results show how any measurement of the quality of territorial governance remains inherently linked to the institutional characteristics of the context and the actual availability of data and information. This undoubtedly complicates the use of the indicators proposed in a comparative perspective; however, their application can promote critical reflections by public authorities and the development of more effective policies.

Social Prescribing: Link Workers’ Perspectives on Service Delivery

Purpose: In social prescribing (SP) a primary care based “link worker” assesses patient needs and goals, and makes appropriate links and referrals to community-based resources and services. This study explored SP service provision in England’s NHS, investigating social prescribing link worker’s (SPLW’s) perspectives of service delivery, service goals, theories and approaches used, challenges, what works, and barriers to success. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with eighteen SPLWs delivering SP. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Social prescribing mechanisms and frameworks were identified. Five organising themes describe a solution-focused, strengths-based theoretical underpinning; a patient-led process; role of SPLWs as a support person, guide, and facilitator; supporting collaborative networks; patient and wider outcomes; and threats to success of SP. A solution-focused, strengths-based approach underpins many aspects of SP. Conclusion: The effectiveness of SP could be improved by SPLW motivational interviewing and solution-focused training to promote patient behaviour-change, salutogenesis, and positive outcomes, enabling SPLWs to feel they have the skills required. Workload and referrals should be appropriate for the role of SPLWs. Now that there is widespread implementation of SP in the NHS, there is a need to interview patients in receipt of SP to gain their experience, views, and recommendations.

Understanding the Underlying Mechanisms of Action for Successful Implementation of Social Prescribing

There is growing evidence for the use of social prescribing as a means of facilitating healthy lifestyle behavior changes by linking patients to sources of support in the community. However, there are gaps in understanding about what works to facilitate and enable this behavior change i.e. , the mechanisms of actions underpinning social prescribing delivery. This study used a qualitative approach involving interviews with 18 Social Prescription Link Workers (SPLWs). Reflective thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Through this, an overall theme of “Theoretical underpinning: Solution-focused and strengths-based” was identified. This was made up of sub-themes relating to mechanisms underpinning: the SPLWs’ role (comprising asking questions, motivational interviewing and the therapeutic alliance); the patients’ role, (empowerment and active engagement); and the approach adopted (solution building, goal and action orientated). To formalize this, a framework could be developed for SPLWs that encapsulates the solution-focused strengths-based approach for application within social prescribing. This framework can then be embedded into practice facilitating more successful healthy lifestyle behavior change for social prescribing patients.

Consumer Preference Analysis of Phalaenopsis Orchid Variety

The majority of new Phalaenopsis orchid varieties circulating in Indonesia are still imported from abroad. To limit imports, orchid breeders was trying to produce new crossbred varieties that were needed by orchid producers and lovers in Indonesia. Before being distributed to orchid lovers, a consumer preference test was conducted to find out which orchid varieties were favored by consumers. In this regard, the aim of the study was to assess consumer preferences of Phalaenopsis orchid variety. The survey was carried out online on June 20-27, 2022, among 215 respondents from DKI Jakarta and West Java, with questionnaires distributed personally via social media links (WhatsApp). Respondent selection was done by simple randomization (simple random sampling). The Chi Square test was used to analyze the data. The results showed that there is sufficient evidence to reject H0 and accept H1. Candidate varieties of Phalaenopsis 1 (Puspita Devi Agrihorti) are preferred over other varieties. There is a considerable variation in the distribution of preferences between the candidate variety and the comparison variety of Phalaenopsis. The implication of this research was that the existence of new varieties of orchids can reduce our dependence on Phalaenopsis orchid varieties from abroad.