Strength Of Ties Research Articles

Financial socialization, strength of social ties and investment literacy of investors in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms

This study explores survey data of investors in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending aiming to assess their investment literacy, how this literacy is affected by their financial socialization and the strength of their social ties, and whether this effect differs among investors’ sociodemographic groups. Our research model was built based on Gudmunson and Danes (2011), Gudmunson et al. (2016) and Potrich et al. (2016). It measured investment literacy, assessing three components — knowledge, skills and attitudes; included multiple socialization agents; and investigated both direct and indirect effects of financial socialization. Descriptive and reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and second-order structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis were employed. The results indicate that the investment literacy of P2P lending investors is high. The compound direct effect of financial socialization on the overall level of investment literacy was found to be positive and stronger than on its individual components. Although the strength of social ties had a strong influence on financial socialization, its indirect effect on investment literacy was rather weak. Peers proved to be the main socialization agent and exhibited the strongest social ties with the respondents. The strongest effect of financial socialization on the investment literacy was identified for P2P lending investors in 18–34 years group working in the financial sector with a net monthly income below 1500 euros. The research contributes to the existing literature by providing the methodology and valuable insights into the level of financial literacy among P2P investors and how investment literacy is or is not formed under social interaction in a close social environment.

Knowledge integration in interdisciplinary research teams: Role of social networks

Successful knowledge integration in interdisciplinary research teams is critical for solving complex problems and achieving innovation. Empirical research on knowledge integration in interdisciplinary research teams only emphasizes the role of knowledge heterogeneity but with mixed findings and ignores the impacts of team social networks where members are embedded. Based on the knowledge-based view and social network theories, we examine the effect of knowledge heterogeneity on knowledge integration in the interdisciplinary research team context and the influences of social network factors, including tie strength, structural equivalence, and betweenness centrality on the main effect. Based on a questionnaire survey of 346 members of 46 interdisciplinary research teams in a top research university in China, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge heterogeneity and knowledge integration. Tie strength and structural equivalence positively moderate the quadratic relationship, respectively. We do not find support for the moderating role of betweenness centrality. This study extends our knowledge of the relationship between knowledge heterogeneity and knowledge integration and enriches the literature on interdisciplinary collaboration and social network theories.

Corporate Integrated Management of Groups and Associations of Enterprises

The article is devoted to the theoretical justification and development of methodical support for the formation of the system of integrated management of groups of enterprises. The essence, content and principles of building an integrated management system are revealed. The methodical approach to the implementation of group development tasks based on the coordination of group members’ interests has been improved. The integration trends of economic development are considered. The definition of integrated management as a complex functional management system, which ensures the development of interdependent management solutions, each of which makes its contribution to the overall performance of enterprises and the group as a whole, has been improved. It was determined that the formation of any group of enterprises and the integration of the management systems of its individual members should be carried out on a systemic basis, for which the use of holaric methods of analysis of sub-holistic objects is proposed. It is proposed to consider each enterprise as a separate hierarchical level in the group structure, and the subject of integrated management includes all actions and relations between group members and within each of them. It is proposed to build a system of integrated management based on certain principles, which are proposed to be divided into: general principles of integrated management of a group of enterprises; principles of organizing the integrated management process; principles of organization of integrated management structures; cybernetic principles of managing complex systems. Therefore, the system of integrated management should be implemented on a comprehensive basis, ensuring the interdependent solution of the tasks and obtaining high final results of the activities of all members of the group. Accordingly, it is proposed to consider the group as a set of chains of added value creation and distribution of logistics interaction, in which the members of the group are considered as separate links of the logistics system. Thus, an integrated logistics network is created, the main goal of which is to create such organizational and economic conditions that will allow maximum satisfaction of the requirements of all members of the group by making compromise decisions and overcoming inconsistencies between various elements of the system. To facilitate the construction of such a network, the concept of an integrated supply chain was introduced and the stages of its construction were highlighted, a typology of logistic relationships of group members was developed, and a scheme of interaction between value chains was presented, oriented to the emergence of a synergistic effect for the group as a whole. Based on the analysis of the integration trends of the economy, it was established that in any case, the main reasons for the ineffectiveness of the group association may be either the choice of the wrong partner or the poor management of the new entity. This led to the development in the work of the technology for evaluating the organization and the effectiveness of the group’s activity, based on the calculation of certain parameters and the development of ways to bring the indicators of the group’s activity to the optimal value. At the same time, it is proposed to select several groups of indicators and their corresponding assessment methods. The first group includes indicators of the efficiency of the integrated management system, which reflect the final results of the group’s functioning. The second group of indicators, which characterizes the content of the integrated management process, takes into account the current costs of maintaining the management apparatus and its provision. Another developed group of indicators will characterize the configuration of a group of enterprises and assess the compliance of the SIUGP with the object of management. These are such indicators as: the density of the group, the degree of its centralization, homogeneity, closedness, prevalence, structural autonomy and similarity, the closeness and strength of business ties, the stability of the network. Their calculation will allow a more thorough approach to the solution of the main tasks that arise before the integrated management system.

POVERTY, TRUST, AND SOCIAL DISTANCE: A SELF-REINFORCING “POVERTY TRAP”?

AbstractWe consider the concept of poverty from the asset-accumulation approach and propose an integrated framework, building upon existing theories, to describe how the interconnected factors of trust (or lack thereof) and social distance can reinforce poverty traps. Social distance is influenced by choice, while trust is the symptom that defines the strength of social ties on a group. We look at how an absence of trust influences how households make decisions about the use and accumulation of assets in ways that could perpetuate poverty. Weak trust also affects how groups interact with each other in a society, creating “trust clusters” within homogeneous groups and antagonism across groups, which in turn affects aspirations and leads to an erosion of the basis of a social contract. For more effective and sustainable poverty reduction, we need to understand these linkages and address them systematically.

Spatial interactions

This paper studies how the strength of social ties is affected by the geographical location of other individuals and their social capital. We characterize the equilibrium in terms of both social interactions and social capital. We show that lower travel costs increase not only the interaction frequency but also the social capital for all agents. We also show that the equilibrium frequency of interactions is lower than the efficient one. Using a unique geocoded data set of friendship networks among adolescents in the United States, we structurally estimate the model and show that indeed agents socially interact less than that at the first best optimum. Our policy analysis suggests that, at the same cost, subsidizing social interactions yield a higher total welfare than subsidizing transportation costs.

The Strength of Strong Ties in Job Searching in China: An Overview

The Strength of Strong Ties in Job Searching in China: An Overview

Persistence and strengths of informal networks: clientelism in the post-Soviet Union

In this theoretical study, we challenge two prevalent assumptions in the international business domain: the 'disappearance of informal networks' and the 'strength of weak ties' assumptions. Drawing on cultural as well as informality studies, we explore the phenomenon of clientelism and its characteristics in the post-Soviet Union. We argue that informal ties based on patron-client relations are neither disappearing nor is weakness a characteristic that makes them strong. We propose that diverse clientelistic ties appear to persist in the post-Soviet Union, as they are culturally embedded and dynamically adjust to changes in the environment. Finally, we argue that the nature of clientelism is paradoxical: on the one hand, it is prone to favouritism, but when it comes to weak governments, clientelistic practices may, on the other hand, be seen as an effective means to overcome social boundaries by connecting persons of different social classes.

Understanding the Impact of Tie Strength on Customer's Perceived Justice and Satisfaction: Insights From Service Failures in Customer-Firm Interactions

Understanding the Impact of Tie Strength on Customer's Perceived Justice and Satisfaction: Insights From Service Failures in Customer-Firm Interactions

Intracellular and intercellular transport of RNA organelles in CXG repeat disorders: The strength of weak ties.

RNA is a vital biomolecule, the function of which is tightly spatiotemporally regulated. RNA organelles are biological structures that either membrane-less or surrounded by membrane. They are produced by the all the cells and indulge in vital cellular mechanisms. They include the intracellular RNA granules and the extracellular exosomes. RNA granules play an essential role in intracellular regulation of RNA localization, stability and translation. Aberrant regulation of RNA is connected to disease development. For example, in microsatellite diseases such as CXG repeat expansion disorders, the mutant CXG repeat RNA's localization and function are affected. RNA is not only transported intracellularly but can also be transported between cells via exosomes. The loading of the exosomes is regulated by RNA-protein complexes, and recent studies show that cytosolic RNA granules and exosomes share common content. Intracellular RNA granules and exosome loading may therefore be related. Exosomes can also transfer pathogenic molecules of CXG diseases from cell to cell, thereby driving disease progression. Both intracellular RNA granules and extracellular RNA vesicles may serve as a source for diagnostic and treatment strategies. In therapeutic approaches, pharmaceutical agents may be loaded into exosomes which then transport them to the desired cells/tissues. This is a promising target specific treatment strategy with few side effects. With respect to diagnostics, disease-specific content of exosomes, e.g., RNA-signatures, can serve as attractive biomarker of central nervous system diseases detecting early physiological disturbances, even before symptoms of neurodegeneration appear and irreparable damage to the nervous system occurs. In this review, we summarize the known function of cytoplasmic RNA granules and extracellular vesicles, as well as their role and dysfunction in CXG repeat expansion disorders. We also provide a summary of established protocols for the isolation and characterization of both cytoplasmic and extracellular RNA organelles.

Social Ties in Polish Families in Ireland: A Comparative Analysis Based on Own Research in the Last Decade

This article focuses on the concept of social ties in Polish families living in Ireland. It is not sufficiently represented in research work on economic emigration, especially post-accession emigration to Ireland, considering the context of the functioning of a modern migrant in their interpersonal space. It is important that the life of modern man is shaped by lots of interpersonal interactions in the social space, too. Yet, more important are interactions in the families from which the migrants come, in which they function or with whom they want to function. After opening the labor market to citizens of the new EU member states in 2004, Ireland hired the largest number of workers from the EU-8 countries. This approach was defined and analyzed on the basis of the group of respondents who were post-accession migrants in Ireland (N 461) in the research survey conducted in July and August of 2015 in Ireland and based on the 2016 and 2019 qualitative surveys on families in Ireland. Three research projects were analyzed. Therefore, the main subject of the article is to draw the reader’s attention to the issues of interpersonal relations and the importance of the family in the minds of the respondents, who were migrants. The research contains interesting, from the point of view of a sociologist, information on the preferences of Polish migrants in the field of shaping family relationships, the strength of family ties and the social roles performed based on these. The collected data show that there is a change in the functioning of the modern family, especially in the context of its functions, the roles of family members as well as openness to its alternative forms, but these changes are not significant enough to speak of a transformation of the nuclear family.

Social and psychological resources and COVID-19 related fear, threat and worry

ABSTRACT Objectives: The current study examines the relationship between social/psychological resources and COVID-related fear, threat, and worry. Methods: This work is based on data collected in March 23, 2020 from a national sample of 10,368 adults (ages 18 or older) living in the United States. The final sample of 10,368 was post-stratification weighted across gender, age, race, income, and geography (state) to ensure representativeness of the overall population of the United States. Results: Findings suggest some social and psychological resources are related to COVID-specific distress (fear/threat/worry), but depending on the resource, relationships vary in both direction and significance. On the one hand, strength of social ties and mastery of fate play a protective role in perceived distress (fear/threat/worry) related to COVID. On the other hand, community connectedness is significantly related to higher levels of COVID-specific fear, threat, and worry. Conclusions: The analyses provide some evidence of the nature of the relationships between social and psychological resources and perceived COVID-19 distress that vary by race and ethnicity. These and other relationships are explored and discussed in the context of improving ones well-being with mediating social and psychological resources.

Network interaction in student organizations before and after COVID-19 pandemic start

The COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 provoked the shift to remote functioning in a range of organizations, causing the change of formal and informal interaction networks in the organizations. The paper outlines the research results of the outcomes of such shift from offline to remote functioning in three student organizations at NaUKMA: “Ta Mohylianka” (TM), “Kyiv Mohyla Moot Court Society” (KMMCS) and “Buddy NaUKMA” (Buddy). The survey data on the network interaction in ТМ and KMMCS were collected in March 2020 before the shift to the remote mode, and after a year another wave was conducted in March 2021 to collect the data from these two organizations and another third organization, Buddy. This enables us to trace the change in informal networks due to the remote mode of communication a year after the pandemic started. As a result, we reveal that the informal interaction and friendship in organizations increased after the shift to remote mode when we focus on the actors who were in the organizations both before and after the pandemic started. Thus, they sustained and strengthened their informal ties that they formed in offline format prior to COVID-19 (this is observed both for TM and KMMCS). However, with new actors joining the organizations in 2021, the average ties strength for friendship networks declined for KMMCS. Moreover, the attribute of faculty that defines the work processes in Buddy caused higher average tie strength for friendship network within a faculty, but much lower between faculties. In contrast, TM as an organization also joins students from all the faculties, but its work processes are not overlapping with the boundaries of one faculty, so the friendship ties formed actively in groups that are heterogeneous by faculty attribute. In addition, we found that the level of integration of actors into the organization informal networks is partly interrelated with how the staff assess the efficiency of communication in the organization. The last outcome requires further checking with alternative tools and a more detailed scale to assess the efficiency of communication in the organization. For practical reasons, this also sheds light on the improvement of organizations functioning when the remote or mixed modes of work are planned to be applied in 2022–2023 academic year due to the wartime in Ukraine.

Research on the evolution of the Chinese urban biomedicine innovation network pattern: An analysis using multispatial scales.

This paper addresses the spatial pattern of urban biomedicine innovation networks by separately using four scales, i.e., the national scale, interregional scale, urban agglomeration scale, and provincial scale, on the basis of Chinese biomedicine patent data from the incoPat global patent database (GPD) (2001-2020) and using the method of social network analysis (SNA). Through the research, it is found that (1) on the national scale, the Chinese biomedicine innovation network becomes denser from west to the east as its complexity continuously increases. Its spatial structure takes the form of a radial network pattern with Beijing and Shanghai as its centers. The COVID-19 pandemic has not had an obvious negative impact on this network at present. (2) On the interregional scale, the strength of interregional network ties is greater than that of intraregional network ties. The eastern, central and western biomedicine innovation networks appear to be heterogeneous networks with regional central cities as the cores. (3) At the urban agglomeration scale, the strength of intraurban-agglomeration network ties is greater than that of interurban-agglomeration network ties. The three major urban agglomerations have formed radial spatial patterns with central cities as the hubs. (4) At the provincial scale, the intraprovincial networks have poor connectivity and low internal ties strength, which manifest as core-periphery structures with the provincial capitals as centers. Our research conclusion helps to clarify the current accumulation of technology and offer guidance for the development of China's biomedicine industry.

Unpacking the “Black Box”: Understanding the Effect of Strength of Ties on Inter-Team Conflict and Project Success in Megaprojects

Megaprojects have been redefined as dynamic collaboration networks, which are characterized by the strength of the ties between teams. In China, megaprojects have long been criticized for low productivity, poor project implementation processes, and inter-team confrontation. Few studies in the construction domain have explored the relationship between the strength of ties, inter-team conflict, and project success. This research aims to investigate the relationship between the strength of ties, inter-team conflict, and project success in megaprojects. Strong ties and weak ties reflect the strength of ties. Inter-team conflict is measured by task-related conflict and relationship-related conflict. A questionnaire survey was conducted on Chinese megaprojects, and 306 questionnaires were collected. The data were analyzed by a structural equation model. The results indicate that strong ties positively impact task-related conflict while negatively impacting relationship-related conflict. Weak ties positively impact inter-team conflict. Task-related conflict and relationship-related conflict have positive and negative effects on project success, respectively. The effect of the strength of the ties on a project’s success is mediated by conflict. This study adds to existing research on the strength of ties and emphasizes the significance of megaproject network governance. The results reveal the constructive effects of the strength of ties and task-related conflict, as well as the non-constructive effects of relationship-related conflict. This provides a reference for megaproject managers to implement project governance.

Structure in context: A morphological view of whole network performance

Network perspectives in organizational research have focused primarily on how the embeddedness of actors shapes individual, or nodal, outcomes. Against this backdrop, a growing number of researchers have begun to adopt a wider lens on organizational networks, shifting the focus to collective, or whole network, performance. Yet, efforts to understand the relationship between whole network structure and whole network performance have produced conflicting findings, which suggests that a different approach may be needed. Drawing on macrostructural sociology, we propose a "whole network morphology" framework, which argues the whole network structure-performance relationship is contingent on other fundamental—relational and cultural—whole network dimensions. Subsequently, we undertake an application of our framework, through which we demonstrate how a morphological view helps address conflicting findings on the structure-performance relationship. We study 250 whole interorganizational networks known as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which collectively comprise more than 44,000 healthcare organizations and 250,000 physicians. Consistent with previous work, we do not find a clear association between structural connectedness and performance. However, we find that a more disconnected network structure is associated with negative ACO performance when the relational strength of network ties is high. We also find evidence of better ACO performance in the presence of a physician cultural orientation when the whole network is more connected.

The effect of perceived financial risk on purchase intention in Pakistan

PurposeThe purpose is to understand the fundamental mechanism of the consumer decision-making process and how perceived financial risk of search and experience goods influences electronic word-of-mouth adoption (e-WOMA) on social networking sites (SNSs), which will lead to purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on information processing theory, the study conceptualizes a moderated mediation model to investigate the underlying influence of perceived financial risk and online social ties on e-WOMA and the subsequent effect on online purchase intention. Survey data from 275 individuals were analyzed through statistical tools using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).FindingsThe results revealed that e-WOMA mediates the effect of perceived financial risk of search and experience goods on online purchase intention. Strength of online social ties on SNSs positively moderates the electric word of mouth adoption for both the experience and search goods.Research limitationsThe limitation of this study was about the researcher's restrictions related to the length of the survey. Moreover, causal explanations can't be deduced as this is a cross-sectional study.Practical implicationsThis research offers insight into the consumers that allow marketers to dive into the target market. Marketers should focus on social ties importance while selling products/services of markets online.Originality/valueThe study is novel in the context of an emerging economy to educate marketers on the product categorization of search goods and experience goods based on financial risk.

Who Matters Most? Migrant Networks, Tie Strength, and First Rural–Urban Migration to Dakar

Social networks' influence on migration has long been explored largely through the lenses of cumulative causation and social capital theory. This article aims to reconceptualize elements of these theories for the case of rural-urban migration and test their utility in explaining first-migration timing. We use a uniquely extensive social network survey linked to prospectively collected migration data in rural Senegal. We decompose migrant networks into return migrants, current migrants, and nonmigrant residents of the destination to capture heterogeneity in migration-relevant social capital. As expected, the number of nonmigrant alters living in the capital, Dakar, has an outsized association with the migration hazard, the number of current migrants from the village living in Dakar has a smaller association, and the number of return migrants has little association. Drawing on social capital theory, we test the influence of (1) subjectively assessed tie strength between the ego and their network alters and (2) structurally weak ties measured through second-order ("friend of a friend") connections. Weak and strong subjective ties to current migrants and nonmigrant Dakar residents are positively associated with the first-migration hazard. Structurally weak ties to current migrants are too, but only for individuals with no direct ties to current migrants.

The Strength of Parent-Adult Child Ties in Biological Families and Stepfamilies: Evidence From Time Diaries From Older Adults.

We examine older partnered parents' time spent with adult children in biological and step families, treating time together as an indication of relationship strength. Using a unique national sample of U.S. time diaries from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we investigate time with all adult children combined and with each adult child. We find that time together depends on family structure and parent-adult child dyadic relationship type embedded in family structure. In analyses of all adult children combined, an older parent is more likely to spend time with adult children in biological families than in stepfamilies only when there is no shared biological child in the stepfamily. In dyadic analyses, a parent's tie with an adult child who is a biological child of both partners is stronger in stepfamilies than in biological families. Moreover, among stepfamilies, ties are not uniformly stronger with biological children relative to stepchildren; differences emerge only in more complex families when each partner has biological children from previous relationships. Our findings challenge the view that ties with older parents are always weaker with stepchildren in stepfamilies and point to the importance of considering parent-child relationships in the broader family context.

Creating the Conditions for Intergenerational Justice: Social Capital and Compliance

Creating the Conditions for Intergenerational Justice: Social Capital and Compliance

Explicit and Implicit Trust Modeling for Recommendation

Recommendation has become an inseparable component of many software applications, such as e-commerce, social media and gaming platforms. Particularly in collaborative filtering-based recommendation solutions, the preferences of other users are considered heavily. At this point, trust among the users comes into the scene as an important concept to improve the recommendation performance. Trust describes the nature and the strength of ties between individuals and hence provides useful information to improve the recommendation accuracy, particularly against data sparsity and cold start problems. The Trust notion helps alleviate the effect of these problems by providing additional reliable relationships between the users. However, trust information, specifically explicit trust, is not straightforward to collect and is only scarcely available. Therefore, implicit trust models have been proposed to fill in the gap. The literature includes a variety of studies proposing the use of trust for recommendation. In this work, two specific sub-problems are elaborated on: the relationship between explicit and implicit trust scores, and the construction of a machine learning model for explicit trust. For the first sub-problem, an implicit trust model is devised and the compatibility of implicit trust scores with explicit scores is analyzed. For the second sub-problem, two different explicit trust models are proposed: Explicit trust modeling through users’ rating behavior and explicit trust modeling as a link prediction problem. The performances of the prediction models are analyzed on a set of benchmark data sets. It is observed that explicit and implicit trust models have different natures, and are to be used in a complementary way for recommendation. Another important result is that the accuracy of the machine learning models for explicit trust is promising and depends on the availability of data.