Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses
A special type of social networks is the so-called affiliation network, consisting of two modes of vertices: actors and events. Up to now, in the undirected case, the closeness of actors in such networks has been measured by their jointly-attended events. Indirect contacts and attenuated and directe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Entropy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/21/3/277 |
| _version_ | 1811263582858379264 |
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| author | Wilhelm Rödder Andreas Dellnitz Friedhelm Kulmann Sebastian Litzinger Elmar Reucher |
| author_facet | Wilhelm Rödder Andreas Dellnitz Friedhelm Kulmann Sebastian Litzinger Elmar Reucher |
| author_sort | Wilhelm Rödder |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A special type of social networks is the so-called affiliation network, consisting of two modes of vertices: actors and events. Up to now, in the undirected case, the closeness of actors in such networks has been measured by their jointly-attended events. Indirect contacts and attenuated and directed links are of minor interest in affiliation networks. These flaws make a veritable estimation of, e.g., possible message transfers amongst actors questionable. In this contribution, first, we discuss these matters from a graph-theoretical point of view. Second, so as to avoid the identified weaknesses, we propose an up-and-coming entropy-based approach for modeling such networks in their generic structure, replacing directed (attenuated) links by conditionals: if-then. In this framework, the contribution of actors and events to a reliable message transfer from one actor to another—even via intermediaries—is then calculated applying the principle of maximum entropy. The usefulness of this new approach is demonstrated by the analysis of an affiliation network called “corporate directors”. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T19:47:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bfec1f1665cb4971b48792ed9dc13c89 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1099-4300 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T19:47:54Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Entropy |
| spelling | doaj.art-bfec1f1665cb4971b48792ed9dc13c892022-12-22T03:18:55ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002019-03-0121327710.3390/e21030277e21030277Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven AnalysesWilhelm Rödder0Andreas Dellnitz1Friedhelm Kulmann2Sebastian Litzinger3Elmar Reucher4Department of Operations Research, FernUniversität in Hagen, 58097 Hagen, GermanyDepartment of Quantitative Methods, FernUniversität in Hagen, 58097 Hagen, GermanyDepartment of Quantitative Methods, FernUniversität in Hagen, 58097 Hagen, GermanyDepartment of Quantitative Methods, FernUniversität in Hagen, 58097 Hagen, GermanyDepartment of Business Administration, Private Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Technik, 49377 Vechta, GermanyA special type of social networks is the so-called affiliation network, consisting of two modes of vertices: actors and events. Up to now, in the undirected case, the closeness of actors in such networks has been measured by their jointly-attended events. Indirect contacts and attenuated and directed links are of minor interest in affiliation networks. These flaws make a veritable estimation of, e.g., possible message transfers amongst actors questionable. In this contribution, first, we discuss these matters from a graph-theoretical point of view. Second, so as to avoid the identified weaknesses, we propose an up-and-coming entropy-based approach for modeling such networks in their generic structure, replacing directed (attenuated) links by conditionals: if-then. In this framework, the contribution of actors and events to a reliable message transfer from one actor to another—even via intermediaries—is then calculated applying the principle of maximum entropy. The usefulness of this new approach is demonstrated by the analysis of an affiliation network called “corporate directors”.http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/21/3/277social network analysisbipartite structuresdirected graphsattenuated linksentropy |
| spellingShingle | Wilhelm Rödder Andreas Dellnitz Friedhelm Kulmann Sebastian Litzinger Elmar Reucher Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses Entropy social network analysis bipartite structures directed graphs attenuated links entropy |
| title | Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses |
| title_full | Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses |
| title_fullStr | Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses |
| title_short | Bipartite Structures in Social Networks: Traditional versus Entropy-Driven Analyses |
| title_sort | bipartite structures in social networks traditional versus entropy driven analyses |
| topic | social network analysis bipartite structures directed graphs attenuated links entropy |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/21/3/277 |
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