• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.168-190
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• 2022

This review aims to synthesize social network theories by drawing on the importance of social network perspectives in understanding knowledge management with technology in organizations. I provide an overview of prior social network research with the following core ideas: the primacy of relations between organizational actors, the utility of actors' embeddedness in social fields, the social utility of network connections, and the structural patterning of social life. On top of that, I summarize critical social perspectives (the social capital theory, the structural hole theory, the embeddedness perspective, the social exchange theory, the organizational learning theory, and the innovation diffusion theory) to suggest potential research questions for future studies in social network research in the knowledge management discipline.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2012

Despite the relatively short history of Social Network Sites or Services (SNS), it has quickly gained popularity with more than seven hundred million users all over the globe. The SNS emerged as one of the strongest cultural influences for the contemporary society. The SNS would provide both chances and challenges for Education. The main purpose of the article was to explore the way education react and adapt to the emergence of social network and SNS. It tried to provide major theoretical grounds that bridge education and social network. In the due process, the researchers have examined the curriculum and instructional design process of education from the perspective of disruptive and sustainable aspect of SNS technology. Consequently, four major theoretical grounds were identified and reviewed: Gibson's theory of affordance, Vygotsky's social constructivism, Rha's human visual intelligence theory, and the network theory. By investigating these theories, the educational potentials of social network and SNS were emerged. The SNS was viewed as a new medium with abundant potentials of expanding the learning space, empowering the affective aspects of learning, and facilitating the formation of group intelligence. Finally, some future implications and challenges of SNS were suggested.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.704-710
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• 2007

This paper examines the operations of private housing developers (PHDs) based on Social Network Theory. PHDs need to choose the best consultants, contractors and suppliers (CCS) to make sure the project run and complete successfully. PHDs gather the scarce resources from the external environment through personal network. This research used the social network method which relies on alliances based on network, social, tie and trust. The more people/firm PHDs network with, the better chances of finding the right CCS.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.25-40
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• 2011

Today, Internet users start off using heavily SNS(Social Network Site) such like, Facebook, Twitter. The reason of the growth of using SNS would be closely related to the various services of gaming, playing, entertainment items, sharing information etc., provided by the SNS, technically, the most important one out of the services provided would be behaving of sharing knowledge among people who connected and networked in the site. In sum, we assume that the users may communicate well each other and pay attention to build closely a social network using that kind of activities. However, nevertheless the new trends of communications and sharing knowledge become popular, researchers have just began the research issues in explaining why Internet user rush into SNS and enjoy the time in there. Therefore, we investigate on the reasons of posting knowledge voluntarily in the SNS and how others response to the posted information and actually affected by the behavior. We appled personal relation and social identity theory for this study, which personal relation in SNS may affect on social identity and make them produce knowledge generation. We found that social identity and involvement in SNS is closely related and influence knowledge creation and generation. This empirical study resulted in the importance of social relations in SNS, which leads to a sharing knowledge.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Nowadays, many first-time Internet users start off heavily using SNSs (Social Network Sites), such as Cyworld, Facebook, and Twitter. The reason for the growth of SNS use is closely related to the various services of gaming, playing, using entertainment items, sharing knowledge etc., provided by the SNS; technically, the most important of the services provided would be the behavior of sharing knowledge among people connected and networked in the site. In sum, we assume that the users may communicate well with each other and pay attention to building a close social network using the abovementioned activities. However, researchers have just begun to focus on the issues explaining why Internet users rush into SNSs and enjoy their time there. Therefore, we investigated the reasons for posting and sharing knowledge voluntarily on the SNS and how others respond to the posted knowledge and are actually affected by the behavior. We applied social identity theory and social capital theory in this study to find which network externalities in SNSs may affect online identity-based attachment and cause them to produce a knowledge sharing generation. We found that people's online identity in SNSs is closely related to and influences knowledge sharing. This empirical study resulted in the importance of social relations in SNSs, which leads to sharing knowledge.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.3630-3656
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• 2018

Degree distribution can provide basic information for structural characteristics and internal relationship in social network. It is a critical procedure for social network topology analysis. In this paper, based on the mean-field theory, we study a special type of social network with exponential distribution of time intervals. First of all, in order to improve the accuracy of analysis, we propose a spreading coefficient algorithm based on intimate relationship, which determines the number of the joined members through the intimacy among members. Then, simulation show that the degree distribution of follows the power-law distribution and has small-world characteristics. Finally, we compare the performance of our algorithm with the existing algorithms, and find that our algorithm improves the accuracy of degree distribution as well as reducing the time complexity significantly, which can complete 29.04% higher precision and 40.94% lower implementation time.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.33-47
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• 2000

We focus on the investigations of the effect of social networks on the diffusion of innovations, in order to successfully bring innovations into markets. We begin with consideration of social system from Rogers(1995)' perspective, which includes the fifty-year sequential tradition of diffusion studies, and expand the conceptualization into a framework for thinking about the effect of social networks on the diffusion of innovations. We draw upon basic ideas from the research traditions of social network theory in sociology, and social identity theory in social psychology. Finally, we offer propositions for the future empirical researches. A better understanding of social networks can complement research on the diffusion of innovations and help in the development of a universal model of consumer response to innovations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.13-24
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• 2017

Purpose - The current study aims to examine the effect of social network factors on travel agency employees' occupational outcomes such as job performance and job satisfaction through innovation behavior in a comprehensive model. Research design, data, and methodology - Based on a theory of social network, the concept of social network was assessed by three factors: a) network size, b) network range, and c) tie strength. To test the proposed hypotheses, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed based on data from 197 travel agency employees in Korea. Result - The results showed that the associational activity of network size had a positive effect on innovation behavior, while the network range of network size had a significant negative effect on innovation behavior. Subsequently, innovation behavior positively influenced on job performance and job satisfaction, respectively. Conclusions - The results offer some insights into the extended model and have important managerial implications for Korean travel agencies. More specifically, considering diverse domains of social network and organizational research, this study advances critical utility of social network factors in a high facilitating level of innovation behavior, which can help travel agency employees promote their job performance and job satisfaction.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.163-186
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• 2012

With the development of Internet and transition to information society, social capital is expanding to online from the traditional offline context. Especially with the widespread of social network service(SNS) the number of SNS users is increasing sharply and the importance of online social capital has been more and more significant. Most studies on social capital focused on organizational aspects but few studies have payed attention to personal aspect. Empirical studies on the relation between SNS and social capital were seldom conducted in previous studies. Based on the theory of social capital this study targets on the relationship formed through SNS and analyzes on how the relationship affects the perceived social capital. In this study 'self-presentation', 'playfulness' and 'critical mass' are posited as the antecedent factors of 'SNS usage'. This study proposes a research model to examine the effect of 'SNS usage' on 'relationship reinforcement', 'relationship building' and 'perceived social capital'. According to the results of empirical analysis, 'self-presentation', 'playfulness' and 'critical mass' can generate significant positive influence on 'SNS usage'. It also confirms not only the effect of 'relationship reinforcement' and 'relationship building' formed through SNS on 'perceived social capital' but also relationship between the social capital formation and SNS usage. The outcome obtained in this study can be applied in developing SNS services.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.75-97
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• 2012

Knowledge residing in the heads of employees has always been regarded as one of the most critical resources within a firm. However, many tries to facilitate knowledge transfer among employees has been unsuccessful because of the motivational and cognitive problems between the knowledge source and the recipient. Social capital, which is defined as "the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit [Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998]," is suggested to resolve these motivational and cognitive problems of knowledge transfer. In Social capital theory, there are two research streams. One insists that social capital strengthens group solidarity and brings up cooperative behaviors among group members, such as voluntary help to colleagues. Therefore, social capital can motivate an expert to transfer his/her knowledge to a colleague in need without any direct reward. The other stream insists that social capital provides an access to various resources that the owner of social capital doesn't possess directly. In knowledge transfer context, an employee with social capital can access and learn much knowledge from his/her colleagues. Therefore, social capital provides benefits to both the knowledge source and the recipient in different ways. However, prior research on knowledge transfer and social capital is mostly limited to either of the research stream of social capital and covered only the knowledge source's or the knowledge recipient's perspective. Social network theory which focuses on the structural dimension of social capital provides clear explanation about the in-depth mechanisms of social capital's two different benefits. 'Strong tie' builds up identification, trust, and emotional attachment between the knowledge source and the recipient; therefore, it motivates the knowledge source to transfer his/her knowledge to the recipient. On the other hand, 'weak tie' easily expands to 'diverse' knowledge sources because it does not take much effort to manage. Therefore, the real value of 'weak tie' comes from the 'diverse network structure,' not the 'weak tie' itself. It implies that the two different perspectives on strength of ties can co-exist. For example, an extroverted employee can manage many 'strong' ties with 'various' colleagues. In this regards, the individual-level structure of one's relationships as well as the dyadic-level relationship should be considered together to provide a holistic view of social capital. In addition, interaction effect between individual-level characteristics and dyadic-level characteristics can be examined, too. Based on these arguments, this study has following research questions. (1) How does the social capital of the knowledge source and the recipient influence knowledge transfer respectively? (2) How does the strength of ties between the knowledge source and the recipient influence knowledge transfer? (3) How does the social capital of the knowledge source and the recipient influence the effect of the strength of ties between the knowledge source and the recipient on knowledge transfer? Based on Social capital theory and Social network theory, a multi-level research model is developed to consider both the individual-level social capital of the knowledge source and the recipient and the dyadic-level strength of relationship between the knowledge source and the recipient. 'Cross-classified random effect model,' one of the multi-level analysis methods, is adopted to analyze the survey responses from 337 R&D employees. The results of analysis provide several findings. First, among three dimensions of the knowledge source's social capital, network centrality (i.e., structural dimension) shows the significant direct effect on knowledge transfer. On the other hand, the knowledge recipient's network centrality is not influential. Instead, it strengthens the influence of the strength of ties between the knowledge source and the recipient on knowledge transfer. It means that the knowledge source's network centrality does not directly increase knowledge transfer. Instead, by providing access to various knowledge sources, the network centrality provides only the context where the strong tie between the knowledge source and the recipient leads to effective knowledge transfer. In short, network centrality has indirect effect on knowledge transfer from the knowledge recipient's perspective, while it has direct effect from the knowledge source's perspective. This is the most important contribution of this research. In addition, contrary to the research hypothesis, company tenure of the knowledge recipient negatively influences knowledge transfer. It means that experienced employees do not look for new knowledge and stick to their own knowledge. This is also an interesting result. One of the possible reasons is the hierarchical culture of Korea, such as a fear of losing face in front of subordinates. In a research methodology perspective, multi-level analysis adopted in this study seems to be very promising in management research area which has a multi-level data structure, such as employee-team-department-company. In addition, social network analysis is also a promising research approach with an exploding availability of online social network data.