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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/27757
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| Title: | Networks, Information & Social Capital |
| Authors: | Aral, Sinan
Van Alstyne, Marshall |
| Keywords: | Social Networks
Social Capital
Information Content
Information Diversity
Network Size
Network Diversity
Performance
Productivity
Information work |
| Issue Date: | 10-Nov-2008 |
| Series/Report no.: | CeDER-PP-2008-04 |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how information flows enable individuals to
generate social capital from their social networks. By combining social
network and performance data with the information content encoded in
email communication, we examine the long held but empirically untested
assumption that diverse networks drive performance by providing access
to novel information. We demonstrate empirically that diverse networks
do provide diverse, novel information, and that access to novel
information predicts performance. But whether diverse networks deliver
novel information depends on a tradeoff between network diversity and
relationship channel bandwidth: as networks become more diverse,
communication over each channel contracts. As network diversity and
channel bandwidth both enable access to more novel information, diverse
networks provide more novel information (a) when the topic space is
large, (b) when topics are distributed non-uniformly across nodes and
(c) when information in the network changes frequently. Diverse networks
are not just pipes into diverse knowledge pools, but also inspire
non-redundant communication even when the knowledge endowments of
contacts are homogeneous. Consistent with theories of cognitive
capacity, bounded rationality, and information overload, there are
positive but diminishing performance returns to novel information.
Network diversity also contributes to performance when controlling for
the performance effects of novel information, suggesting additional
non-information based benefits to structural diversity. These analyses
unpack the mechanisms that enable information advantages in networks and
serve as a ‘proof-of-concept’ for using email content to
analyze relationships among information, networks and social capital. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/27757 |
| Appears in Collections: | CeDER Published Papers
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