Tie Strength, Embeddedness, and Social Influence: A Large-Scale Networked Experiment

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1936

References

  • Airoldi E, Bai X, Carley K (2011) Network sampling and classification: An investigation of network model representations. Decision Support Systems 51(3):506–518.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S (2011) Commentary—Identifying social influence: A comment on opinion leadership and social contagion in new product diffusion. Marketing Sci. 30(2):217–223.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S, Taylor S (2014) Viral incentive systems: A randomized field experiment. Working paper, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York.Google Scholar
  • Aral S, Van Alstyne MW (2011) The diversity-bandwidth tradeoff. Amer. J. Sociology 117(1):90–171.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S, Walker D (2011a) Creating social contagion through viral product design: A randomized trial of peer influence in networks. Management Sci. 57(9):1623–1639.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S, Walker D (2011b) Identifying social influence in networks using randomized experiments. IEEE Intelligent Systems 26(5):91–96.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S, Walker D (2012) Identifying influential and susceptible members of social networks. Science 337(6092):337–341.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S, Muchnik L, Sundararajan A (2009) Distinguishing influence-based contagion from homophily-driven diffusion in dynamic networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106(51):21544–21549.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S, Muchnik L, Sundararajan A (2013) Engineering social contagions: Optimal network seeding and incentive strategies. Network Sci. 1(2):1–29.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Arndt J (1967) Role of product-related conversations in the diffusion of a new product. J. Marketing Res. 4(3):291–295.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aronow PM, Samii C (2011) Estimating average causal effects under general interference. Working paper, Yale University, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
  • Bakshy E, Eckles D, Yan R, Rosenn I (2012a) Social influence in social advertising: Evidence from field experiments. Proc. 13th ACM Conf. Electronic Commerce (ACM, New York), 146–161.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bakshy E, Rosenn I, Marlow C, Adamic L (2012b) The role of social networks in information diffusion. Proc. 21st Internat. Conf. World Wide Web (ACM, New York), 519–528.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Banerjee AV (1992) A simple model of herd behavior. Quart. J. Econom. 107(3):797–817.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bapna R, Umyarov A (2012) Are paid subscriptions on music social networks contagious? A randomized field experiment. Working paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
  • Bapna R, Gupta A, Rice S, Sundararajan A (2011) Trust, reciprocity and the strength of social ties: An online social network based field experiment. Working paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
  • Bapna R, Ramaprasad J, Shmueli G, Umyarov A (2012) One-way mirrors and weak-signaling in online dating: A randomized field experiment. Working paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
  • Berger JA, Milkman KL (2009) Social transmission, emotion, and the virality of online content. Working paper, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
  • Bikhchandani S, Hirshleifer D, Welch I (1998) Learning from the behavior of others: Conformity, fads, and informational cascades. J. Econom. Perspectives 12(3):151–170.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bond RM, Fariss CJ, Jones JJ, Kramer ADI, Marlow C, Settle JE, Fowler JH (2012) A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature 489(7415):295–298.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Boudreau KJ, Lakhani KR (2011) High incentives, sorting on skills—Or just a “taste” for competition? Field experimental evidence from an algorithm design contest. Working paper, London Business School, London.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Brown JJ, Reingen PH (1987) Social ties and word-of-mouth referral behavior. J. Consumer Res. 14(3):350–362.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Burt RS (2005) Brokerage and Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital (Oxford University Press, New York).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Centola D (2010) The spread of behavior in an online social network experiment. Science 329(5996):1194–1197.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Centola D (2011) An experimental study of homophily in the adoption of health behavior. Science 334(6060):1269–1272.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Coleman J (1988) Free riders and zealots: The role of social networks. Sociol. Theory 6(1):52–57.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Coleman J, Katz E, Menzel H (1957) The diffusion of an innovation among physicians. Sociometry 20(4):253–270.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • De Bruyn A, Lilien G (2008) A multi-stage model of word-of-mouth influence through viral marketing. Internat. J. Res. Marketing 25(3):151–163.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Eagle N, Macy M, Claxton R (2010) Network diversity and economic development. Science 328(5981):1029–1031.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Easley D, Kleinberg J (2010) Networks, Crowds, and Markets (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Eckles D, Bakshy E (2014) Bias in observational studies of social contagion. Working paper, Data Science Team, Facebook, Menlo Park, CA.Google Scholar
  • Engel JF, Kegerreis RJ, Blackwell RD (1969) Word-of-mouth communication by the innovator. J. Marketing 33(3):15–19.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fowler JH, Christakis NA (2010) Cooperative behavior cascades in human social networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107(12):5334–5338.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Frenzen JK, Davis HL (1990) Purchasing behavior in embedded markets. J. Consumer Res. 17(1):1–12.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gilly MC, Graham JL, Wolfinbarger MF, Yale LJ (1998) A dyadic study of interpersonal information search. J. Acad. Marketing Sci. 26(2):83–100.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gladwell M (2002) The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Back Bay Books, New York).Google Scholar
  • Godes D, Mayzlin D (2004) Using online conversations to study word-of-mouth communication. Marketing Sci. 23(4):545–560.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Godes D, Mayzlin D, Chen Y, Das S, Dellarocas C, Pfeiffer B, Libai B, Sen S, Shi M, Verlegh P (2005) The firm's management of social interactions. Marketing Lett. 16(3/4):415–428.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Golder S, Macy M (2011) Diurnal and seasonal mood vary with work, sleep, and daylength across diverse cultures. Science 333(6051):1878–1881.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Granovetter M (1973) The strength of weak ties. Amer. J. Sociology 78(6):1360–1380.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Granovetter M (1978) Threshold models of collective behavior. Amer. J. Sociology 83(6):1420–1443.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Granovetter M (1983) The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. Sociol. Theory 1:201–233.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Granovetter M (1985) Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. Amer. J. Sociology 91(3):481–510.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hinz O, Skiera B, Barrot C, Becker JU (2011) Seeding strategies for viral marketing: An empirical comparison. J. Marketing 75(6):55–71.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Iyengar R, Van den Bulte C, Valente TW (2011) Opinion leadership and social contagion in new product diffusion. Marketing Sci. 30(2):195–112.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Katz E, Lazarsfeld P (1955) Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications (Transaction Publishers, Piscataway, NJ).Google Scholar
  • Kearns M, Suri S, Montfort N (2006) An experimental study of the coloring problem on human subject networks. Science 313(5788):824–827.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Leider S, Möbius MM, Rosenblat T, Do Q-A (2009) Directed altruism and enforced reciprocity in social networks. Quart. J. Econom. 124(4):1815–1851.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Manchanda P, Xie Y, Youn N (2008) The role of targeted communication and contagion in product adoption. Marketing Sci. 27(6):961–976.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Manski CF (1993) Identification problems in the social sciences. Sociol. Methodology 23:1–56.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Mason W, Watts DJ (2012) Collaborative learning in networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109(3):764–769.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Mayer-Schonberger V, Cukier K (2013) Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think, 1st ed. (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston).Google Scholar
  • Middleton JA, Aronow PM (2011) Unbiased estimation of the average treatment effect in cluster-randomized experiments. Working paper, New York University, New York.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Muchnik L, Aral S, Taylor S (2013) Social influence bias: A randomized experiment. Science 341(6146):647–651.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Nam S, Manchanda P, Chintagunta PK (2010) The effect of signal quality and contiguous word of mouth on customer acquisition for a video-on-demand service. Marketing Sci. 29(4):690–700.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Rand DG, Nowak MA (2011) The evolution of antisocial punishment in optional public goods games. Nature Comm. 2:Article 434.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Reagans R, McEvily B (2003) Network structure and knowledge transfer: The effects of cohesion and range. Admin. Sci. Quart. 48(2):240–267.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Rogers EM (2003) Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed. (Free Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Salganik MJ, Dodds PS, Watts DJ (2006) Experimental study of inequality and unpredictability in an artificial cultural market. Science 311(5762):854–856.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Shalizi CR, Thomas AC (2011) Homophily and contagion are generically confounded in observational social network studies. Sociol. Methods Res. 40(2):211–239.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Sundararajan A, Provost F, Oestreicher-Singer G, Aral S (2013) Information in digital, economic, and social networks. Inform. Systems Res. 24(4):883–905.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Suri S, Watts DJ (2011) Cooperation and contagion in web-based, networked public goods experiments. PLoS One 6(3):e16836.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Taylor S, Bakshy E, Aral S (2013) Selection effects in online sharing: Consequences for peer adoption. 14th ACM Conf. Electronic Commerce, Philadelphia.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Tucker C (2008) Identifying formal and informal influence in technology adoption with network externalities. Management Sci. 54(12):2024–2038.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Tucker C (2011) Social advertising. Working paper, MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
  • Tucker C, Zhang J (2010) Growing two-sided networks by advertising the user base: A field experiment. Marketing Sci. 29(5):805–814.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Tucker C, Zhang J (2011) How does popularity information affect choices? A field experiment. Management Sci. 57(5):828–842.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Ugander J, Backstrom L, Marlow C, Kleinberg J (2012) Structural diversity in social contagion. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109(16):5962–5966.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ugander J, Karrer B, Backstrom L, Kleinberg J (2013) Graph cluster randomization: Network exposure to multiple universes. 19th ACM SIGKDD Int'l Conf. Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) (ACM, New York), 329–337.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Uzzi B (1996) The sources and consequences of embeddedness for the economic performance of organizations: The network effect. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 61(4):674–698.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Uzzi B (1997) Social structure and competition in interfirm networks: The paradox of embeddedness. Admin. Sci. Quart. 42(1):35–67.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Valente T (1996) Social network thresholds in the diffusion of innovations. Soc. Networks 18(1):69–89.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Valente TW (1995) Network Models of the Diffusion of Innovations (Quantitative Methods in Communication Subseries) (Hampton Press, NJ).Google Scholar
  • Van den Bulte C, Joshi YV (2007) New product diffusion with influentials and imitators. Marketing Sci. 26(3):400–421.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Van den Bulte C, Lilien G (2001) Medical innovation revisited: Social contagion versus marketing effort. Amer. J. Sociology 106(5):1409–1435.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Watts DJ, Dodds PS (2007) Influentials, networks, and public opinion formation. J. Consumer Res. 34(4):441–458.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Zhang J (2010) The sound of silence: Observational learning in the U.S. kidney market. Marketing Sci. 29(2):315–335.LinkGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.