Reorganization and Tie Decay Choices

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kleinbaum, Adam M.
• 署名单位: Dartmouth College
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2705
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2219-2237
• 关键词: Social networks; tie decay; Network dynamics; reorganization; Natural experiments

摘要

Whereas most research on network evolution has focused on the role of interaction opportunities in the formation of new ties, this paper addresses tie decay choices. When the opportunity structure gets reorganized, social actors make choices about which ties to retain and which to allow to decay, informed by their past experience of the tie. I argue that, conditional on changes in opportunity, people (especially those with Machiavellian personalities) choose to retain ties to valuable contacts, they retain reciprocated ties (especially with highly empathic others), and they retain socially embedded ties (especially if they are low self-monitors). The empirical design, which exploits a randomized natural experiment, confirms these hypotheses and suggests that our understanding of tie decay choices-and, consequently, of network evolution-is enhanced by an integrated theoretical perspective that encompasses both social structure and social psychology.