The objectives of this dissertation are to examine how expatriates¡¦ social network affect the ability of access information/resource and knowing- whom capital on their career advancement, as well as the effects of perceived organizational support correlate to host and home social network. Specially, this research investigates dual sources (host and home office) of expatriates¡¦ network in order to understand the impact on the network abilities and extent. Through confirmed factor analysis of pretest data, measurements were refined and the questionnaire used for the study was developed. For the study, 267 surveys were used for the data analyses. Structural equation modeling in LISREL 8.8 was employed to analyze the relationships among the latent constructs. The findings from the study revealed significant relationships between 1) expatriates¡¦ social network of host office and access information & resource, 2) social network of host office and knowing whom capital, 3) expatriates¡¦ social network of home office and access information & resource, 4) access information & resource and career advancement, and knowing whom capital and career advancement. This study contribute theoretically to the expatriates dual social network literature by clarifying the relationships among host social network, home social network, social network abilities and career advancement, while the previous studies focus on expatriates host country context. This research findings pointed out the expatriates not re-establish a personal network in the host environment but still keep contact with his/her home social network. The expatriates¡¦ host social network has direct and strong effect on access to information/resources and knowing-whom capital. And the expatriates¡¦ home social network also has positive impact on access to information/resources. This empirical model also provides future research with a new angle of view over expatriates social network and career advancement.

We live in a post-PC era with mobile devices on the rise. We can witness a growing number of applications that utilize the mobility of such devices to create applications that make our lives more efficient and connected. In the United States alone, millions of Americans play sports each year starting from middle school through college. With social media on the rise, there is a need for an application that takes advantage of the technologies incorporated in mobile devices with the ability to connect athletes in an area to one another. There is currently a lack of a social network application in the sports category of the Apple App Store. Therefore, this report describes how an iOS mobile application for a sports social network is designed, developed, and deployed. Specifically, we will explore in depth the iOS framework, user stories and requirements, the design and development of the client and backend application, and the tests and results. / text

Twitter is one of the most popular online social networking sites. It provides a unique and novel venue of publishing: it has over 500 million active users around the globe; tweets are brief, limited to 140 characters, an ideal way for people to publish spontaneously. As a result, Twitter has the short delays in reflecting what its users perceive, compared to other venues such as blogs and product reviews. We design and implement SportSense, which exploits Twitter users as human sensors of the physical world to detect major events in real-time. Using the National Football League (NFL) games as a targeted domain, we report in-depth studies of the delay and trend of tweets, and their dependence on other properties. We present event detection method based on these findings, and demonstrate that it can effectively and accurately extract major game events using open access Twitter data. SportSense has been evolving during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 NFL seasons and it has been collecting hundreds of millions tweets. We provide SportSense API for developers to use our system to create Twitter-enabled applications.

Due to their arduous schedules, Korean high school students have little time to socialize with their peers face-to-face. Because of this, socializing in online environments is important to them. Using smartphone applications, Korean high school girls are creating their own cultural practices as they socialize. However, media repeatedly report concerns about adolescents’ excessive use of smartphones, and the public has begun to worry about children’s media dependence. In exploring these phenomena, I pose four research questions: 1) what do smartphones mean to South Korean high school girls? 2) How do South Korean high school girls socialize through mobile messengers, such as Kakao Talk, and how are these activities related to their social capital and social networks? 3) How do South Korean high school girls socialize through mobile social games connected to mobile messengers, and how are these activities related to their social capital and social networks? 4) How is Korean high school girls’ attachment to smartphones related to smartphone addiction? For this research, I conducted focus group interviews with 23 Korean high school girls about their smartphone use. The findings of this research revealed that 1) South Korean high school girls established an exceptional attachment to smartphones; 2) interviewees were complementing the deficiency of offline socializing by establishing alternative online communities through smartphone messengers, and these social behaviors were increasing their bonding social capital; 3) Korean high school girls were interacting with their strong ties through mobile social games, and the interactions with their weak ties were limited and superficial; and 4) Korean high school girls were at risk for smartphone addiction in accordance with the existing criteria for media addiction. / text

This research explored the phenomenon of online social network in the context of consumer-brand relationship. The specific research objectives were: (a) to examine whether perceived benefits of a Brand’s Social Network Website (BSN) predict BSN relationship quality; (b) to investigate whether perceived benefits of BSN predict perceived relationship investment; (c) to examine if online social connection strengthens the relationship between perceived benefits of BSN and BSN relationship quality; (d) to examine if experience with BSN strengthens the relationship between perceived benefits of BSN and BSN relationship quality; (e) to investigate whether BSN relationship quality predicts brand relationship quality; (f) to examine whether BSN relationship quality predicts customer loyalty toward BSN; (g) to investigate whether perceived relationship investment predicts brand relationship quality; (h) to investigate whether brand relationship quality predicts customer loyalty toward BSN; (i) to examine whether brand relationship quality predicts customer loyalty toward the brand; and (j) to investigate whether customer loyalty toward BSN predicts customer loyalty toward the brand. This research employed a mixed-method approach to overcome the weaknesses in a single method approach and to provide stronger evidence for a conclusion. First, qualitative analyses explored the unique context of BSN, which was not much investigated in prior research. Specifically, Brand Pages of 22 apparel brands and 10 restaurant/coffeehouse brands, chosen as research settings, were investigated to validate the proposed research constructs. Second, quantitative analyses utilized an online self-administered cross-sectional survey method. A total of 501 complete responses collected from consumer panels of marketing research firm were used. The results suggested that BSN benefits are important drivers of relationship mediators (i.e., BSN relationship quality, perceived relationship investment), which in turn positively influence BRQ. However, functional benefits did not influence BSN relationship quality. In addition, while customer loyalty toward BSN was predicted by both BSN relationship quality and BRQ, it did not positively influence the loyalty toward the brand. Specifically, BSN loyalty did not influence behavioral loyalty and negatively influenced willingness to pay price premium. Further discussion about the results, implications, and suggestions for future research were provided.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2010. / Thesis advisor(s): Pfeiffer, Karl D. ; Higgins, Susan L. "March 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 30, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Social Network, Trust, Collaborative Network, Information Superiority, Knowledge Superiority, Knowledge Assurance. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-107). Also available in print.

This study explores the factors that support the development of interdisciplinary research connections in a large public research university. Graduate students and faculty from 15 departments (n = 227) responded to an online survey focusing on an individual's openness toward interdisciplinary research, applied epistemological orientation, and potential interdisciplinary collaborations. The findings suggest that the formation of interdisciplinary connections is tied to two main determinants: interdisciplinary openness, which is supported by reporting a more applied epistemological orientation and being a graduate student. The diversity of interdisciplinary connections is influenced by the academic status, with tenured faculty exhibiting the most diversity in connections. Finally, research network analysis suggests that the patterns of interdisciplinary collaborations tend to orient toward collaborations between similar and familiar methodological partners, and not toward collaborations with partners that are wholly unfamiliar in terms of methodology or research focus. / Ph. D.

This study examines what growing old names for the older women's sense of self-identity. Some gerontological argue that old age constitutes a period of role loss with detrimental impact on identity. A sizable body of data do not support this assumption. The underlying assumption of this study is that identity emerges and is sustained through social interaction. Thus the research focuses on (1) the meaning of 'being old' as defined by older women and (2) the extent to which a positive identity can be retained through social network involvement with family, friends and community leisure activities. Instead of focusing on what is lost, the emphasis was on determining what role relationships are retained and established in old age, and the extent to which these serve to maintain a positive self-image. The research is based on interviews with 142 women over age 65 living in the town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. The principle component of this sample comprised 101 women living in their own home or apartments (i.e. community dwelling). Most of the analysis is based on this sample. However, where comparative analysis is useful, these data are supplemented with information from interviews with 31 residents of senior citizens apartment complexes and 10 residents of nursing homes. The findings indicate that the elderly women studied here generally do not view themselves as 'elderly' or 'old'. Age identity is found to be largely situational and more relevant to some interactions than others. The majority have managed to retain a positive identity which is deeply embedded within their informal role involvements and social network ties. As a result, the loss of more formal role relationships had only limited impact on identity. The findings also indicate that a relatively stable small community appears to offer advantages for identity management in old age. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis aims to analyze the situation on the field of public business and social networks in the world and Czech Republic. It represents the types of software designed for implementation in a business environment and subsequent processing of the relevant data obtained from these networks. The second part focuses on the area of the Public Relations in the local business environment, identifying opportunities for evaluating the contribution for the company and discusses how PR links with emerging trends of everyday use of virtual social networks in companies and in corporate environments.

This research paper aims to investigate the role of enterprise social network to address these concerns such as knowledge sharing and collaboration. The authors have considered a case study based research approach as it is the best method to answer the research question. The leading multinational Bus and truck manufacture Scania was considered for our case study. The study has been done by researching the impact of enterprise social network tools such as Yammer and Lync and their attempt to answer these challenges in the organization. The paper concludes with the analysis based on the empirical findings and theoretical frame of reference. Suggestions and recommendations for further research in this area have also been mentioned in the concluding part of the thesis.