As the Web has become more and more important to our daily lives, algorithms that can effectively utilize the link structure have become more and more important. One such task has been to find communities in social network data. Recently, however, there has been increased interest in augmenting links with additional semantic information. We examine link classification from the point of view of scientometrics, with an eye towards applying what has been learned about scientific citation to Web linking. Some community detection algorithms are reviewed, and one that has been developed for topical community finding on the Web is adapted to typed scientific citations.

Studies from developing countries disagree on whether mobility is a risk factor or a protective factor for HIV risk. The difference is often determined by gender. Few studies exist, however, examining the relationship among high risk populations in developed nations. This study seeks to examine that relationship in 10 high risk ZIP codes of Atlanta, Georgia using data gathered from the Geography Project by Rothenberg and colleagues. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between HIV risk and five independent variables of mobility. Results were stratified by gender. After controlling for demographic and behavioral variables, use of public transportation by men was significantly protective of HIV risk. Significant associations were also observed with ever injection drug use and recent condom use, indicating that high risk behaviors may be the real driver of the epidemic in these neighborhoods.

Title: Behavioural advertising on Facebook: The user perspective regarding leisure industry. Authors: Jean-Marc Desfougères and Valentin Bloux Supervisor: Albert Thor Magnusson Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration Marketing Key Words: Behavioural advertising, Facebook, privacy, online consumer behaviour, social network, leisure industry, targeting. Purpose: study how a specific age bracket of Facebook users perceives the leisure industry behavioural advertising on this social networking site. Method: This thesis follows a deductive approach. We are using secondary data from books, articles and studies but also primary data thanks to a questionnaire; which allows us to answer our purpose. Theoretical Framework: First define the online consumer behaviour and its characteristics through existing models and then define behavioural advertising, how is the leisure industry using this marketing tool and what are the drawbacks of such practices. Conclusion: The authors conclude that Facebook users are more and more aware of the use of behavioural advertising. But due to a lack of education about such marketing techniques the 18-30 years old tend to adopt mostly strict privacy settings with the intention to block those advertisements. The privacy issue is important and even if the users seems to be interested in the offers of the leisure industry there is still a long way before obtaining a full acceptance of this practice. Then are presented the contributions given and the further research possible regarding this topic.

As the Web has become more and more important to our daily lives, algorithms that can effectively utilize the link structure have become more and more important. One such task has been to find communities in social network data. Recently, however, there has been increased interest in augmenting links with additional semantic information. We examine link classification from the point of view of scientometrics, with an eye towards applying what has been learned about scientific citation to Web linking. Some community detection algorithms are reviewed, and one that has been developed for topical community finding on the Web is adapted to typed scientific citations.

Abstract This study used an exploratory research focus to investigate if making electricity consumption public and subject to social norms and networks resulted in consumption decreases for households in Milton, Ontario. In the first phase, Milton Hydro identified customers who fell within an average annual electricity consumption category and these customers were invited to participate by mail. Due to lack of participant uptake, cold-calling, targeting of service and faith groups and commuters, and snowball sampling were employed to obtain a total participant size of 17. The second phase saw participants grouped according to social network type (occupational, faith group, etc) and exposed to approval or disapproval indicators within their group about their daily electricity consumption rates via an on-line ‘energy pool’. There were five main groups: one of neighbours, one of members of a faith group, one of members of a company, one of strangers and one of a control group. Group members saw other members’ indicators with the exception of the control group, whose indicators were privately delivered. All group’s electricity consumption was tracked through daily smart meter readings. Participants also had the option of commenting on each other’s electricity use via an online ‘comment box’. In the third phase participants were asked to participate in a questionnaire to assess: 1) the perceived efficacy of the intervention; 2) perceptions of electricity consumption; and 3) the influence of the group on these perceptions. This sequential methodology was chosen for its ability to “...explain significant (or non-significant) results, outlier results, or surprising results” (Cresswell, 2006, p. 72). The findings of this exploratory research seem to suggest the following: 1) that publicity or group type does not seem to affect electricity consumption in comparative electricity consumption feedback for this study; 2) that participants used injunctive norms to comment on their electricity consumption but directed these comments solely at themselves; and 3) that the stronger the relationships in the group, the more likely participants were to engage with the website through checking it and commenting on it. This study may be useful to those in the fields of: 1) electricity conservation who wish to leverage feedback technologies; 2) social networks who wish to better understand how tie strength interacts with social norms and; 3) those in social marketing who wish to develop norm-based campaigns.

This thesis comprises of two separate game theoretic models that fall under the general umbrella of network formation games. The first is a coalitional model of interaction in social networks that is based on the idea of social distance, in which players seek interactions with similar others. Our model captures some of the phenomena observed on such networks, such as homophily driven interactions and the formation of small worlds for groups of players. Using social distance games, we analyze the interactions between players on the network, study the properties of efficient and stable networks, relate them to the underlying graphical structure of the game, and give an approximation algorithm for finding optimal social welfare. We then show that efficient networks are not necessarily stable, and stable networks do not necessarily maximise welfare. We use the stability gap to investigate the welfare of stable coalition structures, and propose two new solution concepts with improved welfare guarantees. The second model is a compact formulation of matchings with externalities. Our formulation achieves tractability of the representation at the expense of full expressivity. We formulate a template of solution concept that applies to games where externalities are involved, and instantiate it in the context of optimistic, neutral, and pessimistic reasoning. Then we investigate the complexity of the representation in the context of many-to-many and one-to-one matchings, and provide both computational hardness results and polynomial time algorithms where applicable.

The Internet represents a unique opportunity for people to interact with each other across time and space, and online communities have existed long before the Internet's solidification in everyday living. There are two inherent challenges that online communities continue to contend with: motivating participation and organizing information. An online community's success or failure rests on the content generated by its users. Specifically, users need to continually participate by contributing new content and organizing existing content for others to be attracted and retained. I propose both participation and organization can be enhanced if users have an explicit awareness of the implicit social network which results from their online interactions. My approach makes this normally ``hidden" social network visible and shows users that these intangible relations have an impact on satisfying their information needs and vice versa. That is, users can more readily situate their information needs within social processes, understanding that the value of information they receive and give is influenced and has influence on the mostly incidental relations they have formed with others. First, I describe how to model a social network within an online discussion forum and visualize the subsequent relationships in a way that motivates participation. Second, I show that social networks can also be modeled to generate recommendations of information items and that, through an interactive visualization, users can make direct adjustments to the model in order to improve their personal recommendations. I conclude that these modeling and visualization techniques are beneficial to online communities as their social capital is enhanced by "weaving" users more tightly together.

As of the moment Facebook is the world’s largest online social network with over 800 million active users and more than 50% of the users log on to the website on any given day. It is considered to be the most important social platform on the Internet since it reaches more people than any other social network. Social networks present a completely different way for consumers and companies to interact with each other, compared to traditional communication, and create an incredible challenge for corporations. The hard task that companies have to face is how to engage their consumers through interaction, participation, entertainment and innovative creativity. The pursuit of consumer engagement plays a key role in coping with the ongoing changes in social life as well as in consumer behavior. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how companies engage customers through online communication at Facebook. In order to fulfill the purpose the authors chose to conduct observations of six Swedish companies active on Facebook; Marabou, Nelly.com, McDonald’s Sweden, Liseberg, ICA and Fotografiska. The research showed that companies use integrated marketing communication as a tool to involve and engage customers on Facebook. The results imply that there are key factors that characterized the observed companies’ Facebook communication. Frequent updates, clear information, visualized messages and customer involvement were vital in creating customer engagement and indicate how communication on Facebook is carried out by companies.

UNIVERSITY Mälardalen University (Mälardalens högskola) School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology COURSE Master Thesis in Business Studies with Specialization in International Marketing COURSE CODE EFO705 TITLE Cultural influences on the social network marketing effectiveness: A case study in Thailand. RESEARCH QUESTIONS How does collectivism influence the effectiveness of social network marketing? PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyze whether the cultural dimension of collectivism among Thais has an influential impact on the effectiveness of social network marketing implementation on clothing retailing companies toward online customers or not. METHODOLOGY This thesis has employed both primary and secondary data to operationalize the conceptual framework. A questionnaire given to 160 respondents and the interview of 2 Thai expert marketers has been carried out to operationalize this research question. CONCLUSION The collectivistic behaviors among Thais show a slightly positive relationship which supports the effectiveness of social network marketing implementation. The other influential factors, apart from collectivism, are detergency in educational levels, knowledge of using social network, smart phone trends, and internet facility readiness.

With the explosion of technology we are finding that our methods of communication are  changing rapidly year to year. The way that we interact with each other from personal  levels to more formal business is all being affected. With the birth of the internet we have  seen continuous growth  of communication methods via this medium and most recently is  the boom of the Internet Based Networking Websites (IBNWs) that allow the, over  300million, users to interact with each other. Websites like Facebook, Linkedin, and  Twitter are very good examples of IBNWs that provide great platforms for communicating  messages and advertising companies regardless of where in the world they are. Geography  is quickly becoming an obstacle of the past as IBNWs allow business to reach people based  on their demographic rather then location. Through the use of IBNWs people can target,  segment, and filter according to the people they wish to advertise to, all for free. This in  turn is now having a huge impact on the advertising industry as ad agencies are being  pressured to change their more traditional marketing structures to fit the modern  environment, as people, especially young entrepreneurs, are finding a plethora of ways to  advertise online for free.    Because of this huge reshape of the advertising industry we have chosen to look in to how  this all affects the entrepreneur and therefore have taken on the task of answering the  question:    How do IBNWs affect the process of advertising in the development of new ventures?    In this thesis we delve in to the topic of modern advertising in relation to traditional forms  of advertising (T.V, Radio, Print) to see how and in what ways IBNWs are having an  impact of company start-ups. With the use of many authors and concepts we build a  theoretical perspective to help us analyze the data retrieved from 10 entrepreneurs from  around the world. The theoretical perspective is made of four key elements: Cost, Clutter,  Interactivity, and Objectives of advertising. With a qualitative interpretivist approach we  have constructed an in-depth case study that explores the development of 10 different  ventures from the perspective of the entrepreneurs running them. However to aid us in our  analysis and understanding of the industry of advertising and business development we  interviewed the Chief Creative officer at Ogilvy&Mathers, and an Manager at International  Venture Club.     The final goal of the study is to generate an original framework for entrepreneurs in modern  advertising. What we found was that due to the lack of resources by the entrepreneurs  IBNWs provide a great cost effective method of reaching a large and relevant audience.  Among other findings we found that IBNWs are a great starting point for all entrepreneurs  in their process of advertising due to its cheap and easy to use platform. In conclusion we  found that IBNWs do have a huge impact on the process of advertising in the development  of new ventures.     Keywords: IBNWs, Advertising, Cost, Clutter, Interactivity, Advertising Objectives