Network structure plays a significant role in determining the performance of network inference tasks. An interactive tool to study the dependence of network topology on estimation performance was developed. The tool allows end-users to easily create and modify network structures and observe the performance of pole estimation measured by Cramer-Rao bounds. The tool also automatically suggests the best measurement locations to maximize estimation performance, and thus finds its broad applications on the optimal design of data collection experiments. Finally, a series of theoretical results that explicitly connect subsets of network structures with inference performance are obtained.

Research into the social behaviour of wild animals living in groups has demonstrated the importance of social structure dynamics and their consequences for an individual’s fitness. Many aspects of animal behaviour and ecology, including interactions with conspecifics, habitat use and willingness to take risks, can be a reflection of personality. One of the key concerns of captive animal husbandry is the social environment, as it is regularly modified and can shape the social behaviour of the animals in question in different ways. In this thesis I explore how meerkat, Suricata suricatta, social dynamics and individual positions may differ between wild and captive groups; I explore personality in the context of social networks and, lastly, I explore how physical and husbandry factors vary across enclosures and how this corresponds to a variation in the social structure of meerkats. Differences were found between the fifteen groups of captive meerkats when considering association networks based on foraging and resting. Some of these differences could be explained by intrinsic differences between the groups. An individual’s position within a network as described by their centrality and closeness measures could be predicted by their age and status, but rarely by their sex. I did not detect consistent patterns of non-random assortment amongst group members based on their sex, age or status. Groups of wild and captive meerkats differed in various aspects of their social network structure. Such differences may be due to individuals occupying different network positions and the difference in their number and strength of their connections to other individuals. This distinct way of interacting and associating could be a result of group specific attributes, such as group size, and/or the attributes of the donor and recipient, including sex, status or age. Critically, the differences may be explained by the dissimilar living environment that each encounters. The current results suggest that a meerkat social network in captive conditions can be less consistent than in their wild environment in the way they associate with one another, and in the manner they occupy particular positions in the network. Principal component analysis of the four personality traits revealed two personality dimensions, Friendliness and Aggressiveness, across the fifteen groups of meerkats. However, within a subset of my data (five groups), Friendliness was the only measure that robustly captured consistent individual differences across at least one year. A relationship was not found between attributes and personality dimensions due to age, status, and sex. Individuals with high Friendliness scores were more central in networks of foraging competitions. Aggressiveness did not explain an individual’s position in any form of interaction. There was no evidence that meerkats preferentially associated with or avoid others based on each of their personality scores. A relationship was found in the way animals associate with one another in the resting network based on the size and complexity of the enclosure and the type of shelter. Individuals were less likely to associate with others of the same sex or dominance status in enclosures that were larger or more complex. All the six external measures (the size and complexity of the enclosure, the type of barrier and day shelter, environmental enrichment frequency and human contact) influenced how individuals interacted with other group members within grooming, playing and dominance networks. In general, it seems to be that the key features to address in meerkat management in zoos are those of enclosure size and complexity (and perhaps provision of adequate shelters). Providing captive meerkats with more naturalistic and complex enclosures can help to preserve their natural social system.

<p>Date:</p><p>19^th, June, 2008</p><p>Level:</p><p>Master Thesis EFO 705, 15 credits</p><p>Authors:</p><p>Sixing Guo</p><p>China</p><p>guosixing@hotmail.com</p><p>Pasapoo Upathamwaranon</p><p>Thailand</p><p>pasapoo@hotmail.com</p><p>Title:</p><p>The Internationalization Process of Toyota in Europe: From the Perspectives of Entry Mode and Network Structure</p><p> </p><p>Tutor:</p><p>Leif Linnskog</p><p>Research Problem:</p><p>In European market, what entry mode did Toyota select? Why did they select those entry modes? And how did they manage their internal and external network structure during the entry mode evolution process? </p><p> </p><p>Purpose:</p><p>We describe and explain how Toyota conquered the European market from the perspective of entry mode and network. And we also intend to provide some useful information to the companies that want to gain experience before entering into the European market.</p><p> </p><p>Method:</p><p>We design this thesis as a case study about the entry mode of Toyota in the European market. In order to get an in-depth understanding of the research problem, the qualitative research approach is chosen. During the analysis part, all the information is derived from the secondary documents, such as website, articles and so on.</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>After the analysis the process of Toyota developed in the European market, we found that after careful consideration about both internal and external factors, Toyota usually prefers to conquer a new market with a relevant low risk entry mode, such as exporting or licensing, in the beginning. Then, with the increase of their experience as well as the growth of network, they began to change to a higher risk level entry mode, like joint venture or wholly owned subsidiaries. During the evolution process, in order to provide an effective way of interaction between headquarters and subsidiaries, Toyota’s structure changed from time to time.</p><p>Keywords:</p><p>Internationalization, Entry mode, Toyota, Network structure</p>

Date: 19th, June, 2008 Level: Master Thesis EFO 705, 15 credits Authors: Sixing Guo China guosixing@hotmail.com Pasapoo Upathamwaranon Thailand pasapoo@hotmail.com Title: The Internationalization Process of Toyota in Europe: From the Perspectives of Entry Mode and Network Structure   Tutor: Leif Linnskog Research Problem: In European market, what entry mode did Toyota select? Why did they select those entry modes? And how did they manage their internal and external network structure during the entry mode evolution process?    Purpose: We describe and explain how Toyota conquered the European market from the perspective of entry mode and network. And we also intend to provide some useful information to the companies that want to gain experience before entering into the European market.   Method: We design this thesis as a case study about the entry mode of Toyota in the European market. In order to get an in-depth understanding of the research problem, the qualitative research approach is chosen. During the analysis part, all the information is derived from the secondary documents, such as website, articles and so on. Conclusion: After the analysis the process of Toyota developed in the European market, we found that after careful consideration about both internal and external factors, Toyota usually prefers to conquer a new market with a relevant low risk entry mode, such as exporting or licensing, in the beginning. Then, with the increase of their experience as well as the growth of network, they began to change to a higher risk level entry mode, like joint venture or wholly owned subsidiaries. During the evolution process, in order to provide an effective way of interaction between headquarters and subsidiaries, Toyota’s structure changed from time to time. Keywords: Internationalization, Entry mode, Toyota, Network structure

Contemporary organizations live in an environment of networks: internally, they manage the networks of employees, information resources, and knowledge assets to enhance productivity and improve efficiency; externally, they form alliances with strategic partners, suppliers, buyers, and other stakeholders to conserve resources, share risks, andgain market power. Many managerial and strategic decisions are made by organizations based on their understanding of the structure of these networks. This dissertation is devoted to network structure mining, a new research topic on knowledge discovery indatabases (KDD) for supporting knowledge management and decision making in organizations.A comprehensive computational framework is developed to provide a taxonomy and summary of the theoretical foundations, major research questions, methodologies,techniques, and applications in this new area based on extensive literature review. Research in this new area is categorized into static structure mining and dynamic structure mining. The major research questions of static mining are locating criticalresources in networks, reducing network complexity, and capturing topological properties of large-scale networks. An inventory of techniques developed in multiple reference disciplines such as social network analysis and Web mining are reviewed. These techniques have been used in mining networks in various applications including knowledge management, marketing, Web mining, and intelligence and security. Dynamic pattern mining is concerned with network evolution and major findings are reviewed.A series of case studies are presented in this dissertation to demonstrate how network structure mining can be used to discover valuable knowledge from various networks ranging from criminal networks to patent citation networks. Several techniques aredeveloped and employed in these studies. Performance evaluation results are provided to demonstrate the usefulness and potential of this new research field in supporting knowledge management and decision making in real applications.

Background Recurrence and predictability of evolution are thought to reflect the correspondence between genomic and phenotypic dimensions of organisms, and the connectivity in deterministic networks within these dimensions. Direct examination of the correspondence between opportunities for diversification imbedded in such networks and realized diversity is illuminating, but is empirically challenging because both the deterministic networks and phenotypic diversity are modified in the course of evolution. Here we overcome this problem by directly comparing the structure of a “global” carotenoid network – comprising of all known enzymatic reactions among naturally occurring carotenoids – with the patterns of evolutionary diversification in carotenoid-producing metabolic networks utilized by birds. Results We found that phenotypic diversification in carotenoid networks across 250 species was closely associated with enzymatic connectivity of the underlying biochemical network – compounds with greater connectivity occurred the most frequently across species and were the hotspots of metabolic pathway diversification. In contrast, we found no evidence for diversification along the metabolic pathways, corroborating findings that the utilization of the global carotenoid network was not strongly influenced by history in avian evolution. Conclusions The finding that the diversification in species-specific carotenoid networks is qualitatively predictable from the connectivity of the underlying enzymatic network points to significant structural determinism in phenotypic evolution.

People always find themselves interacting with others and forming ties with them; these ties shape an individual’s social network which helps form the self-conception and identity of a person. In discussing the essence of social networks and how they are formed the concept of homophily is of high significance. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to show the association between homophily and the process of friendship formation. As the structure of any social network is important in tie formation, I have also intended to study homophilous tie formation from a distinctiveness theory perspective, suggesting that individuals with minority characteristics are more prone to form friendship ties with each other. The types of homophily studied in this research are gender, religion, nationality/ethnicity, and political views. The data is gathered from the cohort which started grade 10 in upper secondary education in a school in Stockholm in Autumn 2012. The analyses were conducted using logistic regression. The results indicated the existence of gender homophily and national homophily. However, religious homophily did not appear to be significant; political homophily was only significant for individuals who were participating in political meetings. However, due to lack of sufficient data, the relations between network structure and homophilous relations could not be accurately tested. Since the data were not collected randomly and the school was chosen due to its specific characteristics, it is not possible to generalize the results of the research to all of the adolescents living in Stockholm. However, this research sheds some light on the mechanisms at play in friendship formation among adolescents.

Establishing metrics of diversification can calibrate the observed scope of diversity within a lineage and the potential for further phenotypic diversification. There are two potential ways to calibrate differences between phenotypes. The first metric is based on the structure of the network of direct and indirect connections between elements, such as the genes, proteins, enzymes and metabolites that underlie a phenotype. The second metric characterizes the dynamic properties that determine the strength of the interactions among elements, and influence which elements are the most likely to interact. Determining how the connectivity and strength of interactions between elements lead to specific phenotypic variations provides insight into the tempo and mode of observed evolutionary changes. In this dissertation, I proposed and tested hypotheses for how the structure and metabolic flux of a biochemical network delineate patterns of phenotypic variation. I first examined the role of structural properties in shaping observed patterns of carotenoid diversification in avian plumage. I found that the diversification of species-specific carotenoid networks was predictable from the connectivity of the underlying metabolic network. The compounds with the most enzymatic reactions, that were part of the greatest number of distinct pathways, were more conserved across species’ networks than compounds associated with the fewest enzymatic reactions. These results established that compounds with the greatest connectivity act as hotspots for the diversification of pathways between species. Next, I investigated how dynamic properties of biochemical networks influence patterns of phenotypic variation in the concentration and occurrence of compounds. Specifically, I examined if the rate of compound production, known as metabolic flux, is coordinated among compounds in relation to their structural properties. I developed predictions for how different distributions of flux could cause distinct diversification patterns in the concentrations and presence of compounds in a biochemical network. I then tested the effect of metabolic network structure on the concentrations of carotenoids in the plumage of male house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) from the same population. I assessed whether the structure of a network corresponds to a specific distribution of flux among compounds, or if flux is independent of network structure. I found that flux coevolves with network structure; concentrations of metabolically derived compounds depended on the number of reactions per compound. There were strong correlations between compound concentrations within a network structure, and the strengths of these correlations varied among structures. These findings suggest that changes in network structure, and not independent changes in flux, influence local adaptations in the concentrations of compounds. Lastly, the influence of carotenoid network structure in the evolutionary diversification of compounds across species of birds depends on how the structure of the network itself evolves. To test whether the carotenoid metabolic network structure evolves in birds, I examined the patterns of carotenoid co-occurrence across ancestral and extant species. I found that the same groups of compounds are always gained or lost together even as lineages diverge further from each other. These findings establish that the diversification of carotenoids in birds is constrained by the structure of an ancestral network, and does not evolve independently within a lineage. Taken together, the results of this dissertation establish that local adaptations and the evolutionary diversification of carotenoid metabolism are qualitatively predictable from the structure of an ancestral enzymatic network, and this suggests there is significant structural determinism in phenotypic evolution.

Biodiversity loss is one of the major threats to humanity. This has led to an increasing amount of research on biodiversity on genetic and species levels. Studies of diversity at the ecosystem level has however been neglected. An important aspect of ecosystems is food webs that describe the predation-prey interactions between species. Properties explaining the topological structure of food webs can be used to compare and highlight differences between ecosystems. In the present study, topological network properties are used to compare the diversity of network structures between groups of empirical food webs. Differences between 45 aquatic and 45 terrestrial food webs are compared as well as the effects of species richness on lake network structure diversity. Network structure diversity is measured as the average Euclidean distance from food webs to their group centroid in a multidimensional space of network properties. While the average network structure differs between aquatic and terrestrial food webs, no significant difference in variation is found. For 128 Swedish and 48 North American lake food webs, increasing species richness is shown to decrease network structure diversity. A higher diversity of network structures could potentially indicate a more ways to cope with disturbances or provisions of a higher variety of ecosystem services. Preliminary tests of ecosystem diversity effects on stability were conducted but proved inconclusive.

A complex adaptive systems approach has been permeating organizational studies and the field of supply network management helping to describe and explain supply network dynamics and emergent inter-firm structures. This has improved our theoretical knowledge of the nature of supply networks transforming raw materials into products, within a constantly changing environment. From the early days of simple structures, describing bi-lateral, local arrangements between firms for the creation of relatively simple products, we are now in an environment of various supply network archetypes, describing different global sourcing regimes of highly integrated, sophisticated products within multi-tier networks. This thesis is a study of the coevolution of the firm and supply network in the commercial aerospace manufacturing sector producing jetliners of 100 or more seats. One of the contributions of this research is to demonstrate how the holistic approach of complexity science can be applied to describe, understand and gain new insight into the coevolution of the firm and the supply network. Based on the findings of multiple interviews and questionnaires in eight global aerospace firms across multiple supply chain tiers, this research finds high-performing clusters of inter-firm characteristics, plus the aspects of structure and integration which deliver the supply network performance. Practitioners can use these specific results to examine their own firms and the new coevolutionary conceptual framework developed in the thesis may aid future research studies of complex adaptive systems in practice. The simple survey design and analysis method used in the final research stage of this research, has the potential for use in other industries, markets and other complex adaptive systems generally to examine performance outcomes and the effects of having or adopting new inter-firm characteristics. Finally, implications for policy include the potential to legitimize supply networks in order to stimulate competition and innovation in the economy.