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The Structure of Networks

The most basic (micro) element of a network is a node connecting to
another node through a link. This core unit, endlessly repeated, forms
simple or enormously complicated networks. Such (macro)

aggregations have structural features and dynamics that are common
to almost all kinds of networks (e.g., electrical grids). These structural
features have been elaborated in an enormous literature covering

many study disciplines.

From a business perspective there are three key ideas:

● The Idea of Ties. (Granovetter, 1973): This idea is important
as it relates to the spreading of information.

Strong ties include close friends and colleagues; these people
tend to move in the same circles, so the information they receive

overlaps considerably limiting the transfer of new information.

Weak social ties such as acquaintances are the dominant form
of transmission of information as they move in different circles
and bring novel information. These are termed weak as they are

characterized by minimal emotional intensity resulting from the
low time being devoted to them.

A special case of weak ties is hubs. Hubs are nodes with large
numbers of weak ties. Hubs are important in information

dissemination because of their large number of links. Hubs form
naturally and the distribution of sizes of hubs follows a power
law with a few very large hubs and a long tail of smaller nodes

with few (often string) links. Hubs are the basis of search engine
algorithms that measure the importance of a node by the
number of links it possesses.

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