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Social Network Analysis

Feedback Assignment 1

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 2

Feedback assignment 1

What makes it more likely that an entrepreneur introduces a new product or service to the market?

case: Uganda

at least 2 hypotheses about SN

one hypothesis should utilize ideas of theory of structural holes

-> use the inter-alter response matrix!

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 3

Intro

Mention

Policy relevance of innovation: economic development/quality of life

Scientific relevance: test of network theories in a third world country

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 4

Theory

Good ideas

Argument: diversity of information sources

H1: “The larger the degree of structural holes in an entrepreneur’s network the higher the innnovativeness.”

H2: “The more contacts of an entrepreneur are from other villages the higher the innovativeness.”

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 5

Theory

Good ideas

H1: “The effect of the number of family members (strong ties) on innovation in the early stage of an enterprise is larger than the effect of the number of non-family members (weak ties).”

H2: “The effect of non-family ties (weak ties) on innovation in the later phase of an enterprise is stronger than the effect of family ties (strong ties).”

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 6

Feedback assignment 1

Good ideas

Effect of density dependent on uncertainty (need of trust in unsecure economic situation)?

You need good arguments for transfering the ideas of closure from multinational companies to small family companies!

Replication of (un-)expected findings under different cultural circumstances

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 7

Feedback

What went wrong?

copy & paste parts of the assignment as an intro

“the density is not significant”

“there is a relationship between innovation and the structure of the network”

[abstract (if at all): highlight some results!]

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 8

Feedback: theory & indicators

if you use efficiency, consider using network size

as well

if you use arguments of structural holes theory, why do you use density as indicator?

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 9

Feedback: theory & indicators

“Structural holes provide opportunities for

brokerage between business partners, therefore…”

What is the problem when we apply this argument to our data?

TU/e – Social Network Analsysis, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 10

Data analysis

Compare possible ties in the matrix with actual number of ties (measurement errors!)

describe the idea behind data transformations

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Data analysis

Don’t forget the descriptive results!

look at descriptives and summarize them: distribution of density, effective size, etc Distribution of innovativeness What does this tell us? Are the networks

especially large, dense, etc?

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Results

Very, very often the following happened…!

look at descriptives, e.g. distribution of density (dichotomous tie values):

Why could this be a problem?What to do?

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Results

only use one regression model for testing all hypotheses at once (including the control variables)

Do not use step-wise regression procedures, you conduct theory guided analyses

Significance (and sign) of effect is important, not a maximized R-Square

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The final grade

assignments + written exam

Grade = 50% assignments + 50% exam.

All assignments and the exam should be at least a 4. Final grade should be at least 5.5.

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Questions?