TY - GEN
T1 - Triadic Social Structure Facilitates Backing for Crowdfunding Projects
AU - Nakai, Yutaka
AU - Takikawa, Hiroki
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP16H03698、JP16K04027, and 18H03621. The authors give special thanks for the fruitful discussions to Prof. Hiroshi YAMAMOTO (Rissho University), Mr. Masaya OOTANI, Mr. Takehiro ARAI, Mr. Toshiki AMEMIYA, and Prof. Yosuke KIRA (University of Aizu), who passed away on 16 September, 2018.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
PY - 2019/1/22
Y1 - 2019/1/22
N2 - Crowdfunding is a new funding method through which founders request small amounts of funding from a large number of people through an online platform. Crowdfunding facilitates a new type of social capital and exhibits a unique form of social dynamics, thus attracting the interest of sociologists and other social scientists. Previous studies have focused on social relationships in crowdfunding such as direct reciprocity and consider how they contribute to the success of funding. The social structure of crowdfunding, however, involves more complex social relationships and it may contribute to the success of a new venture or project in many ways. In this study, we focus on a specific type of triadic social structure, the buddy relation, which can be described as a relationship through which project founder x, who previously backed another founder z's project, receives financial backing from the other backers of z's project. We found that the buddy relation occurs significantly more often than randomly, concluding that this structure facilitates the gathering of financial backing and may contribute to the success of a crowdfunded project.
AB - Crowdfunding is a new funding method through which founders request small amounts of funding from a large number of people through an online platform. Crowdfunding facilitates a new type of social capital and exhibits a unique form of social dynamics, thus attracting the interest of sociologists and other social scientists. Previous studies have focused on social relationships in crowdfunding such as direct reciprocity and consider how they contribute to the success of funding. The social structure of crowdfunding, however, involves more complex social relationships and it may contribute to the success of a new venture or project in many ways. In this study, we focus on a specific type of triadic social structure, the buddy relation, which can be described as a relationship through which project founder x, who previously backed another founder z's project, receives financial backing from the other backers of z's project. We found that the buddy relation occurs significantly more often than randomly, concluding that this structure facilitates the gathering of financial backing and may contribute to the success of a crowdfunded project.
KW - Monte Carlo simulation
KW - focal closure
KW - social network
KW - triadic closure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062635473&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/BigData.2018.8621987
DO - 10.1109/BigData.2018.8621987
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85062635473
T3 - Proceedings - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2018
SP - 4346
EP - 4351
BT - Proceedings - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2018
A2 - Song, Yang
A2 - Liu, Bing
A2 - Lee, Kisung
A2 - Abe, Naoki
A2 - Pu, Calton
A2 - Qiao, Mu
A2 - Ahmed, Nesreen
A2 - Kossmann, Donald
A2 - Saltz, Jeffrey
A2 - Tang, Jiliang
A2 - He, Jingrui
A2 - Liu, Huan
A2 - Hu, Xiaohua
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2018 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Big Data 2018
Y2 - 10 December 2018 through 13 December 2018
ER -