Sunbelt XXXI International Network for Social Network ... - INSNA

The Influential Power Of eWOM Distribution In Virtual CommunitiesWang, Jyun‐chengPoster SessionDiffusion, Dynamic Networks, eWOMSAT.PM3Online product reviews reflect the perceptions of consumers and these reviews are regarded as eWOM. Online product review platforms provide a place tocollect cumulative product reviews. People who have joined online product review website establish their friends and fans network. The fans can see allbehaviors their friends do and thus be influenced. We take a cosmetics product review platform as our analysis target and we investigate each ego networkand identify different characteristics of star network type, e.g. the contacts among alters, the triads of alters. We analyze different interactive types of egonetwork and the adoption of ego’s opinions. We identify the characteristics of ego network pattern and the influential power of friend network. The diffusionof eWOM is important issue for companies to know their customers and the likeliness of their products. In this study, we investigate time factor and thedistribution of eWOM, so we investigate the dynamics of eWOM distribution through members’ social networks. Cosmetics products send trial samples topotential consumers before they launch the product to the market. They will ask consumers who get free samples to write their product reviews for testimony.The product review generates rate and the reply frequency of pre‐launch and post‐launch are not the same. We observe eWOM diffuse rate, contactfrequency and influential power to identify important factors which determines the success of cosmetics product.The Network Dynamics Of Status: Selection And InfluenceTorlò, Vanina; Torlo, Vanina J.; Lomi, AlessandroElite networksSAT.PM2This paper examines status both as an antecedent and a consequence of social networks in organizations. One way in which status is an antecedent to networkties concerns the tendency of individuals of similar status to select each other as partners, a phenomenon known as status homophily. Status is also aconsequence of social networks because individuals connected by network ties tend to be considered as similar in terms of status. These mechanisms ofstatus‐based selection and networkbased influence are distinct in principle, but in practice they tend to produce the same observable outcome: individuals ofsimilar status connected by network ties. In this paper we show how mechanisms of status‐based selection and network‐based influence can be identifiedempirically and disentangled in a longitudinal analysis of social networks among 75 students enrolled in a professional management degree. Results showstrong evidence in support of the hypothesis of status assimilation: status flows through network ties. As a consequence, we find that the status of individualsin the sample analyzed becomes progressively assimilated to the status of their network contacts. We report weaker evidence of status‐based selection:individuals of similar status do not necessarily choose each other as network partners. We find that this result obtains because status affects the propensity tosend or receive network ties in a way that is contingent upon the specific kind of relational setting engaging individuals. For example, high status individualstend to be popular as advice partners, but avoided as friends.