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The emergence of inclusive and exclusive virtual communities determined by the preferences of their users

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Abstract

Consider the decision faced by the user of a social network site (SNS) regarding whether or not to accept a friendship request from another user. The user making such a decision is constrained by the limited amount of information available about the requester. Therefore, the decision must be based on incomplete information about the main characteristics and preferences describing the requester. We formalize this decision problem by defining the expected utility tradeoffs derived from the request and simulate the resulting acceptance and rejection incentives numerically. These incentives provide the basis on which to build inclusive and exclusive social networks determined by the different expectations and preferences of their users. Social networks are generated using a self-organizing map to cluster the decision makers (DMs) by their friendship acceptance behavior. We analyze the effects on the cluster structure of the resulting social network that follow from modifying the distribution of requesters relative to the preferences of the DMs, the disutility derived from accepting the friendship of an unwanted requester, the costs incurred when searching for potential friends to expand the network of connections, and the minimum networking capacities of the friendship requesters demanded by the DMs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Debora Di Caprio

  2. Polo Tecnologico IISS G. Galilei, Via Cadorna 14, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Debora Di Caprio

  3. School of Economics and Management, Free University of Bolzano, Piazza Università 1, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Francisco J. Santos-Arteaga

  4. Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Finca Mas Ferré, Edificio A, Campus de Somosaguas, Pozuelo de Alarcón, 28223, Madrid, Spain

    Francisco J. Santos-Arteaga

  5. Business Systems and Analytics Department, Distinguished Chair of Business Systems and Analytics, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA, 19141, USA

    Madjid Tavana

  6. Business Information Systems Department, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Paderborn, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Madjid Tavana

Authors
  1. Debora Di Caprio
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  2. Francisco J. Santos-Arteaga
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  3. Madjid Tavana
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco J. Santos-Arteaga.

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Di Caprio, D., Santos-Arteaga, F.J. & Tavana, M. The emergence of inclusive and exclusive virtual communities determined by the preferences of their users. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 8, 315–328 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-017-0447-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-017-0447-y

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