The role of social networking has widely been embraced in an entrepreneurial context due to its nature of providing easy access to information, support and other complementary resources needed for the creation and development of entrepreneurial venture (Omta et al., 2001; Johannisson,1990 cited in Song et al., 2017). The entrepreneurs’ network is affiliated with the study of social relations that can influence the creation and development of new business by shedding light on the functionality of social ties in the diffusion of resources that are vital for the establishment of firms (Greve, 1995). Therefore, studying the field of entrepreneurship in the context of social network can offer a fruitful perspective on entrepreneurship (Greve, 1995).Despite the vast and diverse research in the field of networking and entrepreneurship, there are still some gaps concerning what is actually going on in a network and the understanding about network operation, their nature and role in influencing business performance still limited to fairly broader and theoretical perspective (Jack, 2005). So, in line with these views, the purpose of this study is to explore and enhance the understanding of the networking in an entrepreneurial context by shedding light on the role of strong and weak social ties. The foundation of this study relies on Granovetter’s (1973, 1985) strong and weak tie hypothesis and Jack (2005) work, that by highlighting the characteristics, formation, and outcome of strong and weak social relationships contribute to building the concept of entrepreneur’s social network.A multiple case study of five entrepreneurs, operating their networks and businesses in Linköping, Sweden, has been conducted to achieve the purpose of this study. This research work uses a qualitative approach and is based on the semi-structured interviews, which allows a deeper insight into the studied area through analysis of multiple cases.The result of this study indicates that both the strong and weak social ties, in which an entrepreneur is bonded, are used to a varying level in terms of information flow. Strong relationships, that relies on frequent interaction, hold great importance in providing quality information as compared to weak relationships but simultaneously accountable for providing information that is useless and not up-to date. On, the other hand weak-ties contacts are dispersed in a social network and rarely interact with each other. But these weak connections are also important and play their role once get activated by entrepreneurs. Considering the information flow weaker relationships also occurred to be useful however the relatively small size of the town can mean that similar information is repeated by several connections. Since, the aspect of individual knowledge and experience help in the formation of new relationships but the result of this study highlights that, a personal motivation and drive towards networking also plays a crucial role in the formation of both strong and weak ties.The study findings can benefit the researchers and the entrepreneurs in developing their knowledge about networking and role of social ties in providing access to information and resources necessary for the creation and the development of venture. However, the strong connections hold a dominant position concerning the information and the resource flow but weak connections are also crucial and provide support in areas that strong connections lack. Thus, the entrepreneur that keeps the balance between both his/her strong and weak connections can efficiently reap the benefit of social networking.

Thesis advisor: Betty Leask / Universities around the world are increasingly adopting internationalization strategies, which call attention to intentionality in using the curriculum and strategic regional networks as ways to achieve university agendas. Internationalization of the curriculum (IoC) endeavors are typically led by a select group of individuals within a single university, and often struggle to gain diverse wide-spread support within the university community (Leask, 2013). However, university networks, which demand interconnectivity, have been argued to “constitute the core of internationalisation,” and present varied academic opportunities for engagement that expand channels of information sharing and knowledge creation (de Wit & Callan, 1995, p.89). Therefore, university networks have unexplored potential in providing unique learning opportunities for member institutions’ faculty and staff in internationalizing their curricula, while advancing their institution’s internationalization agenda. Through a framework of network theories, professional learning theory, and an internationalization of the curriculum conceptual framework, this study investigated faculty and staff engagement with one network, and how their engagement has influenced conceptualizations of internationalization of the curriculum. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with fourteen members of faculty and staff from two of five universities in a European university network, the results demonstrate that this network supports faculty and staff in contextualizing and conceptualizing internationalization. The analysis points to the differences in conceptualizations of IoC, depending on the level of faculty and staff engagement with the network. The diverse representation of faculty and staff at network events created significant interactions where individuals were able to validate and share their experiences and expertise related to internationalizing curriculum, as well as critically examine their own approaches and university policies. Faculty and staff engagement with the network resulted in mature conceptualizations of internationalizing curriculum, and contributed to a greater adaptability to working in changing, intercultural environments. The study suggests that engagement in this network is conducive to the internationalization of one’s academic Self, and to fostering a greater sense of regional camaraderie (Sanderson, 2008). Finally, the results of this study demonstrate one university network’s ability to engage an increasing mass of reflective faculty and staff that are aware of internationalization and its implications for their learning environments. The contributions of this study are significant for university leaders, scholars, and practitioners, and especially those working in the nuanced intersection of internationalizing curricula and university networks. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

As scholarly institutions enter a new era of hyper-competition, seeking innovative ways to engage with student populations has become central to social media marketing efforts. Developing strategies and tactics to interact with existing student populations presents new challenges for marketing departments, as well as the stakeholders who are often asked to provide user-generated content. Strong ties among stakeholder relationships can enhance communication with effective outcomes; however, it is the weak ties that may have the most impact. This study draws on existing literature regarding Strength of Weak Ties Theory and faculty and student surveys in East Tennessee State University’s Clemmer College were conducted, to explore how ethos, pathos, logos, and Kairos can be leveraged in earned, owned, and shared media. This data is then used to inform future marketing campaigns that use professor-student engagement.

Syftet med denna studie är att se hur socionomstudenters professionella sociala nätverk påverkas av organiserade mentorskap under utbildningen. Den teoretiska ramen utgörs av the Strength of Weak Ties, en teori om de svaga nätverkens betydelse för en individs professionella utveckling och framgång, samt nätverksteoretiska grunder och en litteraturgenomgång kring fenomenet mentorskap. Studien är genomförd som en fallstudie och fallet ifråga är mentorsprogrammet inom ramen för socionomutbildningen med inriktning verksamhetsutveckling på Malmö högskola. Datainsamlingen har skett genom en enkätundersökning bland de mentorer och adepter som genomfört och avslutat mentorsprogrammet samt intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom organiseringen av det. Resultatet och analysen visar att det finns många indikationer på att studenternas sociala nätverk utökats med hjälp av mentorskapet. Många studenter har genom sin medverkan i mentorsprogrammet skapat antingen svaga eller frånvarande länkar till sina mentorer och/eller andra inom mentorns organisation. Mentorerna kan genom sin ställning på arbetsmarknaden antas ha ett stort kontaktnät och många egna svaga kontakter och nätverk vars informationsflöde studenterna genom länken till mentorn kommit närmare. Resultatet från enkäterna visar även att mentorerna generellt är mer positivt inställda till mentorskapet än de tillfrågade adepterna och många av adepterna påtalar den brist på praktisk erfarenhet som mentorskap innebär i förhållande till praktik. Mentorerna ser också i högre grad än studenterna till nätverksmöjligheterna som mentorsprogrammet innebär, och sig själv som en kontakt i arbetslivet för studenten.

The following thesis investigates how social relations affect the type of information that people acquire without actively looking for it. To do this Karen Fisher’s concept of information grounds is being used, together with Mark Granovetter’s theory about the strength of weak ties. The population in the study is new university students. A combination of diaries and interviews was used to gather the empirical material, which was then analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis showed that the most commonly shared type of information was information about people. Conversations with strong ties were usually more in depth, while conversations with weak ties tended to be more superficial. This finding contributes to the reason why information from weak ties tend to appear more surprising than information from strong ties. Factors other than those officially used together with the information grounds concept turned out to be of both interest and importance to understand why certain information was shared between people, while other information was not. These factors included language, culture, and time.

This study investigates the impact of an online community's control structure on the knowledge sharing process in that community. Using a framework comprised of legitimate peripheral participation theory and the weak-ties phenomenon, the study focuses on a comparative analysis of self-organizing online communities (e.g., weblog networks) and centralized online communities (e.g., discussion forums communities) with respect to the efficacy of knowledge sharing in these communities. The findings of this study indicate that self-organizing communities of practice have more weak-ties among their members compared to centralized communities. As per weak-ties theory of Granovetter (1973, 1983), these findings suggest that self-organizing communities facilitate greater dissemination of knowledge and flow of information among their members than centralized communities. The abundance of weak-ties in their community structure also makes self-organizing communities better environments for the discovery of new information compared to centralized community environments. This study did not find any evidence of community structure impact on peripheral participation and the interaction activity level among peripheral participants of a given online community. These observations may have stemmed from the limitations of research design, however, it is safe to say as of now that verdict on peripheral participation differences in different community structures is inconclusive at best. / Master of Science

I dagens digitaliserade värld använder 4,45 miljarder sociala medier. Utav dessa befinner sig 120 miljoner registrerade användare på plattformen OnlyFans. Under coronapandemin växte plattformen explosionsartat vilket ledde till en spridning av information om OnlyFans i populärkultur och i media. Vårt syfte med denna kandidatuppsats är att studera informationsspridningen av OnlyFans via sociala medier. Utifrån denna kunskap vill vidare belysa hur unga kvinnors uppfattning om plattformen påverkas av denna sorts spridning av information. Baserat på teorierna weak ties och eWOM (elektronisk word-of-mouth) har vi tagit fram tre indikatorer för att skapa förståelse om unga kvinnors attityd gentemot OnlyFans. Dessa är attityd, övertygelse och trovärdighet.  Information om OnlyFans sprids främst via sociala medier, inte minst av influencers. Med en feministisk ansats har vi med en metodkombination utav kvalitativa intervjuer och en kvantitativ enkät tagit del av unga kvinnors tankar och åsikter om plattformen. Resultatet visar en negativ attityd av den övervägande majoriteten av respondenterna. Med en redan negativ attityd visar respondenterna en svag övertygelse och trovärdighet mot plattformen och dess kreatörer. En intervju med en kreatör från plattformen har visat oss en glimt av OnlyFans som arbetsgivare. Slutligen, baserat på resultaten och analysen, har slutsatsen dragits att respondenterna har en negativ attityd, trovärdighet och övertygelse gentemot plattformen. Detta påverkar inte deras syn på kvinnan som kreatör utan mot den betalande mannen bakom skärmen.

Hållbarhet är ett ämne som konstant är på dagens agenda. Många länder gör idag omställningar föratt nå de uppsatta klimatmålen inom FN, EU och på en nationell nivå. Gotland Grönt Centrum är enaktör på Gotland som genom sitt projekt “Ökad livsmedelsförädling” drar sitt strå till stacken för att ökaden hållbara utvecklingen på ön. Gotland Grönt Centrum vill öka kunskapsspridningen ochinnovationsgraden inom den gotländska livsmedelsförädlingsindustrin genom att upprätta enFacebooksida där aktörer kan mötas. Forskningsfrågan för uppsatsen är därför fokuserad på hurkommunikationen bör se ut för att nå de uppsatta målen i GGC:s projekt. Genom en kvalitativ studieämnar denna uppsats besvara forskningsfrågan genom teorier om social network theory,sensemaking, strukturella hål med flera för att sedan mynna ut i en slutsats. Genom en kodning avempirin kunde analysen visa flera aspekter som är vitala för att GGC ska kunna föra en framgångsrikkommunikation för att nå sina mål. Svaret blev att genom att arbeta med sensemaking för att formasitt budskap efter målgruppen kan engagemanget gentemot projektet öka. Detta kan leda till eninstitutionalisering och gemensam förståelse, vilket kan leda till framtida samarbeten mellan aktörer.Innovationsgraden kan dessutom öka ifall GGC antar en roll som länk och gränsöverskridare inomnätverket för att överbrygga strukturella hål och således få in ny information i flödet. / Sustainability is a topic that is constantly on the agenda of today. Many countries today are makingadjustments to achieve the set climate goals within the UN, the EU and at a national level. GotlandGrönt Centrum is an regional actor on Gotland, which through its project "Increased food processing"aim to increase the sustainable development on the island. Gotland Grönt Centrum wants to increasethe dissemination of knowledge and the degree of innovation within Gotland’s food processingindustry by establishing a platform where players can meet. The research question for the essay istherefore focused on how the communication should be formulated to achieve the set goals in theGGC project. Through a qualitative study, this paper aims to answer the research question throughtheories of social network theory, sensemaking, structural holes, and more, in order to draw aconclusion. Through the coding of the empirical data, the analysis could show several aspects thatare vital for GGC to be able to conduct successful communication in order to achieve its goals. Theanswer was that by working with sensemaking to shape their message according to the target group,the commitment to the project can increase. This can lead to institutionalization and mutualunderstanding, which can lead to future collaboration between actors. The degree of innovation canalso increase if GGC assumes a role as a link and boundary spanner within the network to bridgestructural holes and thus bring in new information in the flow.

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