Triadic closure, homophily, and reciprocation: An empirical investigation of social ties between content providers
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
9-2019
Abstract
In social media, a content provider can initiate outgoingties to other providers to promote their content, thus inviting reciprocalpromotion. We investigate how the reciprocation benefit for the initiatingprovider is affected by homophily and triadic closure, the two major mechanismsof tie formation. Specifically, we examine how the increase in subscribers and viewershipof the initiating provider’s content attributable to the responding providers’reciprocation is moderated by common ties and content similarity between thetwo linked providers. Using a panel data on 27,356 YouTube video providers, wespecify a switching regression model toestimate the influence of content similarity and common ties on reciprocationimpact while correcting for their influence on reciprocation probability. Confirmingthat reciprocation is generally beneficial for the initiator, we find thatalthough content similarity and common ties increase reciprocation probability,they reduce the reciprocation benefit for the initiator in terms of subscribergrowth. We also find a positive interaction effect between content similarityand common ties on reciprocation impact, reducing their individual effects.Combining their respective influence on reciprocation probability and benefit,we further examine how content similarity and common ties affect the expectedbenefit for the initiator and derive practical implications for contentproviders and social media platforms.
Keywords
Social networking, user-generated content, reciprocation, switching regression model, homophily, triadic closure
Discipline
Databases and Information Systems | Social Media
Research Areas
Information Systems and Management
Publication
Information Systems Research
Volume
30
Issue
3
First Page
912
Last Page
926
ISSN
1047-7047
Identifier
10.1287/isre.2019.0838
Publisher
INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences)
Citation
SONG, tingting; TANG, Qian; and HUANG, Jinghua.
Triadic closure, homophily, and reciprocation: An empirical investigation of social ties between content providers. (2019). Information Systems Research. 30, (3), 912-926.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/4827
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2019.0838