ACCUMULATING SOCIAL CAPITAL IN AN ONLINE URBAN NETWORK: THE EFFECTS OF USER BEHAVIORS

Yuri Rykov (rykyur@gmail.com), Yadviga Sinyavskaya (ysinyawskaya@hse.ru) and Olessia Koltsova (ekoltsova@hse.ru)
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Yuri Rykov: National Research University Higher School of Economics
Yadviga Sinyavskaya: National Research University Higher School of Economics
Olessia Koltsova: National Research University Higher School of Economics

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: Social capital is often accumulated not only in ego-networks, but in larger communities. However, these communities, although seemingly visible through social media, are still under-researched. In this work, we examine àn online friendship network spanning over an entire middle-size city amounting to 194,601 users of VK social network site. We find that the share of user’s in-city friends contributes to his/her brokerage and information influence abilities. More importantly, the number of user’s online groups - that is, user’s access to diverse or disconnected communities - is positively related with his/her bridging capital, and negatively with the bonding capital. Finally, our research questions the validity of some of the existing social capital measures.

Keywords: social capital; social network sites; VKontakte; friendship; online user behavior; online communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay
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Published in WP BRP Series: Sociology / SOC, December 2018, pages 1-27

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:83/soc/2018

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