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Journal ArticleDOI

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

01 Jun 2014-Management Science (INFORMS)-Vol. 60, Iss: 6, pp 1352-1370
TL;DR: Gupta et al. as discussed by the authors leveraged the newly emerging business analytical capability to rapidly deploy and iterate large-scale, micro-level, in vivo randomized experiments to understand how social influence in networks impacts consumer demand.
Abstract: We leverage the newly emerging business analytical capability to rapidly deploy and iterate large-scale, microlevel, in vivo randomized experiments to understand how social influence in networks impacts consumer demand. Understanding peer influence is critical to estimating product demand and diffusion, creating effective viral marketing, and designing “network interventions” to promote positive social change. But several statistical challenges make it difficult to econometrically identify peer influence in networks. Though some recent studies use experiments to identify influence, they have not investigated the social or structural conditions under which influence is strongest. By randomly manipulating messages sent by adopters of a Facebook application to their 1.3 million peers, we identify the moderating effect of tie strength and structural embeddedness on the strength of peer influence. We find that both embeddedness and tie strength increase influence. However, the amount of physical interaction between friends, measured by coappearance in photos, does not have an effect. This work presents some of the first large-scale in vivo experimental evidence investigating the social and structural moderators of peer influence in networks. The methods and results could enable more effective marketing strategies and social policy built around a new understanding of how social structure and peer influence spread behaviors in society. This paper was accepted by Alok Gupta, special issue on business analytics.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors track the changes in scholarly researchers' perspectives on three major digital, social media, and mobile (DSMM) marketing themes from 2000 to 2015, and identify key themes emerging in five-year time frames during this period.
Abstract: Over the past 15 years, digital media platforms have revolutionized marketing, offering new ways to reach, inform, engage, sell to, learn about, and provide service to customers. As a means of taking stock of academic work’s ability to contribute to this revolution, this article tracks the changes in scholarly researchers’ perspectives on three major digital, social media, and mobile (DSMM) marketing themes from 2000 to 2015. The authors first use keyword counts from the premier general marketing journals to gain a macro-level view of the shifting importance of various DSMM topics since 2000. They then identify key themes emerging in five-year time frames during this period: (1) DSMM as a facilitator of individual expression, (2) DSMM as decision support tool, and (3) DSMM as a market intelligence source. In both academic research to date and corresponding practitioner discussion, there is much to appreciate. However, there are also several shortcomings of extant research that have limited its rel...

643 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study first explores the existing big data‐related analytics techniques, and identifies their strengths, weaknesses as well as major functionalities, and discusses various big data analytics strategies to overcome the respective computational and data challenges.
Abstract: Big data analytics is critical in modern operations management (OM). In this study, we first explore the existing big data‐related analytics techniques, and identify their strengths, weaknesses as well as major functionalities. We then discuss various big data analytics strategies to overcome the respective computational and data challenges. After that, we examine the literature and reveal how different types of big data methods (techniques, strategies, and architectures) can be applied to different OM topical areas, namely forecasting, inventory management, revenue management and marketing, transportation management, supply chain management, and risk analysis. We also investigate via case studies the real‐world applications of big data analytics in top branded enterprises. Finally, we conclude the study with a discussion of future research.

429 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presents a novel randomized experiment that tests the existence of causal peer influence in the general population -- one that did not involve subject recruitment for experimentation -- of a particular large-scale online social network, utilizing a unique social feature to exogenously induce adoption of a paid service amongst a group of randomly selected users.
Abstract: Demonstrating compelling causal evidence of the existence and strength of peer-to-peer influence has become the holy grail of modern research in online social networks. In these networks, it has been consistently demonstrated that user characteristics and behavior tend to cluster both in space and in time. There are multiple well-known rival mechanisms that compete to be the explanation for this observed clustering. These range from peer influence to homophily to other unobservable external stimuli. These multiple mechanisms lead to similar observational data, yet have vastly different policy implications. In this paper, we present a novel randomized experiment that tests the existence of causal peer influence in the general population-one that did not involve subject recruitment for experimentation-of a particular large-scale online social network. We utilize a unique social feature to exogenously induce adoption of a paid service among a group of randomly selected users, and in the process develop a clean exogenous randomization of treatment and control groups. A variety of nonparametric, semiparametric, and parametric approaches, ranging from resampling-based inference to ego-level random effects to logistic regression to survival models, yield close to identical, statistically and economically significant estimates of peer influence in the general population of a freemium social network. Our estimates show that peer influence causes more than a 60% increase in odds of buying the service due to the influence coming from an adopting friend. In addition, we find that users with a smaller number of friends experience stronger relative increase in the adoption likelihood due to influence from their peers as compared to the users with a larger number of friends. Our nonparametric resampling procedure-based estimates are helpful in situations of networked data that violate independence assumptions. We establish that peer influence is a powerful force in getting users from free to premium levels, a known challenge in freemium communities. This paper was accepted by Sandra Slaughter, information systems.

266 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a taxonomy of social media marketing strategies (SMMSs) is proposed, which comprises four major components, namely drivers, inputs, throughputs, and outputs.
Abstract: Although social media use is gaining increasing importance as a component of firms’ portfolio of strategies, scant research has systematically consolidated and extended knowledge on social media marketing strategies (SMMSs). To fill this research gap, we first define SMMS, using social media and marketing strategy dimensions. This is followed by a conceptualization of the developmental process of SMMSs, which comprises four major components, namely drivers, inputs, throughputs, and outputs. Next, we propose a taxonomy that classifies SMMSs into four types according to their strategic maturity level: social commerce strategy, social content strategy, social monitoring strategy, and social CRM strategy. We subsequently validate this taxonomy of SMMSs using information derived from prior empirical studies, as well with data collected from in-depth interviews and a quantitive survey among social media marketing managers. Finally, we suggest fruitful directions for future research based on input received from scholars specializing in the field.

206 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the growth of an innovation in a social network is shaped by the network's structure, and they identify gaps in current knowledge, discuss the implications on managerial decision making, and suggest topics for future research.

195 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: A history of diffusion research can be found in this paper, where the authors present a glossary of developments in the field of Diffusion research and discuss the consequences of these developments.
Abstract: Contents Preface CHAPTER 1. ELEMENTS OF DIFFUSION CHAPTER 2. A HISTORY OF DIFFUSION RESEARCH CHAPTER 3. CONTRIBUTIONS AND CRITICISMS OF DIFFUSION RESEARCH CHAPTER 4. THE GENERATION OF INNOVATIONS CHAPTER 5. THE INNOVATION-DECISION PROCESS CHAPTER 6. ATTRIBUTES OF INNOVATIONS AND THEIR RATE OF ADOPTION CHAPTER 7. INNOVATIVENESS AND ADOPTER CATEGORIES CHAPTER 8. DIFFUSION NETWORKS CHAPTER 9. THE CHANGE AGENT CHAPTER 10. INNOVATION IN ORGANIZATIONS CHAPTER 11. CONSEQUENCES OF INNOVATIONS Glossary Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

38,750 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another, and the impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored.
Abstract: Analysis of social networks is suggested as a tool for linking micro and macro levels of sociological theory. The procedure is illustrated by elaboration of the macro implications of one aspect of small-scale interaction: the strength of dyadic ties. It is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another. The impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored. Stress is laid on the cohesive power of weak ties. Most network models deal, implicitly, with strong ties, thus confining their applicability to small, well-defined groups. Emphasis on weak ties lends itself to discussion of relations between groups and to analysis of segments of social structure not easily defined in terms of primary groups.

37,560 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society, is examined, and it is argued that reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong.
Abstract: How behavior and institutions are affected by social relations is one of the classic questions of social theory. This paper concerns the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society. Although the usual neoclasical accounts provide an "undersocialized" or atomized-actor explanation of such action, reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong. Under-and oversocialized accounts are paradoxically similar in their neglect of ongoing structures of social relations, and a sophisticated account of economic action must consider its embeddedness in such structures. The argument in illustrated by a critique of Oliver Williamson's "markets and hierarchies" research program.

25,601 citations

01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system by concerned with the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideal.
Abstract: Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Diffusion is a special type of communication concerned with the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideal. Communication is a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding. Diffusion has a special character because of the newness of the idea in the message content. Thus some degree of uncertainty and perceived risk is involved in the diffusion process. An individual can reduce this degree of uncertainty by obtaining information. Information is a difference in matter energy that affects uncertainty in a situation where a choice exists among a set of alternatives.

9,295 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop one of perhaps multiple specifications of embeddedness, a concept that has been used to refer broadly to the contingent nature of economic action with respect to cognition, social structure, institutions, and culture.
Abstract: This chapter aims to develop one of perhaps multiple specifications of embeddedness, a concept that has been used to refer broadly to the contingent nature of economic action with respect to cognition, social structure, institutions, and culture. Research on embeddedness is an exciting area in sociology and economics because it advances understanding of how social structure affects economic life. The chapter addresses propositions about the operation and outcomes of interfirm networks that are guided implicitly by ceteris paribus assumptions. While economies of time due to embeddedness have obvious benefits for the individual firm, they also have important implications for allocative efficiency and the determination of prices. Under the conditions, social processes that increase integration combine with resource dependency problems to increase the vulnerability of networked organizations. The level of investment in an economy promotes positive changes in productivity, standards of living, mobility, and wealth generation.

9,137 citations