Sunbelt XXX Social Networks Conferences The structure of business social network sites: the case of Milan IN

1. SunBelt XXX Social Networks Conference
June 29 - July 04, 2010
The structure of business social network sites:
the case of Milan IN
– preliminary results –
Ivana Pais – University of Brescia (pais@jus.unibs.it)
Riccardo De Vita – University of Greenwich (r.devita@gre.ac.uk)
Roberto Marmo – University of Pavia
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years

2. Agenda
 Social network sites: does one structure fit all?
 Empirical setting: the case of Milan In
 Methodology: exploring the data
 Preliminary findings: different levels of analysis
 Discussion and conclusion: the next steps
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years

3. Theoretical background
 ‘Appropriable social organisations’ vs intentional
organizations (Coleman, 1990)
 Technological development
 Different forms of Social Network Sites (O’Murchu, Breslin,
Decker, 2004)
o Registration-Based vs. Connection Based
o Social vs. Professional
o Online vs. Offline
o …
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years

4. Research question
 The majority of the studies focused on the understanding
of the effects of social networks; while the factors that
generate, sustain and reproduce them partly remain to be
explored (Smith-Doerr & Powell, 2005).
 Little is known about the specific structure of online
business social network services.
RQ: Are different social network sites associated with
different network structures?
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years

5. Milan In
 A non-profit association set up in 2005 to allow members
of LinkedIn living in Milan to physically meet up with each
other.
 Comparative study:
o same organization & same actors
o Linkedin Group Vs Facebook Group
4311 505 1357
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6. Method
 Structural Variables: connection on Facebook and
Linkedin groups  symmetric networks
 Composition variable: gender, education, job title, number
of connections,...
 Exploratory analysis of several network properties at the
global and local level
 Software: UCINET 6 (Borgatti, Everett and Freeman,
2002) and helper applications
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7. Linkedin Group – Members since 2005

8. …adding the members since 2006

9. …adding the members since 2007

10. …adding the members since 2008

11. …adding the members since 2009

12. Linkedin Group – Today

13. Facebook Group
Man; Woman
N Components Isolates Density Centralization Avg Degree
505 35 33 0.019** 79.0 % 9.43
(+1 dyad)

14. Linkedin Group
Man; Woman
N Components Isolates Density Centralization Avg Degree
505 6 5 0.027** 83.4 % 13.5

15. Multiplexity
% of ties in the % of ties in the
Linkedin Group Facebook Group
2.00% 2.86%

16. Clique size
Overall Clustering Coefficient
Facebook Group 0.584
Linkedin Group 0.494

17. Identifying relevant actors
Degree Centrality Degree Centrality
Top 5 actors in Linkedin Group Top 5 actors in Facebook Group
ID Facebook Linkedin ID Facebook Linkedin
344 0 432 19 406 3
347 7 260 886 139 7
276 2 101 620 87 3
1031 5 91 696 75 2
16 25 90 497 74 40
5 Key Players
KPP 2 – Using nodes
Facebook Group Linkedin Group
714 344
19 16
394 321
482 1101
1236 530

18. Discussion
 Different network structures are associated with online
groups built for the same purpose but on different
platforms
o Specialization and different behaviour
 Implications for academic debate and for organization
management
 Need to take a process perspective in analyzing network
evolution
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years

19. The next steps…
 Data:
o Relations  recommendations, physical interaction
o Attribute data  questionnaire and deeper analysis
 Methodological approach:
o Longitudinal analysis
 Theoretical perspective:
o Network structure and organizational development
 Empirical setting:
o Comparison with other online social networks
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years

21. The structure of business social network sites:
the case of Milan IN
– preliminary results –
Ivana Pais – University of Brescia (pais@jus.unibs.it)
Riccardo De Vita – University of Greenwich (r.devita@gre.ac.uk)
Roberto Marmo – University of Pavia
Teaching excellence for over a hundred years