Strength Of Ties Research Articles

A causal test of the strength of weak ties.

The authors analyzed data from multiple large-scale randomized experiments on LinkedIn's People You May Know algorithm, which recommends new connections to LinkedIn members, to test the extent to which weak ties increased job mobility in the world's largest professional social network. The experiments randomly varied the prevalence of weak ties in the networks of over 20 million people over a 5-year period, during which 2 billion new ties and 600,000 new jobs were created. The results provided experimental causal evidence supporting the strength of weak ties and suggested three revisions to the theory. First, the strength of weak ties was nonlinear. Statistical analysis found an inverted U-shaped relationship between tie strength and job transmission such that weaker ties increased job transmission but only to a point, after which there were diminishing marginal returns to tie weakness. Second, weak ties measured by interaction intensity and the number of mutual connections displayed varying effects. Moderately weak ties (measured by mutual connections) and the weakest ties (measured by interaction intensity) created the most job mobility. Third, the strength of weak ties varied by industry. Whereas weak ties increased job mobility in more digital industries, strong ties increased job mobility in less digital industries.

Social Network User Profiling With Multilayer Semantic Modeling Using Ego Network

Social and information networks undermine the real relationship between the individuals (ego) and the friends (alters) they are connected with on social media. The structure of individual network is highlighted by the ego network. Egocentric approach is popular due to its focus on individuals, groups, or communities. Size, structure, and composition directly impact the ego networks. Moreover, analysis includes strength of ego – alter ties degree and strength of ties. Degree gives the first overview of network. Social support in the network is explored with the “gap” between the degree and average strength. These outcomes firmly propose that, regardless of whether the approaches to convey and to keep up social connections are evolving because of the dispersion of online social networks, the way individuals sort out their social connections appears to remain unaltered. As online social networks evolve, they help in receiving more diverse information.

Tie strength, organizational resilience and enterprise crisis management: An empirical study in pandemic time

It remains unclear how organizational resilience is shaped by tie strength and helps firms go through crisis under COVID-19 pandemic background. A survey conducted among a sample of 215 Chinese firms indicates that: (1) both external and internal tie strength enhance three dimensions of resilience capacity, namely situation awareness, adaptive capacity and transformative capacity; (2) all three resilience capacity dimensions facilitate reactive crisis management strategy, while only adaptive capacity and transformative capacity have positive effects on proactive crisis management strategy; (3) both reactive and proactive crisis management strategies improve crisis management performance. The study contributes to literature of organizational resilience by probing into the theoretical model of “tie strength-resilience capacity-crisis management strategy-firm performance” which implies that organizational resilience is driven by internal and external tie strength and then facilitates crisis management performance through reactive and proactive strategies. The findings provide managerial implications about successfully coping with crisis, such as global pandemic, by leveraging firm's resilience capabilities facilitated by social relationship and implementing reactive and proactive strategies.

Tie strength, tie brokerage and buyer–supplier co-exploration: a novelty–action trade-off

PurposeIn the pursuit of co-exploration, the strength and brokerage dimensions of dyadic ties create a novelty–action trade-off: tie strength facilitates coordination but constraints novelty, while tie brokerage expands knowledge diversity but aggravates coordination difficulty. This study contributes towards a better understanding of this tension by comparing two dimensions of relational ties and examining their contingent values given different environmental factors and exchange characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used survey data from 194 matched buyer–supplier dyads in China's high-tech industries and employed hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe authors find that compared with tie strength, tie brokerage has a stronger positive effect on co-exploration. Moreover, guanxi importance amplifies the effect of tie strength while decreasing the value of tie brokerage. As market uncertainty increases, the role of tie brokerage becomes more salient. Additionally, tie strength becomes less effective when buyer centralization is high, whereas tie brokerage exerts a stronger impact on co-exploration when an exchange is highly formalized.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the supply chain literature by adopting a relational perspective to integrate relational ties into the study of buyer–supplier co-exploration and by elaborating on the different implications of tie strength and tie brokerage in resolving the novelty–action trade-off. Furthermore, it provides a more nuanced understanding of when distinct dimensions of relational ties are effective, by clarifying boundary conditions in terms of environmental factors and exchange characteristics.

Social Sharing of Political Disinformation: Effects of Tie Strength, Message Valence, and Corrective Information on Evaluations of Political Figures

Two studies investigated the effects of exposure to disinformation on citizens’ evaluation of politicians and the impact of corrections. Study 1 tested the roles of message valence and relational closeness of social media connections sharing disinformation. Study 2 examined whether corrections on social networking sites could mitigate the influence of disinformation. Results of the first study indicate a limited persuasive effect of disinformation, with negative disinformation being more entertaining but potentially less credible than positive disinformation. Effects of corrections in Study 2 were strong. There was no consistent influence of whether disinformation was shared by a close versus distant friend.

Funding Source Intimacy Bias: Examining the Impact of Strong Ties on Entrepreneurial Decision Making

Due to the ease of accessing individuals in entrepreneurs’ social networks, raising money from friends and family is one of the most common forms of startup funding. Despite this being a significant form of financing, we know relatively little about how accepting funds from these individuals influences an entrepreneur’s decision making. Drawing on sociological research on strength of relational ties, this study investigates how entrepreneurs’ relationships with investors influence their risk-taking preferences, and consequently, their decision making. Using quasi-experimental methods, this study found that as the strength of a relationship with an investor increases, the entrepreneur is more likely to pursue a more conservative growth choice for his or her venture. This effect is mediated by greater feelings of anticipated guilt if the entrepreneur’s venture is not successful. Narcissism was investigated as a potential moderator of this mediation effect. In line with the results of this study, I introduce the notion of “funding source intimacy bias”, which is the tendency for an entrepreneur to become more risk averse after accepting funds from a strong tie.

Interplays of Political Ties and Social Evaluation of Emerging Market Multinational Corporations

In this paper, we address the question of how interplays of home country political ties and target nation political ties might shape social evaluation of EMMNCs with different ownership structures. We conduct a comparative case study of four overseas acquisitions made by two EMMNCs (one SOE and one POE) from China during 2014–2017 in a strategic (port) industry. The port investments include China Merchant Group’s (CMG) Hambantota Port, Sri Lanka, and Port of Newcastle, Australia) and Landbridge Group (LBG)’s Port of Darwin, Australia, and Colon Container Port, Panama). The research result shows a relationship between interplays of political ties across home and target nations and levels of public disapproval faced by EMMNCs. This study makes three contributions. First, it extends the political embeddedness perspective by developing propositions about the relationships of political ties’ interplays and public disapproval levels. In particular, the case data reveals that target nation ties play a stronger role than home country ties in influencing public disapproval of EMMNCs. Second, it enriches the perspective by providing an argument for the sociopolitical liabilities (i.e., generating concerns across domestic and international levels) of political ties, depending on the strength of such ties to the home country and to a target nation. Third, it adds to literature on nonmarket strategy by highlighting the sociopolitical liabilities of CPA conducted by leveraging partnerships with governments or intergovernmental relationships. We outline future research directions and implications for EMMNC managers.

Explaining the gender gap in negotiation performance: Social network ties outweigh internal barriers

AbstractGender disparities in negotiation outcomes contribute to inequality in the workplace and beyond. Explanations of gender gaps in negotiation often focus on internal barriers women face as a consequence of contending with stigma in the workplace and other historically male‐dominated environments, such as stereotype threat and apprehension about negotiating. However, stigma is also associated with relational consequences that may influence success in negotiations. This research compared internal and relational mechanisms for gender disparities in negotiation performance. Seventy‐seven MBA executives reported their apprehension about negotiating, stereotype threat in negotiations, mindset about negotiation‐related stress, and class social networks. Participants were then randomly paired to complete a series of one‐on‐one negotiations based on real‐world scenarios. Overall, men outperformed women in negotiations. Significant gender differences emerged in stereotype threat, stress mindset, and social network centrality. However, only network centrality—specifically number and strength of ties—significantly mediated the relationship between gender and negotiation performance. Position in informal social networks may play an important role in negotiation outcomes, particularly in a shared social environment like the workplace. Although efforts to explain the gender gap in negotiation performance often center internal psychological mechanisms, this research suggests that relational explanations, such as disparities in social networks, merit further attention. Limitations and recommendations for future research and policy are discussed.

The Familial Afterlives of Parochial Sermons in Early Modern England

ABSTRACT This article presents important new evidence of the ways in which sermons could be passed down within Protestant clerical families entrenched in the parishes. These sermons were re-delivered to generations of congregants in order to advance the Reformation in early modern England. This paper draws attention to the reuse of sermons even where there were denominational differences within clerical dynasties, raising crucial questions surrounding the strength of family ties and filial piety in the face of complex and changing attitudes towards both Church of England and nonconformist doctrine. Moreover, in questioning the reception of these repurposed sermons, I suggest that sentimental value was a powerful tool which was utilized to convert parochial congregations. This fresh perspective on post-Reformation sermon culture argues that individual sermons could be artifacts of generational memory, representing continuity and lineage within the long English Reformation and beyond.

Multinomial Choice with Social Interactions: Occupations in Victorian London

Abstract We study the importance of social interactions on occupational choice in Victorian London using a multinomial choice model within an incomplete social network. Individuals form heterogeneous rational expectations about their peers' behaviors, taking into account their characteristics and the strength of their ties. We show the conditions under which the endogenous, exogenous, and correlated effects can be identified and a unique equilibrium can be established, Using a novel data set, we proxy social groups by parish boundaries and strength of ties by geographic distances, Our results show the importance of the endogenous effects and reveal distinct effects by occupation.

Merchant networks and profits on merchant capital in the Mediterranean (Majorca, 18th century)

This paper considers the relationship between merchant networks and the rate of profit on merchant capital (RPMC), that is, the ratio of net profit to investment. A case study focusing on Majorca in the eighteenth century shows how merchants built up their personal networks in order to gather information and reduce the uncertainty of maritime business. The rate of profit is an additional indicator of the strength of ties and the need to diversify investments by incorporating estate and tax farming, as well as public supply contracts, all of which was only possible through the control that networks bestowed on big merchants.

Housing pathways of female-headed households in the informal settlements of Kampala: a qualitative study

The number of female-headed households migrating into cities is increasing. Female-headed households compete for limited housing options with other households with varying socio-economic capacities. As a result, women have to choose from several housing pathways, utilising available social capital that occasionally covers inadequate financial resources. This may sometimes lead to social conflict and exploitation by landlords and brokers. This article seeks to understand the influence of women’s social capital and networks on pathways that female-headed households pursue in Kampala city. Using a snowball sampling strategy, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document analysis, the article explores female-headed households’ pathways for housing options. Participants (n = 40) in this study were identified from the Katwe informal settlement of Kampala city. Findings indicate that the strength of social ties generated through; family attachments, friends, and socio-economic involvement influences female-headed household pathways. To a lesser extent, the use of informal brokers also may influence housing pathways. The article calls for specific legislation and guidelines to regulate the informal brokerage practice and professionalise the client-broker relationship. For adequate urban housing planning to ensue, responsible authorities could incorporate into government policy the unique preferences of residential pathways and networks that bond female-headed households together.

The strength of strong ties: wasta and migration strategies among the Mappila Muslims of northern Kerala, India

ABSTRACT The scholarship on cross-border labour migration in India is characterised by the notoriety of the labour intermediaries. However, such a focus often eclipses the mutually beneficial social exchanges found among the migrants, would-be migrants, and their larger social circle. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on the migration strategies of a leading migrant community in India- the Mappila Muslims of Kerala. Our findings suggest that, although there is a thriving migration brokerage industry in Kerala, Mappilas secure the crucial labour market information, facilitate their cross-border movement, and obtain the much-coveted Gulf job using close interpersonal connections. With their familiarity and first-hand knowledge of the market practices of the Persian Gulf, the Mappila migrants have internalised and strategically invested in the Arab cultural practice of wasta (securing favours via social connections). The paper also argues how the wasta-based connections of Mappilas help us broaden our understanding of social networks as understood in the Granovettarian tradition.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF ENERGY EFFICIENT THREE-LAYER REINFORCED CONCRETE WALL PANELS WITH FLEXIBLE LAYER CONNECTIONS

The connections between the panels are the most critical structural elements that determine the performance of the building. The article highlights the results of testing the strength of flexible ties of three-layer reinforced concrete exterior wall panels with expanded polystyrene insulation by the static method. Studies were carried out on the mutual shift of the outer layer of the panel in relation to the inner one when testing concrete layers in accordance with the control values. The results of the experimental studies have shown that the use of metal flexible connections to connect the outer and inner layers of three-layer wall panels with insulation provides strength and reliability of structures under static loads. The tested three-layer reinforced concrete exterior wall panels, designed for large-panel housing construction of the 105 series, fully comply with safety requirements during operation.

Feudal Contradictions between Communist Allies

Abstract In the late 1970s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) and North Korea arrived at contradictory answers regarding the question of succession, testing the strength of bilateral ties at a complex moment in the two countries’ domestic politics and in the Cold War. Blaming the excesses of Maoist radicalism on “feudal thinking,” Deng Xiaoping launched a campaign in the summer of 1980 to “eliminate feudalism” from the Chinese Communist Party and elevate a new generation of leaders. Just a few months later, at the Sixth Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party, Kim Il Sung went public with what Deng saw as the ultimate “feudal” act: a plan to pass down the role of Supreme Leader to his eldest son, Kim Jong Il. By scrutinizing the public record and secret transcripts of Sino-Korean diplomacy, this article traces the origins of their contradictory approaches to political succession and the evolution of Deng's response to Kim's plan from disapproval to acquiescence.

Marriage and family customs of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region: legal and anthropological analysis (late XIX – early XX century)

Introduction. The institutions of marriage and family seem to be an integral component of the traditional livelihood of peoples, reflecting their history, features of life and activities. The Finno-Ugric ethnic groups, over the centuries of their existence, have formed original layers of marriage and family traditions, many elements of which have been preserved to this day. The article provides a comparative legal and anthropological analysis of the marriage and family customs of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region. Materials and Methods. The article is based on the literature, archival materials on the state of marriage and family relations of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region in the late XIX–XX centuries. It is based on a legal-anthropological methodology, which includes both relevant theoretical approaches and research methods of collecting materials. The comparative method makes it possible to compare certain elements of the institutions of marriage and family among individual Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region, to identify their common and special features. The hermeneutic method implies a deeper penetration into the logic of human legal thinking in the study of legal customs. Results and Discussion. In the social life of the Finno-Ugric peoples, family rituals and customs related to marriage and wedding played an important role and family life. Great importance was attached to domestic deities. Many traditional features have been preserved in the regulation of marriage and family relations for a long time, which was due to the slow pace of the formation of market relations, patriarchal features of the family way of life, and the strength of family and kinship ties. Wedding ceremonies were characterized by great complexity and diversity. They were connected with different stages of the wedding, marking the transition of a young man and girl to a new social status; they were supposed to contribute to a more successful implementation of this event, to sanction it in the eyes of relatives and fellow villagers. Conclusion. The Finno-Ugric ethnic groups of the Volga region have developed many similar features of traditional culture and way of life, which indicates the traditions of interpenetration and interaction. Despite the common things and the general similarity of customs in the sphere of marriage and family relations, peoples also have distinctive properties, features of worldview, customary law, and other socionormative relations.

Social network governance and social sustainability-related knowledge acquisition: the contingent role of network structure

PurposeThis study aims to understand how firms in developing economies acquire knowledge about social sustainability by leveraging the social capital embedded in firms' social network, through optimally governing relationships with network members. The study proposes that relational and contractual governance mechanisms interact with various structural facets of the network, resulting in varying degrees of social sustainability related knowledge acquisition.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data collected with a multiple respondent survey design from 204 manufacturing firms located in major industrial cities in Pakistan were used. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) followed by hierarchical regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe study finds that both relational and contractual governance mechanisms are positively related to a firm’s social sustainability-related knowledge acquisition, but their effectiveness is impacted by the structural facets of the network. Network size positively moderates the relationship between relational governance and social sustainability related knowledge acquisition, whereas both network range and strength of ties negatively moderate the relationship between contractual governance and social sustainability related knowledge acquisition.Practical implicationsPractitioners with resource-constrained firms should interact with their social network to leverage the knowledge and resources embedded within. The findings prescribe optimal governance strategies for different combinations of network structure variables to gain maximum knowledge about social sustainability.Originality/valueThe literature lacks information on the effect of network structure on the relationships between social network governance and social sustainability-related knowledge acquisition for resource-constrained firms in the developing economy context, making this study’s contributions unique.

What (Exactly) Is Novelty in Networks? Unpacking the Vision Advantages of Brokers, Bridges, and Weak Ties

The strength of weak ties and brokerage theory both rely on the argument that weak bridging ties deliver novel information to create “vision advantages” for actors in brokerage positions. However, our conceptualization of novelty is itself fundamentally underdeveloped. We, therefore, develop a theory of how three distinct types of novelty—diversity, non-redundancy, and uniqueness—combine with network structure to create vision advantages in social networks. We test this theory using panel data on an evolving corporate email network. Three main results emerge from our analysis. First, we confirm the diversity-bandwidth tradeoff (DBT) at the heart of the vision advantage. As brokers’ networks become more diverse, their channel bandwidth contracts, creating countervailing effects on access to novel information. Second, we uncover a mechanism driving the DBT, which helps explain differences in vision advantages across strong and weak ties. Strong, cohesive ties deliver greater information diversity and non-redundancy, whereas weak bridging ties contribute the most unique information (the information that is most different from what other contacts deliver). Third, we find network diversity (in contrast to network constraint) to be positively associated with longitudinal entropy, a measure of the accumulation of novel information over time. This suggests that weak bridging ties, which provide the most unique information through low bandwidth, structurally diverse channels, contribute the most to one’s aggregation of novel information over time. Collectively, these results take a step toward resolving a long-standing debate in network theory about whether strong, cohesive networks or weak bridging networks contribute more to vision advantages. This work firmly establishes that it depends.This paper was accepted by Kartik Hosanagar, information systems.Supplemental Material: The code and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4377 .

Scientific success from the perspective of the strength of weak ties

We present the first complete verification of Granovetter’s theory of social networks using a massive dataset, i.e. DBLP computer science bibliography database. For this purpose, we study a coauthorship network, which is considered one of the most important examples that contradicts the universality of this theory. We achieve this goal by rejecting the assumption of the symmetry of social ties. Our approach is grounded in well-established heterogeneous (degree-based) mean-field theory commonly used to study dynamical processes on complex networks. Granovetter’s theory is based on two hypotheses that assign different roles to interpersonal, information-carrying connections. The first hypothesis states that strong ties carrying the majority of interaction events are located mainly within densely connected groups of people. The second hypothesis maintains that these groups are connected by sparse weak ties that are of vital importance for the diffusion of information—individuals who have access to weak ties have an advantage over those who do not. Given the scientific collaboration network, with strength of directed ties measured by the asymmetric fraction of joint publications, we show that scientific success is strongly correlated with the structure of a scientist’s collaboration network. First, among two scientists, with analogous achievements, the one with weaker ties tends to have the higher h-index, and second, teams connected by such ties create more cited publications.

Quantifying within-group variation in sociality\u2014covariation among metrics and patterns across primate groups and species

It has long been recognized that the patterning of social interactions within a group can give rise to a social structure that holds very different places for different individuals. Such within-group variation in sociality correlates with fitness proxies in fish, birds, and mammals. Broader integration of this research has been hampered by the lack of agreement on how to integrate information from a plethora of dyadic interactions into individual-level metrics. As a step towards standardization, we collected comparative data on affinitive and affiliative interactions from multiple groups each of five species of primates to assess whether the same aspects of sociality are measured by different metrics and indices. We calculated 16 different sociality metrics used in previous research and thought to represent three different sociality concepts. We assessed covariation of metrics within groups and then summarized covariation patterns across all 15 study groups, which varied in size from 5 to 41 adults. With some methodological and conceptual caveats, we found that the number of weak ties individuals formed within their groups represented a dimension of sociality that was largely independent from the overall number of ties as well as from the number and strength of the strong ties they formed. Metrics quantifying indirect connectedness exhibited strong covariation with strong tie metrics and thus failed to capture a third aspect of sociality. Future research linking affiliation and affinity to fitness or other individual level outcomes should quantify inter-individual variation in three aspects: the overall number of ties, the number of weak ties, and the number or strength of strong ties individuals form, after taking into account effects of social network density.Significance statementIn recent years, long-term studies of individually known animals have revealed strong correlations between individual social bonds and social integration, on the one hand, and reproductive success and survival on the other hand, suggesting strong natural selection on affiliative and affinitive behavior within groups. It proved difficult to generalize from these studies because they all measured sociality in slightly different ways. Analyzing covariation between 16 previously used metrics identified only three rather independent dimensions of variation. Thus, different studies have tapped into the same biological phenomenon. How individuals are weakly connected within their group needs further attention.