Two-mode Network Research Articles

Minimal implications base for social network analysis

PurposeCurrently, social network (SN) analysis is focused on the discovery of activity and social relationship patterns. Usually, these relationships are not easily and completely observed. Therefore, it is relevant to discover substructures and potential behavior patterns in SN. Recently, formal concept analysis (FCA) has been applied for this purpose. FCA is a concept analysis theory that identifies concept structures within a data set. The representation of SN patterns through implication rules based on FCA enables the identification of relevant substructures that cannot be easily identified. The authors’ approach considers a minimum and irreducible set of implication rules (stem base) to represent the complete set of data (activity in the network). Applying this to an SN is of interest because it can represent all the relationships using a reduced form. So, the purpose of this paper is to represent social networks through the steam base.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ approach permits to analyze two-mode networks by transforming access activities of SN into a formal context. From this context, it can be extracted to a minimal set of implications applying the NextClosure algorithm, which is based on the closed sets theory that provides to extract a complete, minimal and non-redundant set of implications. Based on the minimal set, the authors analyzed the relationships between premises and their respective conclusions to find basic user behaviors.FindingsThe experiments pointed out that implications, represented as a complex network, enable the identification and visualization of minimal substructures, which could not be found in two-mode network representation. The results also indicated that relations among premises and conclusions represent navigation behavior of SN functionalities. This approach enables to analyze the following behaviors: conservative, transitive, main functionalities and access time. The results also demonstrated that the relations between premises and conclusions represented the navigation behavior based on the functionalities of SN. The authors applied their approach for an SN for a relationship to explore the minimal access patterns of navigation.Originality/valueThe authors present an FCA-based approach to obtain the minimal set of implications capable of representing the minimum structure of the users’ behavior in an SN. The paper defines and analyzes three types of rules that form the sets of implications. These types of rules define substructures of the network, the capacity of generation users’ behaviors, transitive behavior and conservative capacity when the temporal aspect is considered.

A technology alliance’s stability evolution based on a network structure analysis

The study of technology alliance stability is rare in the literature. Research is especially sparse when exploring a technology alliance’ stability based on knowledge networks. We construct a weighted two-mode bipartite affiliation network for a technology alliance consisting of academies, universities and corporations; and using the UCINET algorithms for centrality, consensus, structural hole and connectedness; we measure and analyse the effect of knowledge flow frequency on alliance stability. Our analysis reveals that as the alliance matures: (1) corporations increase in importance and universities’ power decreases as the alliance moves from a research focus toward an application focus; (2) central organisations of the alliance lose importance, and the network become more balanced; (3) the network becomes more vulnerable to the removal of organisations (it become less stable); (4) members are more specialised and exhibit less communication. Our research both increases the current theoretical understanding of alliance stability and offers guidance for managerial practice.

Research on MIL Search Method for P2P Borrowing Loss Clients Based on Social Network Perspective

This paper proposes a multi-indicator search study based on the social network perspective for borrowing and lending customers. When studying P2P lending and losing customers, according to the division of interpersonal relationship in sociology and the extent to which the client can be debited in reality, it is divided into three kinds of relationship networks: blood relationship network, geo-relationship network and business relationship network, assisting to combine the two-mode subordinate network of the lost customers, and focusing on analyzing its scale, density and other indicators, and hope to find the target lost customers. Key figures in the social network of interpersonal relationships, message communicators, behavioral influencers, etc., to achieve the search for lending customers after their sudden loss. For the first time, this paper applies the social network theory to the search for borrowed and lost customers and proposes the MIL algorithm. It proposes a new idea for the hiddenness of the loan client’s loss of connection, and accelerates the governance of the ill-fated phenomenon of loan and loan loss effectiveness. This paper also analyzes the case and proposes relevant suggestions in connection with a loss event in Guangzhou.

Deterministic Blockmodeling of Two-Mode Binary Networks Using a Two-Mode KL-Median Heuristic

Abstract Deterministic blockmodeling of a two-mode binary network matrix based on structural equivalence is a well-known problem in the social network literature. Whether implemented in a standalone fashion, or embedded within a metaheuristic framework, a popular relocation heuristic (RH) has served as the principal solution tool for this problem. In this paper, we establish that a two-mode KL-median heuristic (TMKLMedH) seeks to optimize the same criterion as the RH for deterministic blockmodeling. The TMKLMedH runs much faster than the RH, so many more restarts of the TMKLMedH can be accomplished when the two methods are constrained to the same time limit. Three computational comparisons of RH and TMKLMedH were conducted using both synthetic and real-world networks. In all three comparisons, the superiority of TMKLMedH was unequivocal.

Regular fuzzy equivalences on two - mode fuzzy Networksi

The notion of social roles is a centerpiece of most sociological theoretical considerations. Regular equivalences were introduced by White and Reitz in [15] as the least restrictive among the most commonly used definitions of equivalence in social network analysis. In this paper we consider a generalization of this notion to a bipartite case. We define a pair of regular equivalences on a two-mode social network and we provide an algorithm for computing the greatest pair of regular equivalences.

Affiliation discrete weighted networks with an increasing degree sequence

ABSTRACTAffiliation network is one kind of two-mode social network with two different sets of nodes (namely, a set of actors and a set of social events) and edges representing the affiliation of the actors with the social events. The connections in many affiliation networks are only binary weighted between actors and social events that can not reveal the affiliation strength relationship. Although a number of statistical models are proposed to analyze affiliation binary weighted networks, the asymptotic behaviors of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) are still unknown or have not been properly explored in affiliation weighted networks. In this paper, we study an affiliation model with the degree sequence as the exclusively natural sufficient statistic in the exponential family distributions. We derive the consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator in affiliation finite discrete weighted networks when the numbers of actors and events both go to infinity. Simulation studies and a real data example demonstrate our theoretical results.

Political embeddedness in environmental contexts: the intersections of social networks and planning institutions in coastal land use

ABSTRACTDespite well-documented climate change risks, coastal developments are still built. This article argues that the success or failure of development approval is conditioned by political embeddedness: the intersections of social network and institutional power. By synthesizing Granovetter’s theory of structural embeddedness with a Polanyian account of land’s institutional embeddedness in protective zoning, two-mode social network analysis methods are utilized to explore how both forms of embeddedness influence development processes. Comparing two South Australian case studies of an apartment complex and a surf club development, we illustrate how influential social actors emerge from within land use institutions, who then occupy network positions to co-ordinate the exercise of power between, and through, organizations. This theoretical approach to political embeddedness brings back in a finer-grained appreciation of how power is actively practised through the uneven social topography arising out of land use zoning. An implication of these findings is greater analytical attention should be given to how different land use zonings open divergent lines of contest in attempts to achieve more environmentally just outcomes. By doing so, we call for a sociologically informed conceptualization of political embeddedness in environmental studies, which is in contrast to current theoretical and methodological eclecticism.

How could firm's internal R&D collaboration bring more innovation?

Encouraging internal research and development collaboration has been recognized as an effective management strategy to facilitate firms' innovation. The reasons include that extensive collaboration among employees may promote the flow of diversified knowledge, bring forth novel knowledge combination and in turn facilitate firms' innovation. To put it forward, this study supposes that technological heterogeneity among employees and the combinatorial potential of firm's technologies should be taken into account. To do that, multi networks including two-mode network are contained and their interacting effects are analyzed. The analysis results based on 13years' patent data of 39 Chinese innovative firms in telecommunication, electrical machinery, automobile, and pharmaceutical industries show that collaboration breadth of employees positively affects firms' innovation performance. Technological heterogeneity among employees positively moderates the relationship between collaboration breadth and innovation performance. Combinatorial potential of firm's technologies, together with technological heterogeneity among employees, exerts a three-way moderating effect on the relationship. Contributions to theories of collaborative innovation and suggestions to R&D managers are discussed.

IDENTIFYING AESTHETIC PREFERENCES FOR BEAUTY TYPES IN WOMENS APPEARANCE AMONG EAST ASIAN CULTURES

This study investigated aesthetic preferences for beauty types in women’s appearance among the East Asian cultures of Korea, China, and Japan through two-mode semantic network analysis with a cross-cultural viewpoint. Based on the results, this study proposed practical implications for appearance management industries and global consumer goods companies.

Descriptive and network analyses of the equine contact network at an equestrian show in Ontario, Canada and implications for disease spread

BackgroundIdentifying the contact structure within a population of horses attending a competition is an important element towards understanding the potential for the spread of equine pathogens as the horses subsequently travel from location to location. However, there is limited information in Ontario, Canada to quantify contact patterns of horses. The objective of this study was to describe the network of potential contacts associated with an equestrian show to determine how this network structure may influence potential disease transmission.ResultsThis was a descriptive study of horses attending an equestrian show in southern Ontario, Canada on July 6 and 7, 2014. Horse show participants completed a questionnaire about their horse, travel patterns, and infection control practices. Questionnaire responses were received from horse owners of 79.7% (55/69) of the horses attending the show. Owners reported that horses attending the show were vaccinated for diseases such as rabies, equine influenza, and equine herpesvirus. Owners demonstrated high compliance with most infection control practices by reporting reduced opportunities for direct and indirect contact while away from home. The two-mode undirected network consisted of 820 nodes (41 locations and 779 horses). Eight percent of nodes in the network represented horses attending the show, 87% of nodes represented horses not attending the show, but boarded at individual home facilities, and 5% represented locations. The median degree of a horse in the network was 33 (range: 1–105).ConclusionsDeveloping disease management strategies without the explicit consideration of horses boarded at individual home facilities would underestimate the connectivity of horses in the population. The results of this study provides information that can be used by equestrian show organizers to configure event management in such a way that can limit the extent of potential disease spread.

Affiliation networks with an increasing degree sequence

ABSTRACTAffiliation network is one kind of two-mode social network with two different sets of nodes (namely, a set of actors and a set of social events) and edges representing the affiliation of the actors with the social events. Although a number of statistical models are proposed to analyze affiliation networks, the asymptotic behaviors of the estimator are still unknown or have not been properly explored. In this article, we study an affiliation model with the degree sequence as the exclusively natural sufficient statistic in the exponential family distributions. We establish the uniform consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator when the numbers of actors and events both go to infinity. Simulation studies and a real data example demonstrate our theoretical results.

Vocational Rehabilitation Service Patterns: An Application of Social Network Analysis to Examine Employment Outcomes of Transition-Age Individuals With Autism

Young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face poor employment outcomes following transition from school to adult life. Social network analysis is a useful approach for examining service patterns associated with employment success for this population. An advantage of this approach is its focus on the interdependence of variables rather than individual predictors. This study applies network methodology to examine the relations between vocational rehabilitation services and young adults with ASD to predict employment status. Using the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA-911) data set, participants included 2,219 individuals with ASD between the ages of 16 and 24 served by the public vocational rehabilitation system and closed as either competitively employed or not employed. A two-mode network was constructed such that a relation was defined for each service an individual received. Results from a core-periphery analysis indicated that of the 22 services available, core services included assessment, counseling/guidance, job placement, on-the-job support, job search support, and transportation services. Follow-up analyses suggested that the greater number of these six core services an individual received, the better the employment outcome. Findings highlight that these services should be viewed as interconnected and suggest a set of six core services that may be particularly beneficial for this population.

The evolution analysis of listed companies co-holding non-listed financial companies based on two-mode heterogeneous networks

Complex network theory is a widely used tool in the empirical research of financial markets. Two-mode and multi-mode networks are new trends and represent new directions in that they can more accurately simulate relationships between entities. In this paper, we use data for Chinese listed companies holding non-listed financial companies over a ten-year period to construct two networks: a two-mode primitive network in which listed companies and non-listed financial companies are considered actors and events, respectively, and a one-mode network that is constructed based on the decreasing-mode method in which listed companies are considered nodes. We analyze the evolution of the listed company co-holding network from several perspectives, including that of the whole network, of information control ability, of implicit relationships, of community division and of small-world characteristics. The results of the analysis indicate that (1) China’s developing stock market affects the share-holding condition of listed companies holding non-listed financial companies; (2) the information control ability of co-holding networks is focused on a few listed companies and the implicit relationship of investment preference between listed companies is determined by the co-holding behavior; (3) the community division of the co-holding network is increasingly obvious, as determined by the investment preferences among listed companies; and (4) the small-world characteristics of the co-holding network are increasingly obvious, resulting in reduced communication costs. In this paper, we conduct an evolution analysis and develop an understanding of the factors that influence the listed companies co-holding network. This study will help illuminate research on evolution analysis.

An Introduction to Social Network Analysis for Personality and Social Psychologists

Social network analysis (SNA) is a methodology for studying the connections and behavior of individuals within social groups. Despite its relevance to social and personality psychology, SNA has been underutilized in these fields. We first examine the paucity of SNA research in social and personality journals. Next we describe methodological decisions that must be made before collecting social network data, with benefits and drawbacks for each. We discuss common SNAs and give an overview of software available for SNA. We provide examples from the literature of SNA for both one-mode and two-mode network data. Finally, we make recommendations to researchers considering incorporating SNA into their research.

Who should take the responsibility? Stakeholders' power over social responsibility issues in construction projects

Construction projects involve multiple stakeholders with different abilities that enable them to deal with the social problems that arise during the project lifecycle. This research aims to study the dynamic stakeholder power in implementing social responsibility issues in construction projects. Empirical research among Hong Kong construction industry practitioners was conducted to investigate the powers of seven stakeholders over thirty-five social responsibility issues. The data was analyzed using two-mode social network analysis methods and processed by Netminer 4. It was found from the results that internal and external stakeholders have control in different domains pertaining to social responsibility issues, but it does not mean either group has superior power. Ranked by the power status on social responsibility issues, the seven stakeholders are classified into five hierarchies: 1) governments, developers, and main contractors; 2) district councils, 3) consultants; 4) non-government organizations; 5) end users. The dynamic nature of stakeholders' powers has been elucidated by describing the power changes in different project stages, as well as in different social responsibility dimensions.

Multiple Margins of China's Export Growth: A Two-Mode Network Dynamic Analysis

Using China's Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding Systems (HS) six-digit trade data for 1999–2013 from the UN Comtrade database, we redistribute and re-estimate the intensive and extensive margins of China's export growth on the basis of a dynamic products–markets two-mode network. Three main results emerge. First, the intensive margin was the main reason for China's export growth, and the contribution of the extensive margin was limited. Second, intensive margin and product margin were mainly concentrated in developed countries and China's neighbours, but the market margin was more distributed in developing countries and China's neighbours. Finally, countries along the “One Belt, One Road” have larger and growing contributions to China's export growth. In light of our findings, we provide a set of policy recommendations.

Innovation Intermediaries in Technological Alliances

Technological alliances play an important role in generating innovations but face the challenge of effective matchmaking when finding suitable partners in “open innovation” among networks of innovating firms. Intermediaries refer to those external mechanisms/institutions that can appropriately support companies in their innovation-related activities. They are frequently used to build a bridge between different competency constraints among companies. The purpose of this paper was to try to understand the role of a firm’s alliances within the context of open innovation. What do innovation intermediaries of collaborative partners contribute? Using the “Strategic Alliance Database” established by the National Science Council (NSC) in Taiwan as a basis, this study empirically explored the brokerage roles in the alliance that intermediaries take on to facilitate technological innovation and an innovation process. By using the technique of two-mode network analysis for social network analysis, this research focused on the question of how a technological alliance creates a platform for firms to execute matchmaking for new and/or relevant partners. The results presented here reveal that brokerage roles can be used to develop collaborations. The strategic position of the intermediary can activate different resources from the ones embedded in an alliance network.

The technology networks and development trends of university-industry collaborative patents

In recent years, the number of studies pertaining to university-industry collaboration (UIC) has increased exponentially apace with the increasing attention attached to UIC issues and the development of UIC. However, the majority of previous UIC studies pertaining focus on investigating the motivations of UIC, types of collaboration, and UIC performance, and studies that highlight the focal technology fields, technology development trends, and technology network distribution of UIC remain scarce. Moreover, previous studies seldom mention the position and ranking of countries in technology networks. The present study employed a two-mode network analysis (countries and technology fields) method to highlight the pivotal role of various countries in technology networks. Finally, the dynamic analysis method was employed to analyze data in different periods to determine technology development trends. Findings revealed discrepancies between the focus of technologies over time. The key technologies in the more recent UIC technology network were largely in the fields of measurement and chemistry, which are characterized as basic sciences with cross-disciplinary traits. In addition, the development of these technology reflects the recent efforts of various countries promoting emerging technology fields. Findings also indicated that Japan and the United Stated served crucial roles in UIC technology networks.

Sex Behaviors as Social Cues Motivating Social Venue Patronage Among Young Black Men Who Have Sex with Men.

HIV prevention programs often focus on the physical social venues where men who have sex with men (MSM) frequent as sites where sex behaviors are assumed to be practiced and risk is conferred. But, how exactly these behaviors influence venue patronage is not well understood. In this study, we present a two-mode network analysis that determines the extent that three types of sex behaviors-condomless sex, sex-drug use, and group sex-influence the patronage of different types of social venues among a population sample of young Black MSM (YBMSM) (N=623). A network analytic technique called exponential random graph modeling was used in a proof of concept analysis to verify how each sex behavior increases the likelihood of a venue patronage tie when estimated as either: (1) an attribute of an individual only and/or (2) a shared attribute between an individual and his peers. Findings reveal that sex behaviors, when modeled only as attributes possessed by focal individuals, were no more or less likely to affect choices to visit social venues. However, when the sex behaviors of peers were also taken into consideration, we learn that individuals were statistically more likely in all three behavioral conditions to go places that attracted other MSM who practiced the same behaviors. This demonstrates that social venues can function as intermediary contexts in which relationships can form between individuals that have greater risk potential given the venues attraction to people who share the same risk tendencies. As such, structuring interventions around these settings can be an effective way to capture the attention of YBMSM and engage them in HIV prevention.

Modeling the Complexity of Language As a Two-Mode Network

Language is considered in this work as a complex system composed of four subsystems, Lexicon, Discourse, Semantics and Grammar. We perform its modeling based on Graph Theory and Social Network Analysis, in such a way that the four subsystems compose a set of events, to which the actors that make up the set of speakers are affiliated. We then propose eleven hypotheses of mathematical modeling to realize (and simulate) that any change in the existence or behavior of any of the components of that network, events, actors or their connections, will change the system as a whole.